Build Update: Steering, Interior Frame Supports and new parts

It's been a while quite some time since my last post as I haven't had a ton of time on my hands recently to work on this project. I've been on a time crunch to get my senior project done, a portable wood-fired pizza oven, along with working to get everything in line to graduate next month. I have made some progress on this off-road machine though.

For starters, I've got the full hydraulic steering pretty much all worked out. I modified an old truck's power steering pump to fit on the Chevy 350 I put in the rock crawler. Then I scavenged up some high-pressure power steering hoses a mechanic friend had lying around and cut them to length and crimped some new hose ends on them. After hooking up all the hoses I primed the system and tested it out. It seemed to work pretty well but I could not fully test it as the stock reservoir I currently have on the system is not large enough and would overflow if the the wheels were turned from lock to lock. Once I make a new larger reservoir I should be able to give the finished system a full test.

(Test Video Coming Soon)

I also finished up making the interior frame supports where I will mount the shifter and the dashboard panel. These frame supports are placed between the two seats and will also serve as a solid mounting point to make driveline guards off of.

Along with finishing up the interior frame supports and getting the steering the majority of the way done, I also ordered some new parts. A Wilwood brake pedal with dual master cylinders, a G-Force pro-series 5-point racing harness with quick release and high-density foam roll cage padding were all ordered from Poly Performance and are to be installed soon.