here she goes.. from the last post, you saw i have new wheels.. i ended up getting 17x8 4.5BS method MR304 wheels and got 35" yokohama geolanders.. with no body lift, minimal suspension lift, the tires did NOT fit at all.. its time to get to work..
My good friend & i quickley get to work and start cutting through firewall, etc etc. it was a proccess but not TOO bad.
we managed to get the tub done in 2 pieces of sheet metal which i was really happy about, it turned out very clean. next up was flapping the welds smooth and seamsealer/paint. quickly got that done.
NEXT up was now that i tubbed the firewall, i cant do a flex test because my fenders hit my tire with no effort. i coulve probably managed to only cut the front fenders, but knowing i was to go at minimum 37" tires in the future, i wanted to cut my rear fenders as well, this was a job and a half due to after cutting the rear panels, you have to spot weld the entire seam back together. while this is very easy for me, it was just very time consuming letting the metal cool down, etc. i still have a little more work to do to not rub in the rear but its surley better than what it was before
after that, thats when the leaf spring blew my door up. well talk about that later as its irrelevant as of right now. time for the front fenders
at this point i address the body damage and patch the hole in the side of my door. im FAR too picky with bodywork. so, i have two options..
1. take it in to a body shop and bay money do get the door colormatched and risk the chance of the shade being off
2. rhino line the bottom half of the door.
i said screw it and went with rhino liner. but to do this, i had stuff that needed to get done. my rockers were completely blown out in the back when i removed the fender flares to the truck (SURPRISE!!!!
) so i fabricated my own rocker panel from scrap 18GAU panels of a van we recently finished. on went the cutting and welding.
honestly for never doing a thing of bodywork before, im pretty happy with how good and clean it all turned out. i had to make new rear section cap because of how i cut my rear fender. this will give me more tire clearance too.
lastly, is the rhino lining. i 220 DA'd my rockers and fenders and sprayed with a product called U-PUL raptor liner. from what ive heard its some crazy good stuff. its a 2 part bed liner and UV resistant. i sprayed 2 coats (reccomended) and this is what i came up with.
this is how she now looks. im really happy wit how everythings turned out. theres been a few other small changes that i will post soon but i figured this was most relevant to whats going on right now
its not easy being "brave" all the time!
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