Speedrye build

Cant beat that at all! The way I drive mine will determine how much maintenance is required and at the rate I'm going I may need more then just wipers and fluids! Hoping for nothin major though

I drive the hell out of mine on the street, but I'm slow on the trails. I'll take a hard line, but I go at it methodically so I'm not as likely to break stuff.

Oh, another note on things to come:

I've got a deal in the works for selling the ARB front and am currently designing a new front bumper for my truck. It'll be a combination plate/tube bumper designed for a winch and lots of light (of course).

Haha I hear ya Derek... I will admit that I'm not exactly "easy" on my rig. Between Charlotte road rage and consistently running late for work, I'd say my FJ has taken some abuse!

Speedrye wrote:

Oh, another note on things to come:

I've got a deal in the works for selling the ARB front and am currently designing a new front bumper for my truck. It'll be a combination plate/tube bumper designed for a winch and lots of light (of course).

Ryan, you gonna be selling those lights with the ARB?

You've got first dibs on both the 2"x5" yellow PIAAs and my custom 4" round HIDs if interested. Second dibs go to the purchaser of the bumper (nameless for now). Beyond that, they'll be fair game to anyone else.

Sweeeeeet, I'm def interested in both. I'll give you a shout a little closer to those tax returns

Ryan...the spindles? hhmmmm?? might have to...well WILL have to take those off your hands...

Updates:
Still waiting on parts for the front end. Spindles are still ready to pick up though I haven't made it there yet. Brake pads and rotors are in. CVs are on order as well, though I haven't heard anything on shipping yet.

Rotors and pads:




For those that have wondered how much an ARB bumper lowers the front vs. stock, I have an official answer! Less than 1/4".
Stock bumper on:



ARB bumper on (no winch):




For those that have been paying attention, you'll notice those are actually in reverse order since I had the ARB off and removed it for the stock bumper (well, the metal part of it). The ARB is pretty much sold, awaiting pickup, so I figured I might as well start the new bumper so my truck isn't all ugly on the front with no bumper. I went ahead and mounted my Hellas up quickly to the stock steel bumper (literally, it took less than 5 minutes to drill, bolt the lights on and plug the wires back in). I brought the laptop out to the garage and took some basic measurements and got the existing important parts of the truck drawn in AutoCAD so that I can start designing my bumper. Look for some progress over the next few weeks...

Pictured: truck all ugly and stuff

Picked up some beef today!

My requirements for spindle gussets were not very simple. I wanted to
keep my sway bar. I wanted to use my Light Racing UCAs. I have
virtually no space between the stock spindle and my 315s, so the Total
Chaos and All Pro gussets wouldn't work.

Enter Plan B. Round chromoly TIG welded inside, outside and at the
steering arm. Very beefy. Ignore the crappy pictures, it's dark out
there...

Did you make those too? ;-)

SingleTrack wrote:

Did you make those too? ;-)

My skills end at welding, so I can't take credit there. $$$ had to be spent in this case.

Found a great deal on a Tacoma K&N intake on Craigslist, so I picked it up and made it fit the FJ. It's still a work in progress, but it works.



The new fuse box has all of the wires run to it from inside and out now and is fully functional. I've got to make a new bracket for it and hard mount it now.



The first batch of bumper parts are finally here and ready to be welded. Here's the general layout of what will be happening from a structural standpoint under the facade of the bumper:

lookin awesome bro...do you still have the all pro gussets?? if so hit me up...

Never had the gussets. I've got my spindles custom gusseted to fit my wheels since none of the pre-made ones would fit.

Since the factory mounts were extremely asymmetrical, I was worried
about the main bumper plate bolting up properly, but it fits
beautifully. The main plate is within 1/2 mm of parallel and that's
close enough for my truck.

Test fitting the main frame mounts (perfect fit by the way):
General view of the main plate bolted up:

bigdogdewey2 wrote:

lookin awesome bro...do you still have the all pro gussets?? if so hit me up...

I believe I have a set..... And I can't use them, ....... LR UCA.

oh thats right...cant remember how much you wanted for them...put em in the truck and ship em to the show...

Will do,

Phase 1 of the bumper is about done. This is the main substructure with one of the lower mounts shown. Upper frame mounts aren't mounted yet. Waiting on more parts next week and Hopefully it'll be looking halfway like a bumper by the show.

Assembly:

Heck yeah. Nice work

A whole stack of phase II parts for my bumper showed up Friday. I also designed a bracket for my custom fuse box. 1/8" thick steel might be overkill to support a fuse box, but screw it. Today I ground all the millscale off the steel, so it's nice and shiny and ready to be welded (not pictured). I also test fit the fuse box in the bracket. Snug as a bug in a rug.

Most durable fuse box I've ever seen! lol

Phase II of the bumper has started!

Pictured: main bumper boxes under construction



Test fitting a bumper box on the bumper. Perfect:



The beginning of the center air dam:


Pieces clamped and ready for some tacking:



It got too late to do much after tacking it up, but I'll get some daylight pictures of it soon.

Looking awesome!

Startin to come together nicely Ryan! Can't wait to see this thing finished!

A few pictures in daylight: