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Bradzuzu's 99 Trooper Build All the Goodies !!

51K views 225 replies 30 participants last post by  bradzuzu 
#1 ·
These where the pictures I received from Dutchbro aka (Dustin) when he drove down to check out this rig for me







Not bad I thought , but at that point I didn't think much of it , yet... About a week later the seller informed Dustin that the price was cut in half $50 !! I couldn't pass that up :)

The following weekend I hitched up my trailer and headed out to pick up Dustin and his wife and we drove on down south a bit to Lincoln city Oregon to get this score of a lifetime ..

Info that was relayed to him was that the heater core blew and the head gaskets had been replaced and then the head gaskets popped again .. The engine shows no sign of any recent work , it does turn over , Dustin, Tim and I achieved that back at his place... I'm hoping it has a good crank atleast , lord knows I've got enough spare parts laying around :mrgreen:



I dropped it off at work ... This is where the gears started turning and grinding in my head , what should I do or what could I do ...? I mulled it over for a week and came to the best conclusion ..

Since parts are easier to acquire as in interior upgrades such as leather seats and fancy paneling (good selling points) and the longer wheel base I would be able to install my dual tcase setup without compromising other components , and it comes with a bigger fuel tank , I have decided to disassemble the amigo and put all my drivetrain into the trooper ...

I know kinda sad , realistically trying to get the value out of the amigo just wouldn't happen , that and what if it someone raced it and got hurt , not sure I'd want that ...

The beginning !!!
 
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#2 ·
Subscribed, going to be fun watching on this one. 50 dollars, really!
 
#3 ·
Like I said on Trader, I'll take your Amigos Exocage, Pc by pc if necessary. I can except freight at work. Let me know. I don't need your bumpers though.
 
#6 ·
$50 bucks? Time to go play the lottery while your luck is still at a high point! The body on that rig looks great, what a perfect starting point for a new build!
 
#7 ·
Can't wait to see this one from the ground floor
 
#8 ·
It's just good to see Brad post. :D The second gens do have a lot of nice amenities though. Dennis
 
#9 ·
As some of you know I've had a first gen trooper sitting at my shop now for probly close to two years now , the lack of tittle is a big time bite in the butt let me tell ya !! I wanted to do a v8 truggy build and could (still can) puctureit just how I wanted it , but truthfully I want a newer more improved interior or upgradable availability at my disposal ... I'd still like to build a four door truck bed setup and in my opinion the first gen would indeed look the best for it too , that's another dream to be brought to life another day :)



I do have a slight mess to address before anything , they've somewhat cut the shatt out of the dash where the radio goes , not to happy about that ...



Here's one upgrade I'm planning on , one of the easiest and nicest I think ... This is what you'd find in a 2wd auto trooper , and yes mine is an auto but will be converted to a manual , I'm hoping the amigos pedal assembly will swap over and maybe the heater core too !! I haven't checked part numbers to see if they're the same ?? Put it on the list ...

The other part of the build in currently working on / working out is engineering a set of control arms similar to fj80 arms , if everything goes well (after the initial build and test) I'm considering building and selling them :)
I want to incorporate airbags into this build , I'm going to keep that hush hush till later (mentally throw the tarp over that) :)

I'm in the middle of a sas project for another first gen , when that's done I'll be able to get a little more involved ...
 
#12 ·
I had a short day Friday so I took advantage of it and the weather and finished getting the dash out of the trooper



These things are heavy with the stupid airbag canister !!

Here's a closer look at the saw cut masters mess



The metal brace is all bent up , I'll try to straighten it and see how tight it pulls the two sections back together... If that won't work I'll have to get a little more resourceful ...



All that yellow wiring is just for the cruddy airbag system , I think I'll remove that whole mess , I prefer to have my kids sit up front and not worry about a high pressure bad tearing out of the dash breaking there neck .. Side note , the heater core setup looks to be identical in the amigo so that's a plus , might make it easier to source parts for others in the future !!

Then today I worked on the sas which in turn answered unknown questions for my setup as well ...









I love how clean this setup is or will be , its tight on the front for the tierod but that's looking at the roughed in parts , they can be rounded and cleaned up for more clearance :)
 
#14 ·
Here's a better picture example of this setup , the arm and mount encapsulate the axle housing similar to the ford setup..
fords use two wedge pieces that are welded to the axle and the angled bushings with the arm clamping down around them..



This setup gives you free rotational adjustment and they can be angled in for tire clearance at full turn..





I got lucky and found more scrap steel buried in the corner so I went to town making another set of mounts for my build ..



Only thing I didn't do yet is drill the holes because the arm may sit a little different , most likely not but that parts pretty quick , after they're drilled I'll narrow them up so they fit the width of the bushings ...

One other item I received that's a total score of awesomeness



Thanks so much Jerry !!

This rainy weather needs to go away so I can get more stuff done ..
 
#15 ·
bradzuzu said:
I got lucky and found more scrap steel buried in the corner so I went to town making another set of mounts for my build ..
I've lost count on how many times I've said this, but your ability to just grab scraps and make them into functional components completely astounds me! Nice work as always, looking forward to seeing how things turn out!!

Jonathan
 
#16 ·
I've seen you do the same buddy :)

It's taken some time but I finally got the call that my pieces had been cut



So cool how well they match up !!





One thing I dislike is that my parts always end up being cut out of rusty plate , maybe I'll get a better deal ..

Since it was driving me nutts I went to town



It is exciting to be another step further



I had them add thickness to the cut for diversity and extra strength



I want to be able to have the single end adjustable , as in keep the same plane and still be into the material ...





My first mark was off , I needed to shorten it 3"s , as you can see there's plenty to weld to , I would prefer it to be slightly more centered ... The bushing bosses are twice as wide as needed , somehow that particular measurement was overlooked , I'm sure the steel place will correct that for me and I'll run the (more material) on the one end past them tomorrow ... I think I want it thicker for future use ...
 
#18 ·
Surprisingly they don't weigh that much , it's 1/2" material , I wouldn't mind going to 5/8" but it would most likely be overkill at that point ...

I was able to drop the dom off this morning and pick it back up this afternoon (no charge for the extra cuts !!)

They made the bores a little on the tight side so rather then spend a bunch of time trying to open them up I just sliced them ...





The cuts spread a bit but still a nice tight fit ..



We also measured the id's of the bosses and compared them to the bushings and it's right around a .002 press fit which is perfect !!



Hopefully I'll be able to get some welding done tomorrow ..



Since these are getting shortened I didn't slice and install the shells , the flat bar strapping won't fit very well in between the two front boss locations (end up to thick I think and hit the axle) so I'll start 3/4's of the way up and work down and around I guess , shouldn't hurt the strength any .. I'll have a good idea/feeling for it once I get to that point ...
 
#21 ·
I think you know this already, but just in case there is any doubt in your mind, you absolutely need to weld that strap on to make them into an I-beam cross-section. Otherwise they are gonna be wet-noodle-city. Especially in the side to side direction.

This is a neat diagram that I found on the intardweb.


A couple of things to keep in mind while reading it:
1. It assumes that the cross sectional area of all examples are the same. In and of itself that isn't a big deal, but it is important for making the comparison. It also does remind us that for lots of things, beegger is better.
2. A couple of obvious reminders in there too: flat beams suck in horizontal (left to right in the image) loading. I-beams are better than h-beams in vertical loading, but h-beams are better than i-beams horizontally.
3. A couple of things that "surprised" me (but probably shouldn't have) were: flat, h and i sections all have the same torsional resistance for the same area, square tubing has pretty crappy vertical load resistance relative to an i-beam.
4. A very important take away is that for torsion resistance square section is da best.

So, back to Brad's build, the thing you really have to watch is the horizontal loading of any flat cross sections. If you plan to have some areas where you won't have the i-section, you might want to make that area thicker...see point #1 above. :albino:
 
#22 ·
Thanks guys !!

That's a neat diagram Chris , the only part that won't or wouldn't get plate/flat bar is just the section between the eyes on the top ... Theoretically the force on these will be a push/pull , the coils will carry the weight and down force of the chassi .. The axle rotational force (when in 4x) pulls the pinion down which is a good thing , that would pull against the bottom strapping , if I put in the airbags that whole concept will change to some degree .. Maybe what I could do is plate the sides in between the eyes , I didn't get to the arms at all

I did however stuff my hands down behind the engine and yank the old hoses off the heater core so I could remove the assembly..





I can't believe how eaten up the tubes are , I'm going to see how the trooper core matches up to a rodeo one , and then after that get some welding done !!
 
#25 ·
Up until 96-97 Trooper heater cores had plastic ends. At some point after that they went to metal ends. I wouldn't use the plastic style. The plastic gets brittle in a short time and is very easy to break.

Glad you finally made the jump to something bigger Brad. I love your Amigo but a turbo Trooper just makes so much more sense. ;)
 
#26 ·
I ran up in did a side by side comparison of a 2000 passport heater core







I think it would fit just fine



Here's the one in the amigo , it almost looks like the heater box is the same (both mechanical anyway) so you could either use the whole thing or the black half or just trim the trooper box to clear ... I'll probly make a separate post/thread on it if it works out ..
 
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