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Last Edit: Aug 11, 2017 2:03:58 GMT by grenade
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cdwood2010
Part of things
Dangerously optimistic
Posts: 226
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Wait! What? Holy curse word. If i hadn't seen your previous builds i would thing this was some sort of Photoshop trickery to tease us! Top work!!!!
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,100
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Aug 11, 2017 12:52:23 GMT
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Could you get over the wheel rub issue by raising the body slightly, relative to the Durango pan? Sure, it'd look less "lowered", but it'd still be lower than stock. Either that, or would steel wheels and skinnier rubber help?
Great work though. Just because I'm not keen on the aesthetic of "low", doesn't mean I don't appreciate the engineering. 😃
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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Aug 11, 2017 13:40:43 GMT
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Everyone keeps saying skinny tires but maaaannn, that's not me. BIG FAT tires forever, on everything lol. I'm widening the front arches with a strip of metal, retaining stock curves. The rear will get most likely the same treatment. Not gaudy or tacky mind you, tastefully, very minimal mods to the arch. We have bigger tires for it actually.. lol It's going to have a visor over the windscreen, small, bare metal with visible hardware. It will also have a makeshift splitter with mini turnbuckle attachments on the front. We are using a smooth set of bumpers from a Camaro of all things! It may be hard to picture it now, but I have this vision and it's of a Racing Milk van built to look like it's going to set a land speed record at the Bonneville salt flats. My damn job is calling.. Gotta run! More later
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jonxs
Part of things
Posts: 650
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Aug 11, 2017 13:41:39 GMT
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Never seen one of these in real life. They look amazing. Can't help but think it'll look good as a salt flat racer look. I don't think it matter really it looks amazing already. Many likes
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Aug 11, 2017 14:05:36 GMT
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That hides the wheelbase mis-match better than I thought. Although the rear wheel-arches always could have been cut out and moved to wherever you wanted.
Steel strip down the middle of the front arch was also my first thought. If you have a shrinker\stretcher gizmo, it will help blend it in.
Good to see that no grenades were injured in the making of this thread.That scaffold WAS a bit sketchy.
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Paul Y
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,948
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Aug 11, 2017 21:04:52 GMT
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Last Edit: Aug 11, 2017 21:05:55 GMT by Paul Y
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Aug 12, 2017 10:06:24 GMT
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loving that tower to lift the body off, it looks a typically British solution, but with way less rain i guess your major issue is that the metro is a "cab over engine" or forward control as we call it in blighty. so with the durango slid underneath you have the prospect of being 6 feet from the windshield and sitting beside the solid van panels ?
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Last Edit: Aug 12, 2017 10:07:15 GMT by darrenh
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Yep! The foot pedal box and the steering column are getting relocated and "worked over" so that you aren't 6' back from the windows. I have an idea for it, hoping to spend all of Sunday on it. The body shifted a little bit when we drove it. It's too low in the back, so I'll deal with raising that up in the morning. Then it's on to the driver positioning. Several days of grinding and welding ahead
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Ok- So I got up REAL EARLY and went out there. I drank coffee and had a good look around, with a tape measure. The whole body was much too low. Not only was it "off"- as in; Not Centered by over an inch, it was bent everywhere from ME being in a hurry and trying to get it done faster, rather than correctly. I did not have the bracing in the right places and I also used too few of them. When I reversed the van yesterday, the back axle "squatted" and bent everything. I tried to give it some throttle and that's when it all went wrong. Many bending sounds occurred. So this morning, I assessed the damage. I set to work straight away. First thing, was to chain and trolley jack all four corners and the sides. Then cut all the braces off. Re-center the floor pan and bolt it to the chassis on the rubber frame mounts. (yeah, I was welding stuff without the floor pan being bolted to the frame.) Felt a bit invincible I think eh? Dumb@ss me.. Once I had the floor pan mounted to the chassis, I re adjusted for hours, the blocks, jack stands and chain hoist until it was square all around, within 5-6mm. Good enough for the girls we go with, as we say in these parts. I welded everything up and drove it on to the pavement next door, to see how we did, building it in the gravel and dirt. Not bad! Only one problem- Someone mentioned here on this forum, to raise the body up a little bit and against my better judgment, I did it. Turns out- YOU WERE RIGHT. It turns better and has suspension travel and the best part? No Wheel Arch Mods. None. But I noticed the rear was too low. Fine when empty, but if you put a load in the van, it would ride AssDown, as it were. So my buddy came over and we mounted the steel wheels and bigger tires and I drove it back into the dirt, to add 2 more inches of height to the rear. All the while, my son and his buddies were doing the brakes on a Lexus 2JZ something or other. Busy day, five guys in this garage today. I raised it the few inches, added more bracing and this is what we end up with. It's ready to get patched up, floor finished and an interior put in it. This is it. Final ride height. Aluminum wheel discs to arrive this week. Not low enough for a splitter, but it's all going to be just fine... Everything will be juuust fine..
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I like this a lot and the way you write it all up makes it look like an easy job. I am sure it's not! You have some really awesome skills and insight!!
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,100
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Aug 14, 2017 11:26:06 GMT
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That looks so much better.
Is the Durango suspension capable of carrying much weight? Can you get upgraded springs "off the shelf" so to speak if you need them?
Like most of us, the pace of your work impresses me. My obsessiveness always slows me down.
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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Aug 14, 2017 11:54:32 GMT
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Another success Paul. How would you guestimate the weight of everything removed compares to everything added to the chassis?? And will you repair the rusted out sections, similiar to the sedan fuel filler technique? Loving following the progress!
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Aug 14, 2017 12:46:10 GMT
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The Durango trucks are rated as "half ton" So they can carry 1000lbs or so. They're coil springs in the rear, so that's easy enough to change if someone wanted to. I'm going to adjust the torsion bars in the front of the van, so it comes down just a little bit.
The weight guesstimate is that the Durango center of gravity is much much lower than this giant steel box. Durangos are a comfort vehicle, so their suspensions are soft. With this big tall steel structure and soft suspension it feels like it has a huge amount of body roll. That could be the cheap thin steel braces I have on it, and it's not anchored down totally yet, so I'm sure that will change.
It feels like this is heavier than the Durango, but that's because the weight is above your head. With the steering wheel where it is, it feels like you're driving a shipping container sat on top of mattresses with wheels and an engine!
I have it pulled up facing the garage now, to start the radiator assembly next because I need it in place to support the nose of the van while I chop away the steel to move the pedal box and stand up the steering column.
The rusted out sections will be rebuilt and rusted up. We are also going to clear coat it, right there in the dirt. haha, no OCD here.. lols
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Aug 14, 2017 12:47:25 GMT
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Was wondering about the body distortion when I saw this pic Fact is that you need to line it up with the frame and it will have its own datum point, so not really a big deal. I would not be surprised if the the Milkfloat body is going to be lighter than what came off the Durango
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Aug 14, 2017 21:42:08 GMT
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In that pic, that piece of metal going across, was just hanging loose. it was rusted and never connected when the truck was together. The van body never lost square. I had cross braces inside the van. It's measured very close to square all the way around again, but this time it's 2.5 inches higher than the first drop. I have a full you tube video of the entire thing and to see it move it really looks crazy cool. I can't wait for the steering relocation and the floor pan completion. It's going to be insane looking!
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79cord
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,607
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Aug 14, 2017 22:55:10 GMT
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Looking great. Must admit to liking the current wheels, though smaller front tyres (Dia & Height, if the 4wd could handle it), would suit the racer look better & give some rake. Adding a windscreen visor is rather at odds with front air-dam/splitter 'Aero'.?
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Thanks guys! For a big ugly hulk of a thing, it's going to make a useable transport. I like to "Let it talk to me". It's weird, but the vehicles tell me what they need. Either that or I'm batshit crazy. ... .. Don't answer that lol I have my regular job for a few days, this sits. I also have to return to the Coyote swap F250 from Arizona. I'm waiting on parts right now for that one. I like this pic:
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Looking like that it reminds me of one of those support vehicles for the Dakar rally.
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Oh Yeah! That's a GREAT Theme idea! Paris Dakar Rally Support truck! AWD and it secretly wishes that it was a Mercedes Unimog! I love that idea. I think the decals and lighting would price us out of the budget!
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