Had this truck since I was 17. totaled it, fixed it, smashed it to hell again, blew the rear, sat it for the past year and a half. The only original parts I can recall are the door panels, seat, dash board, motor, trans, transfer case , front differential, control arms, hubs, steering knuckles and cv shafts. Every other part including the frame is from another vehicle.
It started out as a beautiful truck that I got for a steal (91,000 miles and $2,000):
somewhere after installing the body lift and changing the tires I forgot to tighten the lugs down on the front driver's side. I remember doing about 75 MPH and watching these shiny things go flying up into the air from the front of the truck. Long story short, the tire got stuck under the lower control arm and slid to a safe stop.
I do not have any good pictures from when it was totaled or even when it had severe body damage:
Gained interest in rebuilding it right when I bought my Trans Am (funny how that works eh?). I started by replacing some body panels and being very light with the bondo in areas I didn't want to buy new panels for. Something up front was very tweaked, the new panels didn't line up. The BFH helped fix the problem like usual
I woke up one morning and decided I wanted to bed line the entire truck.This is where everything went down hill... I know it needs a second coat, I plan on spraying it on this time.
As I took it apart I noticed EVERYTHING underneath seemed to be factory parts from 120,000 miles ago (not bad for a kid beating the living **** out of it for 3 years with oversized tires; something I had overlooked when it was taken apart one of the millions of times lol). The only parts that were really broken was the tie rod ends and idler arm.
I figured while it was apart it would be a crying shame to not go ahead and lift it 6" more than the 3" body lift it I put it in back when I got it. I went ahead and ordered a 6" Rough Country lift for the right price ($860 shipped with upgraded shocks). I also got new upper/lower ball joints, upper/lower control arm bushings, sway bar bushings & links, idler arm with a new bracket assembly, pitman arm, inner/outer tie rod ends & sleeves, rear spring hangers, leaf spring bushings, flip shackles, fuel filter, battery, cam position sensor, cap & rotor, 8,500 lb Winch, and some other goodies.
And as of now this is where it sits. I'm sick at the moment with a sinus infection. I need to pull the pitman arm off and than I'm ready to continue putting the lift in. I have a rebuilt 10 bolt (lol yup). want to run it til it blows and than get a 9" or 14 bolt semi float 6 lugger and regear to 5.11s.
Plan on also ordering ladder bars in the near future. Going to run 37 12.5 R16.5 military tires cause of how cheap they are. The winch will be hidden behind the stock front bumper; I think I want to weld a plate across the frame rail and mount the winch there and put the license plate on a hinge so it's completely hidden. Gotta rewire the door locks/windows at some point to.
Working 7 days a week is really dragging this build out. I have put so much money into this truck over the past few years... could have probably bought a nice low mileage WS6 by now
