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Nice buy. I guess if I had all that combat pay burning a whole in my pocket I would have jumped on it too. That will be a nice present to unwrap when you get home. Congrats.
Its really not truely stock anyways now with the header, webber carb, and tuffy console. I think the mirrors are mounted like '73-older and its got a step mounted in the back. So...I wanted a solid, rust free, low milage, good running base to start with. Gary's rig was perfect. I don't plan on ever selling, hardcore wheeling, or locking regearing and springing over this rig. Thats what the disassembled '88 62 will be used for. Except for the selling part lol. So why the hell not just go ahead and do what I want with it? I'll keep all the stock parts if I ever decide to go back to how it sits now. Although I think I'll love it as a daily driver and expedition rig when its finished. First off I want all the little things fixed and try my best to prevent it from rusting out. I ordered a gallon of high gloss black Rust Bullet paint. Looks like a great product and sounds like its better than POR 15. I plan on painting the frame insided and out, axles, brake covers, steering components and anything else that catches my eye when I get under there. Theres a couple parts under the hood, the metal plates on the back of the seats, and seat mounting brackets that could all use a couple coats. I'm still coming up with ideas on how to best coat the inside of the frame. Anybody have any ideas? I want it to be close to 100% rust proof as it can get for the extreme blizzard winters in FT. Drum and for back home in PA too. I'm so sick of dealing with rusty frames and bodies. 
Yesterday I had a good friend that owns a body shop look at the tiny bit of bubbling on the doors/bib. He will be fixing/painting that for me sometime in September. Specter Off Road has an upcoming 20% discount for members next week. As soon as the sale starts on the 18th I will be ordering their sor replacement seat covers, headrest covers and some new foam cushions for the install. Kinda pricey and looks like a pain to install but will really set off the otherwise clean interior. My back will thank me later too. I also want to repaint the inside of the ambulance doors with some touch-up olive green. They're scratched up pretty badly on the inside. My dad is going to go ahead and fix all the minor little things for me like the fuel gauge, emergency brake, windshield washer, loose hardtop headliner in back corners, and add the second lisence plate light. My father is awsome for picking up this rig and working on it for me! He loves this 40 btw lol. He's a heep guy from way back but now I turned him to the dark side. 
Nah, I had him with the 62s lol. I'll also see if he and my brother would be interested in installing the Hellcreek 4" lift and 5 34x10.5 LTBs I just ordered for me before I get back. I will have them mounted and balanced on the stock rims. I went with this lift because I've read lots of good things about it here on mud. It was cheap too @ just over 600 shipped. I guess there is the occasional problem with too steep shackle angles with this lift. Not too many ppl have had this problem I just hope the angles won't be too far off for me. If they are apparently the customer support at Hellcreek is great and they will replace free of charge. There is also a lifetime warranty including sagging! Can't beat that. I chose the LTBs for several reasons. Yes I know they are bias ply, most ppl think they suck on the road where it will be used 99% of the time, and they wear quicker than s***. But the size is perfet for ~ 4" lift, they're cheaper than most mud terrains, are tall and skinny with stockish look but have a nasty agressive tread design, and shouldnt be a problem with armstrong steering @ only 10.5 wide. I think the tread actually only measures out to about 9.5" wide. I've ran 33x13.5 LTBs for a couple months on my shackle lifted '89 62 and the onroad handling was fine for me. I liked how all the extra rubber soaked up little bumps and imperfections in the road compared to 31s. Really smoothed out the ride nicely on all the rough Pennsylvania back roads. They did wander a little bit on uneven paved roads but that could have been due to the retardedly long ass shackles and worn steering components on 13.5 wide tires. I can say LTBs totaly kicked ass in the mud and rocks. I really didn't like how they sucked away all the power of the 3FE onroad. Especially at higher speeds, but I don't think I'll see these problems on a lighter better running rig with this narrower size and with the lower geared 4 speed standard transmission. They're about 4lbs lighter than the 33s too. I think they will actually be better for speeds over 50mph, rubber overdrive. I'll try to have my dad and bro take some pics along the way and when its done I'll post up with details. Man I really can't wait to get back home now! Less than 90 days left and I'm outta this s*** hole!
I went with 1" over stock up front and 3" in the rear but the bushings have the wrong inner diameter for the greasable pins in the front, so I gotta get the right size bushings. We had a problem with the shackle angle in the back, it was at such an extreme angle the back of the rear springs was actualy hitting the frame over bumps. 
The shackle mounts on the frame must have been moved forward at one point or another. The seats got removed now too and are getting reupholstered, all the frame and brackets repainted. Its coming along nicely! My dad is having too much fun working on the 40. Theres not gonna be much left for me to do when I get back!
