'56 willys truck

[Will Scarlet]

And there's this one:

M.O.A.B Rock Box NP 205 replacement case

Machined from a solid block of aircraft grade 6061-T651 aluminum and at 7/8" thick in the cross section, The Rock Box was built for abuse! Clock-able in 7 degree increments from stock to flat, Common Jeep, Chevy, Ford 6 bolt mounting pattern , Twin stick design allows independent selection of...

midnightmetalworks.com

If there's not a waiting list for it, that looks like a good option. See this thread about their 300 complete box waiting list:

MMW Dana 300 waiting list

I'm a few months from finally completing my buggy. I'll be running the stock 300 case and I plan to move onto a Midnight Metal Works 300 case in the coming year and am wondering what the turnaround people are experiencing lately. Is shipping delays still pushed out OR are people receiving the...

irate4x4.com

 

[csutton7]

I talked to the Behemoth guys and they said they were 2 months out if I remember correctly. Waiting on the bronze shift pucks that attach to the shifting forks I think is the hold-up.

Will Scarlet, Thanks for the link to the MMW--I just read page one and that's troubling if all the other pages continue the trend of being way behind on product to be shipped!! I'll read the entire thread when I get more time.

I'm kind of leaning too not even worrying about a new case, as I was pricing a new Atlas and it's not that much more than one of the Behemoth cases when you add in a rebuild kit, output shaft and machining of the rear output cover for the VSS. Unless money comes from somewhere unexpected I'm just probably going to rebuild my spare and add the updated output shaft.

 

[csutton7]

Just been tearing apart and cleaning the spare NP205

 

[csutton7]

Picked up a couple of Raptor Turbo Mufflers, part#50052FLT, from Advanced Auto Parts and slapped them on and I'm quite happy with the sound as the shorty cherry bombs were just too loud. So now I have the shorty cherry bombs and the Raptor Turbo Mufflers on. It was blowing and snowing when I slapped them on, so I have to go back and readjust one or both or relocate them, so they line up with each other. One is twisted so the outlet is lower than the other and it looks shitty from the back. I also have to take some measurements to see if they will clear the axle upon compression, it looks close, but I wanted to see how they sounded first before I make any future adjustments and the weather wasn't cooperating!

I also ordered the machining of the NP205 speedo housing from Offroad Design and lucky me they have a couple in stock so it will be just a swap instead of having to wait 2-3 weeks. Possibly I have it by the end of next week, since I sent mine in off my spare. Once I have it I'll remove the one on the truck and hope that the output shaft has the splines on it to accept the GM VSS and swap it on and get the wires extended and see if that fixes my shifting issues.

 

[csutton7]

Got the first leg of the wiring done for the rear winch. Now I’m in the hunt for some 100% Cooper 2ga jumper cables, that won’t break the bank, so that I can make the extension cable if I need to move the winch to the rear bumper and have jumper cables that can plug into the Anderson connector.

 

[csutton7]

Well I found my jumper cables that I’ve had for years and cut them up to make the extension I needed when I move the winch to the bumper. I need two Anderson connectors to make the jumper cables usable, so I’ll get those ordered here shortly.

 

[csutton7]

The start of strengthening the portable winch plate. 18 plug welds to secure the 1 ½”x 1 ⅝” x .25 wall insert.

 

[csutton7]

Well we will see how this version of beefing up the harbor freight winch plate will survive.

 

[csutton7]

Flex testing & I need a front axle skid plate to protect my tie-rod and ram, cuz when coming off that block when putting the passenger tire up there the tie-rod and ram got smacked and put a slight bend in the tie-rod. It seems it didn’t affect the steering up to 45mph on the drive home, but more testing to come concerning that.

Anyone know the dimension from center of ram to the face of the ram mount ? I figure if I buy an Artec full hydraulic ram mount or build one I want to set it up so if I ever change to full hydro steering I won’t have to modify anything.

 

[csutton7]

Started on the skid protection for the tie-rod and ram and possible future full hydro ram mount. 1 ½” square tube x ¼” wall. But I don’t have enough to finish so I’m not sure what my next part of the protection frame will be out of. I have some 1 ¾” x .120 wall HREW tube, but I’m trying to save that and I have a bunch of 1” or 1 ¼” x ⅜” wall x 24” long pieces of tube that may be next part of the framing. Again trying to spend as little as possible but make it stout enough to handle impacts.

 

[CJ3BL]

Got caught up on your build- great work! Your perseverance is really paying off! Really a cool rig!

 

[csutton7]

CJ3BL--thanks, I appreciate that.

 

[csutton7]

Went with the 1 ¼” x ⅜” wall tube for phase 2 of the steering protection. I think phase 3 will be some tube coming off the axle tube & sloping up to the 1 ½” square tube & maybe adding some ¼” plate to that for strength and to help with sliding over stuff like the artec system. I’m not sure if I’ll cover the front or not or go over the top of the ram and tie-rod and tie it into the axle truss. But the bottom phase is the next decision to be made, as the top stuff may never happen.

 

[csutton7]

One of the new to me tires had a pretty good gash in it ( not from me) so I attacked it with the glue tread patch kit. The tire was not leaking, but I thought let’s see what this kit can do. I took some short videos but some are too big so hopefully you get the gist of what’s going on.

 

[csutton7]

Here’s the start of the first video in the next post— I edited it down to the first 26 sec

 

[csutton7]

 

[csutton7]

Finished — I’ll try and upload more of the edited videos later

 

[csutton7]

And to change the channel I’ve now come this far on the front axle skid plate.

 

[csutton7]

More testing— all things point to it’s time to see how it does in the rocks!!

 

[gt1guy]

So cool to see it out in the wild!

That has got to be a good feeling

 

[csutton7]

Yea it is and I'm itching to get to some rocks, which was to happen last weekend, but some guys couldn't make it and I also found out they were having a trail clean-up day so it got postponed. Maybe the last weekend of April, but nothing has been confirmed. So in the meantime, it's tinkering with things that still need to be done, but don't necessarily prohibit if from seeing some trail time.

I received my NP205 VSS modified rear output housing from Offroad Design and I ordered the upgraded NP205 rear output shaft from JB Conversions and the NP205 master rebuild kit(off of EBAY) and I should have the rebuild kit today and the output shaft is to arrive tomorrow, so rebuilding my spare NP205 or just changing the rear output on my current NP205 looms as a next move. So if I rebuild the spare NP205 with everything I would have to swap out the t-case or I could just swap the outputs. The NP205 in the truck is shifting better, so swapping outputs could be the winner for now, but I'll make that decision once I get all the parts and do some head scratching.

 

[csutton7]

I think I'm going to work on some more tube work for engine bay protection as my next move vs the NP205 stuff. I started doing some mock-up with some pieces of tube to see what I might run into and I think I have a plan of attack, but we shall see how it pans out in the end.

 

[csutton7]

Weekend Tube work commenced.

 

[csutton7]

Update on engine cage. My 1 ¾” tube inventory is down one 48" piece of ¼” wall and .125 wall cutoffs and some 24” sections of 1 ¼” x .25 wall so I’m scratching the ol’ melon thinking about how to use what I have to complete it. Yea, I still have toadd tube connectors at some point so that it all comes apart if the motor or supercharger needs to come out.

EDIT: The frame support and the tube angle you see inside the fender is 2" x .25 wall DOM and there's a 3/4" thick plate sitting behind the 3/4" thick fender plate with the 4 bolts in it. I tapped and threaded the 3/4" plate behind the fender plate for 3/8" bolts. I may in the future drill those out and tap for some 7/16" bolts or 1/2" bolts for added beef, but I'm not sure that's needed, but it feels like the bolts should be bigger in my over-build head.

 

[gt1guy]

If you have some scraps of 1.5" and 1.25" laying around, you can connect the 1.75" together to make longer pieces.

I've done that more than once. Ground smooth you can't tell the difference.

Don't think I'd want to try running a connection through the bender though

 

[csutton7]

gt1guy---yea I've already done that a few times using the 1 1/4" tube as sleeves by welding a bead on 4 sides down the length to fit tight into the 1.75 x .125 wall DOM. I may have to get creative by welding two pieces together so that I can attempt to make two more bends. I think if I cut 4 strip sections of the 1.75" x .125 wall tube and slip them into a short piece of tube and plug weld them and then slip another short piece over these and plug weld them so that I have a longer piece I should be able to bend those as I'd be working with .25 wall tube, but I'd like to work with a max of two pieces butted together vs 3 or 4 pieces to make one piece long enough to fit in the bender. I may start that yet today if the rain stays away. I could use the .25 wall piece of tubing I have, but I'm trying to save it for something that I haven't thought about yet, but I may bite the bullet and use it. Floating in the shadows is my 90* 1.75 tube template, but I'm trying to not use that, although if I have to buy more tube I'd just have to make a new one, so it may fall victim to the engine cage.

 

[csutton7]

Some pieces used — 7 pieces of tube, 4 plates I made, 4 nuts and 4 bolts

 

[1Sinner]

Looks good

 

[csutton7]

Thanks. I think I'll add a bar or two from the front engine cage bar one to the rear engine cage to tie them together to make them a bit stiffer and maybe add gussets to them as I can't run a cross brace and probably add some gussets to the crossover bars where the tie into the fender bar. I'll also make 4 more plates and cut the rear engine cage bar so that the whole engine cage can be removed. I still need to buy some tube connectors unless I buy some 2" x .125 wall DOM tube and make some sliding tube connectors with bolts, but I'll probably just do the tube connectors when I get some. cuz they just look better.

 

[csutton7]

Update as to what’s been going on. I have bought 2 different self powered subwoofers and I just couldn’t make them work. I don’t know if it was operator error or what, so I took some measurements and it looked like I could get a Rockford fosgate 10” sub- woofer behind the driver seat. It would be tight but I decided to go for it. So I bought it and an amp to power it. So last weekend after 12 frickin hours it’s installed and works to my satisfaction. I had to remove the self-powered sub and remounted the speaker amp behind the passenger seat since it was originally behind the driver seat. Thankfully the wires were just long enough to work except the ground I needed to use a longer one, but I had one, so all was good there. Then I had to cut the back of the driver’s seat platform and rework that and make an odd bracket off the seatbelt bolt to create a stop for the platform and then weld on a another stop for the seat platform. Ok now I needed to mount the new sub- woofer so I used some aluminum angle iron as a base support, one of the side clamps that came with the sub and I made 2 brackets for the top to keep it from tipping or sliding sideways. Now where to mount the sub amp. Damn it’s to big to fit behind the passenger seat!! So under the drivers seat it was. I had to make a platform for it and lucky me I had a piece I saved from the radiator in the bed install that covered the overflow bottle that fit perfect. Awesome I just needed to screw it to the existing floor under the seat and then I took a piece of angle iron and screwed that to the new platform which allowed me to bolt onto one gusset from the seat roll cage tubing!! Winner winner chicken dinner!! Time to slap the seat back in and now comes the nut kicking!! The seat hits the sub so I say pluck-it and clean up and go in and have a stiff screwdriver to ease my frustration. I’ll attack it tomorrow I say.

So I got two hours on momma’s day to get this figured out. I initially was going to just move the seat forward which really wasn’t exciting me as it would mean even a more cramped driving position. So I had originally screwed a piece of ¾” plywood to the back of the cab to be able to mount things. There’s a rail back there about 20-23” off the floor and the bottom was captured by slipping behind some bolts. So the ol’ brain cell starts twirling and bouncing off the sides of me noggin and I think that maybe I can make a cut out in the plywood for the sub to slip in that would allow the sub to maybe sit an 1-1 ¼ further back. I had to use another 3” wide piece of plywood to make it all work out since my original piece was too small. But I got it to work and I ended up with about ¾” clearance from sub to seat. Nows I got me some bass for my rockin' out on the rocks!!

The other thing is the engine cage is done for now. It may or may not get more attention but for now it’s good enough.