Quarter Million Mile Build - The Mule

Thanks, ton of good info!

 

Finally got around to removing the old custom bumper the PO welded on to the front. Probably spent about 4-5 hours at it. Such a pain but its gone now and I can start focusing on getting my new one installed.

Almost done with one side



And done

 

And threw on a sticker that makes me laugh #noyetis

 

I remember you asking me about the factory bumper mounts. Maybe you've already thought of this, but if you use a crossmember reinforcement kit, you can weld a nut on the backside of the top holes, since your factory tabs on top were cut off.

 

I have the reinforcement plate I'm going weld on. Any reason I wouldn't just use a non welded nut? Convenience?

 

Yes, convenience is the only reason. The factory mounts have nuts welded in place. It will be a lot easier to bolt up the bumper with nuts welded to the backside of that reinforcement plate.

 

Makes sense. Unfortunately one of my factory welded nuts is no longer there so that poses an interesting dilemma too. Might try to run the bolt out through the back, not sure if that's going to work though. I guess I could just make that hole a little bigger where the missing one is and weld a new nut on the reinforcement plate.

 

And do you have any idea what the two sizes of bolts are?

 

The two top bolts are the same as the two inner lower bolts, I can't remember the size and thread pitch. My addicted off-road reinforcement kit came with all the hardware. Drilling that lower hole out to fit the nut on the plate is a good idea, that's what I would do.

I recommend tacking the plate on and test fitting the bumper. These frames were tweaked easily over years of bumps and hits. My '87 was in a collision but the bumper fit better than my straight '85 for some reason.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll definitely do some test fitting first.

 

Now chop chop!

 

Sub'd, love the build. Hoping to do something similar in the future

 

Soon soon. Getting some exhaust work done this week then on to this.

Thanks!

 

Got the exhaust redone. Added a missing cat converter and tucked the muffler way up there. Now the exhaust doesn't cross the plane of the rear axle so I'm ready for my shock relocate after the 63s are on. And now that I have a cat its so much less stinky driving around. Go figure

 

Got my old hangers cut off and tacked in the new hangers for the 63s. They'll be going on tomorrow. Also got the front prepped for the bumper reinforcement plate. Welded a nut on the back for the one that missing.

 

Finished up the 63 install this weekend. Only getting about 4" of droop out of them though. I think I'm going to throw a double shackle setup in and see if that yields more or not.

 

Right?!?! WTF. Maybe they need to be broken in

 

Lol that ain't right.

 

Yeah. I'm going to remove the driveline and shocks again, throw in some more shackles and see what happens.