meeee need roll 97 sport.. sell it to me sell it to me sellit to me( )

Hi veritas,
Is that a V6 model - sure looks like one to me .
Keep the front end reasonably intact and hog the back and front wheel archs for bigger rubber. Those LWB Vits climb real good when tweaked.
Zeuszuki ( soft top SWB ) runs the same wheel base as a LWB Vit  - works sooooo good as an all rounder It climbs up and over very well and is still quite nimble - a good compromise in my book

Well, I took some measurements on the frame today and I can say beyond the shadow of a doubt that the rear frame section of a 4 door where the gas tank sits is pretty much exactly the same as a 2 door, just slightly longer(just over 5" front to back). Outside left to right dimension is 34", inside is 29-3/4". Mounting tabs for the tank are |removethispart|@19" center to center from left to right both in front of the tank and behind it. The inside measure between the rear cross member and the one just in front of the tank is 20" on the 4 door, 14-3/4" on the 2 door.

The 4 door tank is longer front to back than the 2 door tank and also slightly wider left to right. However the pinch welds on the 4 door tank are wider than the frame opening which is why the 4 door tank can't be lifted without some work to bend the pinch weld over or cut it off. Or if your body mount is high enough, you might be able to set the pinch welds on top of the frame rails, but you'd need a 4 or 5" body lift at least...

I'm not sure which tank I'm going to use in my project yet, both are in servicable condition. But I'll figure that out later. Next up is removing everything else from the frame, Basically everything that will unbolt, then I need to scrape off all the old undercoating, strip the paint and rust, weld on the reinforcements and repaint it. Then start re-finishing the suspension components and put them back on.

hey i found a pic of a sport that is doing what you are kind of

Cool pic. I was toying with a similar idea, but I decided to maximize bed space and front seat room...

Between last night and today, I spent a good bit of time working on the frame.

I started last night with this:


After some more teardown, I was left with this:


Send in the strippers!!! Oops, sorry, got a little excited there... I meant time to start stripping the frame! This is the worst spot on the whole frame:


After spending the better part of the day scraping and wire brushing, I had roughly 1/4 of the frame stripped and a light coat of primer applied.


Being temporarily burned out on frame stripping, I sent the upper Y link through the bead blaster and primed it:


Now if only I could figure out if I want the frame and suspension basic black when I'm done or some brighter color... It's not like it really matters since it will all be mud brown after it's first trail ride... LOL!

Looking good digger.
i have attached a photo of my Escudo ( Kick ).had to try the pic attach feature out Hope it works.

I spent the afternoon working on the body some. I managed to scrape out all of the old sound deadening material from the interior floor as well as expose the worst of the body rust that needs repaired:


(that was a lot of scraping, what a pain! LOL! )

The front floorboards/wheelwells are going to be cut out and replaced with fresh steel, but moved back a couple inches for more tire clearance, sort of "virtual lift" style so my 33's will fit without a 4" body lift! LOL! The rear wheel wells are also going to be cut out and replaced with fresh steel with the inner fender coming straight out from the highest point, no curve down at the outside edge, no fender "lip", so to speak. With this treatment, a 3" body lift should be more than enough with my 2" suspension lift to fit the 33's...

Looks sweet. Can't wait for some more progress pics... looks like fun

I haven't updated this for a while, but with all of the adventures recently, I really haven't had much time to spend on the project. Well today I spent most of the day working on stripping more of the frame:


It's slow going, but the frame will be very nice when I'm done. 

Update:

No new pics to add yet, but today I finished scraping out all of the old sound deadening material from the floor and cargo bay of the body so I can repair the few rust spots and do the body work for the bed area. I also have done a lot more scraping of the frame. It's not done yet, but I plan to get to work on it tomorrow and have the frame completely stripped and ready for the welding and painting. I'll have a couple of pics to add tomorrow night of the frame.

Anything new? It's been about a month since the last post.

I wish I could even try to do that kind of stuff.

Not much. I plan to do some more soon, though...

i will watch this project with my full attention, as i am planning the same with my 4 door.
mines on toyota axles at the mo, so its only the body i need to play with now.

Where does this Dig-Man live?