So lately I’ve been in the mood to get muddy and I’ve been hitting some deeper than normal holes. As one can expect, the radiator kept getting clogged and sending me into limp home mode. Long story short, I got irritated enough to set a weekend aside to build my own relocate. (I was not paying 300-400 for a bumper relocate, and I personally think they’re an eyesore anyways) I’ve never seen one like it so I figured I’d share it with everyone. I’m not a new member but I don’t use the forum much, so please excuse my format with the pictures at the end.
– The box itself is 9 separate pieces.
(2) 17.5x2x1/8 pieces
(2) 14.75x2x1/8 pieces
(2) 14.75x4x1/8 pieces
(1) 17.5x4x1/8 piece
(1) 15×18 sheet of expanded metal
(1) 2.25×8.25 piece of expanded metal
All of this was fit up, tacked, and welded. Being that I am in college for welding engineering, this was the easiest and by far my favorite part. For the hole in front of the box, it is an 8×2" hole directly in the center
-With the box welded up i had my dad help me for an extra set of hands to figure out what angle to use and how/where to mount it. I honestly couldn’t tell anyone what angle it is at, all I know is it is centered and level so I’m happy (you’ll definitely want an extra set of hands or 2 for this)
– The mounting positions may be somewhat unorthodox but they work and they’re solid. I used 1" wide flat stock for all brackets, can’t remember the length or the bends off the top of my head. The fronts were mounted to the aluminum tube where the headlights bolt onto. This was the only solid thing within 6" of where i thought the mounts should go, so this was basically improvising
– The mounts for the rear of the box use the shock bolts. A slight amount of grinding was required (to get the lip off of the shock mount bracket to have a flat mounting surface)
– About half of the stock right side coolant hose was retained, I just added a connector and used the portion of stock hose cut from the other side to get up to the rad. I cut the hose about 6" to the right of the overflow bottle and added a 90* elbow, about 10" of hose straight up and then another elbow, then about 3" of hose to the top of the rad
– With everything mocked up I tore it down for the 15th and final time to paint everything. I decided to go yellow on the expanded metal and it really sets everything else off
– On a side note, one of my main goals for this project was to still be able to get to the fuses and the overflow bottle with everything still hooked up. (you never know what will happen with these things) It’s a tight fit but with some persuasion the main tank piece and the dash piece still come completely off
All in all it was a good learning experience and I would definitely do it again although everyone knows the first time is the hardest :th_smiliepissed: Not only did I save several hundred dollars (by the way, total cost for this was about $60) I get the satisfaction of telling everyone who asks that I built it myself. Not sure if it’s me or the forum, but it would only let me post 5 pictures. I’d be happy to put some more up or email them if anyone is interested. Cheers!
