Well I guess its time to bite the bullet and create a build thread. I'll edit this post quite a bit since there is so much material. To start, I'm Griffin, and I live in Irmo South Carolina, right outside of Columbia. To start off, this truck has been in my family since it left the showroom in 2001. I was gifted the truck the summer before my sophomore year in high school....... bone stock..... which was cool, because I had a clean slate. One problem that I did see was that it had 176000 miles on here ticker and she was 2wd...... At the time I was big into the "mud diggin'" scene. I always wanted to have some huge meaty tires with a huge lift. the modding all started when i bought my camoflauged, real tree steering wheel cover..... I was hooked. lol.
Pic warning, just an fyi
i started spending the big bucks when i got the exhaust. i wanted to have the duals. just like the big boys. the exhaust shop that was recommended to me asked 300 bucks to do straight pipes. i said "negative ghost rider," so instead i got a muffler welded in instead of doing all of the pipe work. i was really in the groove of spending money now.....
Next i came to this forum. sure enough i asked two of the most frequently asked questions on the forum, "what size tires can i run?" and "what lift can i get? well i was told that i could either get a body lift and guarantee 33's or do a TT and get 32's. well i didnt like body lifts so went ahead and did the torsion twist and shackles. I cranked those jokers till they couldn't crank them no more!
After that i decided to man up and get the meatiest tire that i could get in my price range. a set of 33's off of summit racing. so after a long, hot, southern summer working 11 hour days building bleachers, i finally had some money for tires and wheels. Many people were doubting it, but sure enough they fit and only needed very minor trimming. And when I thought it was all done, I was wrong.
I had this thing for painting. i became very good at it in my auto body class at my school. so what the heck i'll paint something on my truck. well i didn't like flames or anything like that, i wanted something a little more subtle. Bam, it occured to me to paint the multi-colored grey, swirly, plastic cladding on the truck. and what better color to choose than black. Sure enough, it came out awesome. Now i realized I had a sickness, and the only perscription, is more cowbell. (lol sorry I had to.)
So after driving the truck for about a year and trying to decide what I wanted to do next. boogie boarding the internet i found this coilover conversion kit from the ranger-forums and built by ORW. I thought "hmmm, that would be cool to have some coilovers." well the thread was over 30 pages long, and after reading the first page, i knew i wanted them. well after 30 pages of reading, i found out that the brackets aren't even sold anymore. dang, that blows. well some how, and some way, after boogie boarding the web some more i found some brackets. so i jumped on them and got them in the mail two weeks later.......
The longest process was getting the right shocks. I decided to get the biggest name in shock-o-nology, King. I was told over and over get 2.0's because they fit. Well i went with my judgement (which was wrong this time) and got 2.5's. sure enough they didn't even fit between the upper control arms. I got ahold of King and after begging and a darn restocking fee they built me some 2.0's and sent them my way. I would then use my school's auto body shop to put them on. It took me two full weeks to get it finished, due to the small amount of time i was allowed in the shop and i was by myself. but they were put on.
2.5's
2.0's
Now that i knew what route i was taking, the desert prerunner truck, i kept on it. Now that the front had some new shiny things up front, i decided to tackle the rear. i had a blown shock in the rear and i got fed up with it so one day i decided to buy some nice smoothies. i went with fox instead of king because they have the bar pin mounts and the bushing mounts that our trucks recieve. It was a little bit more expensive for the mounts but thats okay.
Finally after seeing my shocks bottoming out before the truck bottomed out i decided to get some shock hoops done. I went to an offroad festival and talked to two guys that just opened their fab shop in Columbia called CFS Offroad. They looked at my set up and agreed that the setup I had wasn't very stout. so i pulled some a arms from my local pull-a-part and dropped them off at CFS and they did their magic.
Full Droop Before
Full Droop After
A arms
Future plans for the truck:
- Uniball UCA's
- Rebuild kits for the FOA bumps.
- Lift Spindles
- Limit Straps
- 14" Springs
- Deavers or 64's
- Bedcage and 14" stroke smoothies
- Possibly Widen 4.5", DBR, or BTF LT Kit
How she sits now:
There is a ton I'm missing, but all of it will eventually be added. Let me know what you guys think!
Pic warning, just an fyi
i started spending the big bucks when i got the exhaust. i wanted to have the duals. just like the big boys. the exhaust shop that was recommended to me asked 300 bucks to do straight pipes. i said "negative ghost rider," so instead i got a muffler welded in instead of doing all of the pipe work. i was really in the groove of spending money now.....
Next i came to this forum. sure enough i asked two of the most frequently asked questions on the forum, "what size tires can i run?" and "what lift can i get? well i was told that i could either get a body lift and guarantee 33's or do a TT and get 32's. well i didnt like body lifts so went ahead and did the torsion twist and shackles. I cranked those jokers till they couldn't crank them no more!
After that i decided to man up and get the meatiest tire that i could get in my price range. a set of 33's off of summit racing. so after a long, hot, southern summer working 11 hour days building bleachers, i finally had some money for tires and wheels. Many people were doubting it, but sure enough they fit and only needed very minor trimming. And when I thought it was all done, I was wrong.
I had this thing for painting. i became very good at it in my auto body class at my school. so what the heck i'll paint something on my truck. well i didn't like flames or anything like that, i wanted something a little more subtle. Bam, it occured to me to paint the multi-colored grey, swirly, plastic cladding on the truck. and what better color to choose than black. Sure enough, it came out awesome. Now i realized I had a sickness, and the only perscription, is more cowbell. (lol sorry I had to.)
So after driving the truck for about a year and trying to decide what I wanted to do next. boogie boarding the internet i found this coilover conversion kit from the ranger-forums and built by ORW. I thought "hmmm, that would be cool to have some coilovers." well the thread was over 30 pages long, and after reading the first page, i knew i wanted them. well after 30 pages of reading, i found out that the brackets aren't even sold anymore. dang, that blows. well some how, and some way, after boogie boarding the web some more i found some brackets. so i jumped on them and got them in the mail two weeks later.......
The longest process was getting the right shocks. I decided to get the biggest name in shock-o-nology, King. I was told over and over get 2.0's because they fit. Well i went with my judgement (which was wrong this time) and got 2.5's. sure enough they didn't even fit between the upper control arms. I got ahold of King and after begging and a darn restocking fee they built me some 2.0's and sent them my way. I would then use my school's auto body shop to put them on. It took me two full weeks to get it finished, due to the small amount of time i was allowed in the shop and i was by myself. but they were put on.
2.5's
2.0's
Now that i knew what route i was taking, the desert prerunner truck, i kept on it. Now that the front had some new shiny things up front, i decided to tackle the rear. i had a blown shock in the rear and i got fed up with it so one day i decided to buy some nice smoothies. i went with fox instead of king because they have the bar pin mounts and the bushing mounts that our trucks recieve. It was a little bit more expensive for the mounts but thats okay.
Finally after seeing my shocks bottoming out before the truck bottomed out i decided to get some shock hoops done. I went to an offroad festival and talked to two guys that just opened their fab shop in Columbia called CFS Offroad. They looked at my set up and agreed that the setup I had wasn't very stout. so i pulled some a arms from my local pull-a-part and dropped them off at CFS and they did their magic.
Full Droop Before
Full Droop After
A arms
Future plans for the truck:
- Uniball UCA's
- Rebuild kits for the FOA bumps.
- Lift Spindles
- Limit Straps
- 14" Springs
- Deavers or 64's
- Bedcage and 14" stroke smoothies
- Possibly Widen 4.5", DBR, or BTF LT Kit
How she sits now:
There is a ton I'm missing, but all of it will eventually be added. Let me know what you guys think!
