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Fri Sep 11, 2009 9:59 am

I have a '73 Thing rust bucket that I want to turn into a street legal offroad buggy style vehicle. It is too far gone to restore so I plan to chop off the front and back bottom sheet metal, chop the fenders and build my own floor pans and roll cage. I plan on my floor pans to raise the body 1-2 inches depending on what size square or rectangular tubing I use for the outer pan edge. I want to widen and lift the suspension. I plan on widening the front beam 6 inches with 4 adjusters. I also want to use 3x3 arms on the back. I have a feel for how to accomplish all of this within my ‘low’ budget except for the rear 3x3 arms. From all I’ve read here (which has been many late nights) it looks like everyone is using expensive coil overs on their 3x3 arms, these are out of my budget range. My question is can the rear torsion bars be reindexed enough to handle the 3x3 arms without failing and will standard shocks still work? Would the KYB gas adjust shocks help?
Thanks, Chuck

Fri Sep 11, 2009 10:12 am

you can keep the torsion, but you will have to keep it to mild off-roading. Have you looked at the FOA shocks? They arent nearly as expensive as Fox or King. And from what i hear they are pretty good too.

YOur going to have a really rough ride with torsions and KYBs....trust me that is what i run.

Fri Sep 11, 2009 3:02 pm

I can tell you right now, there is nothing "Low Budget" that fits with 3x3's

Sat Sep 12, 2009 5:52 am

Did you say low say low budget rust bucket off road beater Thing? That sounds exactly like my project.

There's no such thing as low budget though. I've got about $7k in mine and I'm still running nearly stock suspension.

Do you plan on sticking with the ball-joint front end?. Even if you widen it, your still limited to about 6" of travel.

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Sat Sep 12, 2009 4:25 pm

My Thing looks quite a bit worse than yours started out. I have gotten it running and driven it (sitting on a 2x4 laid across driver's and right rear door sills). The engine and trans seem solid. The engine will stay stock until I get the rest of it done. I'm not really shooting for extreme off-road performance, mainly the look (a poser i guess you could say), but it needs to be tough enough for my 16 year old son.
Thanks, Chuck

Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:20 am

damn its sick mayn

me and my dad are building one too

what wheels are those?

edit:

thats for chad1376

Mon Sep 14, 2009 4:56 pm

I'm not sure of the brand, they were on the car when I got it. They are 2-piece aluminum - 15"x4" in front, 15"x6" in the rear.

FYI If your going with 15x235 tires, your going to need to hack your front fenders/headlight buckets (like I did), or find some wide fiberglass fenders and/or install a body lift.

Mon Sep 14, 2009 5:33 pm

I'm probably going fenderless, or at most severly trimmed fenders. The front and back lights will be mounted else where.

Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:03 pm