Black Pearl R&D ongoing ;)

[exosteve]

going back to your exra washer bottle.
does it to squirt water over the top of the intercooler?
how did you do that?
just an ordinary washer jet fixed over the cooler?

 

[makeitfit]

There's a thread I did on the install somewhere. Shows the details. I can never find anything with the search thingy, even my own stuff
The nozzles are mist ones not jet type. So a quick 2 sec spray is enough to chill the charge for a while :thumbs

 

[AlexD333]

Dislocation possible?

So I need plus 2" shocks, will I have to worry about dislocation?

 

[makeitfit]

Winch bumper time ?

I looked into buying a winch bumper and soon found out they were stupid money :doh So "how hard can it be" to make my own.:nenau
Designed one I liked and made a cardboard version in order to cut up some steel.

I wanted the overall thing to be close to the body shape and still not interfere with my tyre size plans.

Cut up a load of steel plate and many hours of welding later this was the result :sly

I used MK1 indicators and a persuaded a rear number plate to fit, just. Cut a bit more off the top so I could see the winch rope spooling.

This was the first version and I took it to Landy Spares who used it as a template to make a production version.
Oo look an action shot :sly

Here's the MK2 version I now have fitted . Slightly less bulky but exposes more undercarriage :augie

One day I'll get round to making a little infill to put on top of the bumper to meet up with the wing .
Rear next :naughty

 

[makeitfit]

Rear winch bumper.

Same process as the front really. I made it so it can be adapted easily to a body lift too.

Had some skinny ply lying about so used that as template fodder

Main middle section folded for strength, then bolt on end bits. This way the end bits can be bolted lower down to allow for std body height

I'm still working on the rear winch mount so haven't fitted the fairlead yet.

Both front and rear are massively strong and the truck can be lifted from any point on them. The front has holes in for the Hi-Lift jack. The rear will have when I get round to it :lol
Sills next :beer:

 

[AlexD333]

Are these readily available???!!! I want them!!!

I bet they don't fit the facelift models

 

[makeitfit]

Yep both available. Send me a PIC of the front of yours and I'll see how it lines up. The
Rear one is for swb so I'll need to modify the end caps accordingly.:thumb2

 

[AlexD333]

Pm sent due to my phone being stupid

 

[AlexD333]

Your mk2 bumper looks wicked!

 

[makeitfit]

More body protection

My old Maverick was suffering from the typical sill blisters so I decided I'd bin the sills completely :sly
Rock sliders are better than sills anyway I think :lol
So after poking my finger in the scabs I found this

Never mind, time for some proper steel implants :naughty I made up a template that fitted the space left after the rot was lost.

I got the steel folded up at the black smiths and then welded the long edge to make a long sexy box section :thumbs

Then it was a case of persuading the whole thing into place and plugging in the welder.

The welding was done by my son as it's way to difficult for me. It's bit of a challenge to spread the heat into the slider and the skinny body without blasting more holes in the car Eventually many miles of weld wire later they were on :clap

Massively strong and I will be cutting some hi-lift points in them just as soon as it stops raining :banghead

 

[makeitfit]

rose joint every thing !

As things have failed under test :wasntme I've been upgrading things that move to Rose joints.
My comp rod bushes failed so I'll start there.
In an effort to get more free flex at the front I completely binned the old compressed bush arrangement as not only were the bushes goosed the chassis behind them was worn too :doh
Here are the modified comp rods, cut and threaded to suit some nice large rose joints :sly

A nice big bracket welded onto the chassis and bingo, rose jointed comp rods :naughty

Front ARB drop links are a common complaint and so I rose jointed mine to help hold my 35s on the road a bit :lol

Not the best pic but dead easy to do and strong :homer
Steering next :beer:

 

[makeitfit]

Steering mods

I soon found that running big tyres on the T2 is bad Bad for the steering components that is :augie
First to fail will be the steering idler, probably, and so for 31s this was ok.
I made a support bracket to fit behind the idler for extra support.

Now that was ok for a while but once I went to 33s I needed more strength again, so did this

Basically a cut down steering box to replace the chocolate steering idler. There are holes already in the chassis for it (LHD) So it just needed some spacers and long bolts to fit it :thumbs
Made a cover plate for it and fitted it like this

The steering arms modified to allow a big bolt to go through them and the relay rod.

I also had made a modified track control arm. It's got a Massey Ferguson ball joint for the hub end and a big old rose joint for the relay end.

The end result is well hard and far more responsive as there's virtually no slop at all :sly 35s need a good bit of hanging on to and this system does just that

I also fitted a steering damper while I was about it. Simple enough. You just need to make up an L shaped bracket and drill a few holes in it to fit it to the chassis.

Bolt on the damper

It simply fits onto the ARB mount bolts and a U bolt on the steering relay.


Sorry about the crappy pic :doh but you get the drift and this little mod is brilliant when running big wheels in the ruff :naughty

 

[R1cho]

I also had made a modified track control arm. It's got a Massey Ferguson ball joint for the hub end and a big old rose joint for the relay end.

I NEED THIS ON MY TRUCK :naughty :sly

 

[Banshee]

Great write up Pete :thumb2

Discs were posted first thing this morning buddy, sorry for the delay

The steering idler...... what does it do?

My steering feels very unresponsive with 31's on, would you reccomend i did this mod?

 

[elty001]

I want to go this route as I am fitting 33's later in the year.have got my old steering idler ready for modding just need to source all the other parts.

 

[Fez_uk]

you want a old steering box

 

[elty001]

Typical that's one of the things I binned when I had a clear out:doh

 

[makeitfit]

I did a detailed write up for the steering mods in a dedecated thread. This was just a summary for the project build thread thingy.
However, as you're here now, steering boxes are easily sourced on fleabay for around 30 quid. Don't pay more, they do turn up at that price or less.
Banshee, this steering box mod replaces the chocolate nissan idler , therefore giving massahoosive strength . Get's rid of twist in the system and so a more responsive setup :thumbs

 

[makeitfit]

Top Arm

While we're sort of on the front end control-ability, I'll show you the top arm mod I did.
Here's the usual bit of bent tin Nissan put on. Fine for road but an issue occurs with lifted trucks. The top arm is spaced off the chassis with little shims that set the camber and castor angle.
Lift it and the camber goes to pot. Adjustable to an extent but not always enough

I decided to get the Kalmini top arm as it corrects for lifted suspension.
Saves all that messin' about with shims.
New top arm in place.

It's got a curved gap in it for the shock to live BUT it wasn't enough for the upgraded shocks I had. Also I've got more travel so it did clash with the shock to start with. Out with Mr Grinder and open it up a bit :sly
I fitted new bushes to the top arm not long after fitting the arms as they just wore out so quick. I decided to mod the spindle as well to include grease nipples and suitable gallery holes
So this was the end result, greasable top arm and corrected geometry all in one

That about sums up the Black Pearl's front end controls, ready for more POWER now then :naughty

 

[exosteve]

ffs I need ALL of this. im looking to go 33s before xmas.

bit tyed up with other projects at the mo though