Nice work on all your recent upgrades and thanks for the mentions!

Cool idea on adding a floor panel to the weirdly-shaped bottom cavity of the compartment. I may have to borrow that idea from you sometime!

I'm glad to hear that the trimmed plastic stopper is working well with your CB mount. It certainly made the difference for me.

Firestik makes a coax cable with a side-mounted connector called a FireRing in case you ever wanted to get rid of the 90* coax connector.

There are a couple others that I believe will fit. I think Cobra makes one too. One thing with the CB that I didn't realize is having to "tune" the antenna. I've not done that yet and will end up probably buying the cheap $25 SWR off of Amazon to do it.

This rig is literally a cobbled together plethora of different mods that I've "borrowed" from other builds on here. So far, this might be one of the only original ideas I've had. Lol

I found this out after running the one I had and getting a "suggestion" from Amazon I may end up doing that in future, but after having the interior torn out for so long now (last month and a half) I'm dreading having to do that again and run the cable.

good to know, i had no clue
thanks for all the info and again for the spacers

Another update that I almost forgot about. After wiring up a two port usb charger behind the dash and connecting the Ram Mount/Wireless charger, I was contemplating what else I could install for that second usb port. I got a cheapo 4k action camera from Amazon a while back and after filling out a quick review, they sent me another 1080 action camera for free (SWEET!!). Got another Ram Mount for it and then used the upper bolt hole on the "Oh Sh*t" handle to setup a dash camera. Works really good!

Trying to decide whether these parts are going to be good to use. The LCA's aren't too bad, but the knuckles have definitely seen better days. They will obviously be cleaned up and repainted/powder coated before using them, but I wanted to get opinions on whether they are too far gone. The first two images show where I had an issue pressing out the rusted in bushing sleeve on one of the LCA's. It's a little mangled, but figure I could clean it up with a grinder/file.

LCA's:

















I was considering using the knuckles for doing a manual hub conversion along with adding gussets. Not sure if they're worth the trouble to fully clean up and have welded.

Knuckles:

Early father's day present from the wife:

Where we're going, we don't need roads (or front sway bar link mounts).

Apparently not! So where you going?

Getting ready to rebuild the front suspension.

On tap:

1. New LCA bushings
2. New ITRE
3. Re-gear front diff to 4.88 (to finally match the rear and regain 4x4)
4. New Alignment Cams/Bolts
5. Adjust the front struts up to help with rub

Still on the fence about whether to use these LCAs (see post above). Might wait to see how they turn out after sandblasting them.

Ever since adding the dual batteries, the way they were secured in the engine bay has really bothered me. Basically, the only thing holding them back from sliding around and taking out the drive belts and fan is one of the bolts that secures the air-bag sensor on the driver's side inner fender (located on the side of the OEM battery platform). Bolted to that is part of the chinsy little metal strap that I used to relocate the radiator overflow bottle. The battery tray was then held onto that strap with another little piece of that same metal strap bolted through one of the holes in the bottom of the tray. Ever since, it's always rattled a little bit and could easily be moved around on that single pivot point by hand and rocked down towards the drive belts and fan.

Not ideal:



One bolt! AYFKM!!:







So, I decided to work on my welding skills and build something a little more sturdy to secure the tray in place. There are two bolts that secure the air-bag sensor that should be enough to hold everything securely. I may add a couple more down lower if I feel like it's still not quite secure enough and I can get a drill in there.

I started out with a 3/16" piece of steel bar recycled from my bent cam gear holder tool I made. It was a frankenstein bit of fabrication and ultimately I wasn't happy with how I only had one bracket basically holding the tray down (funny enough I was fine with the booger welds).

Welding is hard!! -Barbie probably:



So, I came up with a better design that has dual angle brackets made from 1/8" steel. This was connected together in the middle and at the end on the top for extra security. At the end are some M10x1.5 nuts welded to the underside:



Deez nuts are big:



The next part made me really nervous as I had to weld a piece of 1/8" steel bar to the battery tray in order to secure it to the new brackets. I was afraid I would end up ruining this really nice batter tray (from Rough Stuff) and blowing my weld through the side of if. Fortunately, the only issue I had was catching some of the paint on fire that I didn't grind off:



Yep, I suck at welding but I think it'll hold:



Once everything was back in place and bolted down it was about 22 to 23 times more secure (my math could be off there, but I'm no mathamagician).





All in all, pretty happy with how it turned out considering I'm using a HF 125amp flux core welder. So far, the angry pixies and I seem to be getting along.

Amazing what a little sand and some high pressured air will do:

Here's some more pictures I took after getting home. The wife was kind enough to drop these off and pick them up for me. I was worried they weren't going to be usable, but they look great now! I imagine some rust-belt folks would laugh at me for even questioning their usability. Place I used turned these around in 24 hours for only $50. I'll be using them again!!













The "Front end refresh" starts this weekend. Things on the todo list:

1. Install 4.88 up front (delivery on Monday)
2. New ITRE and boots
3. Lift front struts a bit to reduce rake
4. LCA bushings
5. New cam bolts and sleeves
6. New SPC UBJ (new design with grease zerk)
7. Adjust SPC UBJ to "G" setting
8. New front diff mount bushings (Durobumps)
9. Paint all the things

Hah, just do what I did, put way too much weight in the back, that'll get rid of the rake

That is one sick build.... nice work! You must have a small fortune invested in all the mods...