We Jump Clampy

In exchange for letting us make a junkyard of his driveway, our friend got to cut parts off our truck with his torch. The flame was used mostly on the lower A-arms, where some of the bolts would not come apart due to years of rust and abuse.

With the IFS removed and the frame wire-brushed clean, we had to remove some old brake-line brackets, shock mounts, and droop stops to make room for the shock hoops and upper A-arms. An air chisel makes short work of this, and is loud enough to get all the neighborhood kids interested in the project, but a grinder or reciprocating saw can also get the job done.

To clear the shock hoop you will need to trim the inner fenderwells. We recommend clearing any wires or hoses from the backside of the fender first. Don't freak out--Schlossberg usually wears gloves when he saws metal, but here he is just showing what he removed for the picture. Notice, though, that he did remember his safety glasses. About now is a good time to assemble the A-arms. The upper A-arm uses the old pivot shaft as we mentioned, but gets all new bushings. A good coating of synthetic lubricant helps everything go together easily.

Here is the new shock mount welded in. You will need to install the A-arms to figure out exactly where you want the shock mounting tabs and where to put the new droop stops, and then remove them to do the final welding.

We released the nitrogen charge in the Sway-A-Way Race Runner shocks through the Schrader valve to allow us to cycle the shock by hand.

With everything painted nice, we reinstalled the A-arms and then bolted in the T-100 shafts. The new shafts have the same-sized CVs, so they may not be much stronger, but the extra 3 inches makes for more travel out at the wheel.

Notice how the red torsion-bar mount is already on the backside of the upper A-arm. Our torsion-bar mount had a small cast tab on one side that represented where the keyway in the splines was, and this was mounted down.

Some grease was added to the inside of the spindle and we were putting everything back together. We took the old knuckles and cleaned and painted them to look like new.

The front brakes got all new hard lines down to the stainless steel flexible lines. Be sure that the lines are routed well out of the way for the complete cycle of the suspension.

We also replaced the hard lines from the back of the knuckle with new replacements from Toyota of Glenn Burnie. Notice how spray-painting regular calipers red gives them that zoom-zoom go-fast look (we're sure Clampy is a half second faster now).

With everything ready we put the truck back on its wheels and set the truck down. Next we adjusted the Sway-A-Way torsion bar to give a firm ride, yet still soak up the bumps and sit level. Finally we charged the Race Runners with 200 psi of nitrogen and headed off for an alignment.

The alignment is adjusted by turning the two lower A-arm attachment bolts so that the eccentric washers turn and adjust the track of the tires. We swung by The Tire Store in Paso Robles, California, to get dialed, and then headed to the dunes at Pismo Beach.

One last stop was made before the big day. That involved installing one of All-Pro Off-Road's internal cages for Toyotas. This 1 1/2-inch by 0.120 wall DOM tubing kit requires a drill, a welder, a chop saw, and some basic handtools to install.

Fitting the cage in Clampy takes a bit of head scratching, but can be done. It seems that there is only one way to make everything fit perfectly. Our friend Chris Durham stopped by to give us a hand measuring and cutting the tube to get a good fit. If you haven't done any tube work, take your time with this because even though it's just cutting and welding, you would hate to remove more than need be.

We had to install some plates on the floor for the down bars. Though the kit comes with enough plates, our rear plates interfered with the body mount, so we made these slightly larger pieces to get a good, sturdy mount. This probably wouldn't be an issue with an Xtra Cab or 4Runner. If your body is rusty, we would recommend fabbing up some runners from the frame to the bottom-side of the mounts.

Once the cage is tacked into place, it can be removed and given a final weld outside of the truck. If your truck is really nice, be careful when welding inside to protect the interior. After welding, the cage is put back in and bolted together. Though we didn't plan on using it, we figured that the cage would give us peace of mind to really jump the truck without a care.

To get some good air under the old Clampster, we enlisted the help of our pals Schlossberg and Durham. Schlossberg sells widgets and Durham is a pro rock buggy driver, but neither had ever been in such a high-performance vehicle as Clampy. We gave them this manual on Toyotas and they brought their own helmets.