5100s Installed.

Well I finally got around to installing my 5100s yesterday. I am pretty stoked. Its amazing how much of a difference it makes. I ended up doing it myself with some help from my brother. Overall the install only cost me $15 on top of the price of the shocks for a ball joint separator.

They are set at 2.5, rear is stock (Canadian truck, so it comes with the 4 leaf pack). Once the shocks settle a little bit, the back will be just a little higher than the front, so I think it worked out well.

And on to the pictures...

Stock, before lift:



After, don't mind the dirty truck. Its been raining here for days.





And finally a rear shot, which also includes my matte black vinyl wrapped bumper.

 

Looks sweet! One of these days ill do the 5100's.

 

Looks perfect. I've been running the same setup (with UCAs too) for 50k miles, no complaints. They are phenomenal shocks for the money.

 

Looks good!

Are those front flaps stock??

 

Yeah, but I trimmed about 2 inches off the bottom, and did a few modifications to the top (tire side) so they would not rub on the tires.

 

Looks sick man! I like your setup..kinda the route I want to eventually go when I have enough extra $

 

Nice job bro! I wish they had 5100s for us 5 luggers. I would be all over that!

 

What was the total cost all said and done (parts, alignment, install, etc?)

 

Truck looks cool.

What's the vinyl wrap on the bumper? Any more info on that?

 

$220 + Taxes for the shocks.
$15 for a Ball joint separator.
$0 for my time to install.
$40 for dinner after the install.

As far as the alignment, I have not don't it yet. Just letting them settle a little bit. Plan on doing it Thursday or Friday. I have only driven once since I have installed them, so I am not too worried about the tires. Chances are it will be around $80 for the alignment when I get it done.

 

Thanks!

Well instead of trying to find a local to swap rear bumpers with, I figured it was just easier to wrap my chrome one. I plan on getting an aftermarket bumper eventually, so that was the other driving force. I picked up some matte black vinyl from a local art store. It only cost me about $11 bucks for a 15 inch by 16 foot roll. From there I removed the chrome bumper skin and proceeded to apply the vinyl. Overall it took about 3 hours, and totally worth it as that was the last piece of chrome on the truck.

 

that looks awesome! good job!

 

where did you order the shocks from? and are you planning to put new UCA's in?

 

looks good

 

Good choice! Love mine!

 

Looks awesome man.

What are the chances of getting a good alignment while set at your height?

 

I got them from Essex Distributors (http://www.bilsteincanada.com/contactus.php), located in Richmond BC. I just went and picked them up as it was only a 20 minute drive. They were $110 each. A little more than you pay to bring them up from the states, but I didn't have to drive to the border to pick them up, or pay for shipping, so it pretty much evens out.

 

Looks good. The 5100's are good stuff

 

What do you mean you removed the chrome skin on the bumper? How did you apply the vinyl?

Truck looks good! It looks like a truck now!

 

Well there are basically 2 ways to remove the bumper. The more intensive way, which involves removing the hitch (if you have one). There are less bolts (4 large ones if I remember correctly, plus maybe 2 for the hitch), but because you have to remove the hitch it proves a pain in the ass.

If you remove all the smaller bolts which attach the chrome skin to the inner bumper, plus 2 large bolts which hold the hitch to the bottom middle of the bumper, you can literally just slide the bumper skin off, while the inner bumper structure and hitch stay on the truck. I think there were 8-10 bolts this way.

From there I just removed all the plastic toppers and wrapped the bumper. Installed in the reverse order and marvelled in my work.