The Dog's Spruce It Up Build (and BS)

Yeah man, you too. I'm up in Desert Hills kinda Tramonto/New River area. Perhaps we'll have to hit some trails at some point as well.

 

Its a plan... If you are on IG hit me up there too @tacos_and_haboobs

I don't check TW all that often... Unless I'm bothering people with a bunch of questions. Haha

 

Cool, I don't IG much but I'll follow your feed.

 

New toys....thanks to @Jon@Mule















Electrical next....

 

All hooked up.

 

Looks good.

 

Factor 55 Flatlink Multilink installed today. Pretty much done with the winch now.

 

Well I finally did the hammer hangers this last weekend.......did you end up doing yours yet?

 

Rivets....damn rivets.....

Hammer hanger install went down last weekend. Spent several hours over a couple of days drilling pilot holes, enlarging holes and grinding rivet heads down overhead. Took plenty of breaks and primed & painted underneath the old shackle hangers that came off the truck to get rid of any surface rust and let it completely dry overnight before installing the new hangers.

Some tools and tips that I gleaned from this install were:

1. An angle grinder, air chisel and several cobalt bits (5/32, 1/4, 5/16, 3/8, 1/2) on an hex extension with keyless chuck made precise holes in the rivets allowing the rivet head and shaft to gradually be drilled out and the heads popped off. Some other people have reported using a ball joint press to remove the shaft of the rivet but this was not required for me.







2. Use a tie down strap to pull the exhaust out of the way enough to get your drill centered over the front vertical rivet on the passenger side hanger. Also a bottle jack between the leaf eye and the bed will help you easily push the shackle down into the hanger to get it installed.






3. Finished install!

 

Next on the To-Do list:

LCA's!

 

I havn't... Still an idea for down the road... Maybe when I redo my rear springs again.

Looks great tho! Nice work.

 

Well, drove the truck for the first time since the hammer hanger install and on the quarter mile of washboard and rutted gravel road to get from my house to the main paved road, it’s night and day how solid and planted the rear end feels now.

Fairly impressed. I’ll be honest I was just expecting beefier shackles but the increased stiffness is shocking.

 

Some glam shots from the last time it was washed.

 

TC LCA's installed. Heavier than stock arms but lighter & more ground clearance than stock arms + LCA skids that I was running previously in addition to a much stronger 1" uniball vs ball joint.

 

Guess I need to close out this build thread. Got the itch for a new project and a different ride and TACOVRD was sold locally in January 2021 to a friend who is continuing on the mod journey and using the truck as intended. I was glad it went to a good home and if I'm being honest, I would have loved to have kept it AND got the new rig as well - SPRUCE MICA was one of the all time best colors. The new whip is a 2019 T4R ORP that has just started down the mod path - boring Super White but an ideal color for Arizona.