Portals N ****

fl-krawler · Jul 12, 2019

Finally getting some time to resume work on this build after working a **** ton of hours the last 2 months at my nursing job. Started the assembly of the new front axle housing. The trail gear housing was about 0.080" out of alignment so it took a few hours to get the housing straight before I added outer parts. I'll add the steering and link mounts tomorrow. This summer heat has just been stupid. At the start of the month I made the decision to make a go at running the shop fulltime, so in a few weeks I'll be moving everything to a climate controlled shop roughly double the size of my current shop.

ridered3 · Jul 12, 2019

fl-krawler said:
Finally getting some time to resume work on this build after working a **** ton of hours the last 2 months at my nursing job. Started the assembly of the new front axle housing. The trail gear housing was about 0.080" out of alignment so it took a few hours to get the housing straight before I added outer parts. I'll add the steering and link mounts tomorrow. This summer heat has just been stupid. At the start of the month I made the decision to make a go at running the shop fulltime, so in a few weeks I'll be moving everything to a climate controlled shop roughly double the size of my current shop.

Glad to see an update on this build, but that sucks the axle was out of alignment!

Congrats on trying the shop/building thing full time!

fl-krawler · Jul 18, 2019

A few more updates. I hope to have the front shocks, control arms, and steering all mounted by Sunday so I can move on to the rear axle build.
Steering arms almost finished

Finished out the rear roof portion of the chassis. I had cleaned my table off but unfortunately it has become a catchall again as I have started preparing to move the contents of the shop to a new 2500sq ft space

Lower link mounts. The bottom of the belly unbolts and can be removed to make maintenance easier

Chassis side uppers. They tie into the floor and belly tubes, and will be boxed in as well

Drivers side upper at the axle is just a pair of tabs

Steering ram mocked up. Passenger side uppers will be part of a truss that incorporates the ram mount

fl-krawler · Jul 21, 2019

Got the suspension set up at full stuff today and threw a tire on. My original plan of mounting the shocks off the backside of the steering C is not going to work due to clearance issues with the tire and lower control arm mounting bolt. I have a plan in the works to mount them more conventionally on top of the axle tube. The buggy was built with having a good amount of up travel in mind.
Full stuff

45" SXII's

7" backspaced trailready's tuck the portals in well for minimal scrub

fl-krawler · Jul 22, 2019

Only got a few hours in this morning on this. Cycled the suspension to make sure everything cleared. 45* of steering is no problem up front

Chassis has to come off the table tomorrow to free my table up for some customer work. In the meantime I'm going to try and get the front axle finished up, and the rear axle built as well over the next 2 weeks

fl-krawler · Aug 30, 2019

Sorry for the lack of updates. We have been super busy this month with the new shop and hoping to start moving in the new building next month. We just added a Haas VF3 and hopefully purchasing a Mori Seiki SL25 next week
https://imgur.com/Uzn66hs

Hopefully I'll get back on this build soon

fl-krawler · Oct 1, 2019

Not much for updates right now. Rear portion of tube work is almost finished. The front is getting completely cut off again due to a change in shock mounting location to clear the new wheels. Here are a few pics of the buggy being loaded and moved to its new home at the new shop.

Buggy is coming out way better than expected. It sits 78" tall, 90" wide and I have no problem getting 45* of steering up front and 42-43* in the rear and still clear the tube work and seats.