all i have to say is that thing is beautiful and the fact that it has a solid front axle is even better! if you dont mind me asking how much did you pick her up for

 

how are you doing so much work on this! you must be in a warm state

 

Thanks

paid $2500 for it, and have put way more then that into it....

What do you consider warm? Was a toasty 24°F today

I do a lot of my work in my buddys heated garage. But I try to do what I can at home as well. I installed my 4.7 gears on my workbench in the basement. And installed the tcase in my unheated garage on a warm weekend, think we had a high of 35°F that day.

I did some wired up the window control for my passenger side window today in the driveway. It wasn't to bad, and the cold weather sure does help motivate you to get the job done quicker so you can go back inside

 

Great thread-your truck looks great! Lots of useful info; I really enjoyed reading it. Keep up the good work it's an inspiration!

 

I'm new to the forum and am completely at the edge of my seat with your build Etype; I have to say I am learning alot in general and am going to go with the spartan locker now after your opinion of it (for example). Thanks for sharing; and oh yeah, here's my ride:

 

Well I ordered a winch plate and stinger from Frontier 4x4 recently. So I started designing a front bumper tonight, pretty happy with this. Might wait until the snow melts, so I can paint it outside.

 

Crawl box is together

 

that bumper looks nice!

 

You have mad skills.

Looks great! I am still trying to get mine running again. I have my 4th head down at the machine shop being checked for cracks....crossing fingers.

 

Built my front bumper last weekend, still need to add some upper tie in points. Also made a receiver hitch license plate bracket, I will extend it out once I get a winch and need to clear the fairlead. And the turn signals are now in the side markers.















And yesterday I finally installed my front E-locker and 30 spline longfields With the longfields, I only had to clearance the passenger side. The E-locker was a bit of work to install, and a tight fit against the u-bolt. Still need to add fluid and route the wiring harness.

 

nice work..

 

Looking good! I like the receiver hitch plate bracket

 

Thanks I was going to weld a bracket to the bumper for the license plate, but every option I had looked ugly. After a couple beers I had the idea to make a receiver hitch mount for the license plate.


Finally installed my front TG shock hoops this weekend, along with a set of 13" Monroe shocks. I had to clearance the inner fenders a lot more then I thought I would have needed to.

Here is the hole I had to make on the drivers side.



Little bit of body work



And drivers side all finished up



I am bouncing around ideas for the rear shocks. Using 11.75" Monroe shocks, the upper bushings are to small of a diameter to fit over the stock upper mounts. But to keep the truck more stable I am thinking about running them along the frame rail behind the axle. I will either run a cross member across the frame, or weld mounts to both frame rails.

 

new springs installed

Top 3 leafs are from a stock rear leaf spring pack. The lower 3 leafs are from a 3" front all pro pack.

 

Installed the dual case this weekend along with a TG dual case crossmember. Having new front and rear drive shafts made at Davez offroad. But for now I cut down the rear drive shaft and welded it up my self on the truck. Managed to get it down to 0.010" out of round, no vibes. I'll be ready to wheel once I get my drive shafts from Dave.

All that's left now is the rear suspension and a spare tire carrier. I'll be adding a winch and re-gear the diffs when I have the money. Also want to do a few small things with the interior, but most of the big stuff is out of the way now

 

Hey, your bumper is great!

do you have a cad file or some measurements for it?

 

Thanks

I do have a solidworks file for the front bumper, but none of the measurements are accurate, or even close. I just put something together to give me a design to work off of. I didn't take any measurements off my truck before drawing the bumper up. Everything was done on the truck, one piece at a time.

Anyways, finally went wheeling this weekend, 1 year to the day after buying it

The MTR Kevlars worked great! There were a couple hills I was able to walk right up in double low, 2nd gear.

















I got hung up a few times on my diffs, scratched up my shiney new drive shafts. They took some abuse over the weekend, and held up great.

 

Painted the front fenders, and a new tail gate last weekend. The new paint is a little darker, I'll be repainting the entire truck once I am done patching up rust spots.

Cell phone shot of the new tail gate



And last night I installed a LED light strip for a license plate light. Figured I have been pushing my luck, driving this thing around for over a year now without one.

 

Love your build, just read it from start to finish.

 

^^
Agreed!! This is by far my favorite build up! Im jealous you have all the tech to build up your own stuff!!