Finally finished the swing out tire carrier

[Brett San Diego]

Any thought to higher rate springs in the rear?

Yeah, I was thinking it would be nice not to lose my ground clearance when laden. I've got Bad Swede springs in the rear for 2 inches of lift, and I added an additional 2 inches by fabricating brackets that extend the bottom shock mount. Cross Country Performance sells a 2 in lift kit that uses spacers inserted in the springs to pre-load the spring and give the lift. I recall a forum member had put the spacers on Bad Swede springs to get 4 in of lift. Maybe that's a solution. I don't think there are any other spring options besides Bad Swede. But, who knows, maybe something fits if you look hard enough at the dimensions of everything out there. I had a fleeting air spring thought, too, but I don't think that's a route I want to go down.

Brett

[Brett San Diego]

I have brought the entire swing away tire carrier project to a conclusion with the final two details: Fabricating a bracket to relocate the license plate clear of the spare tire and getting the rear bumper re-mounted.

The license plate bracket is made of some aluminum angle and flat stock shaped a little so it can be mounted to the original license plate studs and all held together using Alumiweld aluminum brazing rod from Harbor Freight. Neat stuff. The light is just a stick-on LED strip. (Hopefully, it stays stuck on.) I just pressed bare wires into the socket of one of the original license plate lights with the original bulb and drilled holes in the lens to run the wires to the LED strip.

The bumper was a right pain in the ass. It required a lot of cutting with especially painstaking trimming of the plastic subframe. I wanted to save enough of the subframe to preserve all the original mounting bolts and still provide decent enough support for the bumper skin. Fortunately, it was doable. One major mistake was trimming away too much of the bumper skin along the bottom edge of the swing arm. I thought I measured properly but apparently not.

To make the bumper easily removable, I had no choice but to cut the bumper into two parts, but I'm pretty happy with the job done to securely put it together and mount it on the car. I used 18 ga. sheet metal to make flanges and riveted it to one side using screws to attach the remaining right side section of the bumper. It took me hours of trimming, making relief cuts, bending, and re-welding to shape the sheet metal flange to the contour of the lower section of the bumper and then get it drilled and riveted into place. I have new found respect for professonal sheet metal body guys. Maybe I could have chosen an easier cut location without compound curves. Anyway, if I need to remove the bumper in the future, it's straightforward to remove the screws, and the right side just stays on the car. Finally, I relocated the radio antenna to the inside of the right side bumper section by splicing in a few inches of wire and mounting it with double sided mounting tape. The antenna is originally mounted to the foam inside the bumper that I had to cut away to make clearance for the tire carrier.

Brett

Imgur link to pics:
https://imgur.com/a/0LVZXcE

The bumper fully trimmed


Close up of the carnage. It's ugly. LOL But, it works. I spray painted the foam with black paint to cover the white specks. Not sure why the foam insert is part white and part black.


Detail of the flanges for reconnecting the bumper sections


Right side bumper section in place


Pics continued in the next post

[Brett San Diego]

The bumper mounted


Detail of the bumper skin stitched together


The antenna relocated inside the right side bumper section


Everything buttoned up


The license plate at night. The LED strip is probably too bright, but at least I've got a license plate light for legal compliance.

[Brett San Diego]

And, I think I've had it with this forum. Been a good run. Lot's of good information here especially all the pdf files uploaded to the resources section, but I can't live with the forum issues. I don't think it's my browser (Firefox). It's been giving an error for a while when trying to upload pictures, so I've been hosting pics on imgur. The forum logs me off after a couple of clicks on the forum threads. I have no idea what's going on. It still shows I'm logged in up top, but if I try to submit a post, it tells me I'm not logged in. I had to re-login about 20 times to edit and complete my posts above. I just joined swede speed. More active community over there, but unfortunately not XC specific. But still, the V70 is mechanically almost identical, so still relevant to see V70 content. And, LOL, on cue, I have to re-login to post this.

Brett

[Astro14]

Brett - I love it! Not exactly my style for this car (belongs on a 4 Runner) but I appreciate both your craftsmanship and your vision for the XC. It's really a cool project and I thank you for sharing the details on what the car can become.

I share your frustration with the forum platform. It's old, and I don't there's enough traffic (read: budget) for an update. This is a good group. Smaller than it once was, some have moved on, some have passed away (JRL just last year) but still a good group.

Thanks for keeping it alive with interesting projects.

I wish I had your skills with a welder and fabrication. As I approach 60, maybe it's time I learned...

Cheers,
Astro

[Xfingers]

Looks great, Brett. I was looking at early pics wondering if you had plans to reattach the rear bumper. Nice job.
Sorry to hear the news of JRL, Astro. I haven't seen his posts in a while and he was catching some heat on swedespeed by other members who thought he was "mean". I appreciated his knowledge and enjoyed his sometimes pointed rejoinders but maybe I'm a little more thick-skinned than most. It's the internet, for chrissakes!

[Brett San Diego]

Brett - I love it! Not exactly my style for this car (belongs on a 4 Runner) but I appreciate both your craftsmanship and your vision for the XC. It's really a cool project and I thank you for sharing the details on what the car can become.

I share your frustration with the forum platform. It's old, and I don't there's enough traffic (read: budget) for an update. This is a good group. Smaller than it once was, some have moved on, some have passed away (JRL just last year) but still a good group.

Thanks for keeping it alive with interesting projects.

I wish I had your skills with a welder and fabrication. As I approach 60, maybe it's time I learned...

Cheers,
Astro

Well, I couldn't buy a 4Runner for $1500 5 years ago. Doubtful you could today. I didn't have plans for any of this when I bought the XC70. I wanted AWD for ski trips with better than the 14 mpg that my then Range Rover gave. But, then I learned about the BadSwede springs. I took a run-what-you-brung attitude, and the project mushroomed a bit since then. Honestly, one of the main motivations is to have some welding projects. Welding's the most fun thing I've learned in mid-life. When you can glue metal together, you feel like you can do anything. I've fabricated tools, fabbed household stuff, made a grlll for a camping stove using wire baskets from the local Goodwill store. LOL You can do anything... I highly recommend a little 120 V Lincoln MIG machine to get started.

Brett

[br0dy]

Brett - I love it! Not exactly my style for this car (belongs on a 4 Runner) but I appreciate both your craftsmanship and your vision for the XC. It's really a cool project and I thank you for sharing the details on what the car can become.

I share your frustration with the forum platform. It's old, and I don't there's enough traffic (read: budget) for an update. This is a good group. Smaller than it once was, some have moved on, some have passed away (JRL just last year) but still a good group.

Thanks for keeping it alive with interesting projects.

I wish I had your skills with a welder and fabrication. As I approach 60, maybe it's time I learned...

Cheers,
Astro

I'll be drinking one in JRL's honour tonight. I really feel like I missed out by not being such an active member in the forums (btw, I highly recommend Matthew's, much warmer community than SwedeSpeed) and always got a real kick out of reading his posts. Especially his capitalization and how crass he came off. Rest in peace to a valued member of the community. Unfortunately I didn't really become too active in these forums until 2020 when I had enough time to actually start working on these cars myself.

Yes this forum is running an outdated bulletin board software. I have sometimes found that adblockers and do not track plugins affect cookies' ability to operate (see: retaining login info). Matt is meticulous about his website and keeps it very maintained. He's always available by e-mail if you have an issue and really wants the best experience for his users. Not to mention his moderation team has a sense of humour and is very fair.

Hope to see you around Brett. I enjoy your posts, even though I never respond I like your writing style and how you always have a positive attitude.