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

That's them.

I also have the parts in stock you need.

 

Kickass. Thanks!

 

Got a little bit more done today.

The truck looks like it has a nasty overbite after tearing everything down.







I was able to get the cam tab gussets welded up. They’re a little rough, but they’ll do the job. I went a little hotter and I got a little bit of undercut at the top edge of the 1/4” stock. Should be fine, just not super pretty.







I also pulled the LCAs, which for the most part was not a huge deal. Turns out, @thefatkid was right. I had a seized cam that required a sawzall to remove. Two of the other cams were pretty rusty as well. I’m definitely gonna anti-seize the shit out of the new ones when they go in with the new bushings.

 

You don't want to put too much anti-seize on those cams. If you put too much on it could cause it to slip. So just a nice thin film on there will be perfect.

 

Careful with the antiseize. Theoretically the clamping force from the bolt should keep your alignment so make sure the mating surfaces are clean and dry. A very think layer should suffice just to prevent corrosion Honestly since you have SPC uppers once you set your cams for max castor you shouldn't ever need to adjust them. If they seize again it shouldn't matter unless you need to replace a lca.

 

Thanks, fellas. That’s really good info.

 

Just got the OEM cam tabs off. Took some doing, but it really wasn’t too bad. Not sure if I’ll get to welding the new tabs on today or not, but it’s definitely good to have this behind me. It also means that I’m committed at this point. Gotta see this through and get her back on four wheels!


Pile of old parts.





Sweet spot weld drill. I went through two of them due to breaking the teeth once the bit went through the original tab. Totally worth it and pretty cheap at Harbor Freight.





This helped a ton with drilling out the spot welds on the inside front mounts. Highly recommended.





Pretty straight forward process. The tabs on the front mount are the ones that require the spot welds to be drilled out. Once that’s done, it’s a (relatively) straightforward job of wailing on the tabs with a hammer and chisel until they pop off.









The back mounts are much easier. They are welded at the top and on the outside edge. I hit the outside weld with a cutoff wheel and then pried the tab off. They did require a little chisel work, but all in all, not too bad.











Now I just need to break out the right angle die grinder and grind off the leftover spot and stitch welds. Then I’ll sand down to bare metal, sand the new tabs, and burn those shits on!

 

I wish I had a 90* drill when I did my cam tabs.

 

The spot welds we’re a pain, but that drill made it so much better.

 

Ya the spot weld drill bit was great. My stock tabs had been welded a little because they got flattened out at one point. So they were a giant pain.

 

Might consider replacing those skid plates mounts with some thicker steel while you've got it all apart. Those stock ones are made out of warm butter.

 

Dude, I was just thinking about that today in fact. What did you end up doing on yours?

 

@cynicalrider I think did something pretty beef to his as well.

 

Whatever I had laying around. Think it was 1/4"x1" bar stock. Made very sure the nuts I welded on the top wouldn't break off like the factory ones.

 

Beautiful burn! You got this!

 

Cynicalriders "J0hnny5 is ALIVE!" 01 build thread.

I used 3/16 but was able to bend it up around the frame a bit.

 

Thanks, Brett. I have some 1/4 bar, but I might just go snag some 1/4x1 and then cut it to length.

Thanks, Ray! I did my best. Still very much a noob welder, but I’m getting the hang of it. If I weren’t spending the day puking and fighting off the stomach flu, the tabs would have been welded on the truck by now

I saw that. I like how you guys bent it up the frame, but I don’t know if I’ll go that big right now. Thanks for the link, though.

 

It was helpful that he had a swag off-road press brake that I could bend it to shape. Oh and the lift to make the welding nice and easy. He’s got all the fun tools.

 

I have to stay away from the Swag website. So much cool shit. I really want their table that turns my porta-band into a bench top band saw.

As for the mounts, I’ll probably just go with 1” bar stock like Brett suggested and bump up a fastener size like you did. That’s still a huge step up from the tin foil skid mounts.

 

Finally getting over this shitty stomach flu, and I decided I wanted to make at least a little more progress on things today. Unfortunately, due to really gusty wind all day, I wasn’t able to get the new cam tab gussets burned onto the truck. Instead, I decided to take a shot at removing the old OEM LCA bushings and the spherical bearings from my coilovers.

Turns out, the bottle jack and MAP torch trick works like a charm. The old bushings came out no problem despite a decent amount of rust. All in all, it was a fairly straightforward process.