Wheeling in Utah is never a bad time! The low range gears are definitely worth it, I’ve never been mad about having them. I appreciate the kind words, I’ve built the truck while being back in college off and on! It’s been a lot of fun/work/missery, I’m glad that people are enjoying watching me...
I was also freaking out at how much it was going to cost to straighten the frame.... turns out it was only $800... still bad.. but could be worse. AND I DONT KNOW HOW I MISSED IT. BUT THE FRAME HAD A GIANT BUCKLE IN IT
The frames back to being straight enough but the area that buckled is...
The frame had signs of being bent because the welds on the crossmember were bent, the radiator didnt line up with the core support, and the sway bar didnt line up in its hole. So I spent about a month panicking because I didnt know what to do with the car and I had to wait for the body shop to...
It drove the car for about 3 days..... and then a dude pulled out in front of me and I smashed into his car😋.
Insurance found him to be at fault which is nice and nobody was hurt. So as bad as it was... it was pretty good.
Out of all of the things that I've done, the sway bar helped the most. Because the sprung weight of the 80 is so high, I opted to get a 7/8" bar. It seems to pair fairly well with the amount of low speed compression put in for street driving. I still haven't wheeled it, so that update will have...
The next hurdle to tackle was the arms. I got some tips for the bend from Nick Gustafson on instagram and learned an important lesson. With a swag bender, whatever the angle finder sees is double of what the bend is... dully noted. The arms seem to fit though so I'm happy. I landed on a total of...
Next up was the sway bar. This was kind of a nightmare. I borrowed a mag drill from an acquaintance which made one side a breese.
Issue 1. I started running into issues because drilling through both walls of the frame and keeping the holes lined up felt impossible. I'm sure there's a trick...
Lets see, what was next. I fixed the bump steer finally. After remeasuring and having a friend do some magic in solidworks, I learned that the frame side panhard was about 7/8"ish off. So I whipped up some brackets to extend the panhard bracket down, made a cover plate and boom. No more bump...
Eeehhhh just order a derale yourself. I don’t think wits end is even in business anymore because he ripped off so many people
https://derale.com/product-footer/fluid-coolers/ram-air-coolers/heat-sink/dual/clear-1
I cut out the wheel wells in the front and the lips out of the rear. The lips on the flares were cut out because I’m running a 17x9 -38 wheel. 17x9 -25s seem to slip by the lips on the rear of the flares by just a tiny bit. The front and rear had the equivalent to a 1.5”ish bump stop extensions...