jesusgatos

Made a little more progress today. Trimmed-out the plastic bumper to fit the receiver hitch. The receiver hitch is just a little under 6.5" long and sticks out 2.5" beyond the plastic bumper, which is just enough room to fit the hitch pin and the trim ring that's going to cap the receiver and tie into the tube bumper.








Also added these two pieces of 2" x .120-wall DOM tubing that are going to stub-through the plastic bumper. The rolled round tubing bumper will be welded to 1.75" tubes that will slide into those. Drilling the holes through the aluminum bumper to clear these tubes was super tricky because of the angles.






All I've got to do tomorrow is add a couple gussets to the receiver hitch and drill two holes in the plastic bumper to fit those tubes.

all(over)road

Pretty cool man !!

FWIW, the pix with the ruler...you can grind off that 'knobby' at the top for some more wheel clearance...if you need it.

jesusgatos

Sorry, what knobby? Are you talking about the white plastic mounting pad on the top/inside of the bumper? Fits perfectly. Just like stock.

jesusgatos

Bought a slightly beat-up a set of 16x7" BBS RX's this afternoon too. Perfect for this wagon. Have to purchase some new hub-centric rings and spacers, but you can't beat those craigslist deals!

jesusgatos

Took another look at these 'new' BBS wheels in the daylight and it's like they were made for this car. Color is so close there's no way I'm going to bother refinishing them.




Didn't get too much done today, but managed to drill those holes in the bumper for the stubs to poke through. Came out purrrfect. Actually need to open the holes up a little bit because it's such a tight fit it's distorting the bumper a little bit around the holes. Was nerve-racking because everything had worked out so well up to that point, was afraid one of those holes was going to end up being slightly misaligned, and all that work would have been wasted.






Was curious to see what it might look like with a spare tire back there, so balanced one on the hitch and a jackstand. Not sure if it'll end up being angled forward or vertical, and centered or off-center, but kinda like the way that's sitting right there.

awdjunkies

I definitely like the spare on the outside type of look...

This is one of the Members here.. Looks pretty badass to me



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Blivitt02

I followed your deuce build on pirate4x4, needless to say, I'm excited to see what you do with the allroad! Looks good so far! I've spent a lot of time on the allroad compressor systems, had a viair 380ic, drier/separator, 1/4" relief valve all running on factory controls. I'm sure you're capable of finding your own path, but if you run into anything, drop me a line, I may be able to help!

jesusgatos

Awesome, thanks. That sounds a lot like what I was thinking as far as upgrading the compressor. Going to cut-out the floorpan and replace that spare tire carrier with more useful storage space. Maybe a couple of batteries, a water tank, a proper compressor, etc. Really not sure yet. But if/when that stock compressor goes, it's definitely getting replaced with something better.

jesusgatos

New tires should be here today or tomorrow, but am going to wait to put the wagon back on it's feet till the new Gen II airbags and Bilstein shocks from Arnott show up. Arnott's Gen II airbags are supposed to have a little higher spring-rates and that lifetime warranty was really appealing. Want to do what I can to make this allroad a little more reliable.

Have also been talking to the guys at Evolution Import about their skidplates. Think we might end up working together to develop something a little more offroad-oriented.

G0to60

Are they going to develop a trans skid plate as well? Since the allroad has plastic for both engine and trans it would be nice to have metal options for both.

Also, I did a little research on skid plates a few months back and found a place over in Europe that has steel engine and trans skid plates. They are able to ship to the US but I haven't pulled the trigger yet. Thought I would let you know. Here's the website:

http://www.metalskidplate.eu/home