Thanks! More to come soon

 

Going to watch this one, similar to what i want to do with mine down the road.

 

I lied a little. I neglected it over winter and maybe out an hourish a day into it. Lost some motivation. Gained it back. And recently started making progress on it. My bad.












Couple purchases for the build. 40" goodyear mtrs. I'll be running steel wheels, possibly rim stiffening them or just getting beadlocks eventually. New knuckles, hi steer arms, and psc's assist extreme trail kit. I also picked up 5.38s, a front locker and soon a rear locker.

 

That last picture is the 40 next to a 35.

Ok now pics everyone wants to see and what I did.

























Ok so I picked up a 14 bolt out of a 78' 3500 van. Got it cleaned up, painted, disc brake swapped, welded the tubes but still have to do the gears and order the locker.

I cut out the old crossmember for the shock mounts, and plated the outside, bottom and inside from the c pillar back. It got painted and the axle underneath.

I still need to fabricate new front leaf spring hangers so I can stretch the axle back a bit, also to tub the rear fenders and put in the shock hoops.

Currently, I'm working on the front, I'll have pictures soon. Hopefully

 

I also sold my old lincoln 140hd and picked up a fancy miller 211.

 

Progress on the front so far.









Plates done on the passenger side.










And the driver side.

Some of the welds were ridiculous to get in and do. When I pull the motor, I'll re do some of them but for now I think they'll be fine.

I just need to finish up a few welds and a few motor mount gussets and the front axle will go in and the suspension/steering will get mocked up.

 

Nice! That is going to be one bad *** rig when it is complete!

 

Ok, It's been awhile since i updated this thread. I pushed back the axle swap a couple months. Here are some things I've done in the meantime. I cut out my rocker panels and welded in 2"x6" 1/4" thick rectangular tubing. I trimmed my doors up about 2". I still need to seal up the bottoms of the doors but i recently got 16 guage plate steel to do so. The painters tape marks how high the cut on the door was. I didnt take many pics while doing it. I still need to do the otherside so if anyone is interested i can take some better pics of the process.

 

I also made my own stubby front bumper as well as remade the front crossmember. I finished my front/bottom plates to the end of the frame rails. The new crossmember outlines the old one and is made of 1/4" plate steel.

The bumper is made of 1/4" 2"x4" box tubing, with a 1/4" plate that slants back and meets with the bottom of the new crossmember. I used some 1/4" steel as brackets and made some makeshift d ring tabs. I doubled up on the tabs with another 1/4" plate. I may cut them off in the future and replace it with 1" thick tabs from ruffstuff or jcr.

 

The most recent project I'm still currently working on is tubbing the rear fenders and raising the rear gas tank. The fender tubbing is about done, some small holes I need to patch, and re-route the tail light wires.

I'm also relocating the gas tank up about 8". Currently making brackets to hold the tank, and re-route the filler hoses.

 

Prepping the front axle to go in, i welded on my tnt truss and the lower control arm mounts.

 

Gas tank case, still in progress

 

Happy to see you come back with an update. Keep us posted!

 

Yeah I had stuff come up, but hopefully this build will be looking good within the month. As long as some parts come off back order.

But today I'm finishing up the welding on the gas tank box, and making the filler hose tunnel thing.

 

Finished up the gas tank case today. Used 3m automotive seam sealer for the fenders and case to keep water and fumes out. I also tried out por15. Used the marine degreaser, metal prep and gloss black. Came out good. It was a little work intensive but I have a pet peeve for spray painting and having the paint chip off after a week. Undercoated the inside of the fenders and used some paint for the interior to keep the sun off the por.

I just need to figure out where I'm placing the fill hose/gas cap on the body. I'm most likely going with a Tj bezel