I really think you should just Z it now while its apart, and set your suspension up to lay out on the size tire you plan to run. You dont need the exact tire to do this, just basic math. And if you dont want to clearance the firewall or move the clutch yet, run spacers under the bag so it doesnt lay completely right now. You will hate it being nose high though, I guarantee it. Its really easy to relocate the strut rods, or just triangulate your stock lower arms. You're not gonna want to do it again later, so its best to do it right the first time.

 

unusual fab sells a kit just under 90 shipped its pretty simple could pretty much walk you through the process if need be. much better then strut rods.

 

I will look into triangulating the lowers myself. You have any more pics? I'm sure I can fab something up without having to buy a kit.

As far as rims go. The truck has 205/75/14's on it right now which is roughly 26' in diameter. So that should give me more than enough clearance for a 225/30/20 or 35 series tire if I go that route.

I guess my only real dilemma is that my truck is at my shop and I am on somewhat limited time. It is my daily driver so I cant have it down for a long period of time. I was going to order my ends for my 4 link today and get going on the 4 link, but Forbidden Fantasy is on sunday and I figure I could get some there for a better price so I'm waiting.

Got the inner fenderwells completely cut today. Gave myself about a 1 1/2' clearance all around. When the truck is on the ground (with rear up) it lays on the strut rod mounts and the x-member is about 1/8' off the floor. I gotta get the back end down to see how it will affect the front. Tire is almost touching the master now as well.

If I had help from someone hands on who has done this before it would be easier.lol My fabricator doesent understand some of the minitruckin' things we do.Hahaha I'm just taking it one step at a time. Going to take my good camera to work and snap a few pics of what im talkin about. Thanks for all the input guys, it really helps.

 

sure if you got a pipe bender and get some bushing you could do it yourself just was giving you the option wasnt sure on your fab skills

 

Thanks man I appreciate it. Yea we have a tubing bender and everything else need for fabbing. My friend who is helping me has been fabbing his whole life. He used to build sandrails from scratch for a company here in Socal. He's very knowledgeable. I'm trying to get him to think more like a minitrucker. LOL he says "thats alot of work for 1.50'" I keep telling him it's worth it.LOL

 

these bars where 1.25 x 1/4

 

Wait until you wanna bodydrop it. Hes gonna be like "Hole **** that is a lot of work for 2 inches!!!!"

 

Yea I know... lol

 

Another small update...

My cheapy $40 intake.lol It'll get the job done.




Some 18's I just picked up for $250. Couldn't beat that deal even though it wasen't in the budget...lol

Started the passenger side cutting out bumps and shock tab. I'm going to have all day tomorrow to work on it. The plan is to have the front done by the end of the day. We'll see. I'm waiting for some answers in another post in suspension about front bag brackets...(*hint *hint) Hopefully I'll get a bunch of pics of the process and have a good addition to the post tomorrow.

 

I just got nailed on my emmissions for having a breather filter on that canister instead of the line going into the filter box.. What a sham. Tried telling the guy the hose isnt metered by the MAF it just straight into filter so whats the difference, he unfortunatly didnt give a crap.

 

Awww that sucks man... I might delete my charcoal canister and evap stuff with a fuel cell along with the EGR as well. My Reg was due this month but truck wasent rolling to go to smog... Non Opped it 'till it's done. Might have to go non-legit on smog... I know a guy who know's a guy who knows a guy...lol It's pricey though...

 

Hey bro i might no a couple of people to for your smog when you get around to that.

 

Sounds good on the smog thing...I'll talk 2 ya about it @ the show. Didn't get as much done today as I wanted and I have a buch of questions...


Naked rear end...




Upper bag plate (we made it waaay cheaper than bought)





Me torching away





Before grinder...




After...




One of my questions is does it matter if the bag touches the upper plate when fully compressed? (pic below)










And also if you look in the pics the bag touches the inner balljoint bolt head as well. I need some help/advise...

 

most bag setups i've seen the bag touches when fully compressed. just make sure that you round off the steel there and it should be fine.

i know you don't want to pocket the frame, so can you lengthen that lower plate you have so it wraps around the bolt head? kind of like making the top of the bolt flush with the plate.

 

I suppose I could do that. Pocketing the frame wouldn't really be a big deal at this point either. One guy suggested just changing that bolt to a button-head style bolt as well. I might try that. Another problem I'm having is that I think my lift is going to be limited by the upper controll arm hitting the bag plate. Probably going to have to clearance the uppers as well. Anybody have any pics of stock arms clearanced?

 

Update... Got all the front mounts tacked on...








Here's the mount










Ended up cutting the heads off of the inner balljoint bolts and plug-welding them in the holes to keep them from touching the bag. Dunno why I didn't think of that before...lol

















Plan for tomorrow is to get it all welded up and bring my damn camera to take better pics... I swear I forget it every other day... Looks like I'm going to get 7 inches of lift before the upper controll arm hits the bag plate... We're going to clearance out the uppers once we get it all together and air it up and see what were dealing with. Got a pretty good sunburn at Forbidden Fantasy and been throwing sparks on it all day...

 

Lol I always put a button head bolt in that hole so I can replace the bj

 

upper brackets look good btw

 

Thanks. And I can still replace the BJ with the stud there.

 

Nice man looking good