Golden Showers Mobza: Pretending we are 17 again

[Turboyota]

BrobroBrent got a good deal on some Sway-A-Way Racerunner 8" shocks that came with extended ends, extra shims, and swayaway Baja Blood shock oil.

Time to cut shit apart!

Plasma cut out the passenger side. Had to sawzall through the coil bucket lip areas.
This is a scenario where the plasma cutter is like 10-20X faster than grinding wheels. It would have taken 4 hours and $30 worth of 4.5" cutoff wheels and sawzall blades to cut that shit out the hard way. With the plasma cutter, it took less than 15 minutes to hack that section of frame out.

Lesson: Buy a $240 Colossal Tech CUT50D Chinee Prasma cuttel from eBay. Trouble free for years, and consumables are dirt cheap.

Kyle grinding as I nurse the huge burn on my forehead that was the result of dripping melted plastic from inside the coil bucket somewhere...

Plated in the frame with rusty 1/8" HR plate

Burned it in

Cover plate for upper coil bucket area. This plate welded to the insides of the upper A-arm tabs also. Said tabs had LOTS of cracks that were ground out and re-welded.

Same deal on driver's side:

Brent bolted up the arms for another fit check, and at that point we abandoned the project...
.
.
.
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....And started drinking!

 

[Turboyota]

Here's a slightly classier beer choice, but we are still devoid of class:

 

[Turboyota]

BrobroBrent bolted up the arms and we fit checked again. The bottom of the Fabtech lift spindle would interfere with the top plate on the arm where it meets the uniball cup. It was apparent that the plate on the top side of the arm would need to be clearanced, and the spindle would need a little grinding. We ended up grinding a 1/2" chamfer on the bottom of the spindle.

Stock arm was positioned above and bolted down through the lower upright pivot block. A 1” uniball cup is nowhere close to fitting in that location on the Fabtech lift spindle. Fuck it, It’s going below and we will deal with the geometry ramifications later.

The issue can be seen here:

We bent the top a-arm plate down toward the uniball cup, added an internal rib under the shock mount, cut a tab slot so we could fuse the upper plate to the aforementioned internal rib.

 

[Turboyota]

Winter 2016

Ruffstuff 9.75" shock towers fit well. I would consider using them again--especially for $105.

We cut off the tabs that extend down onto the vertical face of the frame and pushed the shock mounts in towards the engine. Checked travel numbers & fitment.

17.25" travel (metal to metal)
No clearance issues

Added gussets from shock tower to A-Arm frame-pivot tabs, and gussets that wrapped down onto the vertical face of the frame section where the coil bucket used to be.

 

[Turboyota]

Winter 2016 continued:

The Fabtech spindle is designed to use a stock ball joint. The stock ball joint has a circumferential groove in the stud that extends into the top of the spindle and is mechanically locked and pinched by a 10mm bolt.

I machined a new stud from a 3/4" F911
bolt and ground a relief for the pinch bolt. The OD of the bolt needed to be turned down slightly to fit into the spindle.

A nut on top of the uniball is torqued onto the F911 "stud" and sandwiches everything together. The F911 stud is locked into the spindle by being pinched and mechanically locked by the horizontal 10mm bolt shown here:

 

[Turboyota]

I made the tierod extenders from 1.25" 6061 bar.

Drilled/tapped inner at 14x1.5mm and outer 3/4-16 for the heim.

Put the truck on wheels and drove it around the cul-de-sac. (Insert jokes about my hairline here...)

 

[Turboyota]

From @mounty71 on DR:

“Nicely done. Is there a reason you decided to put the lower arm under the spindle instead of on top of it like stock? I did the opposite on my kit, thinking that the spindle would be supported by the lower arm rather than only the tension of the nut and bolt. Then again, I didn't get anywhere close to 17" of travel with an 8" shock.”


Let's refer to the Mobza mission statement, shall we?

And I quote:

"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."


A truck in the dezert with iffy geometry is better than a truck on jackstands that's Euclid's masterpiece.

 

[Turboyota]

Early January 2017

Brent unbolted the arms for like the 69th time and I added weld washers to all the lower pivots.

WhiteTrashKyle also fully mig welded the uppers. Remember when I started Tig welding the arms? Fuck that noise, it's a Mazda--it gets sloppy drunk mig welds instead.

Due to unrelenting peer pressure from me, BroBroBrent bought Sway-A-Way 2x2" bumps from ODRMSE Roy and bump cans from Poly Performance. He was really making some good decisions!

We mocked up the bumps--the only way we could fit them is if we hung them off the back of the arms.

Safety squint:

And where the bumpstop needs to land, which, of course, is just off the back of the lower a-arm.

So I added these hideous A-arm bump-strike outriggers that look like goiters or love handles or something...
top and bottom plate is 3/16", else is 1/8" hot rolled

Finished. I plated the bottoms of the bumpstop strike pads, too.

Tested it in the Calimesa hills in the pouring rain & mud that was slipperier than a Temecula teen on Prom night. It took big hits very well, but was rougher than I'd like in the small choppy bumps.

 

[Turboyota]

Early January 2017

I made the temporary engine cross member that ties the shock towers together. Brent wasn't there to help, so I painted it pink. Take that, bitch.
No Highlife=pink truck parts

I might keep the pink engine crossmember if I can tie the cage & windshield bars into it cleanly. If not, I'll cut it off and make a new one.

Brent took everything off again for primer & paint--he is the bolt-turning COMMANDER! I revalved the shocks and changed the front spring from 600lb to a 500lb. Lightened the compression valving from a straight 0.018" stack to a 0.015" flutter stack. If I recall correctly, rebound is a 0.010" stack.
Bumpstop Pressure = 100psi
I'm still not totally stoked on the ride & handling, but it's definitely getting closer.

While the arms were off again, I wrapped the bushing pivots with 1/8" Cold rolled plate.

 

[Turboyota]

Frame plating, upper arm pivot tab gussets, shock tower, bump mount, and resi mount all primed ready for paint.

 

[Turboyota]

 

[desert_steve]

Ive seen this beast on Phelan rd a couple of times... surprisingly it was driving under its own power and NOT waiting for AAA to take it home.

Also, thanks for the new signature *winky face emoji*

 

[Turboyota]

May 27, 2017

Here we go! Time to thrash.

I'm cutting out a large portion of the bed so we can lift it over the bedcage.

Done with that...

That only took me 1.5 beers! Fuck!

Bedsides tacked with temporary mounts:

Custom dump bed:

Gaped the stock spare tire mechanism.

 

[Turboyota]

Made some quick-and-dirty fiberglass bedside mounts:

BroBroBrent doing some drilling; that's the extent of that in his life--nudge nudge wink wink.

Sick metal mulisha shirt, bro!

Welds looking extra-shitty: The welder was working terrible thanks to my inebriation; but mostly due to an old spool of 0.035" wire I had laying around (I had just run out of 0.030" wire). For some reason it wasn't feeding right and there was porosity in the welds.

Safety second.

Drinking first.

Bolted on the bedsides. Ghetto'd the Mazda brake lights onto the bed supports since they are different than Ford brake lights and don't fit in the bedsides.

 

[Turboyota]

Made a simple bumper and spare tire mount.

It pleases me to drink and take pictures while Brent grinds.

It also pleases me to drink while Brent bends his bumper tube:

Furthermore, I enjoy drinking while BajaF250 notches his rear bumper tube:

Checked nuts and bolts on the front end:

The pinch bolts are taking a beating. We replaced the fucked-out bolts with grade 12.9 Allen heads. New fabricated spindles or tapped upper spindle in the pinch area changes are needed STAT.

Finished temporary bumper:

All the dirt it's gonna see between trips to the grocery store and the mall:

Time for a disappointing burnout--More Like an apologetic skid mark:

 

[Turboyota]

BroBroBrent installed 2" wheel spacers on the rear. I repeat, wheel spacers are in effect. Time to overall the Baja 1000.

The piss-poor shackle angle hasn't been rectified, but the wheel spacers were painted to match the black steel wheels. Thank god.

 

[Turboyota]

@Dsrtrcr01 saw pics of the Ryobi tools and asked about how they are holding up.

Here is my response:

Ryobi=good & very durable.
I've had all mine for over 6 years.

1/2" Drills and 1/4 impact drivers are excellent.
Batteries still work well.

Sawzall is good for pruning and light tree trimming, otherwise, it's frustrating.
Circular saw is damn near useless--it would be good for cutting styrofoam insulation.
Flashlight is crappy.

I recently touchdown spiked the sawzall in a fit of drunken rage. It took 3 rotator-cuff-ripping throws to even break the trigger off that resilient little fucker. The battery survived the Rouse-episode well and continues its useful life today.

Bottom line, get the impact driver/drill combo for sure. Line weeder might be a good application. I've considered the 4.5" grinder for dezert repairs.

Brent captured my unbound aggression as I finished that fucker off with a 2lb hammer:

 

[Turboyota]

December 21, 2017

Pushed the dezert reset button. The wash of calm and relaxation that dirt miles delivers is truly wonderful.

BroBroBroBrent said the rear felt rough in the smaller chop.

I tightened the compression bypass tube by 0.625” and he said it works better. Rebound tube is all the way open.

 

[Turboyota]

Checked rear travel numbers and TIG welded new light tabs and a heliarc penis on the front bumper.

I clamped the light tabs to some angle iron to keep them planar.

The Mobza has 17” off travel in front and rear. The 17 theme is strooooooonnnnnng with this bromobile!

 

[Turboyota]

BroBroBrent birthday dezert mile pics.

We left directly from work, fixed my loose caliper(shoddy prep, right thuuurrr!!), and did 45 miles or trails between Adelanto and El Mirage.

Fixing my caliper at the gas station in my work clothes.

BroBroBroBrent got stuck twice. Because open diff and lack of throttle pedal. The second time I tenderly nerfed him out(it was his birthday, after all...)

Fixed a leaky brake fitting on my truck. Those machined shock mounts were sweet. Didn’t they eventually get immortalized on @the bodj Tundra??

Annnnnnnd some video grabs