Thanks!

got a bit more done over the weekend. all the wiring is finished, driveshaft is in the shop getting rebuilt/lengthened, floor pan is coming along and i made new seat mounting studs since someone had cut 4 of them off.

wiring consolidated. im going to route this down the center console vs by the door since i dont plan on putting any carpet in











seat mount studs 1/8 steel and 8mm bolts. 3 on the drivers side, one on the pass side but i didnt snag a pic of that one









all ive got left to do now is finish patching the tunnel, build fuel tank mount, and install my drive shaft once i get it back!

 

well shes road worthy! went to the parts store and my buddy's place the other day.put about 10 miles on it and so far smooth sailing. does 70mph with no shakes or wobbles. since i currently lack a tow rig, ill be driving to and from the trails for now. will get it out in the dirt soon to do a shakedown. we've had some pretty crapy weather (by az standards) and a lot of the spots i wanted to go were closed off due to flooding.

the list is completed! well for now anyway lol



fuel tank mount mocked up, built, and painted









new rear diveshaft



passenger floor clearanced and boxed for upper link. i painted the floor for now, debating on bedliner or sound deadening mat and vinyl flooring










painted the underside of the hood




added some edge trim around the fender openings. its called trim lock and fit pretty nice. this is mostly to keep me/others from getting cut not the tires. ive only got about 4-4.5 inches of up travel




maiden voyage to the parts store, then to my buddy's place which is across the street from my old house

 

Turned out amazing, that thing is absolutely badass

 

Looks awesome!

 

thanks guys! hopefully i can get it out in the rocks soon, works gonna have me tied up for a while though...

 

still havent made it to the dirt, but got my floor pan/tunnel completely done, drove it to work a few times and used it to go pick up new doors for my house.

its been having some starting trouble and misfires while running but its intermittent and hard to trouble shoot. sometimes it takes for ever to crank and back fires a few times while cranking and once its started will seem like it goes into limp mode occasionally. cps, cam sensor, and tps all test fine. fuel pump has good pressure, 48psi while running, all grounds are good and clean, so im not sure where to look next. possibly fuel injectors? we'll see...

onto pictures

clecos became my new best friend on this project







sprayed with galvanized coating then flat black paint. just to prevent it form rusting for now. eventually id like to add sound deadener/heat shielding and something over that other than carpet





"take your manche to work day" finished the floor at work and did some goofing around








barely fits in the weld shop (length wise)





the biggest burm i could find at work. check out that flex!
(crappy night pics)














since the burm was a let down i did some floor jack flexin as well












and lastly, using the manche as a work truck

 

finally made it out to the dirt for a good shakedown/test run. didnt get to crazy as the chick and i were out alone, but still had a good time. bottomed out the shocks a couple times. need bump stops up front and ill be making shock hoops for the rear to get more use out of the 12" bilstein's. hydro assist is F***ING AWESOME! with the front end locked (its welded), one finger steering in the soft sand/dirt ruts and small rocks we played in. even at speed, the cylinder reacts a lot quicker than i expected. cant wait ti get it out on the big stuff soon!

pardon the cell video quality, the gf isnt quite a steady hand, and kept slipping lol these were the smallest of hills we climbed. just didnt get video of the rest







pics



























tuckin that 40. need to trim teh pinch seem a bit more













put almost 100 miles on er yesterday

 

went out to the desert this past weekend on a javelina hunt, but mostly played around with the jeep. before i left i changed out the crappy parts store cps for a mopar one in hopes it would aid my hard start issue, but it didnt. also added some rigid dually pods up front. winch and bumper are next on the list

mopar or no part


lights




wheelin around in the desert
























sorry for the quality of the next few pics, the sun was just about gone, but i had to get up on this rock! i tried to brighten some of them up

 

got another chance to take the manche out last weekend. before i left i built bumpstops. in the front im using the daystar extended bumps and 3 hockey pucks per side. the rear i got 4.5'' bumps and added a piece of 2x2x.25 square tube above them. didnt get finished pics but you get the idea. also did the h4 conversion with rampage housings and hella 80/100w bulbs, and a putco harness. im not at all impressed with the harness, and both hella bulbs burnt out in less than an hour...







wheelin pics























went to box canyon to meet a buddy but got there before him and decided to wheel around by myself for a while. found some awesome trails and did some great crawling. didnt get many cool pics cause i was having to much fun















and then this happened...




long story short, it was pouring rain and i couldnt see to well since my wipers dont work and apparently applying rainx in the RAIN doesnt work, i had no service and was heading back to an area where my hone would work so i could see where my buddy was, cam up to a small hill and i thought the road went over the hill, not to the left at the crest, tried everything i could to prevent it from rolling and it once i realized it was going over, i made sure it happened nice and easy. it was a very slow and controlled flop and the top passenger cab corner landed on a small pointed boulder which kept me from going all the way onto the roof.


damage assessment: its not buffing out



discovered a new use for my hi lift





and like nothing ever happened lol the rear window broke when i tried to remove it, not from the roll

 

Damn that sucks man. Was loving your build till I got to the end.

 

Knowing the work this guys done, I don't think it's the "end".

That is a ***** though! Crazy nice build! Time for that cage I'm sure you've been thinking about.

 

thanks to the both of you. i dont think he meant "the end" like its over, but more "it sucks to see it got banged up." it was a relatively clean truck, but now its got a few battle wounds! either way, im definitely not done.

cage is definitely in the near future. very near. with my tax return im going to be purchasing a tube bender, a couple dies, and a notcher. i currently dont have a large enough air compressor to run a ram, so im looking more into the jd2 model 32 vs the rogue fab bender. once i get a larger compressor, i'll get a ram and the swag kit for the jd2

 

Yes sir! Just meant once I got to the end of your build thread, not the end of your truck. You've definitely done too much work to that thing to let it end like that.

 

 

picked up a 99 intake. bead blasted it, will be gasket matching and cleaning up the injector humps. hoping for some more low end torque out of the stroker. also the exhaust header (apn i think or knock off?) is cracked/rusted through somewhere...

so since im pulling it all apart ill be building an entire 2.5" exhaust system. goal is to get all that done by mid next week so i can go wheel once more before i start the cage/slider/bumpers build



hold my beer, watch this









oh and this 100lb beauty showed up yesterday