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From a $150 beater to pretty decent.


holyford86

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Recently, a friend of mine has been prompting me to post up a little bit of the transformation process my truck has gone through in the past 6 years that I have owned it. It's still not done, it probably never will be.

This is what I started with, more or less:


That is the earliest pic that I can find of the thing, its still about 5 or 6 months after I got it. it was rotted really bad, the driver side floor was about gone, and so was about half of the passenger side, there were no cab corners left and the radiator support was pretty much gone along with the fenders, doors, and the factory bed, which I tore off and scrapped as soon as I got it. It had no brakes either, but it ran pretty well for having 234,000 miles on the clock and not being ran in 5 years. It was pretty bare bones as far as options, it had a vinyl bench seat, AM/FM radio, power steering, 3.45 gears, an FM145, 1350 T case, 225/75/15 tires and the tow package, supposedly...

Now jump forward 6 years and this is how it sits:



It took quite a bit of work to get here, I swapped the cab sometime in 2005, the rust was just too bad to fix. It now sports a Skyjacker 6" class II lift, Belltech 6400 shackles, Explorer 4 door leafs, and 33 inch Cooper Discoverer LT tires mounted on Cragar wheels. I swapped out the stock 3.45 gears for 4.10 geared axles, I'm still running the Dana 28 at this time but it's going to be thrown on the scrap heap as soon as I can find some gears for the Dana 35 I have for it. The rear axle houses a lockright locker. I added York onboard air, a 130 amp Taurus alternator, and another battery. The FM145 died along the way and it was replaced with an M5OD. The original motor still ran strong, but at 279,000 miles it was smoking and eating quite a bit of oil but strangely had no lifter tick, I installed a lower mileage 89TM 2.9 around thanksgiving of last year, along with an Explorer radiator. I just recently converted it to MAF and I am very happy with the result. Both of the bumpers along with the bed were custom made and welded by a friend of mine, who also happens to be a member on this site. The factory radio was replaced by a sony headunit, sending power to Pioneer and JVC spealers, along with a Cadence Q3000 and Cadence Mallet.

Most of the things I did to it, I learned about right here, I learned lots along the way too. Some of you may remember how ignorant I was when I started posting here around June of 2004. I thank you all for your patience and all the info I have learned.

this truck has been my DD for the past 3 years and it goes great, it just turned 284,000 miles yesterday, There is still more to be done but overall I'm pretty happy with the results. I doubt I'll ever get rid of it, too many memories and too much time invested now. I'm going to post up some more pictures as I find them.
 


Shran

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Always nice to see another flatbed :D

Looks like you started out with pretty much the same thing I did, just a lot more rust and a lot less dents. I did the Skyjacker leafs and am planning on the Belltechs sometime.

Are those real beadlocks or are they streetlocks?
 

holyford86

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they're streetlocks
 

PaleBlue90

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Destroyer000

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boy do i have COUNTLESS hours wrenching on that beast!!!
 

holyford86

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^^and here is the member that welds all of my junk^^:headbang:
 

Sprag-O

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Matt... I want to see that thing on the Interstate :)
 

holyford86

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Matt... I want to see that thing on the Interstate :)
heh, the thing can't break 62 mph and that's pushing it hard. once you break 60 and keep it above that, the mileage goes from about 18 to 11-12. I'll stick to my backroads and driving 50 everywhere because I'm cheap. A 4.0 swap is in it's future, as soon as this 2.9 starts causing me major problems, its coming out. Pretty soon I'll be a bit more inclined to wheel it more often, as soon as I go buy gears for the d35 sitting around. It's my DD and only means of transportation right now so I have been babying it.
 

Sprag-O

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Need to beat the DD's to make em happy man...

Mazdas still my only working vehicle, and we buried it so bad lastnight we had to lift it out... Pulling just wouldnt do it :p

Btw... My hitch definately had more then 500lbs on the tongue :p


I'll get out that way one of these times, we all gotta go wheeling.
 

rangermuse

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HUGE changes man. I love what you have done with the rig. The flatbed is sweet.
 

Destroyer000

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heh, the thing can't break 62 mph and that's pushing it hard. once you break 60 and keep it above that, the mileage goes from about 18 to 11-12. I'll stick to my backroads and driving 50 everywhere because I'm cheap. A 4.0 swap is in it's future, as soon as this 2.9 starts causing me major problems, its coming out. Pretty soon I'll be a bit more inclined to wheel it more often, as soon as I go buy gears for the d35 sitting around. It's my DD and only means of transportation right now so I have been babying it.
your originial 2.9 had almost 300k on it.. a 4.0 swap in the future.. i THINK NOT! we just put that damn motor in just keep tinkering with it an get another 300k out of this one.. :icon_thumby: i think we've done enough motor swaps for 2009....
 

holyford86

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33x12.50R15
Who said I was going to do it in 2009, its my plan when this one decides to go, it could be 2009,2010, 2019, etc
 

revwoode

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can i see some close up pics of the front bumper? i have the same guard combo and was thinkin of doing that same thing! do you have a body lift on?great truck by the way
 

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