My Stock EB Expy to Overlanding 4X4 Build

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Vincent Vega

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@OverlandExpy have you thought about an air locker with a CO2 tank? Thats what is on my list. I would need to mount the CO2 tank (or tanks) to the truck somehow, but I haven't figured that out. But tanks could easily mount to a roll bar, which got me thinking about whether I could get a custom roll bar built. I would try to find someone down here to save me the trip, but Califabrication in Sacramento said they could do it.
 
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OverlandExpy

OverlandExpy

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@OverlandExpy have you thought about an air locker with a CO2 tank? Thats what is on my list. I would need to mount the CO2 tank (or tanks) to the truck somehow, but I haven't figured that out. But tanks could easily mount to a roll bar, which got me thinking about whether I could get a custom roll bar built. I would try to find someone down here to save me the trip, but Califabrication in Sacramento said they could do it.
Yeah my neighbor actually has power tanks on his jeep, they're pretty cool but I think Detroits are the way to go for me. My expy is purely for offroad fun, the only time it will be on the pavement is driving to the trails, or hauling stuff when I need it. So I really like the always locked (except in turns) functionality of the Detroits. And they're simple, a lot less to go wrong and cheaper to purchase and install.
 

Vincent Vega

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Yeah my neighbor actually has power tanks on his jeep, they're pretty cool but I think Detroits are the way to go for me. My expy is purely for offroad fun, the only time it will be on the pavement is driving to the trails, or hauling stuff when I need it. So I really like the always locked (except in turns) functionality of the Detroits. And they're simple, a lot less to go wrong and cheaper to purchase and install.
Makes sense if you use it mainly for offroad, and yeah saves $ and less complicated. I am still considering a Detroit - it will go in front so will only be a factor while in 4x4 and I won't have to worry about chirping tires or clicking while onroad in 2WD. Do you know if Detroits are a PIA for snow driving - are they unpredictable when it locks/unlocks or maybe just some getting used to? Thanks
 
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OverlandExpy

OverlandExpy

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Makes sense if you use it mainly for offroad, and yeah saves $ and less complicated. I am still considering a Detroit - it will go in front so will only be a factor while in 4x4 and I won't have to worry about chirping tires or clicking while onroad in 2WD. Do you know if Detroits are a PIA for snow driving - are they unpredictable when it locks/unlocks or maybe just some getting used to? Thanks
Detroits would be great in the snow! Very predictable when it will unlock. It is 100% locked all the time, except for when one wheel is spinning faster than the other, like the outside wheel will in a turn. Kind of works like a ratcheting wrench. Shouldn't take any getting used to really, just drive it like normal! The only complaints I've heard is that the tires will chirp when gunning it off the line and turning, or accelerating hard through a turn. With gas prices so high whenever I do drive my rig, I drive like a total grandma lol so I'm not too worried about that.
 
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OverlandExpy

OverlandExpy

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Alrighty guys and gals, this has been a LOOONG time coming. But I finally got the rock sliders on! Been working a new job where I travel a lot, but also still working my old job so I've been working 7 days a week for the past 6 months or so. Gotta pay for all my home renovations and Expy mods somehow.. Without further ado, lets dive in to the absolute ***** of time that it was to get these damn things on.

So before I could even start measuring everything up and tacking it on, I had to move the e-brake line that was running smack dab in the middle of the frame rail. Riiiiight where I wanted to mount the sliders. That took about an hour on its own. Was a pain to separate the line, then had to drill holes in the body mount brackets to re-run the line on top of the frame rail and out of the way. Below are pictures of the newly ran line. The red circles are where it was, the blue circles are the holes I had to drill to run the lines.


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After that I finished drilling out the plates I would bolt to the frame. Decided to go with 1/2 bolts drilled all the way through the frame and plates. Drilled pilot holes than went to the full width, the exact size of the bolts so there wouldn't be any play in them once it was mounted.
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Next up I tacked the plates to the frame, then drilled through the existing holes in the plates all the way through the frame. This was not fun. The rocker panels are so low that it was nigh impossible to get the drill in there for the top two bolts of each plate. Ended up drilling a lot of them at an angle unfortunately. Also, the gas tank and fuel filter is stupidly close to the frame, so had to put a sheet of metal behind the frame while I drilled the holes out back there so I wouldn't puncture my tank. Also made getting the nuts on back there a ***** and a half. Had to trim the bolt and grind down a few mm off the nut to get it to fit in there.

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Once they were tacked up and drilled out, I put the sliders up on some jack stands and started figuring out where I wanted them to sit. I ended up putting them pretty close in to the doors, with just enough room for them to function as a runner board. If I were to do this again I probably would've put them further out. But there is no way in hell I am ever doing this again. Took two full days to get this done, not including the time it took to make them. Definitely the most difficult mod I've done to my rig so far. If you're thinking about doing this yourself, make sure you REALLY want them, because it is not an easy task.
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After they were tacked up, I used an angle grinder to get em off the frame, and welded them up.
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OverlandExpy

OverlandExpy

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Once they were all welded up, I went over them again with the flap disk sander, touched up any welds that needed it, and grinded it a bit more to clean it up.
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Then wiped it down with acetone
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Decided to go with bedliner spray. Projectfarm on youtube has a pretty good video about the best spray on bed liners. I went with Rustoleum
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On to my favorite part, painting! First coat:
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Second coat and touch-ups
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Putting them on the truck took a good half day too. Had to grind down washers, nuts and bolts alike, hammer them in, wrench em down. All by my lonesome. I'm pretty sore as I'm writing this. Also used a step bit to countersink the holes on the plates a little bit as the bolts didnt always run straight through the frame and needed to move around a little. But after all that they're finally on! Put my small tires back on though since I've been using the truck to pick up materials for my home renovations and didn't want to wear out the tread of my nice new M/T's. Also gas mileage.
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Next up is the onboard air, ditch light brackets (which I will need to fabricate as well), ditch lights, and a light bar. Stay tuned!
 
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OverlandExpy

OverlandExpy

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Hey @OverlandExpy it looks awesome. I am beyond pi$$ed that I do not have those. Nice work.
Thank you!!! It was a hell of a project but I'm glad they're done! They're pretty solid, I jacked up the truck on one side by the slider and it held the weight with almost no flex even with both tires off the ground! Definitely ready to eat up some rocks
 
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OverlandExpy

OverlandExpy

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Had some momentum from putting those sliders on, so I decided to make some ditch light brackets and slap those on too! Start out by taking off my hood, and marking where the hood mount holes were on some metal strapping. Then drilled out the holes on my drill press. I tried to make them oval-ish so I could adjust them as needed, so I drilled two hole side by side, but that didn't work quite how I intended. If I were making these again I would have just done a single large hole. That would still have given it plenty of wiggle room while being a lot easier to do and look cleaner. Then I got out the oxy torch, and marked where I wanted the 90 degree bend to go, heated it up, and put it in the bench vice. Used that metal bar on the left to help bend the strapping.
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Unfortunately these brackets won't fit flush on the hood if they are bent at 90 degrees. I wanted to come through the plastic cover at the base of the windshield, but right under that there are some bolts that prevent the bracket from just being a simple right angle. Found that out the hard way on the first bracket, so I had to modify my right angle bend a bit with the gentle persuasion of an oxy torch, vice, and mallet. After a lot of trial and error going back and forth between heating and bending and test fitting on the truck, I finally landed on a shape that would allow the bracket to lay flush under the hood mount, and also come up through that plastic bit.

Here is the second bracket I made once I figured out what shape I needed:
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Comparison between the two. Can you guess which one was done first? lol
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Made a second bend at the top and drilled a hole for the ditch lights. Before I started bending anything though, I got one of the pieces of strapping red hot with the oxy torch, and melted it through the plastic cover to get a perfect sized gap for the brackets to stick through. Unfortunately I didn't really measure and just took a guess at where they should go, so I ended up needing to file out the holes to be a bit bigger. I'll fill them up with bondo or something eventually.

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And some pictures of how the ditch lights will look once I wire them up! Also planning on putting a light bar in the front bumper. That's still to come..
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MissileMech

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I am in the process of doing the same things you are. I was going to buy a used Rubicon but didn't want to say goodbye to $30K so I am going to spend $5K instead. My wife and I also want to be able to take family with us on trails and the Expy is the only rig I can think of that can manage it comfortably. I have an '04 XLT and have had the Rancho's and spacers for years and they have worked well. I am about to replace them since I have put about 100K on them. I am also replacing my upper and lower front control arms. On Monday I am taking it to our local fab shop and they are adding fuel tank and trans/T-Case armor, Detroit TrueTrac's front and rear and a winch mount between the front frame rails. I will post photos once it is all done.

I know you haven't been out on the trails much but is your bumper trim seeming to provide the approach angle needed or will you be pulling the lower bumper entirely?
 
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