Build Welcome home Matilda - faded like your favorite pair of jeans

[CruiserTrash]

I hear you there. I used M18 bolts and they were 20 bucks a pop, just for the bolt. I’m sure with larger orders the price would go down but probably still spendy.

If I did all of this stuff and put together a "shackle & leaf spring refresh package" - that was for a single axle only - consisting of:

shackle plates
shackle pins (greasable)
Anti-inversion bolts & spacers for shackles
front fixed pins (greasable)
all new bushings

...I think I'd be into it for a little over $400 in parts cost alone. That's enough for one axle and includes everything except leaf springs. What you'd get versus off-the-shelf stuff is beefier 3/8" shackles plates made out of 4140 steel in sizes larger than what's readily available, as well as larger diameter beefier shackle pins. All metal parts are hardened steel. Everything is zinc coated for corrosion protection. If I throw a tiny bit on top of the cost to pay myself for time spent designing and sourcing this stuff, packing orders, etc, the price is just not something I think people would bite on. But like I said if somebody needed a custom solution I'd be happy to help walk them down this road or design some shackle plates or whatever.

 

[CruiserTrash]

Chipped away today.

Made a custom adjustment bracket and installed a 3FE 80 Series alternator. 80 amps versus 55 amps.

It runs great and my voltage is VERY happy.

Finally got the rear bump stops in. I snapped all four bolts removing the stock ones, then had to drill and tap new holes (last weekend). Today I just slapped these in with their spacers.

The bumps will fully compress by about 1” and will bottom out before the shocks do. Mission accomplished for once! I intended on replacing the rear shackles and all the bushings today, but alas … didn’t have time.