Albino's been busy

[Turdle]

Originally Posted by Diff Whack Daddy

If it was though, I would deffinately consider a full truck powder coating

Consider it in the works. I can hook you all up in this area.

[Turdle]

Happy Birthday Phil

[Albino 94LTD]

I've been driving this girl for quite a while now and haven't really needed to change much.

Now that it's Daily Driver duties are significantly diminished she can continue her transformation to an ultimate adventure vehicle.

First thing is my trail gear storage box. 2 drawers was too high and the structure itself wasted a lot of space. So, I built another cabinet/box. This drawer is 2" deeper and about 4" wider. There's more room in this single drawer than in the previous two.

I have also purged some of the 'stuff' I carry but I still have a set of wheel bearings, U joints, hub, hoses etc and all the tools to install the a fore mentioned as well as a First Aide kit and some survival gear.

I'll add pics of that later (forgot to take some)

[Albino 94LTD]

The next thing on my list is a custom bumper. I finally got tired of beating the crap out of my Limited bumper AND putting on/taking off the winch and transferring the license plate.

I'm not skilled in Autocad or any other deign software so I reverted to pencil and graph paper (old school).

I picked up some 2" square tubing from Arsoul (same stuff my sliders are made of) THANKS RYAN! and started cutting.


A wheelin buddy loaned me his Lincoln Weld Pack 100 and I was finally set to start building.

I don't have a big shop and cool tools to aide in fabrication so I cut wedges out of the square tube with a recip saw and bent the tube with a big pry bar.

I used the mounts from the stock front bumper and added mounts for the opposite side of the frame rails that I removed from the stock rear bumper to sandwich the frame horn.



Since I was removing the receiver the Multi-mount originally went into, I wanted to make sure things were strong enough for the winch. At first I was going to continue using the multi-mount so I could put the winch in the garage when not on a ‘run’ but as time went on and since I have only moved the winch to the rear mount once since I bought it, I decided to permanently add it to the new bumper.

This was to be the first time I have ever welded. Seen a lot of it on TV and watched other people do it for me but this time I wanted to do it myself.

So, frame mounts built, time to weld on the top bar and fill in the relief cuts on the back side ( I know those gaps are awfully big to fill in with weld but I have very limited tools and was unable to make the relief cuts more accurate)


Since the front end of an X is a little round, I cut a notch in the center and put in a little bend to maintain consistent distance between the bumper and the body. I added a short section to the back side for more support and a larger surface for the HF receiver to attach to.




Next was the lower bar. I wanted it low enough to cover the ends of the frame horns. Same notch in the center to match the top and keep it from looking like a flat bar, then angle up the ends starting just past the frame.



A single bar rounding the corner looks too small so I doubled it up. If I were to do it again, I would separate the two bars by an inch or so to the differences in bend radius aren’t so noticeable.


Now, lots of welding to tie everything together.

I mounted it to the truck to check fitment and see how the winch would look. I gained about 4”-6” height to the bottom of the multi-mount. This meant I would still have to find a better way of mounting the license plate or move it from one spot to another every time I took the winch off. If I permanently mount the winch, the plate could live in the receiver hole until I need to push the tent trailer into the back yard.

I used some of the thinner wall 1”x2” to make extensions for the front winch bolts and added short verticals for the fairlead.


A little grinding and some DupliColor spray on bed liner and I’m ready for a test run. Headed out to the snow and backed into a rut I couldn’t drive out of. Time to see if the bumper would stay on the truck, or bend (there were 3 other rigs to help out if I had problems). I guess I didn’t tighten the bolts enough and the bumper rotated a little but did NOT bend.



We headed up to Evans Creek and I loosened the bolts, straightened it out and re-tightened the bolts as much as a 12” ratchet could (grade 8 bolts) but didn’t need to use the winch for the rest of the day.

A set of Hella fog light arrived Tuesday and I tacked on some mounting tabs as well as supports for the big driving lights.

DONE!

[Turdle]

That turned out great Phil. I like!

[whitetrashfab]

looking good!

[Turdle]

New stuff?

[Albino 94LTD]

Originally Posted by Turdle

New stuff?

I'll put up a couple pics in a couple days

Rock lights
Moved fog lights
Moved driving lights
Added a couple switches to the dash
Fab'd up a bumper mount for the high-lift to ride on the rear bumper

[jrgaylor]

And we wait

[ricky8587]

And wait

[Albino 94LTD]

I guess you've waited long enough?

I ordered some LED light pucks from a web site Maniak found, a while back and finally got around to putting them on and wiring them up.



They came in a string of 20 and I installed 10 so, if I need more light, I have plenty left but they seem to work pretty good so far.


Then I moved the fog and driving lights a little. I might move them again, not sure yet.


I have to take a pic of the winch relay and rock light switch locations (i thought i did but don't find them on the memory card.

Next is a fold down bracket for the High-Lift jack.





Lastly, I talked Kevin (Diff Whack Daddy) into going down to jrgaylor's place to retrieve the Ghost.

When we got her back to Kevin's place, we pulled the rear doors and put them on Abby.





Then we went for a trip over the Naches Trail. I tried real hard to NOT rub the new doors on anything.

Fun On The Naches Trail - YouTube

[Albino 94LTD]

Here is Abby's left side.

Damage from Tahuya;


After doors from the Ghost;