Just to preface, I knew this truck was going to have some rust going in. I import vehicles and have a friend in Japan doing translations and even looking at cars before they're bid on. I was able to afford and justify using this truck for the more moderate wheeling I have planned because it's not an absolute peach though I was pleasantly surprised it's as nice as it is in certain areas.
The biggest and really the only area of concern came in the rear upper shock mount tube that also holds the forward edge of the rear upper spring perches in place. Structural bondo and masking tape.
I used a 2" OD 1/4" wall straight section after looking at the frame mounts and spring perches and decided to make my own upper shock mounts rather than bend the tube and try to reuse the factory pieces. Its easy to assume this tube rusted out because the factory shock mount goes through the tube and it wasn't adequately rust proofed inside. Pretty simple fabrication overall but my main goal was to raise the upper rear shock mount 2" so I could use 10" travel Bilstein 5100s instead of the presumably stock length replacement shocks that came on the truck.
Wire brush off the flaking undercoat, weld through primer in necessary areas, then self etch primer and undercoating on everything. I ran some cavity wax through the inside of the new crossmember as well.
Shocks I used are:
Front Bilstein 33313146
15" collapsed 23" extended
Rear Bilstein 24238885
14.9" collapsed 24.6" extended
Okay so not quite 10" travel but really close. I think I'm going to get another pair of these to try on the front as well, they should fit and extend my front droop slightly. Currently I can drop a rear spring somewhat easily, no idea what brand they are but the truck is the same height as other 2.5" lifts I've been around. I'll probably end up with the dual rate Rabbit4x4 3.5" lift springs as they're about 4.5" longer free height than what I have now and should droop really nicely.
The biggest and really the only area of concern came in the rear upper shock mount tube that also holds the forward edge of the rear upper spring perches in place. Structural bondo and masking tape.
I used a 2" OD 1/4" wall straight section after looking at the frame mounts and spring perches and decided to make my own upper shock mounts rather than bend the tube and try to reuse the factory pieces. Its easy to assume this tube rusted out because the factory shock mount goes through the tube and it wasn't adequately rust proofed inside. Pretty simple fabrication overall but my main goal was to raise the upper rear shock mount 2" so I could use 10" travel Bilstein 5100s instead of the presumably stock length replacement shocks that came on the truck.
Wire brush off the flaking undercoat, weld through primer in necessary areas, then self etch primer and undercoating on everything. I ran some cavity wax through the inside of the new crossmember as well.
Shocks I used are:
Front Bilstein 33313146
15" collapsed 23" extended
Rear Bilstein 24238885
14.9" collapsed 24.6" extended
Okay so not quite 10" travel but really close. I think I'm going to get another pair of these to try on the front as well, they should fit and extend my front droop slightly. Currently I can drop a rear spring somewhat easily, no idea what brand they are but the truck is the same height as other 2.5" lifts I've been around. I'll probably end up with the dual rate Rabbit4x4 3.5" lift springs as they're about 4.5" longer free height than what I have now and should droop really nicely.
