Search results

Finally got those posters mounted and did a little more organizing with bins. That's all for now!

All good things must come to and end . . . I finally got the call from my dad that it was time to clear out some space in his garage. Fair enough. So now I'm in clutter hell. It'll take some time to sort through everything and file it away, but that's part of the fun I suppose. Glad I have the...

I'm a bit behind here, so let's catch up! With the help of a few buddies, I put the bed back on. You can see we're using OSHA-approved lifting method here for maximum ergonomic safety. Jokes aside - this is trivial with four people. Much easier than with just two 😬 First shots in the...

Even with limited space, I wanted to put on some side bracing and claw back a little bit of the bending stiffness of this crossmember. Here they are, ready for welding: Welds begin: I painted the whole section black when I was done with more VHT Chassis & Roll Bar paint. The underside...

Back to the GMC - time to box the bed support. Cut and bent a panel to fit - Prepped - Weld-through primer - couldn't find any locally, so I had to order it. Surprising! Time to burn it in! This was 16-ga steel so not super thin, but I wanted to limit heat so I went tack by tack. After...

Alright, you know the deal - socket drawers had to get cleaned up as well. 1/4" and 3/8" drawers got some new rails, all the correct color this time. Blue for standard, red for metric, green for "other." Not as big a transformation on this one, but it makes a difference to me - and that's what...

In between covering myself in metal dust, I've been trying to make progress on organization. It's never really done, but I do feel good about this progress. Wrench drawer 1 before and after, with Tekton modular organizers and labels: My signature tape marking makes an appearance here -...

Trucking along . . . Trimmed the U-bolts primarily because I didn't have a deep enough socket to torque them to space, but it's nice not to have them hanging down. I have a 1/2" drive Gearwrench pass-through set, which is how I snugged them, but I don't have a torque wrench adapter for that...

Yes, thanks for pointing this out. Not like my notes were very clear :D I got some advice from a GMT400 group and heard roughly the same thing, so that's what I went for. I downloaded the Spicer app for conformation: Here's the result - I'm happy with it. I could spend more time noodling...

I didn't want to torque the shackles without weight on the frame so . . . I got creative. I also got to load, unload, and reload this to get the pinion angle measured and corrected. I ended up spacing up the transmission with the included spacers, but did not use the pinion angle shims. I think...

Various nights and weekends later, the truck is back on the ground. The leaf pack went in and out a few times, hangers and shackles went on, and there was considerable fiddling to get everything fitting the way I wanted. Still, major milestone on this project! Up we go . . . And...

Upper shock extension/relocation brackets are installed, but the frame needed some massaging when it came to mounting to the shocks, so both original mounting buckets got clearanced for the shock body. Maybe it goes without saying, but I'm finding that most of the Belltech stuff is sort of . ...

I cleaned up the frame notches, masked the cab, scrubbed and degreased the frame, and painted it with VHT Chassis & Roll Bar paint. I've had pretty good luck with that paint and have found that it's not fussy. I didn't do a million coats, but it's better than what was there before. Transfer...

With the bed removed, it was time to mark and cut the frame. Surprisingly easy to take an angle grinder to it, from an emotional standpoint. At some point I got over the nervousness associated with hacking at things when appropriate, I guess. Test fit - more cleanup to be done afterwards...

Around the garage and house, just a couple updates. I mounted a powdered soap dispenser outside my shower - total game-changer. And finally bought some thin wrenches from Workpro, mostly for jam nuts / double nuts. I really needed these on the front shocks, since they use a double nut on...

Prepped the bed for removal - thankfully all the bed bolts came out with no issues. A friend came over and we lifted off the bed. It's not extremely heavy, but it's a little awkward and left my biceps pretty sore for a few days. Everything looks great under the bed. Frame's in great shape...

No race ramps? Wheels will do! I'm pretty happy with where the front ride height ended up. Drive test went well, except some rubbing. I plan to go down in tire size in the front (probably from 45 to 40) which should help. The fenders are already rolled. Everything looks good from the...

Safety upgrade! Finally got a fire extinguisher on the wall. Perhaps more interesting . . I've been stockpiling parts for the GMC because it's just not low enough. The truck already has lowering springs, drop spindles, and a rear shackle / hanger kit, but even so, it just didn't sit as low as...

Thank you! 192” width (garage door) 204” width (floor) 212” width (wall to wall) 216” depth (door to stairs), more beyond that 118” tall ceiling Floor sq ft: ~306

Went to the SEMA show - too much stuff to summarize here - but came back with these incredible posters from the Belltech booth: I also decided that sewing was getting TOO EASY so I bought a Serger and let me tell you . . this thing is diabolical. I've threaded it once but haven't really...