Rob, I don't think there is enough time or storage totes available to organize all the parts you have!!! LOL

 

PMed.

Hopefully I'll be wrenching on mine again soon. I literally just got home from dropping the frame off to get it dipped:

 

Never received a PM, try again

 

I started dressing the welds tonight and deciding to call it quits after a couple hours. I've been in a bit of a lull lately, just haven't felt like working on my truck lately. Folks that have had a long term build project like this probably know what I'm talking about. Hopefully it's just the cold weather.

On another note, there was a HUGE tool auction last friday at a local auction house. Apparently there is a guy that owns a local shop that just got diagnosed with some sort of terminal cancer and decided to sell all of his tools. He was the only consigner at this auction and you all would not believe the amount of tools he had - tons of Snap-on, Mac, Matco, Blue Point and Craftsman tools and tool chests. People said that he liked to collect tools - there were enough tools there to fully stock at least 10 garages. The auction started at 4:00 and went all the way to 9:45 with the auctioneer steady working it! Needless to say, I was like a kid in a candy shop. A lot of the Snap-on stuff went a bit high but I did manage to get a few things that I "needed." I scored 5 Mac snap ring pliers (including the elusive flat nosed pliers that every Toyota nut needs), a brand new set of 8 Snap-on carbide deburring die grinder bits (perfect for dressing welds), a new set of Snap-on wire gauge drill bits, a set of Snap-on spark plug thread chasers, a Snap-on 3/8 pivoting head ratchet, a Snap-on 1/4 pivoting head ratchet, a Brand new Ingersol die grinder, a set of seal/bearing drivers, Mac 3/8 breaker bar, a Mac 1/2 breaker bar, a bearing puller, a set of metric pivoting head ratcheting wreches and a set of Craftsman screwdrivers. Spent $280 but a man can never have enough tools! Full retail of all these tools would have been at least $700-800 so I made out pretty fat on the evening. Could have bought more, but I had to save some money for the gun auction at the end of the month

My mother-in-law is in town this weekend... Which means that I will have TONS of time to kick this lull and work on my truck! Yep, I have the mother-in-law from hell and a super understanding wife that lets me "disappear" when she is in town.

 

Truck looks like it's coming along nicely. Sweet build.

 

Oh yea nice tool score. I wish there was a auction like that around here.

 

Nice H&R slug gun! We love ours! Unbelievably accurate slug guns!

I got a question for you concerning you OME lift. Why is your shackle angle so bad on the rear? Are you going to address that or leave it as the kit is designed? I'm considering the OME kit soon.

 

No cab/bed= no weight on the frame, which is why the shackle looks so off.

Once he puts everything back together it should be where he wants it.

 

I love my H&R's! I use a 20ga and a 12ga for deer hunting in Delaware (it's flat there so no rifles allowed) and I've already dropped 9 deer this season using Hornady SST shells on a crop damage permit. They are the only slug guns I will ever buy because of their reliability, accuracy and simplicity (can't get much more simpler than a break action single barrel). Plus they are dog ˟˟˟˟˟ cheap so I can replace them and not break the bank. In fact my scopes cost nearly three times the cost of the actual gun!

My front shackle angle is perfect, even with the weight of the cab on it. The rear, not so much right now. I know the weight of the bed will bring it back a little bit, but I don't think it will be enough. What I think I will do is get everything together and ride on it a bit so the springs settle in. From there I can accurately adjust the angle by moving the shackle hanger forward about an inch or so. If you are considering getting the OME springs, I would highly recommend it from what I have noticed so far. I can already tell that the front is way softer than what I have had before. Can't say the same about the rear because of the shackle angle - it makes it stiff as hell since the springs can't properly articulate, but I'll be addressing that later.

 

maybe some motivation for you

started building some of your bed pieces today . bed build is still a ways away yet , but I have started building the pieces



.

 

That's great news!

 

I realized the weight of the bed would help a little, but I've read a lot where people have trouble with the rear shackle angle on these kits. I'm still crunching numbers for RUF/Chevy 63's vs OME. I almost convinced myself for the RUF/Chevy 63s for the adjustability and my brother is a welder/fabricator for a large machine shop, but I want to stay very mild at be at 3" and 33's or so. I'm happy to say that I think my truck is too nice to rag out and been on, but I still intend to wheel and make several long trips out west. But hey, ive got time! Sorry to cloud your thread!

 

You're not clouding it at all, I'm always up for discussion with people to have my experiences help them. If you are going for a mild lift, OME 2" is about as far as you want to go. I have about 3" of lift between the springs and shackles and 31" tires (about 3" over the factory size). So I have about 4.5" of total height over factory and my rockers sit about 28" from the ground. I'm 6'1" and still have a bit of a climb to get up in my truck. The sill comes well up to my thigh. It's actually easier to hop in and out of my 2005 Tundra double cab with 33's and a 3-2 leveling kit. But like I said the front is perfect, it's just the rear that might need to be adjusted. Either way you plan on going, it sounds like you are going to do some shackle hanger relocating.

 

I bet I can finish mine before you, how is that for motivation

 

Well I appreciate your insight. Cost is a major factor with me and paying the $971 it would take to get OME to my door seems a bit steep. I know buy once, cry once but I figure after springs, shocks, and the metal to make the hangers etc. I can be at $500 or so with the 63s/RUF and from my research is seems to be as good of a ride and flex better than the OME. Only time will tell though. I'm done taking up space in your build now! Hurry and get this thing back together because I'm ready to see it, along with everyone else!!

 

Possibly, but mine will look better lol

 

$971??? Mine whole suspension barely cost $850 with Bilsteins and TG shackles. Springs were just over $400, shocks were about $350 and shackles were $80. I'm not the one to talk to about RUF or 63's but I can certainly provide you with my experience thus far with OME do be afraid to ask me any questions. I'm back on the truck tomorrow after I meet with a subcontractor about a job that i'm working on. Hopefully he is on time at 7am tomorrow and doesn't waste too much of my day. But I'm not in any rush since this cold weather is showing no signs of lettting up and I'll probably have to wait a while to get dry, warm weather for paint.

 

Oh well, as they say, beauty is in the eye of the buildholder, I sure will get jalous when you receive your beautiful new bed :p

 

If I order the full kit from Rocky Road after shipping it was $971. I had thought about piecing one together using OME front springs, a rear AAL, some good shocks and level it all out with shackles if I had to. That's $200 for the front springs, $100 rear AAL, $350 shocks, and we have the metal to build shackles. That's $650. Which is not bad and I could probably get away with a little cheaper shocks until I could afford to upgrade,but it seems like the rear would be stiff. I plan on a bedrack to haul my bass buggy and I also tow our flatbottom a whole lot too so it may settle, but besides a TG rear bumper and bed rack I have no extra rear weight.

How are you going about power steering?

 

I already have power steering, in fact last night I pulled the steering shaft out of the steering column to press out the u-joints since I finally found some the other day. The new u-joints should be here next week so I decided to take the time to start cleaning everything up for powder coating. It's not something that has to be done right now, but it needs to eventually get done. Surprisingly, I slid out of the steering column with no problem and the u-joints came out relatively easily.


Earlier yesterday I worked on mocking up the shifter boots. I'm just doing simple hurst shifter boots, nothing fancy. I wanted to make a plate to mount the boots to and through to welded nuts on the underside of the cab. That way if I ever want to change it up in the future I will have more options without having to do any welding or too much cutting.

Started by making a "crossmember" in the hole that I originally made for the shifts (I needed something to bolt to in the middle). Welded it in and dressed it like it never happened.


Then made the plate for the shifter boots to mount.


It should look about like this with the mounting plate corners rounded, powdercoated and mounted with Stainless hardware




It was approaching hunting time so I had to cut it off early.