Ultimate Project Build Off [Team Rae] – Engine Out Chop Frame

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With: Rae Champoux

iZook Guru’s Ultimate Project Build Off – Truck Two

Well we are still at it. It has taken a lot longer than we expected. The delays are many. Lets start with the run down of the last months work on truck two. The cool one. J

Whos smart idea was it to take the body off? That must have been someone other than mine. Mitch and my father in-law, Jim, said that it would make putting the lift on easier if the body wasnt in the way. So one Saturday was spent taking the whole body off. We removed the doors, took the hood off and the rear door as well to make it as manageable as possible. With some help from the cherry picker and a few metal saw horses the body was off. I do not mean to make it sound easy, ’cause it wasnt. Its off now though, sitting on the car trailer in my side yard. I am waiting for the neighbors to say something now that the leaves are falling and you can see more of our property.

We were thinking, at least a little bit here and there. We left that huge smitty bumper on the front that had the tabs attached to it for the tow bar and the next day we took it to the wash your own car wash and hosed it off good. That way we had a cleaner frame to start welding and attaching parts to. That was the end of doing anything to it that day because everything was wet. Then I opened my mouth. I asked Mitch, my husband, “We arent going to leave the engine and transmission in the frame are we?” He says “No, we need to take that out too, since the engine needs to be rebuilt, we might as well pull it now and be done with it.” He says “Why you want to pull it?” Now there are a lot of things that I do not know how to do in the garage, but I know how to turn a wrench. So I give him a funny look and say “Yeah”. He starts in talkin’ about the impact and blah blah blah. I am not listening, I have wheeled the tool box out of the garage and started diggin’ thru it for tools. I know, I know, someone is thinking she did not take that out with hand tools. Yep, you betcha. Ok so I lack some sense sometimes. I grab a socket and a breaker bar , I ask which bolts need to be taken out and start wrenchin’ on the bolts. Did I mention that it was like 90 degrees that day? I was wearing black and jeans? In the sun? Again, proof that I dont always use my brain. I was roasting alive and getting ticked off because I was having a hard time of things. I couldnt get the socket and the ratchet on some of them because of the space constraints. So I am working on things with an open end wrench turn at a time. Mitch was keeping himself busy fixing some rust spots on our old Dodge Dakota. I was so mad I could have probably made up a new swear word. I finally gave in and had Mitch come break one of the bolts loose for me and show me where to attach the chains for the cherry picker. We ended up getting it out and not a moment too soon either because I had about had it.

Now comes the fun part. Right. Grinding the frame down to make it a good workable surface. Mitch spent two days doing that. After the first day spent in the garage with no hearing protection he walked around like he had cotton stuffed in his ears. Lesson learned…  he got some ear muffs, like the kind you use if your shooting guns, and finished the job.

Jim and Mitch have been working on setting up the rear end. Really taking their time to make sure that everything goes right. Have I said to make sure to read all the instructions before you start digging in to putting the Rocky Road Outfitters coil suspension on? Let me say it now. Read the directions. Read them cover to cover. They are not meant to be a step by step manual but if you read them you will be a lot better off than if you dont.

Like I said before, things have been slow for us. We work different shifts, putting in overtime at work and family obligations have kept the time we get to work on the tin top to a minimum lately. That has really been a bummer. We are hoping that we get the coils on by next months update. Cross your fingers and if anyone lives in western lower Michigan, call and come on over, we could use the company and maybe a spare set of hands.

The Diva’s Down and Dirty:

Spidertrax:

Rocky Road Outfitters:
(888)801-7271
Coil Suspension Kit ]]> Zuks Off RoadShrockWorks

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