Golden Showers Mobza: Pretending we are 17 again

[Turboyota]

MOBZA Mission Statement:

***This project shall be focused on laughing, shit-talking, drinking, and building as much function into a truck for the lowest cost as quickly as possible. Fun/Dollar ratio should be as large as possible. Truck downtime shall be kept to an absolute minimum to facilitate dezert & DD activities.***

Brent wanted a dirt-capable truck to take on dezert camping trips, cruise around local dezert races, drive 32 dirt miles roundtrip to/from work, and of utmost importance: cruise mall parking lots whilst looking Brofabulous.

This project is about getting a truck into the dezert quickly and inexpensively so we can enjoy the sights, laughs, road sodas, trash-talking, and bromance. I'm getting paid in Del Taco and Miller Highlife. I am banging out the fabwork as quickly as possible (and it shows). Most of the materials are from my scrap bin.


SO IT BEGINS-----

September 2015
————————
Brent decided he wanted a dirt-capable longtravel 2WD or 4X4 mini truck that was inexpensive to build, reliable, and had reasonable fuel economy. DD streetability, reliability, nice interior, stereo, and working A/C were necessities. He asked me what kinds of trucks he should consider buying…

Brent: “Dude, what trucks should I search Craigslist for?”
Me: “Get a 2.3 or 4.0 Beamed Ranger or 22RE Toyota or a 6 lug Tacoma. DO NOT get an S-10, Hardbody, Mazda, Isuzu, Mitsubishi Mighty Max, or anything else fucking lame. I don’t want to cut the coil buckets out of a A-Arm Ranger or S-10. Stay away from 3.0L A-Arm Rangers and 3.0L Toyotas, those motors suck.”
A couple weeks later: September 2015
Brent: “Hey Rouse, I got a truck!”
Me: “Schweet! Whad’ya get?
Brent: “2001 Mazda B3000, low miles, straight body, and nice interior. It’s gold.”
Me: "Is it four wheel drive?"
Brent: "No."
Me: “What the hell is wrong with you? Seriously dude, that’s the EXACT truck I told you not to buy if you want to build a brotastic brorunner on budget, dude!”
Brent: “It's in good condition.”
Me: “Fuck you.”


____LONG PAUSE____


Me: “It’s seriously a fuckin' gold Mazda with a 3.0??? Jesus Christ.”

Brent slapped the obligatory RDC sticker on the back window and hit the dirt.

Brent perused Clist and RDC classifieds for long travel kits with zero luck whatsoever for 2 months. (Not that he would have dropped the $2K on a used A-arm/spindle kit anyway, the cheap fat bastard.)

Being the good friend that I am, I ridiculed him.
Me: “If you had bought a beamed ranger, we could've made tons of whoop-swallowing front travel with stock beams by now. Good call on the A-arm Mazda—you currently have 7.5 inches of travel—no BroHoes for you.”
Me: “Find any used Mazda fiberglass yet? No???? That’s weird….. Douchenozzle.”

I sent him links to the plethora of Toyota long travel kits and extended or bent beams that were for sale all over Clist and RDC classifieds to rub it in his fat face. I busted his balls so much that I could tell it was actually starting to get to him. Mission accomplished!

This 2001 Mazda B3000 will get built incrementally. No extended multi-year downtimes, thusly, no lost interest. The bad part about incrementally building a truck is everything gets cut off and re-done. The BLGT way.

 

[Turboyota]

11/6/2015

1st official mod: make it sound like a proper high school brorunner.

Vatozone muffler & turndown: $40

I cut off the stock exhaust and welded the louder vatozone muffler on. Time to cruise the mall parking structure and set off car alarms, bro!

 

[Turboyota]

Dezbombin enlightened us with this profound wisdom on DR:

“Gold is the best ranger color ever offered. There were only a handful of rangers (and apparently mazdas) hand selected by a direct descendent of Henry Ford to be adorned in this color. Do not be ashamed of the gold my romanian brother! (shouldn't be an issue?) Rather, embrace the gold and in turn, it will shower you, no pun intended, in incredible reliability, panties, and good fortune. Build on!”

 

[Turboyota]

November 2015

Brent perused Craigslist religiously and eventually found a Fabtech lift spindle/upper arm/coil spring kit that came with Fabtech Dirt Logic 2.25” shocks originally intended for a Chevy 2500 (I'm not sure why those shocks came with the lift kit...)

Ranger front fiberglass fenders were sourced from some high dezert tweakers.

The pivotal parts of a true brorunner were now in-hand: Unpainted fiberglass and a Fabtech lift.

All we need is some nautical star tattoos on our elbows and we would be overtaken by a slippery panty hurricane!

Brent also found Deavers & Bilstein smooth bodies that were in good shape.

Fabtech spindles, coils, upper A-arms, and Dirt Logic shocks $400
Fiberglass front fenders $200
F31 Deavers $300
Bilstein 9100 2.65x17” shock absorbers $380
Ebay shackles $40

 

[Turboyota]

November 15, 2015


Time to cut some shit apart! We installed the F31 Deavers, extended shackles, front fiBROglass, cut a metric fuckton of sheet metal out of the bed, fabricated a simple bedcage, and mounted rear Bilstein 9100 smooth bodies in a long 14 hour day.

Brent wanted to retain as much bed space as possible, so I gangster-leaned the Bilstein shock absorbers toward the cab so he could still get his son’s quad, firewood, and some camping/overlanding supplies back there. Not the most desirable shock angle, but screw it, it’s a Mazda. He drove the truck home that night. Those shenanigans took me approximately 20 beers.

Front lawn looking especially whiskey tango:

33x10.5 Bajas look cool...

I had to cut a lot out of the bed to clear the shackles. I presume that wouldn't be necessary if we used drop hangers. Peekaboo, Brent's son.

Simple bedcage. 1.5x0.120" mild steel tube. Whip mount. Lower shock tabs welded to the u-bolt plate. Brent wanted to mount the shock reservoirs on top of the horizontal tube--I hated it, but whatthefuckever.

Paint.

Yes, gentle readers, we built the back of the truck first. Not very BRO of us—we should have started with a bone-stock rear and a +8” per side front end. And a radius light bar.

 

[Turboyota]

BroBroBrent took the Mobza to our buddy Brokota Jake to have a Prerunner bumper made. Jake spent 16 hours fabricating the bumper. He did all the plate work with a cutoff wheel on a 4.5" grinder, which is a shitload of work. The bumper is waaaaaaaay too nice for the mobza.

Kudos, Jake. Nice work.

 

[Turboyota]

November 22, 2015

The quintessential brorunner puzzle pieces were falling into place: unpainted fiberglass, a front bumper with a shiny skid plate, and a bedcage. We needed to get the front end lifted STAT!

Notice I said lifted--the cornerstone of any real brorunner is having a front lift that's like 6" taller than the rear. Prerunner stance pulls the bitches. That, and a Skin Industries jersey, black socks, and neck tattoos, of course.

11/22/2015:
Installed lift spindles, upper arms, lift springs, and shocks. Prerunner stance, brosefs!

I decided to install the 2.25” Dirt Logic shocks through the stock coil bucket and hang them below the stock lower a-arm. I figured no matter what, they would perform better than the stock pencil-dick shocks. I plasma cut the top of the coil bucket out and made a pin-style upper shock mount out of ¼” cold rolled bar. Clearanced the stock lower arms and welded off-the-shelf tabs for the lower shock mount.

Time to MOB(za) some whoops, brah!

 

[Turboyota]

Hilarious reply from @FasterNU

And I quote:

Using shocks as bump and limiters? Now THAT is some "dirt logic"!

Orrr....it looks possible from the pic, maybe you're using frame as limit strap? Shitty Shittty Clang Clang playa!

Orrrr the brake line? Either way....All are perfect for a golden Mobza.

You know what though ... the bees knees for this might actually be some gold looking chain limit straps. Like a golden chain on an teenage wannabe Italian mobster. HAHAH

 

[Turboyota]

The golden limit chains concept is stellar! Mobtastic for the Mobza.

Don't even get me fuckin' started on bumps and limit straps.....

The frame IS the limit strap!!!

Here is how the conversation went:

Me: "Dude, where are the bumpstop extenders? Did they come with the kit?"
Brent: "I don't have them. It'll be fine."
Me: "Dude. You need limit straps. Fuck."
Brent: “Nah”
Me: "So you're cool with the ballpoint cup hitting the coil bucket to limit your droop?"
Brent: "It'll be fine."
Me: "I'm not comfortable with this. Hand me another beer."
Me: "Seriously dude, You need to get bumpstops and straps like rightfuckingnow, dude."

To be continued....

 

[Turboyota]

Brent bought black steel wheels and 31" BFG muds from Craigslist. He took a bunch of glamour shots of the mall speed bump broseph brotatochip brorunner. He owned those sickgnar parking lot speed bumps!

My favorite picture of the Mobza. I love how the Dick's sign looks like a halo above it.

 

[Turboyota]

December 2015

Did the the Mojave trail. The Mobza worked well; the "upgrades" were a drastic improvement over stock. The truck was about as fast as my parent's Tacoma with Sway-A-Way coilovers, Deaver mini pack, and Bilstein rear shocks.

Yes, gentle readers, I had to borrow my parent's truck like a 17-year-old little bitch. The Turboyota wasn't ready (because Mobza), and my racetruck is not a viable option for trips of that length--I'd need a dedicated chase truck and like 17 pit stops to refuel....

Afton Canyon water crossing was deep. One of the Tacoma headlights is under water.

Camp on night #2

It was 21 degrees Fahrenheit in the morning. Fucking frigid. So naturally the oil filter blew off the VW Thing. We threw some hot coals under the pan to warm everyTHING up, nooooo biiiiig deal.

And then the VW Thing had an alternator DNF, so we jump started it every time we stopped.

And WhiteTrashKyle experienced a battery mount DNF in the Jeep J10. He was being harveyhaulass in a wash...

Fucking plumber...

Stopped for lunch on Soda Lake. Dropped off some rocks on the Travelers Monument rock pile. This picture cracks me up because my eldest son is taking a leak in the background, and BajaF250 is wearing a Skin shirt. Classy as fuck.

Maybe I shouldn't talk shit about his Skin shirt when I'm wearing a Harley shirt...

When we arrived at Soda Lake, the BROmanian had DNF'd his lunch.

Then Whitetrashkyle DNF'd the icechest off the back of the J10 pretending to be Rob Mac...

Love pulling up to dezert carnage crime scenes like this:

Luckily, the Cuervo margarita and Coors Heavy cans survived the accident.

 

[Turboyota]

On the Mojave Trail trip, it became very apparent the the simple bedcage needed some more bracing. Brent could see it moving around when he was driving. I took a ride in the Mobza and witnessed it first-hand. The non-braced bedcage moved around a helluva lot more than I thought it would...

I added an X-brace made out of 1.25x0.065" 4130. It really chapped my ass to use my good Chromoly on the Mobza, but the scrap pieces I had were about the right length, and we didn't have to hook up the trailer and drive our fat asses to Cal Mesa steel.

For some reason, at this stage of the build BajaF250 started taking more pictures of me working. Apparently they were going straight to Facebook. I'd get approached at work with stuff like this: "I saw you were working on Brent's truck this weekend" or "what are you guys doing to that truck?" or "Overalls and Highlife, huh..."

Very professional. Perfect. I avoid social media faggotry for a reason...

This X-bracing fixed the bed cage flex issue:

 

[Turboyota]

I grew weary of looking at the Mobza stock rear bumper, so I made a quickie tube bumper.

I also pulled the bedsides and made some bed stiffeners.

Cutting all that sheet metal out of the bed caused it to crack all over the place. Around this same time, Brent found some nice 33x10.5 Bajas.

Peekaboo Turboyota in the background…

Pulled bedsides:

Chillin' next to the Turboyota. Hell yeah.

 

[Turboyota]

Remember the dialog about bump stops and limit straps from a few posts back?

Didn't see this shit coming...

Or the second time:

Both broken ball joints happened on pavement, and nobody was hurt--thank goodness.

 

[Turboyota]

From @YOitsDP (chewy0288 of DR infamy)

Quote:

I always called my buddy's fab tech kit " the ball joint breaker" he also had a mobza mentality. The upper arm would often over travel downward and bind it self against the ball joint/spindle. He would just drive it around town with 30 degrees negative camber until it popped it self back out.

Bumps are for roads and limits are for the weak.

 

[Turboyota]

After the balljoint DNF debacle(s), I decided to make a long travel front end for this hog. The Fabtech balljoint breaker lift sucked chocolate salted balls.

Here is the shopping list I gave Brent:
1. Beer
2. 1" uniballs & misalignment spacers from ruffstuff (I had the uniball cups)
3. Urethane bushing assemblies from same
4. Ruffstuff 1/4" plate upper shock mounts
5. 3/4" heims & misalignment spacers (I had the bungs)
6. Beer
7. 1.5x.188" tube for lower arms
8. 1/8" plate for lower arms
9. Tabs for shock mounting
10. 8" or 10" coilovers
11. Limit straps
12. Limit strap clevis/tabs
13. 24"x36" 1/4" plate for weld fixture
14. Tabs for weld fixture
15. Allthread
16. Formed Resi tabs
17. Beer
18. Grade 8 or 9 hardware
19. Sunflower seeds
20. Beef jerky
21. Bump stops--option of urethane or hydraulic bumps with cans

 

[Turboyota]

During the Fabtech broken balljoint era, but before I started the LT kit, this happened:

That is why Loctite and locknuts are of utmost importance, brosephs.

I machined new bushings to replace the DNF'd urethane ones from 6-6 nylon.

And new steel spacers machined from 1.0x0.250" wall 4130 tube. I HATE wasting 4130 on the Mobza--even if it's only a few inches. Goddamnit.

 

[Turboyota]

I made a shitty, but very functional weld fixture for the upper and lower arms.

Some of the requisite components:

Complete a-arm weld fixture. Easy to make, but effective. The base plate is 1/4" x 24" x 36" hot rolled plate. 8 Flat bottom tabs locate the frame-pivot side of the arms. Threaded rod runs through the pivot side bushings, and sets the uniball angle on the spindle side of the arm.

I placed the stock arm into the frame pivot tabs and then set the allthread uniball positioner 4" wider than the stock balljoint pivot. I used the exact same angles as the stock arms.

Main tubes are 1.5x.188" wall 1020 DOM. I decided to TIG weld the Mobza arms. I'm not sure why, but mostly because I like TIG welding I guess...

Haha--check it out--I have an emergency beer in my hoodie:

*Important note for those who haven't made A-arms before*

It is very important that one of the frame side bushing housings be heavily tacked, but not fully welded. Weld up the entire arm, then cut off the tack welded bushing assembly, put the arm back into the fixture, and then weld that bushing housing back onto the arm.
All the heat from welding an arm will pull the bushings in toward one another by 1/8" to 3/16"

I plasma cut 1/8" cold rolled plates for the top and bottom of the arm.

Added a few Tig stitch welds

 

[Turboyota]

Upper arms are 1.25x0.095" 4130. Have I iterated enough times about how bitter I am about using Chromoly on the Mobza? Fuck.

Rod ends are 3/4".
Uniballs are 1"

And the +4" longer upper and lower arms tack welded and ready to be mocked up:

For those of you who haven't made suspension components before, it's very important that you check fitment and geometry BEFORE you fully weld it all together. It'll be easier to change WHEN you fuck it up.

 

[Turboyota]

Fit check:

Let's have a word of prayer before we check and see if the new A-Arms fit. (I have no idea what the hell I was doing, but BrobroBrent was taking pictures of me for his screen saver or something...)

After paying homage to the PBR gods... fit check with coil buckets still attached.

Holy shit! 17.25" of travel! Hot damn! Finally something to like about the Mobza!

I think we should have made +5 or +6 arms. Told you, BajaF250!