Good news!

 

Great build! Hey what plenum gasket did you get? Also were the valve covers Mopar covers?

 

Even better news, I got the truck back!

Plenum gasket is a felpro, valve covers are the fabricated style for LA engines.


So, update. Truck is tucked away in my shop at work. I picked it up early Saturday and spent all day driving it around. Runs a lot better, has a lot more spunk in it now. Never really got on it too hard, but could definitely tell it was an entirely new animal. 3/4 throttle is easily close to what my full throttle used to be. When cruising around 40, half throttle will build up RPM's quick enough to downshift and take off. Highway feels a lot better now as far as speeding up, although I'm still a little limited high end wise thanks to my gears.



I parked it in the shop Saturday night to keep it out of the snow. We've been getting dumped on, and I don't want to drive the truck in not only cold weather with a brand new motor with less thank a hundred miles on it, but also without having a rear bumper I don't want to run the risk of another driver deciding to take my rear axle out from under the truck.

I did pick up a used Lincoln welder over the weekend though, it's a 140 with the tank and everything. Paid $400 for the entire setup minus a cart, so I'm going to get the ball rolling on building everything else for it here soon.

Another fun update, I found my rear bumper, without me having to buy and customize or start from scratch.

Found a company on Facebook that just started out, got a $1300 quote that includes everything on my bumper, including tail light guards, driver side recessed step, passenger side 3.5" hole for exhaust, and winch mount and light holes integrated in as well. Downside, truck has to go to Spokane for a few weeks, which I'll probably do sometime late February or early March when the weather starts to back off and the mountain roads have little to no snow.

Bumper will be built by a new company called Fly Fab, they're also going to be doing the front/rear bumpers for my Bronco. Planning to trailer the Dodge up, when it's complete I'll drive the Bronco up and swap it for the Dodge, then about a month later go up and trailer the Bronco back down. Dodge should be there for about 3 weeks, Bronco about 4 weeks as they're also doing a custom rear bumper with tire carrier and accessories.

 

Alright, so it's been a little while since I've updated this here. Figured I'd give some insight on some stuff, as a lot of my plans have changed.

To start off, I've sold pretty much all of my upgrades I had lined up. Suspension, 37's, beadlocks, pretty much everything.

Reason being: I picked up a new project, and the wife doesn't want 3 projects going at once. I kind of underminded her, we agreed I could pickup a new vehicle to have as a daily driver, as my Dodge is a little much and the Bronco is on the uncomfortable side. I wanted a crew cab pickup, diesel or gasser 2500, but I got the opportunity to pickup a car that I've wanted for over 10 years now. I got an 04 Mustang Cobra that had a piston blow out of the block, with a replacement motor ready to go in.

I won't go into details on the car as that's for another forum, but the wife asked that I keep the Dodge build more mild in a compromise for allowing me to keep and build the Mustang.

So, after selling off everything, I reordered similar parts, just more on a mild canvas. I'm keeping the truck at 5" of lift, but here's my list.

Suspension:
Fox 2.0 front air shocks
Fox 2.5 rear air shocks
I still have the Air Lift Auto Pilot V2 air control system, the purchaser of the coilovers didn't want to spend the extra cash I was asking for the system, so thus the reason I've opted to go air shocks on the truck still. I also still have my Synergy HD steering to install, along with a Fox ATS stabilizer designed for the 3rd gen Rams.










Tires:
35x12.50x17 Nitto Ridge Grapplers
I'm still waiting on my Cali Off Road Dirty Life 9302MB 17" beadlocks I had ordered back in November. I had originally ordered Hutchinson beadlocks for this truck, but once I saw the Dirty Life's I chose to donate the Hutchinson's to my Bronco. Now, I've decided to donate my Ultra's I have now on my Dodge to the Bronco.





Exterior Accessories:
Chassis Unlimited 96" Universal Rock Sliders
All Pro Off Road Pack Rack
Smittybilt Overlander XL Roof Top Tent
ARB 3 Wall Set
ARB 1250 Awning
ARB front and side windbreakers
I got the rock sliders to finally give myself some protection to the doors and rockers. I've been weary of getting too extreme on trails and smashing the truck up. I ordered the Pack Rack for an 00-06 Tundra as the unwelded version, that way I can add to it and modify to fit my truck as it's assembled. I chose to go with the XL roof top tent, mostly because the price on it wasn't a whole lot more for the tent that sleeps 3-4 people as well as a cover over the ladder to climb inside. I did, however want some form of an annex to go with it, so I ordered in the ARB 3 wall set for the 2000 awning in hopes that I can modify it to make it fit under the tent. This will give us space to shower, or eat if there's no bugs around, change clothes, whatever. If I can't make it work, it'll fit my awning I already have so not a complete waste. The 1250 awning I'll mount to the backside of the rack to overhang towards the back of the truck. This will give use cover while cooking, as well as break the wind using the side and front windbreakers. Essentially, when camp is setup, I plan to have the RTT pop off the driver side of the truck, the 1250 to extend off the back, and the 2000 to extend off the passenger side. Depending on weather or sleep plans, I can either setup the ARB Touring Room or Mosquito Room under the 2000 awning. All cooking will be done off the back of the truck, with the windbreakers setup off the back of the awning, and the side mounted to the passenger side, allowing the TireGate to swing towards the windbreaker.













Few little oddball things I plan to pickup locally is the rear bumper material, as with the agreement with my wife, I will not be sending the truck up to Washington to get the bumper built for it. Instead, I'll build one myself. The last little bit I need is both some black and tan canvas. I want to build a snap on style cover for the Pack Rack to keep a little bit of weather out of the back of the truck, which will be done in black. I'll just cut out the sections for the awnings, tent, and accessories and have the cover snap down onto screw on snaps I'll install all over the Pack Rack. The tan canvas, I want to build a triangle connection from the 1250 awning to the RTT, giving some shade and coverage off the driver's rear corner of the truck. With the 3 wall ARB under the RTT, I can leave the rear wall open and give us space to setup camp tables or whatever to eat on, and we can walk from the cooking space under the 1250 to under the tent without getting hit with rain or whatever. Also makes for a nice open spot to sit in the shade. If I can't make the 3 wall system work under the tent, then I'll get some more tan canvas and make my own.

I made a quick paint sketch down below that shows the layout and what I'm talking about.

 

What? Plans changed? Oh come on, we know that never happens.

Still and all, looking forward to PICS! as it goes along.

 

Sorry, still no updates for the build as of yet. Starting to understand the whole "too many projects" my wife was getting angry about. I haven't even started on the Dodge.

Currently I have my Bronco torn apart in my other shop, got a 4" lift with solid axle swap and custom radius arms I'm building using a Chassis Unlimited kit.

I've got my Mustang at the performance shop and am trying to coordinate with them for the engine swap to get it back on the road. Really hoping I can get that done before March to get it cleaned up and ready to go into our vendor booth at the Boise Roadster Show. If not, then my business partner will be putting his Evo into the show instead.

I've got my business partner's Super Duty that we're trying to get finished before the same show. Not my project per say, but still takes up shop time.

And now, this last weekend, I repurchased my Suburban back from one of my employee's friends. They bought it off me a few months back to get them by until tax return until they could get a nice newer car. Well, due to it having a salvage title, the dealership won't offer them anything for it. They don't want it. So, I offered to give them a clean title trade in price, wound up buying it back for $1500 when I sold it to them for $2500. So, now that I've got that back, I'm going to build it and turn it into my daily driver. So, I ordered a 6" Fabtech lift with stealth shocks, some 20x10 Dirty Life Roadkill wheels, and some 35x12.50x20 Nitto Trail Grapplers for it. Also ordered in some odd's and ends, like new headlights, tail lights, and am currently searching for bumpers for it right now. I want to keep it a little more toned down than the Bronco or Dodge, but still something that can be seen parked outside my shop.

Tack all of that on with everything I have for my Dodge, on top of customer rigs and two restorations we're doing right now. Hands are kind of full.

So, hopefully by April I'll have some updates on the Dodge. Right now, it's at the bottom of my list. Sorry guys.

 

LOLOL. You are indeed just a bit busy.

 

"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face" - Mike Tyson

 

So, couple updates.

1st, finally got my headlight retrofit "done" last weekend. Down the road I'm gonna pull them again and add a little more, but they turned out pretty sweet!

The halo's, HID's, demon eye's and projectors are from Morimoto. The housings are some cheap eBay housings I picked up.































Now, onto the next update coming THIS weekend.

It's hard running a business and building a truck at the same time. Last week I was talking to a guy on a local facebook page that wanted to get into overlanding with his 04 Tundra. We got on the subject of my camper shell and roof basket, so he came into my shop and we started picking out a basket for him.

Then we got on the subject of me replacing my shell with a rack, which then turned into me showing him the rack on All Pro's website.

By the end of his visit, he walked out with my rack I bought for my truck, and I had $500 cash in my pocket.

Thinking nothing of it, I called All Pro to reorder the 3rd rack for my truck...come to find out the amazing awesome news. Backorder for 4 weeks.

So, I had to wait 4 weeks...to get a rack...that I had to fabricate once it got here anyways?

No. Wasn't gonna happen. So I set out on an online adventure to locate another rack. After a while, I came across what's called the Xtreme rack from Go Rhino..which happens to be the same manufacturer of my roof basket. I went nuts trying to find it, only to find out...it's been discontinued.

Here's what it looks like.



What clicked in my head next was the fact that it's the same style as Go Rhino's Lightning Rack, which is the same roll bar/light mount I was considering a while back.

Gears started turning, and I decided to do a photoshop of it. Photoshop looks like **** thanks to angles, but you get the idea.



After spending more and more time looking for a rack, I decided to pull the trigger on the Lightning Bar's instead. My issue was the fact that they don't make them for a 2nd gen, only 3rd gen and up. I found pictures of a 2nd gen with one, more research resulted they used the 3rd gen setup and I hated the fact that it stuck up over the cab.



So I measured a 3rd gen from a neighbor in our complex, and discovered the cab height from the top of the bed is 23" high. My 2nd gen is 21" high. So, I started browsing more and more and found they make it for the 99-06 GM truck's, which one of my employee's owns. So we measured his, 21" high. I got the bed dimensions for camper shells off google, found out it's identical in width and length. Looked up the part numbers on a distributor's website, even more luck. 2 in stock in my local Portland warehouse.

So, I ordered them yesterday. Delivery will take place tomorrow.

Then, I started looking at it closer, getting all excited. And found for some reason the tubes are a different shade than the uprights and crossbar.



So, again, a little photochopping, and here's the final outcome.



I'm starting off with just getting the rack mounted across the top, completing the "rack" sort of say. For that, I'll either take some flat stock or some 3/16 2" wide strips, run them length wise using the holes in the Lightning bars where lights are supposed to mount, then drill several holes through the strips to bolt the basket down. That's my weekend project for right now.

The Lightning bars aren't designed to hold any weight, so I'll have to keep what I load in the basket to a minimum for right now. I'm gonna get some brackets from Home Depot to be able to mount my ARB Awning to the passenger side, and I know I want to eliminate the trail rack off my TireGate, or at the very least lighten it up as much as possible. So the two 4 gallon Rotopax I have right now I'm thinking I'm gonna mount on the underside of the basket, stacked together on either passenger or driver side. On the other side, I'm gonna stack some red Tred Pro 800 recovery ramps.



From there, I wanna start fabricating everything for all my remaining gear. Land anchor, Hi Lift jack, axe, shovel, etc.



Updated photo's to come probably Monday.

 

Are we havin' fun yet?

I like your truck.