Run to the Hills! - Jason's Glacial Pace Colorado GTFO Build

Firewall Tubbing for 35s - Engine Skirts

After the work on the interior, I shifted focus back to the wheel well.

I really want to try to close out as much of the spaces that were exposed during the tub process as possible. The three main areas of concern are:

1. The engine skirts. Despite the truck being in great shape, the stock skirts were falling apart.
2. The void between the outer fender and the inner fender at the door. Basically, mud, water, mag chloride, whatever has a free shot at the door and hinge.
3. The same void toward the front. Once the liners were pulled, the elements had free access to the back of the corner light and part of the headlight mount.

The goal for today was to replace the engine skirts. Using the old ones as templates, I cut new ones out of some rubber sheet that I bought from McMaster-Carr.

All in all, they turned out great. I had bitten the bullet and bought new clips to mount everything back up, and that proved to be a good call. The only thing is that I might re-cut these down the road. The factory skirts still have some coverage gaps, but are definitely better than nothing.

Stock engine skirts. They were in way worse condition than they appear here.​

Stock skirts cut into two pieces to minimize wasted rubber material.​

Cut lines and hole positions for punching. I used a 5/16 punch to make sure that the holes weren't too small.​

New skirts cut and punched.​

Installed!​

 

I've been in the same boat recently, bud. Glad to see you are doing well.

The sealing came together nicely. I envy your patience and attention to detail on your tubbing. I was on a 1 week deadline before Rock Therapy and am afraid to see whats underneath the carpet when it comes time to do sound deadener. No leaks for sure, but I know there are some rough spots that need flattened/smoothed out and possibly shot with flex seal simply for aesthetics.

 

This. Your interior looks insanely clean compared to mine. Makes me want to go back and clean it up a bit if I can. I'm getting water under my weathertechs but can't tell if it's related to the tub or not at this point. Great job as always Jason.

 

Thanks for the kind words, Austin. I saw your post in the BS thread and I'm sorry to hear about your loss. Life can be pretty tough sometimes.

And thanks for the props on the tub work. We'll see how well it all holds, but I'm feeling pretty good about how it's turning out. I only wish I had more time to work on it.

Haha! Thanks, Mike!

What you can't see is all of the grinder dust, dirt, old French fry pieces and everything else that's still in there! But once the other side is done, the last thing I'll do on the inside is pull the seats and the carpet and steam clean the hell out of everything. I don't want to baby it or anything, but part of the reasoning is that it might help identify any leaks if they happen, as well as limit the funk. The Weathertechs did a great job of keeping mud contained when I was camping over Thanksgiving, so I'm stoked about that.

Oh, and I hope you can track down that leak!

 

So...

I might have drawn up a pretty cool solution for my spare tire in Solidworks. If I can fab it, it should leave ample bed space for camping gear without going down the swing away rabbit hole.

I really don't want to hang all of that weight off of the back of my weak ass 1st Gen frame, even if (when) I have frame plates and boxing done.

By the way, if I can pull this off, I owe @capturecolorado a twelver of good beers. I took his idea and made it my own.

More to come...

 

Group buys are the devil!

 

I finally found it. I think I tlked to you about running shocks outside of the frame and a guy nothing the frame to do so. here's the link I was talking about.

 

Thanks, Ray! I'll have to check that out.

Either LT or SAS are pretty far down the road, but I've been reading up on both like crazy. This definitely helps add to the knowledge.

 

Still running a full width axle though. to do that on a stock width one you'd damn near cut the axle in half haha

 

Yeah. If your going to do that then link the bitch. Make it worth the work.

 

No doubt.

I keep looking at what you have to do for SUA LT setups...and just keep thinkin, fuck it. Linkin it. haha

 

I just barely finished up reading @jberry813's 1st Gen LT build. Good God, that got me thinking all sorts of things.

It's all basically moot for me right now because I have spent a fair amount of time and money on a pretty decent MT setup that isn't even done yet. I want to make damn sure that I get it as dialed in as possible for my style and my uses and then wheel the shit out of that setup before I even think of stepping up to either SAS or LT. Because it could very well be that a well thought out MT setup is just fine for me, and that my money could be better spent elsewhere (*cough* trailer *cough*).

 

Yea at this point in your build. You need to wheel the piss out of it. Id wheel it enough to at least to get to the point you need new tires before making any drastic changes in that direction. Good measuring stick to know you've got the "miles" under your belt. You'll have a good idea on what you like hopefully by then haha

 

Exactly.

I have to fight my tendency to fuck with things. So holding myself to not making a big change like that until at least 30k-40k miles is a damn good idea! Besides, I think the truck will be pretty damn good once the rears are in and the valving is dialed in for my loads and driving style. One of the things that (I think) I learned from reading through Jason's build is that, if you have to, you want the rear to outperform the front, suspension wise. Or another way to look at it is that you want any 'unused' performance to be in the rear, not the front.

 

yes. it is MUCH easier to control a vehicle if the rear is always going to be planted and predictable. If the rear bucks you around a lot and is unpredictable...can be very dangerous.

Once you dial in some valving the truck will do great im sure. You'll be able to stretch its legs and push it in the direction you want....whatever the hell that is haha

 

Nice! I got it right!

I love learning about this stuff.

 

Firewall Tubbing for 35s - Driver Side Interior Wrap-Up

Well, I made some more incremental progress on the tubbing stuff... I buttoned up the driver side interior for what I hope is the final time. I may come back at some point and touch up a few things, but honestly, it's good enough. Anything more is just indulging my OCD, which isn't always a good thing. Anyway, here's the low down:

For starters, I trimmed up the kick panel. I did kind of a hack job with it despite trying to slowly walk into to it. Turns out I really didn't need to cut much up toward the dash, as most of the material that got removed was down near the floor pan. Regardless, it turned out well enough.

Today's starting point. Interior tub sealed and painted.


Kick panel, pre-trim.


Kick panel, post trim. Took too much at the top. Oops.


Messy wiring. The mount for the 4WD ECU was obliterated as part of the tubbing.


Homeless 4WD ECU.


Can't see it, but I used two layers of double sided machinist tape to stick it to what's left of the interior body panel. The cable tie is added security. Good enough.


Not the best fit for keeping the carpet down at the top, but fuck it. It'll work.


Door trim installed.


WeatherTech finally back in the cab. Almost looks factory.
Almost.


Seat installed for what I hope is the LAST TIME. Fingers crossed.​

It isn't much, but I'm really stoked about this. I can actually sit in the damn thing now and not have to worry about jamming my foot through a gaping hole in the floor!


Next up:
Here's the plan to close out the gaps and shit that were created by having to rip out the plastic inner fender pieces for the tubbing:

• I have some
  $40 Kydex Plastic Sheet Black 24" X 48" X .080"
  24"x48" 80mil Kydex on the way that should be showing up late this week. I should be able to use that to bridge the major gap between the inner fender where the tubbing happened, and the outer, removable fender, which got trimmed. Turns out that after tubbing the firewall, trimming the outer fender, and lovingly applying some BFH to the forward inner fender, what's left is an almost perfect alignment between the outer and inner fenders that can be bridged smoothly with the kydex, as opposed to trying to reuse the factory liner with all of its bumps and pockets. It should be rigid enough that I can have it protrude slightly past the outer fender into the pocket created by the flare.
• I'm planning on using the same rubber material that i used for my engine skirts to bridge the gap between the outer fender and the flare after having trimmed them both for the tires. I'm going to trim the flares to where they are about a half inch further into the wheel well than the fenders. Then I'll rivet the rubber to the inside of the flare and the inside of the fender, which should cover up the nasty looking edge thats left after the trimming. The idea is for the Kydex liner to bridge over the rubber once the outer fender is mounted up, thus keeping mud, water, mag chloride, dirt, sand, and small animals out of the fender and flare. We'll see if it all comes together.
• The lowest part of the outer fender is flopping in the breeze after having to hack off the mounting point to clear my tires. Up to this point, I've used duct tape to keep it somewhat attached to the lower body. What I'd like to do is epoxy a hex nut to the lower body and then drill a hole thru what's left of the fender there to bolt it down. At some point, I'll have a nut welded there, but whatever. We'll see if it works.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Sooo what kind of seats are those?

 

I believe they're from a 2003 WRX. Sooooooooooo much better than the shitty stock ones. At some point i want to steam clean them and throw on a set of Wet Okoles.

 

What was involved in mounting them?