I started out Saturday by putting together my drive train.  This picture shows the Ringr adapter which allows me to bolt the 1.6 16v bellhousing and Toyota transmission together.

Here's a picture with the bellhousing attached.  The Sidekick throwout bearing and pilot bearing are modified to fit on the Toyota input shaft.  The stock 1.6 pressure plate is retained and then there are two options for a clutch disc.  One needs to be cut down, the other is slightly smaller in diameter and requires no modifications.  I went with the larger, modified clutch disc to get the most contact area between the clutch disk and flywheel.

I couldn't get the transmission and motor mated together (it's a 3 man job) so I made a small stand to hold the transmission into place so I could start on the second phase of the project.

Phase 2 involved constructing the sub frame where the links and belly skid plate mount to.  I also need to come up with a way to anchor the transfer cases to the frame.  The stock Toyota mount is about an inch thick and mounts under the transfer cases.  I was hoping to come up with mounting system to eliminate that inch thick mount to keep the belly as flat as possible.  I am thinking about something like the t-case spine I made for my Samurai case.  Jack mentioned that Front Range Off-Road makes a mounting system like that so that is the direction I will likely go.

The rest of Saturday was spent gusseting the sub frame and making the cross members.  I also mocked up my upper link mounts in back so I could make sure they would fit.

I am doing all the bending with this bender that Jay Kopycinski designed and fabricated.  It is based off of a JD2 Model 3 bender (same one I have) so I am using my own dies for this project (1.62 x 4.5" radius and 1.00 x 3.5" radius).  I must say I am getting really spoiled with this bender.  It can do a nearly 110 degrees in one shot so it makes the bending process very fast.

Sunday morning I cleaned up the garage before heading over to a sawsall party at Mark Mason's house.  We took his 4 Runner from what you see in the first picture to the second picture in about 2 hours. 

he is planning on re-tubing his rig and installing a four link suspension in back.

After the party, Pat and Jack stopped by and helped me get the motor and transmission bolted together. Everything is lining up like it should so far.  I did make a small change to the transmission hoop, I made it a bit taller so the firewall can mount to it near the top of the hoop.

From there I skipped ahead to phase 3 and started to bend the front fenders.  I am not very good with doing multi-plane bends and I didn't quite get these right.  I had to do some creative notching to get them to sit like I wanted them to.

Update - 8-24-04

Some progress on the front clip from Monday, put some of the cross braces in.

I traced the unused back half of the t-case used for my crawler box to come up with this bracket.  The basic shape was cut with a plasma cutter, then I cleaned up some of the sharp inside corners on the mill at work.  The last step before bolting it on was a little finish grinding to smooth out all the edges.

The mounting arms were made from some 1 5/8 x .120 tubing, slit up the middle.  One of the mounts is below the frame rails and the other is even with the frame rails to allow the bracket to be removed (unbolt, rotate, then pull back).  I still need to round out all the edges when I pull it off to finalize the welds.

Note - As of Nov, Front Range Off-road was selling a laser cut plate that you could bolt to the rear of the Toyota transfer case for approx $50.  Well worth the price, you just have to fab up some mounting arms.

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