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The Dirt Squirrel v. 2.0 -- Even Dirtier

^Thanks Beerj.


Added the last two tubes to the chassis yesterday (not including the door bars or the center console 1.5" tubes) and did a lot of welding. Still more welding to do.

 
Thanks jk101.

Ran into a slight clearance issue with my brake pedal. The new support tube i just put in is in the way of the swing and optimal position of the pedal assembly. Id like to to move over a couple inches but the tube is there. May have to switch to a reverse mount pedal that puts the M/Cs under the dash somewhat (no biggie).


Over to the left 2" or so would go a long way for the gas pedal and overall foot placement.


Dad made the climb into his seat. Wasnt too painful to watch. lol


Also got my battery tray welded in behind the gas tank.
 
That's the guy that screamed "don't be a *****" in a speedo, sunburnt with a beer in his hand on the deck of a pontoon boat at possum kingdom over the summer

It's looking great man
 
Work continued over the washout of a weekend we had here in SE TX. I got the midship shaft mounted using the beefy Wide Open Design carrier bearing and mount. Everything uses 1410 joints.


Its a cute little guy


Now onto the exhaust which sucked. Due to the driveshaft being up so high at full bump i had to get creative to make my el cheapo EBAY shorty headers work. I cut the flange off and rewelded it at a better angle and built my y-pipe under the oil pan and out the drivers side. It was CLOSE but everything cleared. Thats when i tried to build a skid plate to protect it all. The exhaust was in the way of connecting the tube to the motor mounts. So after wasting 6+ hours trying to get everything to work, i said **** it and tossed on a set of LS3 manifolds and will run 2.5" exhaust to Dynomax race bullets out each side. No y-pipe. I did have to cut and reweld the collector on the passenger side to clear the frame (used another drivers side manifold on the passenger side to clear the motor mounts).

Pics:
Y-pipe in all of the bastardized glory. It got real close to the oil filter which i also didnt like.


first skid attempt to cover the y-pipe. The passenger side tube to the motor mount would have been impossible.


Here is the new skid, cut down some. I got to move it up as well. The pic sucks but yall get the idea. The entire thing will be completely removable for easy oil pan access. Ill add some cross tubes to the skid as well. The skid is .188.
 
The dirt squirrel wasn't quite ready for Wheelers4Wishes this weekend, so Alex rolled out his other sweet first gen and entered in the show class. Unfortunately it's becoming a GheyK show, so it wasn't properly appreciated.

 
Haha. No updates for a while. I'm in Ghana for work until mid January. Just doing research and letting my bank account build back up.
 
the_white_shadow said:
Haha. No updates for a while. I'm in Ghana for work until mid January. Just doing research and letting my bank account build back up.
You'll do anything goes to get out of finishing that thing. Jackie did ask where to get 42s...
 
the_white_shadow said:
Haha. No updates for a while. I'm in Ghana for work until mid January. Just doing research and letting my bank account build back up.
Dang you are far away! Isn't that where those 2 dudes from Utah went to find gold and spent a bunch of money and left with nothing? Idk, it was on Discovery channel. Probably fake. lol
 
Back from lovely Ghana. (Hopefully without malaria)

Took the week off and am got back to work on it

Passenger side exhaust was a bitch. I tried to go under the oil pan and tie into the drivers side like I had on the old truck but couldn't make it work at full bump with the driveshaft. So my solution is to run 2.5" for each bank out the sides to dynomax race bullets. I'm betting it's going to be loud. Exhaust will be wrapped and the subframe will get some removable plating to protect everything.




Drivers side was much easier and is a straight shot out the back. No pics of that though.

Stripped it down so I could finish weld everything and get some paint on it. We had a hard freeze one night and then the temp went back up to the 70s. (Usual tx BS) which caused the bare metal to basically piss itself. Going to wire brush it and get some paint on it before it happens again.


The first time on its side.


Chassis is 99% welded. Need to give it a once over and see if I missed anything then I can start adding some additional bracing, plating, etc. Then I can move on to finish welding the axles.
 

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