Crazy Horse Engine

Today on trucks project crazy horses kicking in the barn as Stacy's bolting on a new front axle, spring shocks, wheels and tires

and that old straight six it's headed straight to the glue factory.

Then we'll take a look at the newest supercharged pickup on the block, the Nissan frontier. Tell them about it, Stacy, there's only one place to learn how to build stuff like this.

Welcome to trucks and our growing pile of junk. Now, a few weeks ago, we started to build up on an old beat up dilapidated old Ford Bronco

to see if we could resurrect it from an old rusty piece of junk. And in the meantime, show you some how to that you can use on your project, whether it's a Bronco or not. So, the first thing we did is put in new floor pans. Then last week raised the body up off the chassis,

then put in a new rear suspension and we got new springs 3.5 inch lift,

a dual shock system and of course a new nine inch Ford rear end then, well, then we ran out of time. So this week we're gonna finish up the front suspension but not just that

gonna take this old engine and tranny out of here deal with some steering issues. So, strap on your tool belt because we are gonna finish laying out the chassis of Project Crazy Horse.

All right, the suspension front rear is from James Duff Enterprises. And like I said before, we got a 3.5 inch left on the rear, we're gonna do the same thing on the front.

Now, you can see we've already got these new extended radius arms in. We did that last week. So now it's time to put in this new axle. Now, just in case you've forgotten, this is a Dana 44 from Curry Enterprises.

456 gears just like the rear,

the arms and the brakes are all from James Duff. Best part is

this will slide right into place like a stock axle.

Now, we're using

these new polyurethane bushings

because that gives us the right caster and also

it will last a lot longer and work a lot better than the stock rubber ones. Just make sure you use some grease on these or they're gonna squeak on you.

One of the few original pieces that we have to reuse are these old caps.

Now, these actually bolt to the front of the radius arm and they hold your axle in. So if you'll hit them with a wire brush and a coat of paint, check this out, they will look like brand new.

Now, I know you're gonna be tempted to reuse all this old mounting hardware. No, don't do it. They actually hold your axle in cost you about 10 bucks to replace them. And that is not where to get cheap.

Yeah.

Now we're ready for the new coil spring. Now you're gonna love this, notice, there is a huge difference between this new spring and this old stocker. Now, they were trying to do something with these spacers, but, uh, we'll go ahead and just roll that away to the trash heat. Now, a couple of original pieces that you are gonna have to reuse is the lower spring cup and the lock. So go ahead and set those in place,

then rotate the spring into the lock

and you just see the spring into the pocket up here on the top. Then

it's held in place

with this little clip, man. It's nice when they fit like this.

Next, we're gonna bolt on these dual shocks. Now, they run all the way from the shock hoop down here to the radius arm. Now, you have a couple choices here. You can mount two shocks behind the spring like we've done.

So give you a little softer ride, a little more axle flex or you can mount one shock behind the spring and one out here in front that'll give you a little firmer ride. Now, if you do it that way,

you're gonna need to take this tab that comes with the kit

and weld it down here

on the cap. Just make sure you take the cap off because you don't want to melt that urethane

with the new shocks in place.

It is time for the drop bracket for the track bar. Now, you have to use one of these if you're using a 3.5 inch lift because that is what's gonna center that axle when you're all done.

Now, it just slides onto the stock bracket,

tap it into place,

then just bolt it on.

Now, I strongly recommend that you run a weld around that just like you did, the sha coups

give you some extra strength.

Now, we come to the last part of the original suspension that you're gonna have to reuse and that is the track bar and we went ahead and cleaned it up, painted it,

put in new urethane bushings and heck, this thing's ready to go in. Now, for those of you that don't know

any time that you have a coil over suspension and a solid axle.

Now, you need some sort of track bar to keep that axle from moving side to side.

Now, what happens over time is that these bushings will wear out or

the hole will get sloppy and that will allow the axle to move just a little bit

that causes the vehicle to dart to one side or the other. Of course, what do you, do, you go to correct it. Now, you're wandering all over the road. So

having new bushings in your track bar is very important.

Ok. We're gonna follow that up with the wheels and tires.

Now, you may remember from last week that we put Parnelli Jones and Mickey Thompson on the same team.

Now, we did that by using Mickey Thompson Challenger Wheels because they look so cool

and they're very strong

and we wrap those with the Parnelli Jones dirt grip tires and these have a very aggressive tread for mud and rocks and stuff like that.

They'll also do us well on the highway. Now, why don't you step back and take a look and kind of digest and what we've done

looks pretty good, doesn't it? Well, except for that old engine, I'm gonna do something with that, but after the break

next, it's Asta La Vista, old steering box and tired motor then. Hello. New motor mounts

right here.

All you do is measure

cross.

Yeah.

Welcome back to trucks. The last time I pushed this thing in,

I felt that was a major piece of junk.

Now, it's starting to really look like something.

All right. Now that we've got a new suspension underneath this chassis, front rear, we're gonna deal with an area that's almost always bad on an old four wheel drive

and that's the steering. Now, I'm not even gonna attempt to rebuild this old steering box for a few reasons. First, it's a manual unit.

Second of all, this old stub

shift is completely stripped and it's got a hole drilled in it

and check out that slop. Now I'm just gonna go ahead and unbolt it from the frame and retire that for good.

00. Strike. Now, for our new steering system, we went back to James Duff Enterprises got one of their new power steering boxes. Now, this is a must if you are running 35 inch or bigger tires.

Now, to go with that, we also got their dropped pitman arm, the drag link and of course, the top

rod to hold everything together

to install the new box. All you can do is set it into the stock location here and bolt it in.

I wish it was all that easy. Now, a little tip here for you behind the box is real susceptible to rust on the frame. So it's a good idea to take a little paint and paint it back there. Now, obviously, I'm not gonna do that

because I'm gonna sandblast and paint this frame when we're all done.

Now, once you have your box in place, go ahead and put on your pitman arm drag link and tie rod and you are done

with the steering,

ok. Now that we've got the suspension taken care of it is time to say goodbye to this old six cylinder three speed and transfer case combination.

Now, before you come in here and just start ripping things apart.

He to take some time and remove the parts, you might reuse and set them aside like this old clutch linkage, then you can start tearing things apart. Now, once you got it all disconnected, unbolt the engine and the transmission from the mounts

and lift that sucker out of there.

Now, any time you start changing engines, well,

that usually means that your motor mounts are gonna need to be changed. And our old Bronco is no exception.

These mounts for the old six cylinder are in completely the wrong place for the big old V8. We're gonna stick in here. So

they've got to come off out, comes the plasma cutter.

We'll follow that up with a grinder to dress up this frame rail, to get it nice and smooth for our new mounts. Now, it is very important

that those new mounts fit nice and flush against that frame. So do whatever grinding and trimming that you have to, to get it right.

All right. For our new motor mounts. For our V8, we went to James Duff Enterprises and got these motor mounts and they fit right here. All you do is measure back nine inches from the cross member and weld them in.

Now, these take away all of the guess work,

all the measurements that go

with converting to a V8. Matter of fact, when you get ready to put that new motor in,

boom, it should fit like a glove. Now, I know it's time to take a break. But after the break,

I'm gonna show you what else we're gonna do to this frame. You're not gonna miss that.

Next crazy horse gets its cow catchers before some new metals fixing up the body.

And later, Stacy's got some cool new reading material in truck gear.

Just can't get enough of trucks. Check us out online at trucks, tv.com.

Welcome back to the shop, man. What a show so far. Now we've got new axles and suspension and project crazy horse, big old tires. We upgraded the steering then welded in motor mounts for a new small block Ford V8. Now you may be thinking, well, shoot

pretty much takes care of the chassis. What else is there?

Well, there's a little bit to do to the frame and it's right up here in front. Now, remember how these old frame rails were all booger up. Somebody welded this junk on there.

So I went ahead and cut it off and ground it down to where they're like stock again. Now, this is very important

because the bumpers that I'm gonna use are gonna bolt right to the stock frame rail. Now, I know what the mention of bumpers that your eyes probably lit up and you're thinking bumpers, what kind of bumpers you're gonna use? Well, right over here, let's go check them out.

Now, there's a lot of different styles of bumper out there for the Bronco, but one of the coolest are the prerunner styles like this from James Duff. Now, the features of these is they have the tubular design so it's lighter weight, but they're still very strong.

Now, this particular bumper for the front has mounting points for off road lights

and of course, a winch,

you've gotta have a winch and the rear bumper already has a receiver hitch built right in,

ok, to mount the bumper to the frame. If you were just to bolt it on here, well, you would bend this part of the frame because it's not boxed in here. It's not that strong.

That is what these inserts are for.

They slide into the frame, give you a fully boxed in that you just mount the bumper to that is very strong.

All right, that takes care of the chassis. Now, the only thing we have left to do now with all the grinding and fitting and welding is done

is take it all back apart.

Sam blast the chassis and paint it, but all the hard work is done.

Now, some of you might be thinking, well, man, that's, that's a pretty happening chassis. But what about this whole body,

at least from the firewall forward. This thing is pretty rough. So what are we gonna do?

Well, I made one call to Jeff's Bronco Graveyard. Let me show you what I got.

Now, see how these panels are all rusty and beat up here. Well, check this out, brand new

replacement panels. Now, you see you got some damage or some rust in the wheel wells. Look at this

just like the factory.

Now, how about the core support area that supports the front of the truck and the radiator?

And you're gonna love this. It

doesn't get any better than that.

And how about exterior pieces? Like the grill? They're always beat up.

Well, how about a new grill and all the trim pieces and the lights?

Now, you're probably thinking that I have a ton of body work to do to beat those old fenders back into shape.

And

if I was gonna reuse them, that's exactly what I'd have to do.

But heck, for about 100 and 50 bucks, you can get brand new all steel fenders and check these out.

They are stamped just like the originals

and they fit perfect.

That is one of the good things about a Bronco. Almost every piece that came on that truck originally.

Well, it's available at places like Jeff's Bronco Graveyard.

It just goes to show you that

old Broncos don't really die. They just keep going and going and going. But we can't do that. We gotta take a break. We'll see you right after this,

after the break. It's the newest frontier from Nissan and this one's got a blower, stay tuned

and now truck gear, parts, tools and equipment for pickups and sport utilities.

You know one thing that never ceases to amaze me.

It's how some guys can spend a ton of money on chrome and polished accessories like these valve covers and then skimp on the really important stuff like quality motor oil. Now it doesn't matter what your application is. Valve line has got you covered with everything from their conventional

state of the art, all climate, 2050

all the way up to a full synthetic. Now, these keep your engine clean on the inside where of course, it's most important. Matter of fact, if the guy that I bought this engine from had have kept some fresh valve

line in it. Well,

it probably still be running down the road instead of sitting here on the engine stand

and once they quit running and even those fancy valve covers don't look so good.

That is cheap insurance.

Have you ever spent much time in a bookstore? What's the first thing you do? You get back to the automotive section? See what's back there. Now, you probably have noticed that there's a lot of books on Camaros and Mustang

and things like that,

but there's not a lot on trucks. Well, Stoger publishing company is changing that with books like great trucks and four by four vehicles. Now the great Trucks, book is about big trucks, 18 wheelers and

foreign trucks and military stuff. Check that out.

Now, the four by four vehicles book, of course deals with four by fours like the early Jeeps. Look at that M 38 A one.

You got British stuff, overseas stuff. It's kind of cool to see what they're doing overseas. Check out this Forest Rover, man. That's cool. I wish I had one of those. Now, these books sell for 15 bucks a piece. You can get them at a quality bookstore.

You know, the last few weeks we have been showing you a lot of Bronco stuff and the very unique history that goes with these vehicles. But a lot of you may not realize that these were actually available in three different configurations. The first and the most common

was the fully removable hard top

second. Like the one we've got here was the factory half cab and they did away with that in 73. Then of course, there was the Roadster made that from 66 to 69 and finding one of those is like finding gold. Now, the good news is you can take any Bronco and turn it into the Roadster

with the sport Roadster door kits from Tom's Bronco parts.

Now, these feature

the fiberglass door insert just like the originals. You've got all the metal inner structure just like the originals.

And the best part is

these slide right in place of a stock door

and give you a doorless Roadster, which is great when you're out on the trail. Now, this whole kit sells for about 388 bucks

Tom's Bronco Parts is who's got it

in the automotive world. There's always a lot of changes going on. Somebody's coming out with this. Somebody is discontinuing that

and nowhere has there been more changes in the last few years than in the world of trucks. So it's a little hard for people to really stand up and take notice. But that's exactly what they did when they heard that Nissan was coming out with their V6 supercharged frontier pickup. So we're gonna take a look at one with you.

The first thing that really separates the frontier from the rest of the truck crowd is the exterior styling, big rugged fender flares and a chiseled angular front end,

lend a rough and tumble Robocop style attitude that really looks good on a small truck. Of course, the skid plates and side tubes, not only add protection,

but they also add to the style and the overall look of an already tough looking truck

up on top. You've got a tubular roof rack that's not only functional and will carry your gear,

but it fits right in with the styling of the body. Now, if that's not enough to haul your junk. Well, this is the frontier crew cab long bed. It's got the longest bed of any four door compact truck. So hauling big loads is no problem.

Now, speaking of those four doors, the rear opens up into nice padded seats and room for two adults.

Now, granted if you're over 6 ft tall, maybe a little tight. So you might wanna try to reserve a seat in the front,

check this out.

You got high back bucket seats and they sit you right in front of a nicely styled dash and gauge cluster. While the steering wheel houses a standard air bag and cruise control,

the climate controls are mounted right in the center and they flow down into a nice stereo which terminates into a console housing your shifters.

Now, this is great. Nissan gets a big thumbs up for using an actual shifter to positively engage the transfer case in a four wheel drive

instead of one of those dang push button things that always goes out on you.

Now, we get to the area that really makes the frontier difference.

That's the 3.3 L supercharged V6

and it kicks out 210 horsepower and 246 ft pounds of torque

and that definitely gives the truck some pep and power and

makes it a respectable performer, but

honestly, it's not quite as much performance as we expected.

All right up front, the four wheel drive is housed in an independent front suspension and our truck had the automatic overdrive transmission

and the limited slipper in

which obviously doesn't make this a hardcore off road vehicle,

but it is capable of handling most real world situations.

Well, that

wraps up our look at the 2002 Nissan frontier pickup and for what it is, we'd have to rate it right at the top in its class. Now, if you compare it to a full size truck or the other supercharged truck, the lightning. Well,

that's not what this truck is. Now, if you think

something like this will fulfill your needs. Well,

you can have it really for around $23,000

next week on trucks. Stacy's going to make a 350 out of a 302 as he shows you all the right parts you need for one awesome engine build up.

Then we'll go for a spin in the wild Dodge concept vehicle, the ramrod

and finally we'll relax in a very comfortable Lincoln Blackwood.

That's all next week on trucks

for a VHS copy of today's show call toll free 1877853 7260. Show videos are just 1295 plus shipping and handling

is an RTM production.