Where in ny eh?

 

not joking, if you are for real about bringing it all the way down here i will take time off of work to help you paint it. just let me know in advance.

 

Wife has not been to NY before so we are going to go to Manhattan and that sort of thing.

Benjamin, I wish I could but I really need it done before I leave. Maybe the next one

Update:

I worked all day on the brake pedal again, I figured out the way to take the center section of metal out, I had to use the drill press like a mill and I only had regular drill bits so it was tedious to say the least. I think I am close to being done now, it looks good, it is solid and should hold anything. I will just need to continue cleaning it up, sand it and paint.

 

suspension stuff arrived today

 

Are you going to make it? Your doing a hell of a job.

 

honestly not sure... keep getting close then finding out I need to re-build something.

 

Late last week I received all of the air ride parts from AirBagIt.com. Everything was well packaged and weighed in over 250Lbs which did not include the DOM tube for the rear 4-link so that is just brackets, bags and front Parallel 4-link.

They normally provide parts for smaller trucks, but they were happy to custom build everything for my truck. I gave them the axle specs, truck information and they designed the brackets and everything to work. It took a while to get everything figured out but part of that was my fault because I did not give them all of the details until closer to the time of ordering. Once I paid for the parts in full they started cutting and welding up the parts for me. They anticipated a week or two to build the links but it ended up taking over 4 weeks, which was a bummer but they ended up expediting shipping to me at their cost to help make up the delay. Part of the delay is because SEMA was the week it finally shipped meaning that the guy building my parts was also planning for SEMA at the same time which is a lot of work. Had I ordered off the shelf parts there would have been no delays.

So after opening up and inspecting all of the brackets and parts I found them to be well designed and constructed. The welds were beautiful and the tolerances were tight. The air valves were impressive and heavy, they included a wiring harness that was color coded and ready for me to put together (they do offer it put together already, I was just being cheap). I am not sure if it was an accident or just them being nice and trying to make up for the delay, but they also included 4 extra bag mounts and some extra brackets and tabs. I had mentioned that I was thinking about running 4 airbags in the rear (forward and rear of the axle) to handle the extra weight… but I only ordered 4 bags for now and will add the extra 2 later if I want them. So I am going to weld in the extra bag mounts now which is perfect!

Overall it has been a great experience, and good parts. I will keep you posted as I continue to install everything and run it through its paces. Only other thing to consider is that there are no instructions included in the box, there were some online but rather limited… I guess if you have the skills to install the stuff instructions are just wasted paper. It is the suspension of your truck, so if you do not know what you are doing you could end up with serious issues.

I was able to save a ton of money by going with them as opposed to other competitors, and so far I am very happy with my decision.

 

Sorry guys, guess it was the fumes going to my head... I thought the wrench looked like a monster and had to snap a few pics






I tore through this bottle in only 2 days, crap this is getting expensive


Here is the Bag brackets I made


Bag on mount, still need to weld the plate on and axle needs to be aligned again


Here comes the boxing of the frame rails

 

I decided to run ¾” conduit on each side and welded on a ½” tube, drilled and welded through the frame rail so I can always replace or add stuff later.




More cool photos of the light and smoke rising




Ever tried to weld upside down… It does not work well, the metal melts out drips down and lands on your head (you can see one to the right of my head in the photo. Side note, the feeling of a little molten metal hitting your head, then rolling down burning the hair as it goes is really strange. The trying to comb your hair later is fun as it is all melted together. So, guess you should not try welding upside down.




I did this a few weeks ago, here is the drivers door catch mocked up.


Here is the shortened front axle, there was about 21” cut out of the center. Props to Dean of Off Road Components for the sweet welds.




My wife cleaned off over ½” of dirt and grease from this Hydraulic lift for the Lift Gate


Wife cleaned the engine a bit more and started to mask stuff off for painting.


The Tranny getting a bath as well

 

good god man. This is a sweet build man. Wish i lived closer and could help