ponethousand's build

all the cool kids are doin it

 

Fuckin right dude

 

Shit starts tomorrow

 

Aweful lot of preload on dem coils for cutting

 

Need to change the springs eventually. One thing at a time.

 

I'm almost tempted to buy a cheap ass harbor freight welder and give it a shot.. Got to start somewhere.

 

NO! lol Not from there

 

I think you may have to cut your front bumper!? And your slider! Eeeek haha

 

We'll see tomorrow once I take the coilover off and stuff the tire!

 

I'm so nervous for you! And everybody here is! We're nervous for you! I was just in the bathroom, and everybody is talking about how crazy this is!




(+1 to whoever gets the reference)

 

Hot rod.

 

Good luck, we're all counting on you.

 

First I just want to say wanting 35's is a love hate relationship. Love the look and I'm sure I'll love wheeling with them. HATE getting this shit ready! Long tedious process.

Made my first cut line.




I ended up having to cut three different times to make it fit.

The lower portion has a lot of damn sheet metal. Take your time, be patient, don't cut any wires. In fact zip tie the wiring harness out of the way and put a damp cloth between the wall and the wires. Sparks fly everywhere.



This picture shows after the first initial cut.



Now that the first cut was done, time to take out the coilover and compress the tire.



As you can see the 35 fits nice not fully compressed



Compressed but not full turned to locked.



Ran in to another problem Tanner warned me about. The Elite bumper sticks out too far.



Ended up taking an 1.5" off of it.





Second pass. Still rubbed at full stuff.



Final pass. Shit clears!

Tomorrow I'll tackle passenger side. Should go faster now I know what to expect. Also need to trim the fenders, mess with the flares, and trim the rear. I'm going to take my time with this but hopefully it'll be done soon. Hard to work on shit when you have a 1 year old daughter and a wife that is due in 3 months. Might as well do it now while I have a little time!



I ended up taking about an inch more of depth toward the center of the truck. Pretty much cut to where the kick panel brackets are. I was able to save them

Finished!


Also had to push this shit in. Tire hit the top a little.

 

cut cut and cut some more!!!

 

Yahoooooo! Nice work Paul! My tabs on the kick panel are barely hanging on to! Looks awesome man! Good job

 

yea damn..1.5'' out of the Elite..good to know.

Least you don't have to do the sliders too!

now the other fun part..welding on the super thin body haha

 

Welding is the easy part..... Tack, next. Tack, next. Move around so one spot doesn't get to hot. One thing to make sure of though Paul is when your tacking back up, if it's possible have someone push with the butt end of a hammer or something like that on the spot your tacking. Your welds will be 100000 times better and easier if the 2 joints are pressed tight to eachother. I started off by just tacking the 2 up without pushing on it, and every tack burnt through. I had my dad help me push with the handle of a hammer. Worked much much better. And start with the tightest joints first. I.e where the fender and door jam meet. Just to the left of the hinge. Your cut looks exactly like mine to! Looks like those templates would have worked hahah


The hardest part of the whole thing is cutting the curve in the rocker panel. IMO. I don't know how many times I swore trying to fit the grinder in extremely awkward spots and unsafe positions hahah. I'm surprised I still have all my fingers and toes lmao.

 

Dang paul, looks good. If you ever decide to upgrade to 4.88's, Ill buy your 4.56's. Ill give you my gears to use for a swap with ECCS.

 

Sounds like a plan. Going to be awhile though. Few things want to do first. I wonder how the 4.56 will handle the 35s

 

You're not the only one wondering that