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mormetl - Project Roadkill
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Well here we go. It’s time to take my Terra to the next level. I’m ready to have an IH as a trail rig, so the Terra is now going under the knife. I will be keeping this rig, unlike my past projects, because of the great deal that was put together with another member off this board. This little baby is gonna be know as “Project Roadkill”, just because I like the tag that I put on the front and I thought it would fit just right. My plans are the following: Bob the rear 12" for greater departure angle, rocker panel replacement and some floorpan repair, SOA with a cut and turn on front, full roll cage with tie ins to rock sliders, keep the 196 for now with a propane conversion, lockers front and rear geared to run 36" TSL’s, disc brakes in the rear with possible swap to 9 inch rearend (already have). I’ll add more as I go. Anybody feel free to ask questions or comments, as this will be a project that I have been scheming for awhile. But as with any of my projects, my ideas will change from time to time. Here is the Pre-Op pic - 
My first plan of attack is the bobbing of the rear overhang that all Scout II’s, Terras, and Travelers possess. Approach and Departure angle are crucial in attacking trails. Seeing as how the fronts are pretty decent, I will address the rear. The donor skins that I have were pulled off of a ‘76 Traveler that I had. I thought the existing skins on the Terra could be salvageable for someone on the board, so I didn’t want to hack them up. The donors have rust, but I’m not too concerned about looks, as long as wheel well area is OK, I’m good. I will get some replacement lower panels for in front of the wheel well from SSS and weld them in. I started with the passenger side first and measured 12" along the entire rear seam where the qtr. meets the endcap. 
I drew a line, then used my angle grinder with a cutoff disc to make the cut. I then separated the endcap from the rear piece that I cut. 
I wanted to have a clean look where the endcap met the newly cut qtr., so I cut of the flange and spot welded it to the qtr.. 
Once I finished with that, I butted the endcap to the qtr. And welded it along the inner seam where they met. 
I will fill the new seam with a sealer for when it goes to paint. I also cut out the sidemarker light hole. Once the bobbed quarter was done, I used some Mar-Hyde airplane stripper to remove all the old paint. 
With the fresh metal now exposed, I shot on a couple coats of black primer. 
The driver’s side was done in the same fashion, except on this side I had to fill in the gas filler hole. I just cut a piece off of the scrap qtr. strip and welded it in. I will fill the rest in with a light coat of bondo to smooth everything out. 
Now that those are done, it is time to remove the qtrs. off of the Terra. Not a real hard process, just more time consuming. I first had to brace the inside of the bed so when I go to put everything back, my tailgate will still work. I tacked a piece in far enough back so as not to interfere with installation of end cap braces. 
I had to remove the top to get to the bedrails. Whoever put the panels in (they are not stock), just spot welded the rail along the top, as well as in the door jambs - a ziz wheel made short work of this. I drilled out the spot welds on the end caps and popped both quarters off. Took no time at all. 
This gives me a clear view of what all I will need to address on the rockers, etc. 
With the qtrs. off, I then removed the gas tank and all hardware. 
My final step for this evening was to remove the back piece of the bed, and see my next plan of attack. The body mounts in the back were completely shot - probably why I was getting hesitation when I hit bumps - my fuel line was getting pinned under the bouncing bed. My next step will be to get a donor rear body mount channel and start to measure up for my new mount locations and cut and splice of inner qtr. Enjoy the pics. 
Well this evening, I went ahead and removed the end posts 
-will have to cut and fit these once I get the donor body mount channel off of my donor Terra. I cut off the existing body mounts and mocked them up in their new location - I'll weld them in and gusset them for support - If my figures are correct, then the 12 inches taken out will make them end up on the backside of the spring hanger. 
Tomorrow I hope to cut the excess off of the frame and weld in a new support between the spring hangers, then get the donor body mount channel off of my other tub. Stay tuned... Saturday - March 10, 2007 Got my donor bodymount channel from a parts Terra tub that I've had for a while - never sure what I was going to do with the tub, until now . Wasn't too bad to remove - took about an hour: 
You can see how bad off mine was compared to the donor one. 
The rest of the afternoon was spent mocking up the bodymounts, endposts, floor and bodymount channel, and ultimately welding in the new mounts. 
Oh, and I also cut off the frame from the spring hangers back - Randy has a good idea which I will work on after my qtrs. are installed - that will come later. 
Bodymounts welded in: 
I also pressure washed the inside of the inner quarters to get all the dirt, etc. off - was thinking about POR-15ing them, but decided against, since it is in fact a soon to be trail rig. Found some good used bodymount bushings as well - may go poly at a later date. Sunday - March 11, 2007 This afternoon, I got both end posts welded in as well as the rear floor section welded. Got a little scared when I went to install the qtrs. during mock up - they were about 3/4 of an inch too short . Turns out I didn't have the end posts screwed all the way in and tight, so everything worked out nicely. I've got the driver's qtr. installed, except for final welding at door area. I will post a pic of it later this week. Here are the pics of the endposts and floor area. They are not perfect, but I don't care, they are functional and a light coat of bondo should smooth everything out. 
Monday - March 12, 2007 Today I finished up the driver's side, and installed the rear taillights & sidemarker. Finished up the passenger side as well, but couldn't get a pic of it - too dark. Also swapped out the Goldbox and got her going again . Still gonna go the Pertronix route, though. Got to figure out a fuel cell plan, until I can get the propane in order. Let me know what you think of her. 
I still have to get the bedrails cut down and installed as well. Also gonna use the tailgate off of the donor Terra - gonna do the Mar-Hyde paint stripper on it as well and lay a coat of primer on it. I don't want to mess up the tailgate that I do have because it's in too good of shape. Here's the donor - 
Tuesday - March 13, 2007 Well this evening was spent wrapping up a couple small things, ie. bedrails and installation of my old tailgate (to see how it would mount up), along with getting my taillights and markers wired right. On the bedrails, I basically just cut them where I made the joint for the endcaps to inner fenders, while still utilizing the rear bolt hole. 
I'm no body man, but it turned out pretty good - just had to turn my welder down low. 
Here's my tailgate installed - a little tight at the bottom, but I got her in there. She closes like it did before I started, so that's . I've got to get another coat of the Mar-Hyde on the other tailgate, due to 2 coats being on it, then I can prime it. I'll swap over my tag assembly as well. 
I'm psyched so far, I drove it down my road just for kicks - she's a little bouncy in the rear now - I guess that bit of weight that was taken off really stiffened up the springs, along with the removal of the gas tank. 
Got some 2x3 3/16 wall square tubing today for the bumper. Paid $50 for about 13 ft. - was part of a stick that they had as scrap. Actually only paid for 11 ft., but the guy said to take the whole piece since he didn't want the rest just laying around . I'll be working on it this weekend. 
Saturday - March 17, 2007 Bumper/spring hanger day - Was originally going to use the piece of 2x3 tubing for the rear bumper, but ended up finding a 2x4 piece that I'd pulled off of a parts Scout serving duty as a front bumper. 
Idea changed for the bumper once I got my Terra to my buddies shop (made use of his welder with gas - very nice! - I need to get a bottle for mine). First thing I did was actually not even bumper related - I decided to change out the bushings in the spring hangers since I had already changed them in the springs. 
Old out - new in 
Once that was done, I ratchet strapped the frame together to get it back to where it was before I removed the back section (26 3/4") 
Went on to cut the frame where I could slide in the bumper and weld it solid to the frame - basically the bumper laid across the spring hanger mounts and butted up against the frame - I then welded it solid. Bumper was right at 53" once I welded on endcaps - fits right in between qtr. endcaps and tailgate mounts. 
Sunday - March 18, 2007 Today was spent finishing the loose ends on the bumper. I first cleaned up the leftover frame rail on the lower portion of the bumper - I cut it and bent it up, then welded it solid - I figure the holes can be a drain of sorts. 
The idea my buddy had was to weld on 2 pieces of tubing that wrapped around the bottom edge of the endcaps, so that is what I did. I mocked up a couple pieces of tube that I bent to fit and then marked where I would cut the lower portion of the rear qtr. 
Here is the bender that I used for the 2 pieces - very effective! 
Mockup and my 2 pieces that were welded on before the fact. I cut them at an angle to match the fenderwells also. 
The finished product all welded up - I'll get pictures of the painted product tomorrow. 
I also got my donor tailgate stripped of it's paint so I could get some primer on it in preparation for paint in the future. Will probably have to do a little more work to it for prep, but at least the primer will match the qtrs. 
I'm happy with how it turned out - one thing I may add later is another piece of tubing that may go from the end of the tubing straight to the frame. For now, though, I like it. Next on the agenda is to figure out my fuel source so I can drive it. Here's a pic of my buddies work lot, and his 4 linked 'Cruiser that we've been working on too. 
Well here's a shot from the rear with the tailgate installed and my license tag holder installed. I went ahead and changed out the latches on the tailgate because it was closing half-*** - they were wore out big time. Anyway, now she shuts fine and stays shut. I put my rubber mat back in the bed - cut to size now, and threw a quick coat of gloss black on the bumper (I may change that and go flat). As far as fuel delivery, I think I may go with a fuel cell from Summit - my buddy just got one for around $125.00 with straps for his 'Cruiser. That should hold me till I save for the 'pane. My next big step will be to do the SOA. 
Saturday - March 24, 2007 Didn't get as much accomplished today as I hoped, but I'll get more during the week. Ended up helping my buddy with his 'Cruiser more than my own junk. Anyway, I managed to get the floormat out of the passenger side and see what kind of floor issues I have. Only real major issues are toward the rocker, so instead of replacing the entire floorpan, I'm going to patch about 5 or so inches in from the gasket lip. I can work with the inner rocker as it is - not the greatest, but it'll do. You can see the area I'm talking about in the following pics: 
I went ahead and marked where I'll cut. I'm doing this on the cheap, so that is why I plan on doing just the marked area - I only want to spend money on the things that count, ie. 'pane, drivetrain, wheels/tires. Here's a close up of the toasted rocker as well. I'll be able to work with the doglegs, luckily. 
I managed to salvage a replacement rocker from a parts Scout about a year and a half ago. I knew I could put it to use at some point, and now is the time . Just gonna clean it up and weld her in. 
Monday - March 26, 2007 Well I went ahead and got the rest of the rocker removed, as well as the area of the floor that I will patch. Had to grind out the spot welds along the bottom edge of the rocker - took a while, but got her done. 
Once that was done, I ground down all the areas that I would weld the rocker to. Oh, I knixed the old rocker replacement and went ahead and used a new rocker that I had in storage - fit alot easier and was much easier to weld. I just drilled holes along the bottom edge of the rocker and then on the top where the flat met the inner rocker lip. Got her all welded in and will now get a floor patch made from the one that I pulled. She's coming along. 
Final top view: 
On a side note: I've been thinking alot lately about the SOA and if I should keep the stock axles or not. I need some advice from the SEBA crew please. Should I stick with the stock axles and just get a spool for the rear and leave the front open and wheel it, or should I tear the Bronco down and put the 9" in the rear and get a fullsize 44 for the front? The 9" is already geared 4.56 and locked with a Detroit. The front TTB is geared and locked the same, would I be able to swap out all the guts from the TTB and put them in a 44 (I presume that I would need a HP 44, and do they make one with a passenger side drop?). I'm in a quandry at the moment, and before I tear into the SOA, I want to make sure I'm gonna put in what is more feasible. Thanks for the help guys Sunday - April 1, 2007 Well today I got the sliders fabbed up - except for the framerail extensions - I have to wait and get some 2x2 tubing this week for that. I basically cut the 13 ft. stick of 2x3 tubing into 2 - 6'5" pieces, and used some of the scrap to cap off the ends at an angle for beautification purposes. 
I'll tie into the frame in 3 spots and then have 2 pedestals of tubing and flat steel on top of 2 legs to tie into the interior cage (hope that made sense). Probably won't get this done for about a week and a half or 2. Gotta go to Wilmington for Easter. I do have some other small ideas that I will work on in the meantime. Stay tuned for some killer speaker mounting ideas |