[AssBurns]

Originally Posted by BrianSD_42

Great updates. I don't really understand why you are flying the confederate flag in my/our backyard of California.

That plate bumper looks really good.

Thanks Brian!
I've had that flag for a long time and just haven't replaced it with something different yet. It works and It doesn't bother me at all but I do get some funny looks from people sometimes.


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[AssBurns]

Just ordered the joints from MetalCloak and four 1"-14 thread tube adapter bungs for 1.5" ID tubing from Trail Gear. I realized that the 1.75" tubing I had in the garage was HREW, so I had to go to the metal supply to pick up tubing. Since I was there I said screw it and went with 2" x .250" wall for the lowers and 1.75" x .120" wall for the uppers. Now I don't have any excuse to mess these ones up. I got some extra 1.75" tubing to hopefully start my front bumper soon. Pretty stoked on getting this part of the build out of the way. Now I might have to wait a little longer to get new tires since I dipped into my tire and front UCA funds. Hopefully by the end of February I can get those finished though.



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[89yodaruner]

Did you use your original coil plates and hardware for the front?

[AssBurns]

Originally Posted by 89yodaruner

Did you use your original coil plates and hardware for the front?

Yes. The only thing I replaced was the rubber isolator when I first did the lift since the factory one was shot.


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[AssBurns]

Picked up a pair of stock 5 star wheels with some Maxxis Bighorns mounted already with probably a little over 50% tread left. I've been needing a spare rim and the guy I bought them from would only sell both instead of individually. I might just keep both just to have extra spares. I'm debating whether to mount the spare onto my hi-lift mount or build a swing out tire carrier. I would like to have it mounted inside to keep the COG as low and centered as possible but not really liking the decrease in cargo space. One of the reasons I don't really like the bumper mounted tire carrier is I don't want to constantly get hung up on it if I mount it low but I also don't want to raise the COG any more. I also don't like how the tire carriers move so much when going fast through the rough stuff. I might just mount it inside for now an if I don't like it, I'll just build a swing out tire carrier for my bumper.
I also finished welding my bumper. It's been almost finished for over a month now but just haven't had time to finish it. All I need to do now is paint.





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[Tyler James Inc]

Holy shit, your bumper is beautiful. Nice work man. Just you know, I 100% intend on copying it. Nice work on everything Did you use that Milwaukee saw to cut all the plate for the bumper?

[AssBurns]

Originally Posted by Tyler James Inc

Holy shit, your bumper is beautiful. Nice work man. Just you know, I 100% intend on copying it. Nice work on everything Did you use that Milwaukee saw to cut all the plate for the bumper?

Thanks dude! You are more than welcome to copy it. I used the Milwaukee saw for all of the long cuts. It's kind of a pain to use it for the short stuff. I use a guide when I make cuts with it, so it ends up being more work for the little cuts. But for the big cuts it's awesome. I cut a 3 foot section with it today in about a minute. It makes perfect cuts and doesn't heat up the metal. When the blade was brand new, it cut like it was cutting ply wood.


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[eimkeith]

Yeah his bumper is really great - my favorite of the various designs I've seen.


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[Tyler James Inc]

@AssBurns I appreciate that, 'cause I REALLY like your design. Good to know about the saw. I know carpenters use them to cut metal studs, but I didn't realize that type of blade can be used to cut plate steel. Pretty sweet. I'll have to go back through and look at your outboarded setup better. I'm REALLY unhappy with how much up-travel I lost when I did the longer Bilsteins, so I need to figure something out to get that up-travel back.

[AssBurns]

Originally Posted by Tyler James Inc

@AssBurns I appreciate that, 'cause I REALLY like your design. Good to know about the saw. I know carpenters use them to cut metal studs, but I didn't realize that type of blade can be used to cut plate steel. Pretty sweet. I'll have to go back through and look at your outboarded setup better. I'm REALLY unhappy with how much up-travel I lost when I did the longer Bilsteins, so I need to figure something out to get that up-travel back.

The saw is worth the investment. It's pretty damn big compared to regular wood circular saws though. I think if I were to do the shocks again, I would go with better shocks and go through the wheel wells to get the lower shock mounts above the axle. I'm super happy with the setup but there is very little clearance between the shock and tire. The stock up travel was definitely something I didn't want to lose when I did my lift.


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[AssBurns]

So I got some new parts in over the last couple of days. Fortunately I ran into an issue that will work out in my favor. When I purchased the Duroflex joints from MetalCloak last week I ordered them over the phone to make sure I get the builders kit that included the weld in bungs in the right size joints. I spoke with Eric (I think?) and he told me that they don't sell LH thread joints in the 2" size which really sucks since it would make adjustment of the UCA's a bigger pain in the ass, but I said screw it and send me 4 RH thread anyway. He also said that they don't carry the weld in tube bungs for the the 1" shank so I had to source them elsewhere. So I ordered four 1" RH thread tube bungs from Trail Gear. I got the joints today and matched up all the parts to check them out and found that they sent me 2 RH and 2 LH joints for both the 2" and 2-5/16" joints. At first I was like "Are you shitting me!?". But now I am really glad that I got what I initially wanted. I just wish they would have let me know earlier. Now I gotta order some LH bungs from Trail Gear and hope they will be here by Sunday so I can finish the links before the next wheeling trip next weekend. I'm super stoked to test these things out. These joints are super beefy and appear to be well made.





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[eimkeith]

Damn right. If you don't have both right and left hand threads, you can't really adjust it meaningfully. [ *cough aftermarketusualsupsects *cough ]

[AssBurns]

Finished painting my bumper and finally got it installed. I did make it fit a little too tight to the body to where the body hits the bumper. I'm debating what I want to do about this. I can either A) Let it work itself out to where it stops hitting. B) Trim the upper lip of the bumper back to gain more clearance. C) Install Polyurethane rear body mounts.
I will probably start with option A then check out C if it doesn't work itself out quickly.




Also got my rear links finished but only 3 out of the 4 installed. Since the new joints are much bigger in diameter, the mounts needed a little clearancing to make them fit. I ended up cutting about a 1/2" on the mounts to get things to fit without hitting. Unfortunately I couldn't get to the drivers side upper frame mount with a grinder without dropping the gas tank, so I just left it off for the time being. Now that I have links that should not fail, the next weak links are the axle and frame mounts. These will hopefully be upgraded in the near future. The plan is to eventually 4 link the rear but I need to move the gas tank to do that. Well here in California, we have to do SMOG checks every 2 years, so that isn't really much of an option if I keep this registered in CA. I would like to register it through Arizona so I can hopefully put a fuel cell where the spare tire used to be. Speaking of gas tanks, I found that mine has a small leak somewhere. It's not bad but there is a light wet spot from gas on the bottom of the tank.




Now the fun part. I was airing up my tires this morning and found this...

I'm thinking I'll just throw a good weld on it and call it a day until I can come up with a better shock tower when I go to coilovers.


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[AssBurns]

@Tyler JamesInc
I used my circular saw to cut my tubing and wanted to show you the saw in action. Cutting 2" x .250" wall DOM. Blows my mind every time I use it. I initially tried to use my chop saw but it took WAY to long so I went with this saw.

Also a clearance shot of the shock and tire. I still had about an inch more up travel because my new bump stops kept that from happening. I didn't get a picture of the shock/frame clearance but it wasn't much.





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[Tyler James Inc]

I think the SS rear body mounts are a must on our rigs when you go to a stout frame-mounted bumper. Just too much give in those stock units. Bumper looks great though
Lame about the coil bucket. Seems like a fairly involved job to fully reinforce it. Links look good. Do those transfer quite a bit more road noise that's noticeable?