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The rig gets some much needed TLC

Josh S - rear glass, suspension, manual tcase

Hey guys I'm back! Well it's been a while since I've done anything major to my truck and it's high time! For starters, I've been running off of one shock in the rear forever and the shock will bottom out if I hit too hard. It was just a thrown together setup cuz I got some free 5150's so I slapped em on.

Anyways, it now has 1.5" per side widened beams up front with rigid bumpstops, kings, eibach coils still. The front end hangs pretty good right now minus the jacked alignment, but that's alright for now cuz I haven't been driving much.

The imminent plans include:
1) Cleaning up the rear fender hackage, round the corners and trim up the body straight so it looks cleaner, then maybe wrap the edges into the wheelwell.

2) mount the rear fiberglass quarter panels. These will be ordered in the next few days from Fiberwerx. I have the mounts already for the fenders, courtesy of Camburg. These are preferable and less of a PITA that dzus fasteners, and I like the look too.
Fenderwasherkit.jpg


3)finish rear suspension. This will involve the most work. after a lot of thought over the past year or two(while not having any spare $$), I have decided to keep the shocks under the bed instead of coming up through the floor. I have been in Sirhk100's old X that was set up this way and it hung hard enough for what I plan on doing. I just would like to bomb around the desert mildly(not fullon race speeds) with a bit of jumping in the mix, with also doing trails of course.

Having Kings up front I would like to stick with em, and also match them with 2.5s. I'm having trouble finding some used right now so they may have to be ordered new :( I'm estimating that I will need around a 10" stroke, but cycling will tell the truth.

I will disassemble the Deaver leaf pack that is on there currently, and just have the main leaf to cycle the suspension, and get some rough measurements off of an "imaginary" upper mount, then I will know the right length to get. A crossmember will need to be fabbed for the shocks to mount to, as well as some of the stock spare tire mount cut off. gooood, my sawzall is getting a bit of dust settling on it :D

in this same time I will mount my Radflo 2" stroke hydro bumps in the cans I just picked up from Camburg. These will be nice for the harder hits in the whoops or on dropoffs or mild jumps. The short stroke and bodies of these custom bumps work great for mounting under our explorers and fitting underneath the floor. After this is complete I will measure for and order some limit straps to keep my leaf pack and shocks together at droop.

While this doesn't sound like a whole lot, it's going to be a lot of work for me but I know it is going to be awesome!

One more current event lol...I ordered a manual t-case from a guy that will be waiting for me when I get back to Chico. Just need to track down some linkage and a shifter and I'll toss that baby in to get rid of these darn shift motor blues :rolleyes:

I'm down in OC right now and won't be back up home to the truck in chico for another week or so, so not really any pics of the stuff...but you can count on this thread having mad amounts of pics once the work starts!!!
 



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Oooof!!!
 



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Yuuuppppp we definitely weren't messin around!!

Don't worry Johnny, the Section525 bracket held true to it's own! The Camburg one is toooootally wasted, but ours held up pretty damn good!

Ready to do some fabbing and junkyardin?:thumbsup:
 






When do you come home? This weekend is bad for me.. but all next week looks okay. :cool: Where's the pics of the aftermath??
 












HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA hell yeah man nice work

Trucks looking good once you get the "bugs" worked out , that video is awesome....ooops! Air into the bottom of the next big jump = offline and shady :)
 






haha yah im kinda bummin about all the damaged stuff on the truck right now. Kind of just want to start over on a ranger or something. Found a 91 4x4 in Chico for pretty cheap! I will get some pics of the aftermath...won't be home until Sunday so I will have to wait to post them;)

I'm down to fab the weekend after this coming one! Hmmmm that ranger would be pretty cool tho heh heh
 






Ext Cab? Do it. We can transfer all the non-broken stuff, right? :p:
 












Sick. Looks like you've already been driving it! :eek: :p:
 






:D

Can I borrow $1450? I won't be able to use the deaver leafs or sport rear glass, etc...I figure it's worth it to have the bed.

i found a 4" widened Solo motorsports LT front end for sale for 2k...decisions, decisions.
 






Leafs should work, maybe the wrong spring rate for a lighter Ranger, but they should bolt up
 






No ****! i was under the impression that they were longer! That's awesome. The leafs are actually pretty darn soft right now, I found they were a bit too soft this weekend as I was using my bumps quite a bit. Plus I like to carry a lot of extra crap with me when I go out so it may just work out nicely.

Do you think that's a good deal for that truck Jamie? I'm not sure what motor it has or how many miles, but I'm planning on calling the guy tommorrow. Worst comes to worst, the drivetrain and everything will get transferred from the explorer. Gotta love the 5spd.:D

So the deal with the longer leafs people put on rangers is just more travel then you have to flip the shackles or something? Sorry never paid much attention to rangers.
 






that sucks about your ex. hey if you do end up building a ranger and parting out your explorer, let me know. good luck man
 






shackle reversal is common for Rangers and can yield mad travel numbers and improve the ride for the kind of stuff you like to do
 






that sucks about your ex. hey if you do end up building a ranger and parting out your explorer, let me know. good luck man

you betcha. ill be keeping most of the cool stuff but there will still be some miscellaneous crap I'm sure. what were you looking for
 






just anything you won't be needing. depends if your going 4x4 or 4x2. i mean if your doing 4x2 with coilovers, then there's plenty of things. but if your taking most of everything (beams, coils, buckets etc) then stuff like fenders.
 






Well I picked up a 94 GMC sierra as a daily driver and moto hauler, so the explorer is gonna stick around for a while. Gonna pull it off the road and tear into it hardcore when I get back after summer. Coilovers and full cage should be pretty cool!:D
 






I like the teal color...looks like you have a surplus forestry truck in your driveway! Can we at least swap your tires to the new truck...just until we cage the 'sploder?
 






haha thanks. im too lazy to sway those BFGs over...but don't worry, I have been doing a lot of burnouts in preperation for a set of BFG ATs that will go on the GMC:D
 



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