aBitDifferentX5
New member
Hi Guys,
Here is the story behind my little X5.
As I work abroad (west africa), I spend a fair bit of time on the net at night, to keep myself busy, and then I came across THE pic.
I could not sleep at night, I needed to know more. After seriuos hours Google, I found the company, I feel is the masters of being and building different cars. FluidMotorUnion in USA.
After hours of reading the blogs and studing the pics, I decided that I needed one as well. I mailed them and told them I wanted to copy some things here in SA, needless to say, they were not exactly to helpfull. :=):
Upon my return to SA, I sold the old slow Land Cruiser and started the search.
I was not willing to buy a R300 000 X5 and do the convertion either. I shopped around and after a couple of months, found my X5 at a small 2nd hand car dealer in Zambesi Pretoria.
It needed some work, but the price was right.
BEFORE
So, it was time to do the shopping
I found the style of rims I wanted, just not the right 120x5 PCD, so of to my friends with the nice toys.
THANKS ANTON!!
Then it was time to design the rear airbag spacers for 2" lift. Hours of stripping, measuring and CAD drawings later. With this, we had to work out how to have the ECU inflate the airbags to where we wanted them. This was done by exstending the ride height sensor arms.
On to the front 2" lift
Must admit, there was a time I wondered if I was crazy, but I already spent a lot of money and time, so there was no turning back now.
I needed to go to work again, so I asked a friend if he will start the fabrication on the bullbar and fitting the spacers. Every now and then, recieving a mail with pic, and then changing a thing or 2, it was close.
Thanks Jason and his guys at Gnutech fabrication!!
There were still some issues I wanted to sort out with the bullbar, and spent a couple of hours in his shop changing these. Of to the powder coaters it went. I also had a small issue to attend to... there was not enough space behind the front wheels in the wheelarch, and this did not allow the wheels to turn left and right.
Out came the ginders and big machines, and we modified the trust arms. We pulled the front suspention extra 2 deg caster to allow solve this problem.
Meantime the bullbar was coated and we could finally fit it
We still have the roofrack to finish, wheel arch exstentions of the 4.6is range to fit, and then the final touchups on the paint work, but as we all know, something like this, is NEVER done, and we will then find the next things to do then.
I am already looking at the possiblity of fitting limited slip diffs, but this will be future plans as my bank manager is now starting to look at me funny.:roflol:
Many thanks to all the friend and guys helping.. and to all the people who said it was impossible and will not look good, I say... I TOLD YOU IT WILL LOOK NICE!!!!
Here is the story behind my little X5.
As I work abroad (west africa), I spend a fair bit of time on the net at night, to keep myself busy, and then I came across THE pic.
I could not sleep at night, I needed to know more. After seriuos hours Google, I found the company, I feel is the masters of being and building different cars. FluidMotorUnion in USA.
After hours of reading the blogs and studing the pics, I decided that I needed one as well. I mailed them and told them I wanted to copy some things here in SA, needless to say, they were not exactly to helpfull. :=):
Upon my return to SA, I sold the old slow Land Cruiser and started the search.
I was not willing to buy a R300 000 X5 and do the convertion either. I shopped around and after a couple of months, found my X5 at a small 2nd hand car dealer in Zambesi Pretoria.
It needed some work, but the price was right.
BEFORE
So, it was time to do the shopping
I found the style of rims I wanted, just not the right 120x5 PCD, so of to my friends with the nice toys.
THANKS ANTON!!
Then it was time to design the rear airbag spacers for 2" lift. Hours of stripping, measuring and CAD drawings later. With this, we had to work out how to have the ECU inflate the airbags to where we wanted them. This was done by exstending the ride height sensor arms.
On to the front 2" lift
Must admit, there was a time I wondered if I was crazy, but I already spent a lot of money and time, so there was no turning back now.
I needed to go to work again, so I asked a friend if he will start the fabrication on the bullbar and fitting the spacers. Every now and then, recieving a mail with pic, and then changing a thing or 2, it was close.
Thanks Jason and his guys at Gnutech fabrication!!
There were still some issues I wanted to sort out with the bullbar, and spent a couple of hours in his shop changing these. Of to the powder coaters it went. I also had a small issue to attend to... there was not enough space behind the front wheels in the wheelarch, and this did not allow the wheels to turn left and right.
Out came the ginders and big machines, and we modified the trust arms. We pulled the front suspention extra 2 deg caster to allow solve this problem.
Meantime the bullbar was coated and we could finally fit it
We still have the roofrack to finish, wheel arch exstentions of the 4.6is range to fit, and then the final touchups on the paint work, but as we all know, something like this, is NEVER done, and we will then find the next things to do then.
I am already looking at the possiblity of fitting limited slip diffs, but this will be future plans as my bank manager is now starting to look at me funny.:roflol:
Many thanks to all the friend and guys helping.. and to all the people who said it was impossible and will not look good, I say... I TOLD YOU IT WILL LOOK NICE!!!!
raise:
