Official build thread.

Finally getting around to posting my build.
The day I brought it home. $400 truck. Nice body and came with a 3 inch body lift but both heads were cracked, no exhaust, missing front driveshaft, snapped front axle, no oil in the rear axle, bad brakes all the way around, mismatched wheels, etc...

Got a set of heads (aftermarket supposedly stronger). Port/polish job and a set of Hedman headers.

After that, I painted it and slapped a set of 32s on it with some steel chromies.

Fixed the 4x4. New transfer case motor, milemarker hubs, and replaced 3rd member (3.27s)

Got a brush gaurd off of a Cherokee to fit on the truck, UWS steppie toolbox, built a spare tire carrier, and added a set of American Racing AR23's

Added Rough Country leveling coils which netted 2.5" lift :icon_confused: . Used 3 degree camber bushings to correct it.

Built front hitch reciever. Here you can see how far off the camber was

Added single 3" in, dual 2.5 out exhaust with Flowmaster Super 44 and 3.5" Silverline tips striaght out the back :icon_bounceblue:

Got a set of 33" Swampers and Mickey Thompson Classic IIs


Start of the 4.56 gear/disc 8.8 swap. Bought complete 4.56 fron Dana35 axle from member TeamExplorer for $150. I opted for the open carrier as Im putting in an Aussie in the near future.





After the gear swap I dropped some coin on some brand new 35" BFG KM2s and found a Yakima roof rack on CL for $200 ( I do a lot of camping ). Snapped my newish lockouts and swapped out to the Warn 37780s...havent had a problem since.

No photos, but the exterior lights are all LED. Used flasher EL12L2 from napa. You need to revers the wiring for it to work properly.
And here's how she sets now. Just recently finished my front bumper.

Still yet to come is Aussie locker for the rear, F250 shock towers/longer shocks, extended radius arms (fabricated by me of course), and some EB coils for more flex because everyone know the TTB coils dont flex for ****
I'll update this thread from now on when the money burns a hole through my pocket or I get creative.

 

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Definitely came a long way.

 

Looks awesome dude, alot of sweat and blood in that truck!

 

Thanks guys. You've all been a big help tho. Before I started to roam the forums, I knew NOTHING about this little truck lol.

 

I thought it was lifted more than just the 3"body body and leveling kit! Damn that truck is good looking! Personally, I'd get rid of the roll pan in the back but that's just me. lol I love it though dude.

 

Yea Pete. 3rd gens dont need much to run a lot larger tire.

I dont really like the roll pan either, but it came on the truck and it would need a new bed to put it back to stock so I could get to building a rear bumper for it lol.

 

Did it come fused into the bed? Or did you do that? And get to building! Haha I'm sure you can fab something up to look good

 

Yea :/ It's molded right into the freakin bed.

 

It does give it a real clean look. Just looks like an albino black chick's ass because it's so round. Hahahaha. But yeah, at least it's clean. Actually kinda reminds me of a rally truck because of the tailgate/bed extender thingy.

 

That truck has come a looong ways! Nice work.

 

Well your truck has come A LONG WAY from when you got it man! I'm sure you've put a ton of money into it too though..

Yours is definately one of (if it isn't) my favorite 3rd gen. I can not think of another that I actually like more then yours..

 

Also I like the bed extender and rollpan, I think they add to your truck a lot!

Unless you can come up with a good idea for the rear.. then you could just hack off the bumper, do some fiberglassing/bondo work and you wouldn't even be able to notice it was fused in to begin with..

 

^ Thanks bud! Mean a lot.

As for $$$, I probably have around $5-6K in it total, including buying it and rebuilding the topend of the engine twice lol

 

Damn, my truck drained me and it looks nowhere near as good as yours...

 

Gonna be a good weekend!!

 

Brad, I gotta say you got your priorities in order, truck then the girlfriend!!
but when you get married that will change so do it now haha

 

Maiden voyage:

 

Some of you know I bought a 4" lift at Carlisle All Ford Nationals a couple weeks ago. Well I just finished up building my custom leaf springs. Ended up with half ranger/half explorer springs (expo main spring) with 6 leaves, all new isolators, plastic friction pads and OEM rubber bushings. Next is a set of custom extended radius arms.

 

Picked up these Hella 4000i Pencilbeam 6" lights with 100w bulbs the other day. Now I need to weld some light tabs onto the damn bumper as the lights are so huge