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Post by jamman on Mar 14, 2018 16:58:40 GMT
For me getting the wheels located correctly in the wheel arches is primary and then I work everuthing around that. I dont plan on moving the engineas it all sits perfectly in the fronty with respect to the rv engine bay. I do expect to move most of the body mounting points and adding several more and I expect to trim the chassis legs back. I will use a custom winch plate/ box section which will act as the front chassis crossmember which will tidy things up nicely. It will have a drop down pulley link hidden under the winch plate so it can winch itself backwards up to a 25 degree angle either side of straight as well.
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Post by jamman on Mar 14, 2018 15:52:51 GMT
I just noticed the steering rack shaft comes in on a funny angle too. I think it is just within limits in terms of being too far forwardcor not, but it will be tight. I have sent you a picture Baloo.
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Post by jamman on Mar 14, 2018 12:45:46 GMT
Yes indeed. I noticed the front mount is too far forward too. Easy enough to relocate the mounting positions though. I plan to add more in any case as grp needs way more than asteel shell does if only to spread the load.
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Post by jamman on Mar 13, 2018 21:25:00 GMT
I just realised I told you complete bollocks :-) But I am sure u realised that already... If your rear wheels fot the arch but your front ones are against the back of the rv body then your chassis is too short not too long. That is a real problem. I didnt realise swb fronty was that much bigger than a Vitara. I believe swb trooper has the same chassis but please dont rely on that cos the fronterawas sold as an isuzu mu in the rest of the world and the trooper was the next one up. But i have looked under a swb trooper and it looked the same to me...
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Post by jamman on Mar 13, 2018 19:59:37 GMT
Hi Baloo. Fronty has surprisingly little. I will try to take a pic of mine tonight. Even though it still has the fronty body on I hope I will get a decent pic. Strikes me you have the same issue as me to be honest. I plan to sit the front of the body over the front wheel correctly which will resolve your front end issue cos your wheel does look too far back in the front wheel arch. Then i will cut the body, position the rear part over the rear wherl correctly then make a jig to align the two body parts whilst i glass them together. Modifying the chassis is ok if your rv is already registered, but not if you want to legally pass it as a vitara with a bodykit which is how dvla legally interprets it on an un modified chassis. The definition of that i believe is that you may add to it but substantial alterations between the wheelbase or chopping it about between axles not allowed.
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Post by jamman on Mar 12, 2018 22:25:03 GMT
Well thank you Baloo :-)
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Post by jamman on Mar 12, 2018 21:30:21 GMT
Thats ok then. I feel better now :-) Thanks for checking...
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Post by jamman on Mar 12, 2018 21:12:45 GMT
Cheers :-)
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Post by jamman on Mar 12, 2018 20:59:16 GMT
I feel eaxactly the same. I need to put 5 inches i think it is in the rear load bay. I am cutting mine on an angle from the top front corner of the load bay down to the sill ahead of the arch. That way I can correct another moulding issue I have seen on just about every rv I have ever seen. Although admittedly that is not many! It seems they let the loadxarea droop when they made the mould. So now I can bring it back up square. Just planning out many extra body support brackets now after what Terry said yesterday!
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Post by jamman on Mar 12, 2018 20:51:48 GMT
That looks like a nicely produced shell Baloo.
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Post by jamman on Mar 12, 2018 20:50:11 GMT
Cool. Exactly what I am doing with the rv. I am trying to post pics of my shell and frontera. Terry said there was a button at top right which said add attachment but at least on my mobile phone page I do not see it... Told you all I was bad at computers :-)
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Post by jamman on Mar 11, 2018 22:05:16 GMT
baloo I meant. for the typo`s. Small keypad and fat fingers :-) I have a few pictures of my shell ready to upload so if you could give me some easy pointers how to get them up if anyone is interested I would be very grateful Baloo.
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Post by jamman on Mar 11, 2018 22:03:16 GMT
Ballo is way ahead of me but it is funny how we have come up with very similar plans at the same time though isnt it? And yet no one seems to have done it before. Someone called Dave PM`d me months back to say he was doing exactly the same as me with a 3.2 swb fronty. But I could never get an answer on the number he left. Soif you see this Dave and you are still doing it, I would love to hear from you again.
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Post by jamman on Mar 11, 2018 22:00:39 GMT
Thanks Terry. Work begins for me on the strip down on Wednesday.Just waiting for slightly warmer weather to lay up extra thickness on the shell grp. Not looking forward to that job but if I do it now it will pay dividends in years to come. The rv shell I have has been dry stored since new and clearly well looked after. Yet it already has some faint spider gel coat cracks and it has not even been anywhere. The shell grp is very thin. But as it still looks factory fresh then adding grp thickness should be easy. Even if I significantly add to the weight of the shell, it will still be lighter than the Fronty shell. And the closer I make it to Fronty weight, the less I will have to mess around with spring rates and suspension geometry.
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Post by jamman on Mar 10, 2018 20:07:39 GMT
Very very nice. Very thorough job. That will make the rv drive like a factory car. If you compare that set up to the Eagle chassis... That will make a beautiful car.
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Post by jamman on Mar 10, 2018 18:47:40 GMT
I think a lot of these Jap chassis are actually well designed. Basic and strong. Same with the fronty. Bodies go crusty but chassis and axles very strong.
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Post by jamman on Mar 9, 2018 19:46:53 GMT
Thanks Baloo. Help to upload pics when I get into this will help. I work abroad as well as being in the custom car trade so my periods where I can play with my own stuff are way too far apart and tend to be frenetic when I get the chance :-) Next week when I am home the 2.2 swb fronty gets stripped back to rolling chassis ready for the new framework. The plan is to dramatically increase the thickness of the grp on the new RV shell in all areas. We will then mount it correctly on the chassis. Next we will make a custom steel framework welded to the chassis to allow for every conceivable item, structural or not to mount through the body and into steel. This will strengthen the rigidity of the chasssis and prevent the star stress grp cracks most fibreglass and all eagles seem to suffer from. Then the whole chassis is going off yo be galvanised at our usual company in Liverpool. If we get it right it should be a pretty much everlasting vehicle. Certainly will outlive me :-)
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Post by jamman on Mar 9, 2018 19:40:44 GMT
Nice. That will work very well I think.
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Post by jamman on Mar 8, 2018 21:16:30 GMT
I forgot to mention... It is the second generation frontera I am talking about here. First gen was completely different and pretty crap really.... So 1998 to 2005 for second gen.
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Post by jamman on Mar 8, 2018 21:14:47 GMT
I am afraid I have no idea how to upload pics. But here is some further info regarding Fronteras and my plans. I bought a low mileage mint short wheel base frontera 3.2. 205hp standard. Goes like stink. Way better off road than people give them credit for. I was going to use this as my basis. Trouble is my wife fell in love with it and the short version is I am not allowed to use it for the RV. So it was at this point I found out how truly rare short wheel base 3.2 frontera`s are. Very few were made. So my dear wife has set the project back many months. However, there is more than one way to solve any problem. Last month I bought a scruffy 2.2 short wheel base petrol fronty for peanuts. Tatty body, solid chassis. Chassis on all engine variants are the same. Then just last week i located a lovely 79000 mile long wheel base 3.2 frontera, of which there are relatively plenty. Again for peanuts as it was an mot failure on brake pipes, wheel bearing and exhaust. No problem for us as we jave our own restoration shop. So now I have my swb chassis needed so the dvla do not get upset as no chopping required, and I have all my 3.2 mechanical parts. And I have loads of spares for my daily driver long wheel base fronty diesel and for the wifes `stolen` (from me) 3.2 swb. For both of these latest fronty`s I paid less than 550 all in for both. (Anyone want a nearly brand new vauxhall 2.2 petrol engine :-) ) The other advantage I now have is that I can strip the swb to a rolling chassis and mount the RV body and modify as necessary without risking damaging any of my 3.2 mechanical pieces. And I now have a choice of diff ratios and spring rates so I can mix and match to suit the final vehicle weight and performance requirements. I can use the 2.2 diff ratios to get away with much larger rolling diameter tyres and still have good economy. And the extra inches in the wheelbase (96” or thereabouts) will still give me a great frontera type ride. Yes the fronty has standard Jap front torsion bars and double wishbone with again standard six bolt stud pattern wheels. The chassis is surprisingly well made and designed and very substantial yet light and is compact with 4” deep box section chassis rails compared to the classic range rovers 6” ones, so with a bit of skill the rv body will not look like it is just plonked on top of the chassis like Eagles own range rover chassis version did. Hope some of my ramblings are of use or interest to someone :-) Happy measuring, preparing and building to all!
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Post by jamman on Mar 6, 2018 20:46:26 GMT
Great idea. It`s down to individual preference I think. I am sure Eagle would have done it back in the day but the truth was that back then apart from rangie`s etc there was a limited choice of seperate chassis decent 4x4`s that were cheap enough to use as donors. My preference is a swb Frontera 3.2 which is in entirety really just an Isuzu. I have reported on this in various posts elsewhere on this forum. It means stretching the body a few inches but in my humble opinion if I stretch the load bay and cut in a very particular way it will actually improve the looks of the Eagle and make it more balanced. It will also give it far better road manners.
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Post by jamman on Mar 6, 2018 19:38:22 GMT
Or alternatively you could do what a couple of us appear to be doing on this forum and fit an existing 4 X 4 chassis etc under the body. Entirely legal with dvla too if you don't alter the wheelbase or chassis I believe.
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Post by jamman on Mar 4, 2018 0:56:26 GMT
I have just been re reading your posts from the start. Beautiful work. Great choice of rear end and very wise to keep the radius arms. The Jag rear winds up and steps out terribly without them. I am guessing if it is off a 420 that it is a 3.09 or a 331:1. These may be a bit tall for a 4 cylinder zetec unless I missed an engine change somewhere :-) I have a 3.4 series 3 one going spare if you are interested and it should be something like a 3.77 . Great work. Love reading your posts.
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Post by jamman on Jan 22, 2018 11:35:53 GMT
Or you can alter your shell to fit any standard separate chassis 4wd vehicle like I am doing to make it fit Frontera sport running gear and chassis.
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Post by jamman on Apr 1, 2017 15:26:37 GMT
That looks great :-) Pefect for Summer fun. Good luck with it.
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Post by jamman on Mar 20, 2017 22:59:53 GMT
Same offer to other members. If you need parts then Beaulieu is a great place to get stuff and I can add what you need to my shopping list. I always come back with way more than I sell :-)
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Post by jamman on Mar 20, 2017 22:57:36 GMT
If you get stuck for parts let me know as I have a stand at Beaulieu Spring autojumble and that isn't far away now.
I'm pleased it isn't just me who thinks Eagle's GRP is very poor! The whole shell is a long way from being square too. You can see where it has pulled as it has cured. Tailgate area is a funny shape too. So lots of splitting and re curing coming up for me. I hate fibreglass! Normally we make everything in steel but the advantages of a plastic jeep are too good to ignore in this case. Ideal for a hose down working vehicle that really will be used off road a lot. I was thinking of galvanising the frontera chassis but then that would mean full stripdown which I want to avoid so paint and waxoyl will have to do.
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Post by jamman on Mar 20, 2017 9:03:07 GMT
Fantastic. Thanks very much. First job is to cut the shell in to two pieces as it need lengthening in the wheelbase. I will cut it just behing the seats so the loadbay gets lengthened. It will give me the chance to correct the RV load bay droop too that all the shells seem to have! I will then be adding a lot of extra layers to the grp as it is just too thin. No wonder they craze so badly. Even if I turn it into 6 or 7mm thick, the shell will still be lighter than the Frontera steel one. I will be adding steel to the chassis as pick up points for everything from the servo mounting to door hinges and rear spare wheel mount. Nothing at all, no matter how small or light will be mounted just to fibreglass. I hope to prevent crazing by making the shell truly unstressed. Mine is a brand new unused shell dry stored since new. And it has stress cracks in it!
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Post by jamman on Mar 19, 2017 18:59:19 GMT
Hi All. I have finally found a short wheel base frontera 3.2 to use as the base for the new unused RV shell I bought last year. Trying to find the right Frontera proved near impossible as it turns out there were very few Swb 3.2's made. But now I am busy taking measurements and making drawings to ensure it fits right first time. And no IVA issues to worry about which makes it a straightforward build.
If this is of interest to any of you I will report as I get going...
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Post by jamman on Dec 13, 2016 9:25:53 GMT
I think the ride height looks amazing. I guess it may be a little stiff on the road with standard spring rates though. But that is easily remedied. Not too expensive to get custom rate springs made and far better than cutting down the exiting ones which will just make the ride even harder. I think your car out Jeeps a Jeep in looks, quality and performance no doubt and will probably out do it off road too. You will be able to keep up with the hybrid off road boys with your Eagle once the springs are sorted if that is your thing cos your overall weight must be very low compared to a Disco or Rangie.
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