The "trophy husband" pro mod buggy build

N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
Wait just a minute here. You mean you can weld in mis-alignment spacers??? Isn't that cheating? Great progress.
I can't even tell you how much I'm looking forward to the convenience! The engineer types are inclined to say it makes everything stronger too. I can see the logic there but I'm just a regular guy so I can't back it up with facts :rofl:
 

N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
Yay buggy time! I pulled the seats since I knew I’d be accessing stuff for the rear chassis-side link mounts. It’s fun seeing it without the seats. It’s been a while. I also got caught up in a WWMD (what would Mike (zmotorsports) do)) moment and ended up re-tapping one of the mounts and even running the bolt through a die. It’s perfect now though so that’s cool.
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Front chassis-side lower link mounts. I welded as much as I could on them without flipping the chassis over or moving it forward on the platform.
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On the rear I welded the tube joints that I knew would be harder to get to once the link mounts are in. I’m glad I thought about that.
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Link mounts burned in. Started working on the gussets but was told it’s dinner time. I’ll try and get back to it tonight. I may have to piss off the wife so she doesn’t want to hang out with me 🤣
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N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
8:30 to 10:15 fab sesh. I didn’t even have to piss off the wife! Rear lowers are burned in.
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Not my best welds but also definitely not my worst 🤣
Check out the beautiful tig action from my boyfriend @skippy
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My plasma table guy is trying to retire on me so I cut out and drilled this plate myself- like a freakin’ 14 bolt guy would do. #impoverished
I nailed it too which makes me feel even more poor. It’s a good reminder that I’m an XJ guy I guess.
The upper link bracket will be built off of it. It’s a nice feature of the ol’ CRD60.
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N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
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I’m the mayor of Sketchville, USA. My dad and I slid the chassis onto my trailer just enough to tie it down then we slid it down the ramps onto the floor at the new place. I dread the time it’s going to take before I can work on it again.

Pics are out of order and above the text. The pic loading tool hates me for some reason.
 

N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
Yeah I dug it out of the mess and blew the literal dust off of it 🤣

My best buddy @skippy ordered some links from Branik for me that should be here shortly. So in preparation for that I figured I should make it so I’m at least able to work on it. I’m not gonna lie though, getting it all uncovered really makes my heart happy. With the end of comp season I always feel like I’m stuck in a rut so being able to work on the buggy will be good for me. Yes, I still have a yard and detached garage project to get done but while I’m waiting around on contractors I can work on the pro mod.

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N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
Got some beautiful aluminum links from Branik today. I know a lot of people are accustomed to stuff that’s this nice but it all seemed unobtainable for an XJ guy like myself. So here are some pics whether you like it or not…
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N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
Even getting the front links bolted up makes me giddy like a little school girl. But now I need to get it back off the ground and get it bolted together so I can design the panhard mounts and shock mounts. For some weird reason I threw out the wood platform I made, thinking I didn’t need it anymore. Well that was dumb.
 

N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
Last night I got the axles to the ride height.
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Then I worked on the steering. When I put the 60 c’s on I just guessed on the caster. Well after deciding I wanted to run a whole bunch of pinion angle they were obviously way off- which is why I never even tacked them. Now that it was bolted to the links I figured it was high time to get the caster right so I said a quick prayer and started hammering on them to see if I could get them to rotate. Shockingly enough something went totally right and easy for me. They’re now tipped back 5 degrees and tacked. I also made a cheesy tie rod with some scrap steel and bolts to keep the knuckles from flopping around and destroying shins.

Little progress is still progress!
 
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