Ok here goes.

Try n remember, I'm more of a wood butcher than a steel worker.
Eldest son has my old 80 series cruiser and it's his pride n joy - with many additions and alterations already under it's belt.
He wasn't happy with the swing away rear wheel carrier on it.

The bearings were shot.

When you opened it it dropped a couple inches and was hard to close, you had to lift it or slam it...which becomes annoying quickly.

We removed it, renewed the bearings etc wire wheeled and painted it

and sold it to someone else who wanted one.
Our master "plan" if you can call it that - was to buy and have installed a dual rear wheel carrier for carrying 2 spares!

That's when things got bigger than Ben Hur!
We first went to the 4wd show, and looked at all the various dual wheel carriers available for the 80 series.
Some were great, some were a little flimsy, some didn't open far enough some opened too far some had gas strut arms some didn't etc.
The K & N bar was probably the best we saw, but they wanted $3500 for it!

So the replacement wheel carriers went on the back burner for a while, and he carried one spare in the rear compartment.
The novelty of that soon wore off as well.

Then I saw it, an advert for a pair of used rear wheel carriers, that suited a 100 series that had been modified to suit a Nissan Navara.
I'm thinking - hey maybe we can modify them to suit the 80 series!.
So a brief visit later we return home with 2 spare wheel carriers, our pockets $350 lighter than when we left!

Turns out, one of these carriers has been modded to carry 2 extra jerry cans of fuel rather than the second spare wheel.. I guess we will have to modify it back to a spare wheel carrier.

Then when we strip the rear bumper of the 80 series down, to work out where to mount these - that the actual bumper is made almost entirely out of plastic supported behind by a whole lot of nothing!



Now it looks like we need some c channel steel to MAKE a new steel rear bumper to carry the spare wheel carriers!



So - here we are, another $170 lighter with steel C channel & 2 "sort of" wheel carriers!

This is where the build project really got started.


I used the old rubber part of the bumper to mark out some angles on the workshop floor to cut and make a corner for the new steel rear bumper


Then we tack welded it together with the arc welder just as a temporary fit!

I'd be lying if I said it was easy - it wasn't, we screwed up with our angles and cuts and somehow made a 120 degree corner instead of a close to 90 degree corner - and had to re cut it all - we lost about a whole day doing this. These photos show after we fixed that particular screw up.



Then we test fitted the first corner, to give us an idea where to make the other one!


It was necessary to scribe out some of the top return section to match the body a bit closer.


Repeating the same angles on the 2nd corner, was easy once we bought a sliding bevel to copy the first corners of angles.


Installing a couple high lift jack points was next on the list


Lots more full welding with the MIG from front & rear sides and days worth of grinding later, its starting to look like a bumper bar!


Then came tack welding the LH carrier into position

cont below

interesting!


Might need to do something bout that!

Cheers

curious

Nope.

Not gunna let me post anymore on this topic.

Ohh well! guess theres more than one way to skin a cat!

This post should break the cycle and allow you to continue while I look at whether we can change something. Cheers.

Thanks Sandy

cont from wherever it ends up!


RH Carrier also tack weld fitted!


Test opening closing of L & R Carriers




Test fitting a wheel revealed each of the carriers will have to be moved by about 70mm so they clear each other in the centre when closed.


here we have added a built up side to more closely match the vehicles body lines.


Scribe fitting the original mud flaps covers the square ends nicely.



The hi lift jack points look like they will work OK from the side or behind.

Work is still progressing,

- We've shortened the LH wheel carrier swing radius by 70 mm.
- We've also sent the RH carrier out for some professional pipe bending to mirror the LH carrier swing arm and we've removed the Jerry can Holder (The vehicle has 90 liters main tank, 170liters sub tank, and 116 liters of LPG in a rear tank between the wheel arches - it goes about 3000+ km's between refills).
LED lights have been purchased to replace the original globe models, and LED strips for the bumper returns for side visible indicators!
A HF areal mount has to go on - & the twin air brake-away brakes plugs will need to go into the bumper, as will the LPG filler, the trailer lights plugs and so on.

Next will come lots of wire wheeling and grinding and sanding them preparation & paint.
After that its time to fit it.
I'll update this with the photos as we progress to completion.

I pity anyone runs into the rear of this vehicle, it will be solid as a steel bridge!

The rear already has 3 inch lift springs with new shocks, and the weight of this bar and carriers will hopefully drop the vehicle back somewhere close to level, when 2 wheels are mounted and the fuel & gas tanks all full.

Cheers

Nice work Eddie and I'm glad I had an inspirational effect. After Squash tonight I'll load up some pics of the work I'm doing on my newest Hotrod project. Cheers.

Obtained a little help from our local Exhaust & Muffler guy, to bend up our 50mm pipes to the exact shape of the LH carrier - except mirror imaged to make a RH carrier!

$10 asked for, seemed a little light on, for the value of the work to us, so $15 & a bottle of JD later - we are back in the garage and wleding again!







By jove - I think we've got it!

Now the carriers down at the sheet metal workers getting the square mount for the wheel and folded brace etc manufactured. While there we asked him to fab up a rectangular plate steel box to go between the chassis rails - hidden away between the bumper and long range sub tank.
It will hold spare hayman reece drawbar pins and spring clips, spare load leveler pins and lever handle, for when towing - trailer plug adaptors, and snig chain, spare rated shackles, snatch straps, etc.

I plan to make a removable section of the chequer plate rear step the access into the accessories box.

More on progress when funds and time allow.

Probably Sandy will complete his whole hot rod restore before we get this damn wheel carrier project finished - the way he is going!

Cheers

Hi I am a forum member on a 4wd site. They advise to blank out your rego as transport authorities check them out. Your photos and you get a knock on the door, and can we have a look ar you car or the letter in the mail. The letter tells you that they want to inspect your veh. I would pull the photo's showing your rego. Blank it out and re post it.

Thanks Basada,

Probably good advice, and I've seen many do it, - but frankly, I can't be bothered.

Let em take their best shot - how do we know they aren't stolen number plates?

Actually the projects been stalled for about 4 or so weeks and not completed so the "authorities" would look like idiots and leave themselves open to a law suit if they tried, - when the vehicle presented with it's factory rear bumper still in situ - wouldn't they!

That would be real hard to explain for some "junior puter plod" when the court awards costs against his dept - not a great career move probably!


But you are right - I'm just too damn ornery and old to care these days Basada.

Thanks anyway for the concern.

Cheers