What did you do with your truck this week?

[Southeast Overland]

I'd inspect the following: lost some chunks of tire lugs, wheel weights, drive shaft, worn out tie rods (inner), front wheel hub bearings. The last two you can check by jacking that wheel off the ground and grabbing the tire - check for excessive movement of the wheel. If you have up/down movement as you push on the tire (push against 12 and 6 o'clock) then it is most likely the hub bearing. If it only moves side to side (pushing against 9 and 3 o'clock) then very likely the tie rod inner ball joints are worn. Another thing to check is the uniballs in your upper A-arms. You need a big ass box wrench to put on the 22mm/7/8" nuts under the ball and another equally big wrench on top of the ball joint assembly.

I'm throwing mine up on the lift after work to do a thorough visual inspection and check on my front hub bearings.

I went the quick n easy route first and just sprayed off all mud on the inside of the wheels. There was a good bit there. I have a set of extended travel ICONs waiting to go on. I'll inspect everything hopefully later this week when I install those.

 

[GXO]

I convinced myself to do a SAS on a Lexus GX470 this weekend. The IFS on it is apparently not up to V8 power. So begins another crazy project.

 

[Trollhole]

Got one seat done at the office. Man it looks good. Aatlasx1 does some fine work.

 

[BMThiker]

NICE!!!

 

[IndianDoc]

Very Nice indeed!

 

[Cirbo]

Just picked up the front and rear bumper, and the seat mount from the powder coaters.

 

[Trollhole]

Cannot wait to see this finished.

 

[Trollhole]

Drove it to the Banjo-B-Que in Augusta, GA for a BBQ competition and listen to some good bands. Have a great spot. JP and I are planning our trip out as well.

 

[IndianDoc]

BBQ

Learn any new sauce secrets, not that yours needs changing at all it is devine. But varity is the spice of life.

 

[BMThiker]

Changed out a bad bearing on the front driver wheel with a new one I already had pressed into an old hub assembly and installed new studs. Then tracked down a horrible squeak I've had since GSMTR (maybe even before) that turned out to be a loose exhaust hanger.

 

[Southeast Overland]

Installed FJ Freedom Windows.

 

[ClemsonCruiser]

NICE!!

 

[Trollhole]

I like that.

 

[Trollhole]

Hung out with JP and cooked BBQ all weekend while watching the bands play. An awesome weekend. Heard old crow and drive by truckers.

 

[ClemsonCruiser]

Cooked with troll......

 

[ClemsonCruiser]

Also pulled the engine in the 45, 2.5 weeks until we leave for MN!!

 

[BMThiker]

Is that a fuse sticking out of the bag?

Also did this on Saturday...
Kitty's been dying to replace the front grille with an older style. We first looked at doing the Rhino grille, but they are hard to come by without paying big bucks and would have required more modification to the front clip. Here's a chart for reference:

We finally got a hold of a Razor grille and it was a little dinged up. Kitty hammered out all the disfigurements and we had it powder coated a dark metallic gray. We also had to find new light buckets since we were going from a rectangular headlamp to a round. That came sort of spontaneously when a friend working on a Samurai project (Will) told us to check his pile of parts. Low and behold the light buckets were the perfect size. We only needed to line them up and tack weld them to the front clip. Here's some install shots.

We trimmed the top edge off the old grille this weekend to fill in the gap between the hood "scoop" and the top edge of the grille. We powdercoated the headlamp frames in "chrome" and the valance that will eventually fill the gap at the top will match the grill. Waiting for the powder to be done on it.

 

[the gimpey one]

cool!

 

[BMThiker]

Here's a shot of the section we "recycled" and then one of the finished look.

 

[ClemsonCruiser]

looks mean Rick..... I like it