Quote from: heiney.5 on February 05, 2010, 10:23:44 AM

Cool another challenger. I really like the idea of the Zukiworld Challenge, and I bet it will be a lot of fun.

I was just thinking....I guess you dont mind telling your challenger/s what you plan on running? I guess its just friendly competition anyways, so maybe everyone who enters should start a build thread....

I'll be working on the project this weekend.  If it makes other people want to build rigs and join the race I'm more then happy to share as much info as needed. 

YES, please keep 'em coming!!

Came up this weekend to work on the project, had a box waiting for me.  New struts have arrived:





We have done a test fitting for the seats, placing it 3" above the floor looks to be just about perfect.  I hope to have a mock up of the mounting brackets finished this weekend.

Nice work.. Hey, I think I recognize those seats.. Did they come from jeepswag.com? He's got a smoking deal on tan and beige racing seats...

Hutch and Kevin really liked those Bilstein struts on their ride. It'll be interesting to see if they work as well for you too!

-Eric

Those would be the seats, the high back tan seats.  Including shipping they run at $280, sadly he was out of black but you can get gray for another $65.   They are pretty comfortable at 6'4 and fit just perfect in Tracker.  I don't think there is enough room for the wide version of the seats but I could be wrong.

I'll post some pictures of the difference in size between the Bilstein and the stock struts.  I've been happy with them on my DD so I'm looking forward to giving them a proper workout.

For those of you interested in the difference between a stock OEM strut and the Bilstein:





Which do you think will hold up better in the long run? 

WOW that is a big difference. my only question is it a solid shaft or hollow? It look way over kill compared to the oem strut. just wondering how much do those struts cost compared to the cheap ones?

also, is there any difference in travel?

Travel is the same and they are quite a bit more expensive then a cheap replacement at $275 for the pair including shipping from Tirerack.com.  But I have had a cheap strut blow out after one trip, so it's a trade off.  The part number is F4-V36-0399-H0, you can find them cheaper sometimes on-line if you search around.

Finally had some time to dedicate to Project Trouble this weekend.  First job was to pull the dash, which was surprisingly easy.  The biggest pain was to disconnect all the wires for the stereo system that were attached to cable wraps on the dash.





Using a piece of PVC pipe as my size guide it looks like the cage can be installed on the passenger side.  We will have to modify some of the mounting brackets for the dash but all should fit in place:



It won't quite fit on the drivers side though, the computer gets in the way:



But there is room if we move the computer slightly to the right.  So a new bracket will have to be modified:



Next we decided to take a look at the roof situation.  A stock roof or equivalent must be in place.  So we found a stock roof from a 4 door and trimmed it up:



Made some marks and mocked it up.  The roof will not be welded in place until the cage and everything else is installed but it looks like it will work.  Now I am tempted to make a 'factory' fast back.  The dent in the roof pops out easily enough, but without the extra welding the roof doesn't have any strength itself:







Next week we hope to have the bender mounted and to be able to start building the cage.

Great writeup so far Drone, keep it coming! BTW, those Bilstein struts look Bombproof compared to the Old Man Emu' I'm using. I guess the only advantage the OME'S have is a bit more travel. Don't forget to build some kind of downtravel limiter ( like a strap) into your front suspension. It's the topping out at full extension that destroys the struts, and I imagine your going to see some airtime!

Great idea on the roof!

-Eric

hey can you show how you set up your seats. i just picked up some with 5 point harnesses at last weeks swap meet.  i also was planning on putting the front seats in the back, has anyone done this.
Jon K.

Cool this looks like ALOT of fun. A way cool fab job so far. Are you going to use the stock dash? or one of the nice aluminum ones?

A stock dash is required by the rules.  I'm planning on having the stereo wired up as well, but I'll probably bypass most of the factory wiring just to make things easier. 

For the seats we are building new mounts but they are going to be bolted down and not have a slide rail.  We should have them mounted next weekend. 

After putting seats on my SJ-410 I decided the easiest thing to do when putting in 'racing' style seats is to just unbolt your existing seats and weld an adapter onto your existing frame.  That way you keep the stock slide and it fits your rig properly.  They had a great deal on seats down at the swap meet but by the time I got there they only had drivers side ones left.

To funny, we got the same seats and shocks/struts. Also our car is red, and right now the dash is pulled for the cage. We had to take out all the dash vents to get the cage in there though. Pictures coming maybe tomorrow.