Weak Sauce Build

This has been my go to for parts.. kind of hurts my heart a little. TRD with the locker rear end. Someone tore the axles out of it though. Bastards. I think it might have been a theft recovery because there really isn't any severe body damage.


Anyway.. I finally finished uninstalling the body lift. I have some pics to share; first order of business was to remove the support blocks from the frame:

I win.


Next I had to address the rear bumper. This gave me some trouble as the "body lift technicians" flipped the bumper brackets and then welded them in place.


I tried to cut the welds so I could use the brackets until I got new ones but no luck. I went to the junk yard but just as I figured the bumper was gone. Dealer wanted $285 for a new bumper and wouldn't sell the brackets alone. As a last resort I looked on Craigslist and what do you know I found the whole assembly with brackets for $25... not sure how I got that lucky but I did.

Now that the bumper issue was resolved I just had to remove the two gas tank extensions (rubber hoses) and remaining pucks and I was in business.

***The only bolts that had to be thread specific are the four bed bolts closest to the cab. The thread size is M12-1.25 and I got them 40mm in length. You WILL NOT find these at Home Depot or Lowe's, you will need to go to a specialty shop.

Here is my body lift now:

And I got my new Kuhmo Road Venture M/T's, I must say they are amazing. Quite and so smooth.

I washed the truck today but it got dark before I could snap some decent pics. I will have the finished product posted tomorrow.

 

Clean looking truck man...

 

looks much nicer without stilts

 

Truck looks sick !

 

+1....looks SO MUCH BETTER....

Dont know why anyone would want to put a 3'' BL on a truck...considering they are a pain in the ass and look like utter shit. You have to have strong derp to decide to put one on your truck.

And thanks for the pics and tips. Will definitely be looking at your post while I am taking mine off.

 

Thanks for all of the compliments guys. Not only does the truck look way better, the way it handles now is like night and day. When I removed the old Ranchero struts they would compress and then not decompress! It was so harsh and I can't tell you how amazing it drives now.

I have a lot of stuff left to do like complete blacking everything out-just have bumpers left. I will update the build frequently as I'm sure it will never end.

Taco-if you need any advice or get stuck send me a pm and I'll help where I can. I removed the BL with no help at all.. it's really not that hard. Honestly it's more annoying than anything.

After my personal experience I don't understand why anyone would ever install a BL on anything. I will forever be an anti-bodylift advocate on these forums.

 

Amen man...thanks

And the rancho shocks not rebounding is normal. (if they were the cheap RS5000's) They are fluid emulsion, not gas charged so they wont rebound on their own.

I just cant wait to get this BL off and throw on some real suspension (coilovers and new leafs/shocks) Will ride SO MUCH better.

 

Yes those are the standard packs. Just fyi they handle weight like shit. I put my old tires in the bed, which aren't that heavy imo and it dropped down quite a bit. Tires are the same size I had, 33x12.50x15. No rubbing whatsoever.

 

truck looks awesome man, any trouble gettting those 15s to fit? do you have the 4 piston calipers in front?

 

To be honest the wheels were on the truck when I bought it... Not sure about the specs on them. Calipers are stock so I'm not sure if they are 4 piston or not.

 

Nice work partner! Truck looks good and I know from experience the pains of removing a bl and spacer lift. Man they ride like mierda and sucks when you get into only to find that the "technichians" just welded bumper brackets into place ...etc. Learnin experience tho nuh? Anyhow do you rub at all in compressed conditions?

 

Definately a huge learning experiece! Unfortunately I haven't been able to take it off road yet but so far I haven't rubbed once. I am going to assume something will rub when I get it off road but I'm very happy with it so far.