LUVTruck.com

roll pans floor pans front clip and a custom cawl hood

To be honest, I am still in the measuring/planning stage. I still have to drive my luv till winter is over, (I am not driving my lightning in the snow). As soon as I get started I will post pics. You are doing a great job and I have no suggestions to offer. But I will ask this, have you ever considered dumping the torsion bars and getting qa1 coil overs?

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Hammer to fit, paint to match.
If it aint broke, don't fix it.
There's always room for duct tape and bailing wire.

WATCH YOUR PIEHOLE!!!!!!

The torsion bars have to stay! Coilovers would be nice I guess but that would mean more $$$, something that is very limited as I support a wife , 2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats and my mother. Lotta mouthes to feed!

Looks good, man. The only question I have is relating to how brittle that frame will be. I've done some digging and come to the conclusion that welds on the frame don't take the abuse of off road too well because of how the heat anneals (sp?) the frame. If you know something I don't, please fill me in...

Later...

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Kuranosuke
Grampa's Driving:

1990 Luv 4X4 "Family Cab"
with the big 4 banger on 31" Dueller A/Ts

1989 Dodge Raider with some junk...

"Urban Fighter F.P.C" coming soon to a road near you...
got BOOBIES?

Yeah there is truth to that. But the big problem is when you try to get really radical offroad. I have welded frames before, and it never broke till there was air under the tires. Then the big shit hit the fan.

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Hammer to fit, paint to match.
If it aint broke, don't fix it.
There's always room for duct tape and bailing wire.

WATCH YOUR PIEHOLE!!!!!!

There shouldn't be any weakness to the frame after welding it as long as it was done properly. This is especially true of all vehicles made before 1981 because car manufacturers didn't start using HSS (High Strength Steel) untill 1981 and even then didn't start using it on truck frames untill just recently. If you are having problems with breakage, you probably have not gotten the proper penetration with your welds, or have not cleaned the area free of contaminants such as rust or undercoating well enough. I have a theory, If worried about the strength, reinforce it with some sort of steel plate, angle iron, or tubing!

about the lifting of the luv, i dont know if any1 has mentioned this as i havnt had the time to read all 4 pages, but is it possible to unbolt the cabbin from the rails and put some spacers in there, rather than having to fuck around with tortion bars? all you would have to do is extend the steering column

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I said no to drugs....But they just wouldn't listen!

No matter how good she looks, some other guy is sick and tired of putting up with her crap!

Ya, they actually make kits to do just that. It's called a body lift.
I had a 2" body lift kit installed on my 89 Nissan truck I used to have.

Just go to an off-road shop, they will know what it is.

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77 2wd - Back on the road
05 Ford Five Hundred

"Love endures all things, Love never fails." - 1 Cor. 13:7,8.

they wont in australia

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I said no to drugs....But they just wouldn't listen!

No matter how good she looks, some other guy is sick and tired of putting up with her crap!

Building a body lift isn't too hard. You need to create or find some spacers, one for each body mount. You also need to extend the gas filler hose, slide the steering collumn down a bit (cut a bit of fire wall below it), cut out around the shifters for trans and transfer case, and basically extend anything else that looks like it would be too tight. There can be a lot of little things that get you, but if you go over the whole truck you should catch most of it. Its all little things like readjusting the parking brake cable (or it may be too tight and drag the brakes) and making sure your fuel and brake lines are getting stressed.

As for making the spacers, you can go a lot of different ways. I've used 1 1/2 inch or so waterpipe with flat washers tack welded to each end. I then cut a chunk of an old truck mudflap for a pad for the bottom and stuck the body mount right on top. Most kits use something like graphite though. You'll also need longer bolts for each mount, I think I ended up using hardened steel galvanized bolts with locking nuts on the ends.

If I had to do it now, I would find a kit and do it. JC Whitney sells a 2 inch and a 3 inch for the LUV I believe, as do a few other online places. Building the parts myself was more a budget thing than anything else. I had a truck that someone had done with 1 inch diameter waterpipe butt connectors and no locking nuts. The body shifted a couple of inches either way on a side hill, so I had to do something to fix it. Had I gotten a kit, I could have saved hours of tacking washers to pipes and cutting pieces myself. There are 6 mounts for the cab, and something like 8-10 for the bed. Kits also usually come with some solution for the other problems like brake lines and steering collumn.

i find it funny that the bed is bolted down with more bolts than the cabin, i would have thought it would be the other way around

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I said no to drugs....But they just wouldn't listen!

No matter how good she looks, some other guy is sick and tired of putting up with her crap!

The last body lift kit I installed was made by Performance Accessories. I believe they have a web site. Mine cost about $100.00 us at the local speed shop. you could also check out jcwhitney.com but I don't know if they ship to Australia. Might have to get a bush pilot to deliver it.

Ok Gordo, I have a few questions for you.

First, how much lift did that give you, by just putting the top of the lowered section flush with the bottom of the original section? 3 inches? Do you wish you would have dropped the forward section of frame more and welded a spacer in to give you more lift?

Second, it looks like you cut the engine mounts and relocated them to the stock height position.

Third, I saw that you changed the mount position of the torsion bar bracket in the rear to lean in at the top. What is that for. The reason I ask is I would like to know what you did, why, and if there is something you may have wanted to try. I can kinda be your guinny pig on my project.

Thanks.

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Hammer to fit, paint to match.
If it aint broke, don't fix it.
There's always room for duct tape and bailing wire.

WATCH YOUR PIEHOLE!!!!!!

Are you guys sure about the 4.56 gears? My GM shop manual specifically calls out 4.10 gears for the 4X4.

It would be interesting to know if anyone has removed a stock diff from a 4X4 and actually identified what ratio the gears are.... Anyone?

Hey Grimace,
To answer your first question about how much lift, I figure the drop in the frame is good for at least 4 inches and when i crank up the torsion bars it will give me another 2-3. The reason I moved the mount brackets for the torsion bars is because they need to line up with the lower control arm that I just lowered 4 inches. just cut the tops & sides and bend down to fit. I plated the top just to hold it for now but plan to plate the sides as well to give the mount the same strength it had from the factory. One thing I didn't show is how I had to alter the brackets for the front differential in order to shim the pinion up high enough thet the driveshaft doesn't bind. I did raise the motor mounts back up to the stock height on the frame to keep the motor dry and away from rocks etc. The front mounted distributor does not condone having water thrown on it.

Hey Tufluv,
I have the gears apart and as I mentioned earlier in this thread have counted the rotations and they are definatly 4.10. I know this has been of some debate, but if anybody has 4.56's I would have to say that they either were not stock or were special ordered when the vehicle was built.

mine is 4.10 also, and thats what my manual says. i think where the confusion starts is, from what i've found out the early troopers have the same axles as the 4x4 luvs, but the troopers had 4.56 gears. so you could actually swap the whole 3rd member out of a trooper into a luv and have 4.56 gears. thats what i plan on doing after making sure the troopers do have 4.56 gears.

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1980 chevy luv 4x4 1.8 liter
1979 luv long bed parts truck
1984 2wd isuzu pup parts truck

"A man who says it can't be done shouldn't interrupt a man doing it."

Alright, I finally feel like I'm making some headway. I got the frame all welded and gave my kids a couple of spray bombs and let them go to town painting the frame. The SOA is done except for welding of the spring perches. I have to put the transmission in to set the driveline angle first. The front suspension & steering is all hooked up and the motor is bolted on. I scored a free tow bar to tow it to the off road park. I'll post pictures as soon as I get around to taking them.

Sweet man. I have been drunk for about a month, so I haven't even started on mine

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Hammer to fit, paint to match.
If it aint broke, don't fix it.
There's always room for duct tape and bailing wire.

WATCH YOUR PIEHOLE!!!!!!

I'm thinking it would have been better to do a solid axle swap. I know it would have been a lot easier. A friend who works a a salvage yard hooked me up with a steering shaft with u-joints on either end from a 88 Trooper so that my steering column will line up with the steering gear. Just have to shorten the steering shaft a bit. Always somthing else that has to be altered..

I have added a couple of updated pictures. the last one shows the complete frame with drivetrain in and the tow bar mounted on the front to make traveling home from the off road park easier if I do something stupid or if the truck just breaks down.

PS The tow rig (shown in background) is much more comfortable.

http://community.webshots.com/album/109677124fioHqv?204