Project Oil Burner

[oldironoffroad]

Got a new project in the garage coming from Bristol, TN. The owners name Dwain Morrison was in contact with Damian about building his rig and was referred to us. Over the years Dwain has accumulated several major components for this project , and after several trailer loads we had it all here at the shop. Dwain brought down the Scout II that was to be used. He had already had someone attempt a reverse shackle, spring over , and some body work. All was so poorly done that after pointing out several serious mistakes we decided to start from scratch, but more on that later. For now here is the overall rundown of the parts list and drivetrain.

Chevy dana 60 front 4.88 gears with a detroit locker
14 bolt rear 4.88 gears and a detroit locker.
Cummins 4BT stock, but we are gonna juice it abit
set of 5 39" Iroks
After some discussion with Dwain about trans and Tcase options we settled on a NV4500 and an NP205 which I have picked up and have setting in the garage. We also have in our possession the np241 that was mated to the NV and we may end up doubling down!! We are going to run Wagoneer front springs and a modified set of Ranger springs in the rear.

Pics to follow

 

[Lgn1738]

Sounds like a a sweet truck look forward to seeing it come together.

 

[oldironoffroad]

Before we begin a little history on the rig. Dwain had a few different people work on the rig. He had some body work done, a reverse shackle, and a spring over. Now I am not one to point out someones poor work but the quality of the work done was sub par at best. So the one thing to do was start over with a fresh slate. The list of wrongness of the work done to the tub is endless so I will just post a few pics with brief detail and we can move on and forget the old tub all together.

No spot welds holding the new floor pans down. Just booger welds covered with undercoating

The floors were so warped from the install they had skimmed in a 1/4" of bondo. We had already decided to use a different tub because the booger welds were everywhere so I thought I might try to salvage the quarters. No go there as the had over 1/2" of bondo all over them.

With the quarter removed here is what we found.

Apparently they had sand blasted parts of the truck as there was at least 5 lbs of sand still in the quarters.

I got lots more pics like this , but will let it die there and begin anew. At first glance looks like a nice tub. Here it is coming off to go to its final resting place. RIP.

Here is the new tub we have for the build. This one in its rusty unmolested shape is far better IMHO than the one we ditched. This one is going to need floor pans and cab mounts in the front and a driver side quarter , but we are going to be doing some body mods which involve some cutting so a rust free tub wasn't preferred Luckily we do have some nice sheetmetal that I salvaged from the other tub. IE doors , fenders, top, and all that good stuff.

OUCH!!!!

With the tub out of the way and the chassis back in the garage it was time to remove the reverse shackle setup,some of the factory brackets, and aslo plate the frame in the steering box area.

Stock 44 out of the way and the 60 slid into place

The 60 got slid out cleaned up and painted, and the factory crosmember went bye bye in favor of a new custom one.

Wagoneer springs positioned. Obviously the 60 is gonna require some work to get the pinion and caster where we want it.

New crossmember stuff.

The shackle through the frame was plated over and shackle hangers tacked into position. We are going to leave everything tacked until the drivetrain is set into place to make sure all angles are happy.

And to finish it all off for our post today a parting shot of the power plant!!

 

[Anthony Weigant]

Why you be hatin' on my welds, bruh?

in on page 1, I predict 36 total.

Bring it!!

 

[oldironoffroad]

Why you be hatin' on my welds, bruh?

in on page 1, I predict 36 total.

Bring it!!

Tony I know you didn't weld this thing my daughter could do better on sheet metal with my old licoln tombstone welder.. 36 pages huh. We should be at least that by the end.

 

[crazyeight]

I don't know Tony, looks more like my welding work there!!! Lol, you got your work cut out for ya on this one Levi...SO GET AT IT!!!!

 

[J.J.]

Toby and I are going to pay a visit to Old Iron Off Road this next week, and will post our findings. We checked out the 4BT ghetto fab in the Chevy truck that it was in when we were there dropping off my Terra a few weeks ago. Surely our report will be fair and impartial

JJ in TN

 

[Anthony Weigant]

How we gettin' to 36 pages on this thing if you don't post nuttin' for three weeks?

And how can I live vicariously through your builds if you ain't buildin?

Birthday has come and gone, let's go!!

(Reading back on that, it seems a little harsh, so, I thought I might try to nice it up a bit.)

Hey there buddy, how's the build coming along?

(meh, liked the first one better )

 

[BIGROTT88]

long way away from 36 pages, but looks like its going to be a great build, cant wait to watch this move forward

 

[oldironoffroad]

How we gettin' to 36 pages on this thing if you don't post nuttin' for three weeks?

And how can I live vicariously through your builds if you ain't buildin?

Birthday has come and gone, let's go!!

(Reading back on that, it seems a little harsh, so, I thought I might try to nice it up a bit.)

Hey there buddy, how's the build coming along?

(meh, liked the first one better )

Pipe down Wedgie...... Hehe see what I did there. We have some more done to it , but I don't like posting updates until they have some substance. The rear axle is under it now , and the frame has had some beefy brackets built. Stay tuned.

long way away from 36 pages, but looks like its going to be a great build, cant wait to watch this move forward

Yeah I am looking forward to this one for sure. Glad to have you following along.

 

[Anthony Weigant]

Wedgie, huh?

I suppose I can play too, Rustler, Guess, no wait.......Wrangler!!

 

[oldironoffroad]

Was gonna wait till it was a roller, but got some progress on the ole oil burner. I am currently waiting on a few things to come in that have been ordered. Once stuff gets here it will be a roller and get the tub we are gonna use slappe back on the chaasis. First order of buisiness was rear springs. I snagged up a set of what I thought were 56" chevy springs , but upon cleaning, inspection, and some close measureing they are actually ford ranger springs. I was gonna ditch em , but thought ehh what the hey we will give em a try. They are 1200 lb springs in stock form, but with the addition of an add a leaf they should support the back end nicely and flex really well. So the spring pack got busted down, cleaned, painted with graphite paint, and the add a leaf installed. Just FYI these springs have an offset center pin and will allow you to relocate the axle for a longer wheelbase and not have to worry about running out of frame space for shackle mounts and such.

The rear plates for the shackle hangers had been booger welded on if you can imagine so those came off in favor of a set of RUFF STUFF frame out riggers. Ignore the center of spring mark this was originally a mark for 63" chevys. Just decided they were to long.

While I had the chasis naked I decided I would make up a set of shock hoops. These will accommodate a 12-14" travel shock nicely.

 

[oldironoffroad]

The rear spring hanger also had to be changed out to accomodate the new wider springs. For this once again we turned to Ruff Stuff for the hook up. I removed part of the factory mount and boxed the rest in. Shouldnt go anywhere.

 

[oldironoffroad]

Since we had springs I decided to lug the heavy hunk of 14 bolt rearend we were gonna use. It had all kinds of.... um add ons that needed to be removed, but does have a detroit, and disc brakes already.

Rear springs hangin out

Said heavy chunk of steel before some ugly removal.

during clean up

The axle did also have provisions for an anti wrap bar, but were setup for a wierd width bushing so one of the brackets was removed, a standard set of poly bushings used for mock up and the mount rewelded.

With all the un needed crap cut off and everything ground smooth the axle got cleaned and a couple coats of rustoleum goodness.

 

[oldironoffroad]

Got some updates for the Oil Burner. Before any mockup of the 4bt could be made the tub we were gonna use needed to be installed, and some repair to the mounts made. So I bolted on the wheels and tires and rolled the chasis outside.

And out comes a poor red head step child of a tub we ended up saving from the crusher. This is her good side. She needs the traditional southern scout rust repair and just a smidge more, but we will get to that.

Off it comes.

.

The under side was covered in old undercoating so while it was off I rolled it on its side to clean it up abit before it goes onto the chasis. We arent to concerned with the sheetmetal on the driver side so dont fret about it setting on the pavement.

Lots of scraping and preasure washing later it was much better. The floor pans will be replaced so we left those alone. The rest will be wire wheeled down for some more cleanup and prep for some UPOL to be sprayed.

She is a big girl..

 

[oldironoffroad]

Remember how I wasn't concerned with the sheetmetal on the driver side? Here is why. most of the metal is peeled open like a tin can. Not sure what they hit but I am sure somebody had to clean their undies afterwards.

Wife helping out stripping some of the undercoating. She is a keeper.

Then onto the bed floor.

I think it will buff out???

Metal under all the trash is still in good shape. A little POR and it will be good as new, or better!

Since very little about this truck is going to remain stock I filled most of the factory holes and any that had been added over the years.

Driver cab mounts repaired.

Ended the day with the driver floor ready to be installed. I believe I am going to have to open that wheel well up a bit huh.

One last post before I go. The last of the doo doo welding that was done before I recieved the scout was on the rear crossmember. It was beat and had had one to many repairs made to it so I opted to replace it with a better one from the chasis the tub came off of.

New money!!

Thats all I got for now.

 

[J.J.]

Dang, that is sure TALL!!!!!


Looks great Levi.

Glad to see that it is moving along, it has come a long way since I saw it last.


JJ in TN

 

[oldironoffroad]

Yeah she is moving right along. I have a lot of new sheet metal on hand for it. It is tall but u figure a thousand pounds o motor and trans, mixed with some bumpers , and full cage will drop her down several inches.

 

[Fred Demmon]

Nice work
I always like watching your builds

Keep up the good work

 

[oldironoffroad]

Time for a little update. We got some more work done sheet metal wise. The driver and passenger floor pans are in and I got started on the driver quarter.

For the quarter Dwain wanted the arch to look as factory as possible, but before we could work on the quarter we had to open up the wheel well. So....... out came the cut off wheel.

and a shot from the inside.

Inner quarter got cleaned up and shot with some por15 while the filler neck got cleaned and shot with some semi gloss black because some of it will see daylight and the por15 tends to fade and look crappy if left in the sun.

Also the filler neck was modded and moved since the new wheel well occupied the filler necks factory location.

With the wheel opening plenty large enough to accommodate the tires I got started on the quarter.

To make the quarter look somewhat factory obviously there was some cutting and pasting, also I had to sacrifice a rusty old front fender to get some needed filler pieces.

Now that I was thoroughly bored with sheetmetal work I decided it would be a good time to mock up the hydroboost and hydraulic clutch we will be using. Some trimming and redrilling of the hydroboost adapter plate and it bolts to the factory booster bracket holes.

The hydraulic clutch we are using is a mid 90 Chevy pickup master slave combo.

So we are going to finish up the passenger side quarter and a few more sheetmetal items and the motor will be ready to mock up. Stay tuned!!