4x4 Parts Shop, Colorado Springs, CO 80915

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Welcome to P3! D and C Extreme’s buildup number 3. In all honesty, we never really named this Project. Its been known as a few things (Big Blue, Nate’s Rig, etc.) but nothing ever stuck except ‘P3’ so ‘P3’ it is!

So on to the Buildup! We’re going to be doing everything under the sun to this seemingly innocent Scout II. Yes, by the time we are finished here, it’s going to be a monster.

The foresight on this project was much more complex than any project before. With the parts list containing names like Dynatrac, ARB, Tera-Low, Champion Beadlocks, Super Swamper, Cerullo Racing Seats, and D and C Extreme, we definitely needed to coordinate some things to make sure the conversion takes place in one systematic and smooth. For flowing operation example, Dynatrac needs 8 weeks to process an order during this time of year. Cerullo wants two weeks to build the custom seats. And so on, even our tube bender takes a month and a half to get tubing to us! Enough bickering. Let’s get down to business.

Want to know what is the first thing we needed to do to this little Scout II? Take a guess. If you guessed “Body Lift” then you hit it on the head. After taking a look at all the things that need to be done, the air lines, the custom air tank, link placement, cage-to-frame extensions, etc., etc., etc. One thing kept crawling into our minds: “What kind of room do we have under this thing?” So we had a choice, guess or know. We don’t know how you are, but we want to know. There are too many variables in this buildup to start off by guessing.

Body lift. These are two words you won’t see us say very often. Some hate them and some love them and some are indifferent. What are we doing with one? Well, considering that we’ll be needing to fit some 37’s under this Scout, as well as a plethora of accessories. We knew that we needed more lift to clear the tires without huge amounts of trimming.

With mission in mind, our old partners, Chris, and Jason (a great friend from California here on vacation) grabbed the old Creeper and start unbolting the body mounts. You know, usually doing anything under a Scout gives most experienced do-it-yourselferes nightmares and flashbacks of screaming at seized bolts and grime getting in your face. That’s when we started realizing how much of a gem P3 actually was. You know you have a good “non-nasty” Scout when every body bolt and bushing are taken off without the use of a torch or air tools, and that made the body lift much easier to put on.

OK, before you start jacking up the body and installing the lift, do a couple things first. One, disconnect the Steering column. There are two ways to do this. Undo the “Rag Joint” or the steering joint directly above it. In case you’re not sure what we’re talking about, both joints are at the bottom of the steering column. It connects the steering column to the steering box.

We, disconnected the upper joint (its in the engine compartment, about 3-5″ behind the steering box itself). We simply slipped the column out of the U-joint, simple.

The next thing to do is unbolt the fan shroud, the fan shroud will need to be lowered in order to say in-line with the engine’s cooling fan. There’s about 4 bolts holding it on so we simply took those off and let the shroud hang out on the engine.

If you have a clutch, go ahead and disconnect the clutch linkage. You’ll need to lengthen it with the bar provided in the body lift system. Since P3 is an auto, we didn’t have to bother with anything regarding the transmission.

Now we start jacking P3 up and start removing the body bolts. All bolts are extremely easy to take off and get too, with the exception for the front two bolts (where the radiator is). However, removing the grill gave us access to the front bolts.

After we checked for adequate slack and stretch in various parts that connect to both the frame and the body (like gas and brake lines, as well as wiring), we simply removed all the bolts and started jacking up the body with our floor jack and a piece of wood (the wood keeps us from any metal-to-metal contact, which protects from any dents).

The old bushings came out without a struggle, we used a large flat head screw driver and a dead-blow hammer to pop them out. If your body bushings are toast, then they might just fall out, but since P3’s bushings were still good, we simply pried them up and then used the hammer to pop them out.

To the right are a few pictures for you. Note that we lifted the passenger side before touching the driver side. You may choose to do it differently.

At this point, we decided to perform a little test. The lift blocks are easy enough to measure, to see how much lift you are going to get, but what about the new Polyurethane body bushings. In the past we’ve heard that they have been responsible for lifting a body from a quarter to three-quarters of an inch. This got us wondering, just how much body lift did we get with our 2″ body lift?!?! The answer, see for yourself. (The tape measure is held where the body started.)

Looks like a total of 2 ¾” of lift! Hmm, make a note of that for later.

To the right is a nifty before and after (notice the bumper orientation)

Once the body lift is on, its time to start bolting the shroud, steering, and clutch linkage back on. Here is where most people run into some serious problems. You’ll notice that the steering column will no longer work. The fix, they say, is to loosen the steering column mounting bolts, cut the firewall and push the column down, and towards the steering box. Sound easy? Guess again!

To get at the bolts, disassemble the plastic and start loosening which ever bolt allows you to slide the column. Into the dash, we think its these bolts.

After you do that, cut the firewall at this point, and if you know how to get a saw into that place, you just earned yourself a prize!

As you can see, we aren’t to concerned with this method of “fixing” the steering. Why? Because not only is it a very hard thing to do, its timely and very cheesy.

The problem with body lifts is that they put a very tight angle on the joints at the bottom of the steering column. The one that’s most dangerous is the “rag” joint, its the one on the steering box itself. Why is it dangerous? Because the will rip apart if you don’t do it right. And having a steering system rip apart is not a very pleasant thing. So a fix is not just recommenced it’s required. (And all this is just one way to fix it, but not our way) So what do we do to fix this? What to we recommend as the right way to do a body lift? Borgesen Joints!

In our humble opinion, Borgeson steering conversions are the biggest steering fix there is. Sure there are some things that are more popular (a.k.a. Straight Steer braces), but we’ll argue that most, if not all steering problems can be solved with a Borgeson steering conversion. Why? Because they are awesome! The Borgeson kit we sell for $150 contains two joints (they replace the two stock joints) and the shaft in between them. It doesn’t sound like much, but these little gems solve a couple classic Scout problem spots.

First, the two joints are tight and they work at hight angles (which fixes the angle problem of body lifts). Second, the shaft in between can be quickly trimmed to the proper length, which makes it a bolt-in fix for any size body lift. Third the new joints and shaft are strong! which means that if you add lockers and big tires to your Scout, your stock joints won’t be a weak link. Fourth, and probably the most important and recognized reason to go with a Borgeson Conversion , is they eliminate any steering slop from the steering column. (You guys know what we’re talking about, its that 3-4″ of play in the wheel you need to turn before the tires start turning).

We know what your thinking, doesn’t a “Straight-Steer” brace solve that?!? Not in our history, sure the brace will keep your steering box from moving around (which means the box wasn’t tight or the frame is fatigued), but it doesn’t take the play out of the wheel, which is what people are trying to fix 90% of the time! We’re not saying the brace isn’t worth anything, there are some people who swear by them, but all of you have seen the Scouts we build, and we have yet to fix a problem using a brace. Borgesons all-the-way!

But enough propaganda, lets get on with life eh?

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