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I was gonna buy them if cutting and pulling the bed didn’t turn out but it honestly turned out better than I expected. Gonna be my new favorite mod for **** box trucks I get lol. I thought about cutting and pulling the front fenders once I had the new fiber glass ones on as a project. I have way too many projects and I like to slack to much though so that might be on the back burner till I have a use for them.
got one of my lift spindles on, it was pretty easy. Ball joints all came undone without a fuss. The upper control arms I got ended up being for 07-18 trucks so I sent them back and ordered another set on Amazon. Still gotta pull, clean and paint the springs and install the spacers for them. I’ll probably do something to space the struts up a bit more so they aren’t at full extension and I plan on trimming the droop stops and I have some limit straps I’m going to use instead.
The glass bedsides seem like they would be way more work then just cutting and pulling the steel bed sides.
Got the front 3” lift knuckles and upper control arms installed. Went really smooth. No way in hell I’m able to fit that spring spacer in to try to lift it more but that’s ok because the springs are on the stiff side right now anyways so adding more compression to them would just make it worse. Overall I’m really happy with how the truck sits and looks so far. Can’t wait to do the cat eye front end on it with the glass fenders. Got alot more trimming in the front to clean up the look of it but I’m happy with the current rate of progress.
got some 1 3/4” lt headers and a y pipe for it. I’ll be building a little 3” exhaust with a flow master Fx flow series resonated muffler and have a 4” tip dumping out the passenger bed side. Currently it has stock manifolds and no cats or mufflers lol. It’s pretty raspy but surprisingly isn’t that loud in the truck.
Fenders showed up late in the day today. Was able to throw the hood on by myself and got an idea of how the fenders will fit. I think they will need some minor trimming by the bolts that go in from inside the door jamb and I’ll have to trim a little off the front of the inside fenders but I think they are gonna fit pretty good. I need to run to pick a part to look for 03-06 headlight brackets but I have everything else I believe for the cat eye front end.
also I finished the bed supports and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I used Simpson strong ties from Home Depot for the brackets and bed linered it and also cut plastic pieces from the inner front fenders to cover the open holes so I won’t be packing mud way up into the bed. I also cut the frame horns off and plated the frame rails in preperation for building a tube bumper and winch mount. I got a smaller winch for the front of the truck because 2wd you know 🤷♂️
Well I’m dumb and didn’t realize the hd vs non hd cat eye grills fit totally different. I ordered a hd grill because I thought it looked better but got a base model hood so I’ll have to get a base model grill to match.
Front sits at 41.5” from center of fender to ground. Rear is 2” lower at 39.5” on both sides. Kind of surprised there’s no Chevy lean on the drivers side.
funny that 35’s are considered small tires for prerunners now. Everyone is running 39 or 40” tires on full-size trucks. I don’t understand how you can clear those with lots of travel without doing a **** load of clearancing to the cab or having a massive amount of lift.
removed front sway bar, plan on adding a suv rear sway bar to the truck to help make it more rear end biased.
still gotta finish fitting and mounting the fenders then I’ll pull them as well as the hood and paint everything 382e pewter gray color matched spray paint. I don’t care to make this truck perfect as long as it’s all one color I think it will look good enough.
took the led light bar off the roof. The relay for it got wet and was dimly illuminating it causing a battery drain. I may integrate it into the tube bumper when I build that but only if it looks good. Other wise it will get sold for cheap on craigslist. I plan to do a chase rack with flip up Baja lights behind the cab.that will be down the road though and probably after I get some sort of real suspension for this truck.
my grill and headlight brackets are coming in today so I should be able to make it look like a truck again. I have to trim the bottom of the bed sides in the front because there’s almost no clearance to the tires also.
shoot - our H3 was designed for factory 35s just like the new Broncos (GM just went down to 33s to hit EPA numbers).
35s on my stock-suspension 2500 look like what Fiat should've installed.
...but for GMT800s, yeah, 35s take some work & look like you put some effort into it.
I was pretty surprised how nice the truck drove on the 33’s (closer to 32s because they were so bald) it didn’t feel like it lacked power at all. I haven’t driven it yet as I’m still in the process of building it.
made a quick tube bumper today and skid plate but I hate how the skid plate is blocky. I’m gonna taper the inside to be a bit narrower. I used a cut up tow hitch for the arms on it that the bumper also mounts too.
note: grill is hd, hood is non, have a non hd grill on the way. I didn’t realize how different they fit till I put it on and was like damn 😞 lol
Last edited by T-RevMotorsports; 01-29-2024 at 08:32 PM.
Got the roll pan on and trimmed today. I like the look overall but need to add some bracing to the lower center part as it’s pretty floppy dick.
also cut a hole in the bedside for the exhaust to come out. Going to start pulling the stock exhaust off today and put the long tubes on and build an exhaust for it.
also picked up a roll bar for $40 I’m going to modify to fit the truck and turn into a chase rack with pop up Baja lights on it. Planning on doing a cargo net instead of the tailgate.
Scaled the truck today. It came in at 4500lbs flat with a 30lb tool bag and 1/4 tank in it. I thought it was going to be heavier with the 35’s and beadlock wheels but I still have some weight to pull out. I think I’ll be able to keep it at 4500lbs even after adding some weight from things like lights, roll bar and a few other things.
01-24-2024, 01:47 PM
