So I bought this truck last fall. And so far the mods have been light. Mostly due to winter and not wanting to work in the cold. The body came with some rust, but nothing terrible for a 89 thats been in Minnesota its whole life. The frame is very solid though and most of the black factory paint remains on the frame.

A few months ago I bought some rims from Summit racing, and I was going to mount a set of 32x11.5's on them that I picked up. The tires were used and ended up having really bad beads on them, so I could not use them.

I continued looking for tires. And decided to get 33's even though most people say they will not fit without a body lift. But because I had most of my rust around the wheel wells. I had no problems cutting out my fenders to make room for larger tires. The front passenger side was really bad though, so its trimmed out larger then the driver side. I will replace it later this year.

I found a set of super swamper tsl's for a good price, one of them even had the sticker on the tread still. The others were used, but off road only. I had them mounted last weekend and I had some rubbing for the past week. I finally had the time today to finish trimming the fenders. And I cut out the pinch welds and hammered the firewall back some more.

They still might rub under full flex and turning. But I plan to tube the firewall back even farther after I get some more practice with welding thin sheet metal. I just started practicing and teaching my self to weld today. I will also be patching up a lot of the rust on the body once I get the hang of it.

The stock tires will be going back on the truck later this week after I repaint the stock rims. I do not want to burn off all the tread on the street. And I plan on getting some 33 at's next.

Finally here is a picture.



Also I will be ordering ball joint spacers soon. Along with some AAL's and new shocks all around. And a spare rim and tire.

Then after that is all taken care of I will buy or make some sliders. And the last mod on the list of things to do is to regear it.

 

Nice truck. Any reason you want to do the AAL instead of shackles to lift the rear?

 

Thanks,

I haven't really thought about shackles. My current leaf springs are getting pretty flat from the years of use. What size shackles would you recomend? I haven't looked into them at all yet.

 

I think if I remember right, a 3" longer than stock shackle would result in 1.5" of lift. I'm not an expert on them but go to http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/Shackles.shtml and read up on them. Very informative. Probably the route I'll go once I get new tires. The chevy 63" rear spring setup seems to be a pretty popular option on this forum too. Cutting and welding is required on that one though. Do a search on chevy springs and you should find tons of info.

 

Looks alot like my truck. Please do post pics when you get the bj spacers on.

James

 

Before you do anymore banging or welding on that pinch weld make sure your ECM is out of the way (behind the kick panel).

 

What do you gain or lose by going to the 12.5 width over the 10.5 width?

 

The computer was removed before I did any hammering on the firewall. And I relocated it after I hammered on the firewall. You can see it in a thread I posted on it last weekend [urlhttps://www.yotatech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80267[/url]

And advantages on a 12.5 tire over a 10.5? Well I am not sure if a 12.5 is really all that much better. I only go tthe 12.5's because they were used, and that is what I was able to find. If I was getting them brand new I probably would have ordered 10.5's just because I know they would have less issues with rubbing. But the 12.5's work fine if you make room for them.

I'll be sure to post pictures once I get the ball join spacers. And I think I will get the aal's first and see how it sits after that. I might get some 5" shackles if it needs to be leveled out more.

 

The only differences I see are a slightly bigger footprint and the way they profile on the rim. Been running mine for about 4 years, still no lift but hopefully someday. Setback on the rim also makes a huge difference on your turn radius and travel.