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Got my own homebrew front bump stop extensions installed today. The front tires were rubbing at full flex and turning a bit. I had about 2.5" of space between the factory bump stop and upper rubber stop. I figured a 3" extension would be perfect to stop the tire just before rubbing. I have used this style bump stop extension on 3 80s now without issue. Cost about $15 total for the 6 pucks and hardware. Here you go.
Here is how you have to hold the nut in place and fish it up through the tiny hole to get the bottom nut threaded on. The tape is just there to get the thread stated. Once started I switched over to my 5/8" open ended socket.
Here it is all installed.
This is the tiny hole under the lower coil spring mount you have to fish the nut through
No vibes right now BUT Chris did a TON of work to address that. I have the caster correction plates up front, adjustable pan hards front and rear, after market double cardan driveshafts front and rear, metal tech adjustable rear uppers, and some adjustable rear lowers (don't know the brand name). He had the allignement done a couple times to get it dialed in correctly and I know he had some vibes that seemed to be corrected with the double cardan drive shafts. Because of all the weight of the armor, spare, trail gear, 3rd row, ladder, rack, awning, winch, etc. I was not getting nearly the lift height out of the comp springs that most were getting so I added some MAF 30mm spacers front and rear to get it back to the correct height and clear the 35's a bit better. I have not driven it at highway speeds with the spacers yet so not sure if any vibes will come back but I doubt it since the suspension is really dialed in nicely.
So today was set aside to finish up the door panels Chris started but never finished. He was running into a challenge of getting these larger deeper speakers to fit in the doors. Looks like he decided to just make his own panel and move the speaker further out on the door mounted onto a large universal spacer. It allowed the window to clear while going up and down BUT was driving me nuts since it kept rubbing on my left leg while driving. I decided to tear the door panel off and see what type of clearance issues Chris was dealing with. I realized I only needed a little less than 1/2" of clearance to make it all clear. Fired up a 3D printer and made some 1/2" shims that go into the door. I reinstalled a new (to me) door panel (since the old one Chris cut all up) and then reinstalled the speaker without the huge spacer. Everything just barely cleared. If Chris would have had access to a 3D printer this is probably the route he would have gone. There is just no spacer out there that is the correct diameter and depth. My spacers were a little off so I had to do some grinding and sanding and more drilling to get everything to line up but eventually it all lined up perfectly. Now it looks way more stock, has more clearance for my leg and zero interference issues of any kind. Hopefully Chris approves.
Before:
After:
Those panels came with the truck. They were the ones Chris was planning to use to redo the door panels. They were in excellent shape. I didn't know how he planned to fix the door panels so I just used what he had and made it look as good as I could. They are the LX450 faux wood version, but that doesn't bother me since this 80 has the faux wood interior anyways.
Sweet. I tried to use every single piece Chris had pulled together for his build. There were two huge bins full of OEM and aftermarket parts. Every single piece is now installed. The maintenance items he had discussed (like the birfs) have all now been done. At this point everything Chris started or talked about starting is done. I just need to fix the wiring issues I'm having. I am now going to move on to adding some personal touches that I want. With 4 kids and a trailer; I have some needs that Chris never had.
Nice work, bhicks!
