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#2
Finally I had a truck to start making a trail rig from. I got a set of add a leafs, to put up front from a friend, and some blocks, for the rear. I was then a little to low in the front still, and my 31x12.5 boggers that I picked up from a local jeeper, were rubbing pretty bad. I took a sledge to the pinch weld, and added some oru lift shackles for the final clearance. Next up was some armor, so all my hard work didn't go to waste. I bought a tube bender, and borrowed a welder,bent some tube and got the front bumper put together. I bent some tube for sliders at the same time, but had to return the welder befor I could install them. I took the bent tubing pices to a dirt track racing friends house an had him weld the sliders up, and mount them to the truck. Next up I pulled the rear 3rd welded the spidergears together , and installed a lockright in the front.
I wheeled it for a while like this, till I blew the motor. I rebuilt it basically back to stock condition with a 60 over bore, but pretty much stock, and cheap as possible. It was down for about 6 months while I was building the motor, and most of my friends moved on to different hobies.
I did get to wheel a few times, and make some new friends, but I wasn't satisfied with the truck. I didn't know where to turn, but I had too much invested to stop, so I decided to tear my truck down, fix some issues and upgrade to something bigger, badder, better.
The frame was rusted behind the gas tank, the suspension didn't work as well as it could have, and the bed was beat due to me learning how to manuver my rig offroad. I needed some rollover protection, and didn't feel secure taking my then 5 year old son out wheeling on the rough stuff. It was a going little truck though and would wheel with all the local jeepers, no problem. It would take a little more work, to manuver it due to the pushpull steering, so that had to go as well.
I pulled the bed and inspected the frame, and decided it wasn't worth keeping. Out came the sawzall, and off came the narrow rear, and all the frame from the cab back. This is where the good stuff got started!
More to come.... Lots of pics too
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