Run to the Hills! - Jason's Completely Stalled Colorado GTFO Build

Um.... careful with that "mod" as buddy did that and there isn't a decent solution for e-brake...

 

As it is right now, it’s already pretty close. I have 2” to work with, which leaves me a quarter inch for the weld around the tube. When it was all said and done, it worked perfectly, my lowers are maybe 5 degrees downward tilted if that. I couldn’t be happier.

Exactly right. It’s actually kind of nice that the crossmember ends up almost right in the middle between the two front bed mount locations.

 

Picked up some raw materials.

2x2 for bump mounts and strike plates
2x3 for a crossmember
1x2 for bed support spacers

I can see the finish line from here!

 

Yeah that's my plan as well, when I re-re-locate my shock mounts. Push the upper mount as high as possible and balance the travel with the axle side mount.

What did your total extended and collapsed measurements end up at Jason? You are running standard body 10" shocks, correct?

 

Yeah, mine aren’t short bodies or anything. They’re 17-3/8” collapsed and 27-3/8” extended.

I’ve got my bump limit set up to be 1/2” shy of the shock bottoming out and the droop limit is about 3/4” from top out, which on my Expos is limited by the main leaf geometry and travel.

 

Today wasn’t super productive, but at least I got my my bump stops set and ready to stitch up.

 

Weld looks horrible... you should start a fab shop

 

I really think I could be great at taking money and not fulfilling orders!

 

You have the TW business model down

 

Hey Brett, where did you get your exhaust tubing when you installed your magnaflow? I’m planning on cutting the flange off of the old exhaust leaving enough to weld to the new tubing. Is that what you ended up doing?

@Squeaky Penguin

 

If you want to do it right, don't do it how I did.

I welded the muffler to the existing pipe while on the truck. You can weld the 2.5" inlet to the stock pipe, but there's a bit of a gap that needs to be filled.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I was hoping that I could weld as much as possible on the bench, but we’ll see. I’m trying to figure out where I can dump it and not have it in the way of a fuel carrier like @Reh5108 ’s. I have the same resonator that you got, but I think I went with a slightly different magnaflow.

Where did you get your tubing with all the bends and stuff?

 

It was from Jegs or Summit or something. Just search for 2.5" bend and they sell all sorts. I just bought one with several bends in it I could work with. You could also pie cut straight tubing if you want to put in a little more work.

If you ditch the straight stock tubing before the muffler you can probably make it all fit. I think the resonator will also work before the muffler. Or mount the muffler sideways ahead of where it originally was and then followed by the resonator. Then you should have room to keep it tight to the shock and over the top of the leafs.

 

If you get tube that's already bent look for Mandrel bent tube. It flows better than the other way of bending tube.

I highly recommend vbands for your connection points. No need to ever worry about gaskets blowing out and leaking.

 

Welding is done !

Overall, I’m very happy with how everything turned out, but there are definitely some nasty ass welds here and there.

I also got the shocks recharged, thanks to Ben at Filthy Motorsports in Boulder, so they’re ready to install.







When it was time to install the fuel tank crossmember I derped up and cut the damn thing 1/8” to narrow on both sides, so I had to weld in some shim material to make it fit. What should have taken an hour ended up taking two and a half, but it all worked out.









I also added a 3x2 crossmember to the back of the frame near the shackles to give the frame some stiffness since I’m not reinstalling the spare tire crossmember.







The plan for tomorrow is to get everything painted and also clean up and reassemble the leaf packs, install them on the truck and get the brakes sorted out.

 

weld your best grind the rest

 

Looks great dude! Kicking ass. I didn't know what you meant about the carrier sitting between the resi's but now I do.

 

Everything looks great bud. You should add a little more weld to this before you button things up. Also look into stainless steel T bolt hose clamps so you won't have to worry about your resi.

 

Looking good! Curious why you left the overhand outside the frame rails on the upper shock mount tube?

 

Exactly! That pretty much sums up my welding experience at this point

Thanks, Mike! That’s really the only spot that made sense for the resis, so I trimmed down the mounts that I got from Ruff Stuff to get them closer to the frame. There’s still more than enough room to fit the cans in between there and keep them back toward the rear crossmember.

Haha! Thanks for being my QC check, Ray!

Apparently I flat out forgot to come back and stitch those in, so for now they’re just hanging by the tacks. Good eye and good catch!

I think I know which clamps you’re referring to. I believe my fire extinguisher mount uses those. I’ll try to find some!

Thanks, man!

I left those long because I’m lazy, but mostly because the crossmember is going to be right under the bed so it’ll basically be another bed support. I felt like I might as well leave it that wide to get out a bit further toward the bedsides. They’re just about even with the outside edges of the bed mounts on the frame.