[Karl95]

I got this one back in the spring of 2019.
I saw it for sale and bought it mostly because the color combo reminded me of my dads old GQ.
It was basically as stock as it gets here in Iceland. Mild lift with some spring blocks, a dropbox for the front radius arms and some fender flares

I knew there would be some rust. It is inevitable here in the north. I started to make room for 38" tyres almost as soon as I got it. Turns out the rust was a bit worse than I thought.

The wheel well was mostly rotten as was the bottom corner of the rear door. Inner and outer sills were also all but dust. But I'm known to be stubborn, when I set my mind to something I finish it even if it is almost not worth it. So I cleaned out the wheel well and rebuilt it. Patched the door and put the new flares on.

 

[Karl95]

I am by no means a body guy, I lack the touch but it's good enough for who it's for.

Then it's just a matter of stuffing 38's

It was decent like this. The rear locker wasn't working but it didn't really bother me. The winter of 2019 was a bit harsh. Real windy so the snow piled up into hard heaps.
I saw rather quickly that the thing sat too low, usually got stuck on the chassis in deep snow and not enough droop in the suspension. Decent flex though

So I ordered a set of 6" tough dog lift springs and some commando shocks to suit. Quite literally shoved them under the car in an evening

It made a real difference immediately but it wasn't without it's drawbacks, mostly because I hadn't corrected the axles for the lift so the pinion angles and caster were right screwy
Fixed the pinion angle in the back with a quick bracket I made during a night shift

One of the reasons why I decided on such a big lift was because in some state of delirium I had put my mind on 46" MT Baja Claws. Which if you haven't seen them are right huge

Here they are next to the 37" MT Dick cepecs I was running for a while.
So 46" is about the biggest you can go with a GQ Patrol. It'll be hitting the width restrictions and height to the headlights.
The reason why I left so much unfinished was because I wasn't sure what I was gonna do with it. Now I had a goal and a list of stuff I needed.
First would be bigger flares, second 16" wheels.
I got the wheels from a family member. They were however just 10" wide. The 46" needs at least 16" wide to be any good in the snow.
So I went to 19.5", cut them and widened myself. If you are interested in the process it can be seen here

http://imgur.com/a/hG78hEj

 

[Karl95]

It took three guys 2 hours to mount all four tyres to the wheels. The lip I welded on the inside of the bead seemed promising when it took about 35psi for the tyres to pop over it. 35psi don't seem like a lot but with a big ass tyre like this, that's a lot of force
Of course I test fitted them as soon as I could

The tyres filled all the wheel well and every turn was a 3-4 point turn but it just looked mean.
For fun I aired them down just to see if the car was heavy enough to crumple them. At about 2-3 psi I got the crease I wanted in the sidewall and measuring the footprint roughly about 60 cm wide and 80 cm long about 0.5 m2 per tyre. That should float.

I couldn't possibly drive it like this so I took the 46" off and put the 38's back, snapped a quick size comparison for fun.

 

[werley]

That is abdolute madness mate! How will you make it driveable?

 

[Karl95]

That is abdolute madness mate! How will you make it driveable?

That's all to come, this was back in april, I have the body off now and the bare chassis in the garage. Gonna be putting some more progress info in the morning.

 

[werley]

Cant wait

 

[bigcol]

good stuff I say

 

[MeanGQ]

Awesome

 

[Bovril]

Looks amazing! I saw a lot of these when I was in Iceland a few years back and loved the look of them.

 

[Devious Jet]

That looks amazing. Shame we have such crapy rules here. 35" tyres are illegal on a GQ here.

 

[Karl95]

That looks amazing. Shame we have such crapy rules here. 35" tyres are illegal on a GQ here.

Wow that's really restrictive. It's very rare to see a GQ left here in Iceland that is not on 38" or bigger

 

[Devious Jet]

Wow that's really restrictive. It's very rare to see a GQ left here in Iceland that is not on 38" or bigger

Yeah, Our rules suck here!

 

[Heavensent]

Love these rigs.
Great work on body work, mate.


Sent from my SM-A515F using Tapatalk

 

[Skjalddal4x4]

Nice build there mate!
Always been a dream of mine to have a mint condition GQ on 44's here in Iceland. Could only find rust buckets so i ended on buying and building a 2005 GU.

Ánægður með virkan Íslending hérna inni

 

[Karl95]

Nice build there mate!
Always been a dream of mine to have a mint condition GQ on 44's here in Iceland. Could only find rust buckets so i ended on buying and building a 2005 GU.

Ánægður með virkan Íslending hérna inni

Ég veit. Það er eiginlega þannig með þessa Y60 bíla. Annaðhvort eru þeir ryðgaðir eða búið að ryðbæta þá. Minn var eiginlega ónýtur, ég er bara þrjóskur.

 

[Karl95]

Although it was decent on the 38's, I used it everyday to get to work even after they stopped clearing the road. 50 km to work and about 10 km were basically 4-8 foot deep in snow.

I had set my mind to fit the 46" so to hell with fiscal responsability. First I had to address the poor state of the body. In order to do the modifications properly the body would have to come off. and with the state of it like it was it would probably split if we tried to move it.
I had felt that there was a distinct lack of floor under my feet when I was driving but it was worse than I thought.

The body mount was not attached to anything, The inner and outer rocker panel were completely gone. I had bent up a new outer rocker panel from some 2 mm plate and just cut the inner from 3mm.

I cut everything out. The drivers side was the worse side as it always is but it was still bad on the passenger side as well. But nothing to it but to do it.

It ain't pretty but it's solid and a hell of a lot stronger than it used to be. Since I was working on the body I decide to just finish the metalwork and fit the flares. Now it's time for the fun stuff.

The front flares came attached to some fenders so not much work to do there. The rears were a different story.

 

[Karl95]

These flares are about as far as you can go without stretching the body and doing some extreme stuff. I had already seen it would take some extreme modification to the rear wheel well to fit them and clearance for the tyres. Along with cutting away the fuel filler door I had to extend the well on the driver side.

When you see a rusty wheel well it's just mother nature telling you that you need to fit bigger tyres and flares.

I felt like this was the simplest solution to the driver side. Of course everything is fully welded and primed and seam sealed. I'm a hack but I'm a professional hack.
I also decided since there was so little left of the bottom corners and what was left was so rusty, to just do a rear quarter chop.

Everything primed sealed and out the door. Time to get that body off, it was starting to get in the way.
I need to move the front axle forward about 7-8 cm to get a proper turning radius.

The rear needs to go back about 15 cm to add to the list. I also intend to lift it about 15 cm more. About 10 cm from moving the spring perches down and 5cm on the body. I intend to be able to fully flex on the 46"

 

[Karl95]

It took me about 4 hours to loosen and unplug everything. Luckily I have access to some heavy machinery which includes a lorry with a crane so with the help of my dad we had the body off in no time. Surprisingly the more I looked at the frame it was pretty solid. Usually with the body this far gone the frame is also bad so I was expecting some repairs. But no just one hole the size of a penny. The body mounts were a bit knackered but I was set on replacing them anyways in order to lift the body.

So now with the bare frame in front of me we can get to the proper ridiculous stuff. First was to completely remove the old steel hardlines for the brakes and fuel. I had an incident both with the brake line failing and the fuel line. So I have planned to to the brake lines in copper that won't rust and the fuel in some rubber lines.
I did see a problem with the relocation of the rear axle.

There was really no room. I could move the spring mounts maybe 5 cm on the frame before they hit the cross bar and that held the fuel tank.
So I quickly decided that the quickest and easiest way to move the rear axle back. was to move the whole rear frame back those 15 cm. So I did.

I cut the pieces to leangthen the frame on the cnc plasma cutter we have at work. Brilliant piece of equipment to have access to. The frame was set level before I cut so it should all be level when it's back together. It was measured every which way, for straightness and squareness. Took about a day to cut it apart and tack it back together, then another day to fully weld it and brace the joint.

I have yet to close the frame because I decided to tackle the front axle next.

 

[Karl95]

With some thinking I had opted to make some new radius arms to push the axle forward. But first I had to move the spring mounts, which luckily moves the shock mount as well. Which incidentally had been lowered before I got the car.
As it's plain to see they were quite rusty so I binned them and got some that were a bit more solid from another frame I had.

I had measured forward about 8 cm from where it was and tacked a small piece of flat bar just as a guide. Then I just took the mounts to work where I made some gussets and cleaned them up a bit.

A bit of hammer action as I welded took care of the radius. Next it was to tackle the radius arms. I had planned to take care of 3 things with new radius arms, the caster angle, axle movement forward and the lift without a gigantic dropbox at the frame. So I removed the old arm and traced it on my workbench and sketched up a possible new one. Based somewhat on a design I saw from superior engineering. Apparently moving the bushings closer allows for more flex. So after the bench sketch I took it to Fusion 360 and drew it up in 3d.

According to that program it should be able to take 14.7 tons vertically and about 3.7 tons side load which seem like enough. I might do some stress testing but if it ever takes 4 tons side load I will probably have other things to worry about.

This is as far as I have got. Been busy finishing up another GQ that me and my dad have. Been fine tuning the newly swapped 6.5 in that. I am planning on making the radius arm this weekend so we'll see how that goes.
Right now the list of things to modify before the body can go back on are the rear 4 link, I have a new design in mind.
I'm gonna be using the RD28 for now as long as it lasts but I have a new turbo for it and a 12mm plunger for the injection pump to liven it up.
For the axles I'm gonna be using Y61 axles to widen the track. I also have airlockers sitting on the shelves for both front and rear. I had planned on buying 5.57 ratios but with the exchange rate the way it is that will have to wait.

 

[geeyoutoo]

Although it was decent on the 38's, I used it everyday to get to work even after they stopped clearing the road. 50 km to work and about 10 km were basically 4-8 foot deep in snow.
View attachment 524113

View attachment 524114

I had set my mind to fit the 46" so to hell with fiscal responsability. First I had to address the poor state of the body. In order to do the modifications properly the body would have to come off. and with the state of it like it was it would probably split if we tried to move it.
I had felt that there was a distinct lack of floor under my feet when I was driving but it was worse than I thought. View attachment 524115

The body mount was not attached to anything, The inner and outer rocker panel were completely gone. I had bent up a new outer rocker panel from some 2 mm plate and just cut the inner from 3mm.
View attachment 524116

View attachment 524117
View attachment 524118

I cut everything out. The drivers side was the worse side as it always is but it was still bad on the passenger side as well. But nothing to it but to do it.
View attachment 524119 View attachment 524120

It ain't pretty but it's solid and a hell of a lot stronger than it used to be. Since I was working on the body I decide to just finish the metalwork and fit the flares. Now it's time for the fun stuff.
View attachment 524122

View attachment 524123
The front flares came attached to some fenders so not much work to do there. The rears were a different story.

Hi Karl, Sorry for the delay in this particular post going up, part of the AI our owners installed to isolate spammers will sometimes pick up posts from existing 'real' members where something within the post hits a trigger, quite rare but when going through and deleting spammers caught in the AI we need to be sure real ones like yours don't get deleted, one of our many 'challenges', last month we deleted 440, so far this month 365. Your next post got through fine, one of life's anomalies .

BTW, when I was working in the cold parts of the US some years ago I saw some horrendous rust in vehicles, some of the guys I worked with had winter cars and summer cars.