The EVOLUTION Project

[Damian Grihalva]

D and C is about to take building scouts to the next level. This thread is going to document the development and testing of our Prototype Coil conversion kit for Scouts.

Stay tuned.

 

[DanBowen]

If you require a scout for the coil conversion,I could have my 800 there tomorrow...as long as its free....lol (Hey! I can dream can't I?!)

 

[Damian Grihalva]

Haha ~ you wish. We have a guy already, scout should be showing up any day.

Besides, you're missing the point! We want to have a coversion kit by the end of this. So you won't need to come to me, you can do it yourself!

 

[Carl Wiese]

Damian,

Could you be more specific? By "Scouts" do you mean Scout 80/800, Scout II or both??

 

[DanBowen]

ok ok,...I get it, you can keep the tee shirt if you use my scout...lol (crossing fingers the other scout does not show,i'm to poor to buy expensive coil toys)
And yeah, what Carl says...its for real scouts not those other copycats, scout 2's RIGHT?!

 

[Damian Grihalva]

Could you be more specific? By "Scouts" do you mean Scout 80/800, Scout II or both??

Both. The focus will be on the Scout IIs. But I fully expect and will test that kit to see if it will be a 'cross-platform' kind of kit.

 

[Damian Grihalva]

reddevil1111, for you anything...........

























.............at the right price

 

[Damian Grihalva]

Speaking of which, after this proto-type is done. I will offer a select few people discounted rates to do this conversion. If you've ever wanted the best suspension on the market, and you like what you will see in this thread, let me know as we'll be looking to re-build this conversion to a few scouts to get the conversion's practicality and drivability out there and proven.

Like I've said before, we've already build coil-sprung scouts in the past. Innovative scout guys have done it by themselves. This is what I see as the "next SOA" ~ it may not be popular due to the lack of techincal support and know-how, but it soon will be.

 

[Redbeard]

Damian, you're my hero
Patient customers waiting for DUI's get a special 80% off these new kits right? Cause then I would stop harassing you so much .

 

[Damian Grihalva]

YOu know it! Tell you what, tell me your T-shirt size and I'll get one out to you as a consolation

BTW ~ Spoke to DUI early this week, they are getting them out early next week.

 

[Redbeard]

So how's it coming?

Wow... I'm impatient.

Seriously though, I'm psyched about this one, I'll be third in line to pick this up. Are you going to offer it as a kit or do you have to drive to CO to get the set up?

 

[Damian Grihalva]

EDIT: I'm restructuring the pictures in this thread so that I don't have to attach them. This will allow me to have up to 10 images (including smileys) per post and the pictures are hosted on my server instead of taking the board's server.

History:
Matt, the owner of this rig, was planning on building a scout. He's had several and never had one really built to what he was looking for (Matt is into the outdoors and has climbed almost every peak up to 20000 ft). This scout was going to be that scout. He's bought a few things from me for his build, and while he was out climbing peaks he got a guy to come help with the build. Unfortunately the guy helped take everything apart and little else.

I was looking through the classifies one day and saw that he was selling it. I emailed/PM him right away to see why he was selling it. After a little conversation it was clear that the project hit a big road block and Matt was needing something he could drive, and the scout seemed so far away from that, he was about to start over.

We had talked before about a buildup. Matt, like most of us, has a 'scout fund' and when he told me that he simply didn't see this scout being used for at least a year, I decided to pitch him this build.

I'm sure I sound like a lunatic psycho when people get me talking about something I'd like to build ~ and surprisingly enough, Matt wasn't scared off by my rambles about a revolutionary project. With a little help, I was sure we could put this build together.

With that, this build was born. Matt put things relatively back together ~ at least enough to roll the scout onto a flatbed and have it brought over. He will be my co-pilot in this build. Although its highly uncommon for a shop to allow a customer to do in-depth work right along side them, that's exactly what you'll see.

So lets begin.

First and foremost, when I said the last guy knew how to take things apart, I meant it. The rockers on this beast need replacing and that's exactly what they were in process of getting.

Normally you'd call Mr. Scout, Scout FX or any other LL dealer for some replacement rockers. However, I knew that this scout was being built for rugged use and would need some RockSliders ~ so I figured, why not build them into the rockers? Matt agreed and so we started measuring.

Interestingly enough the inner/outer rocker assemblies measured 3.5" tall. It so happened to be 3.5" wide as well (or could be). So I ordered up some 3.5" x 3.5" box tube (.188" wall). I believe they'd normally be about 60" long, but after Matt measured, we ended up with 58" long.

I want the new rockers to look somewhat stock, so we marked and cut a 2.5" x 2.5" angle out of them.

 

[Rough74]

Are you going to offer it as a kit or do you have to drive to CO to get the set up?

Correct me if I'm wrong Damian, but I believe the intent is to end up with a "kit" you can install yourself.

 

[Damian Grihalva]

Seriously though, I'm psyched about this one, I'll be third in line to pick this up. Are you going to offer it as a kit or do you have to drive to CO to get the set up?

Honestly I will only be doing this in house for the first few conversions. Cost of the in-house conversion will be in the $6000-7500 range and include EVERYTHING ~ HySteer, links front and back, X-duty frame sleeves w/ new X-duty transmission crossmember, coil hardware, axle trusses, all hardware, and all the trimmings.

The reason I'm going to do the first few in house is to refine installation, develop good instructions, demo videos, and refine the kit for easier production to save cost while providing the strongest and cleanest kit that can be built.

Honestly, you should consider bringing the scout to us. Be the first in your state to get one .

 

[j calavera]

If you would like to see if it would be feasible to try out a kit for a truck, let me know. My 69 1100D would be at your service!

J

 

[Bill Brown]

Its about time someone took this idea seriously. I have owned my truck about 6 months. As soon as I bought it I went to a local 4x4 center (camperBob's.com) and asked for a few things for my 67 t'all. disk brake conversoin, coil front suspension with a 3" lift, power steering conversion, fuel injection, and turbo/supercharger availablilty. I think they are still laughing. Well they won't be laughing soon. Keep up the good work and adapt scout stuff to the trucks as well.

 

[Damian Grihalva]

When I had my 69 Travelette I seriously considered building a coiled front for it. Never did it, but I wouldn't mind. But scouts are first.

Sorry

 

[Damian Grihalva]

Correct me if I'm wrong Damian, but I believe the intent is to end up with a "kit" you can install yourself.

Yes, eventually. There's a bunch of R&D to do, but the end goal is to make a shippable kit

 

[Damian Grihalva]

If you would like to see if it would be feasible to try out a kit for a truck, let me know. My 69 1100D would be at your service!

J

I hear ya. If any truck kits come out they will be coils up front and custom leafs in back.

 

[Damian Grihalva]

Next I needed to re-close in the box, so I got a strip of 3/16" x 3.5" flat stock from the steel rack and presto Perfect fit.

Next the flat plate was seam welded into the box.

Then I ground it down smooth and sanded

After putting a 45 degree 'ramp' to help clear rocks and provide a nice sliding surface in the rockers in case they are used as sliders.

Just at that time, both Matt and I got calls from the wives. My wife called to tell me she was coming home sick from work. His called to tell him that her parents (living in TX) decided to make a trip out to visit and will be showing up in about 30 minutes (otherwise un announced). So we packed it up and called it a day.

Tomorrow/Monday we'll build the Driver-side rocker and Matt will build some door braces. What we'll be doing is build a brace that bolts to the stock door hinges and will weld to the B-pillar (where the doors latch). These are temperary and will be used to keep the body in place while we cut the old rusty rockers out and weld the new X-duty rockers in.

But to update you on some other events of the night. The front fenders were removed. This was done in prepration for the rocker replacement and modifications to the inner fenders (we're putting coil-overs up front ).

Matt also brought over the 21-curcuit EZ wiring harness ~ all wires in the scout (or at least a HUGE majority) had been ripped from the scout.

Needless to say I had to take a peek at the harness since I'd never seen or installed an EZ harness. I was extremely pleased with the smaller fuse box, and color-coded wiring system. Reminds me allot of the Painless system. For now, I feel obligated to say that I FULLY endorse the buying of an after-market wiring system like this. STOCK WIRING ~ new or old ~ BLOWS! I will certainly talk more about this later in the build. Stay tuned.

Last, Matt had previously bought one of our dash conversion kits. This perticular one was our "Krawler" series. Its designed to replace the wore out and cracked dash pad. It looks and works awesome (as you can see in the Rusty Build). His is filled with Autometer black faced gauges.

Like I said, this isn't just going to be a suspension job. This is going to be more of a whole-scout build ~ quite literally. About the only thing we AREN'T going to do is replace the dented sheet metal or rebuild the drivetrain.

Speaking of which, the drivetrain is a stock 345 w/ 4bbl ~ T19 (close I think), and a D20. End result will be Links front and back, 104-105" Wheel base, tera-low D20, HP44 and 9-inch combo, 5.13s, and 37" tires.