For budget reasons I think I will steer clear of the wheel spacers for now, and get them later on after the truck gets home. I still need to buy driveshafts, front junkyard diff and rear RP....So I may wait on wheel spacers, hubs and spare tire until finances improve a little.

It may be interesting to see just how far you can even turn the wheels as it stands right now, Lloyd. It looked pretty tight, but I only saw it sitting in Toasty's driveway.

Aisins are worth 1 mpg, too. I wonder if anyone has a set, even if they're Superwinch or something else. Would make the drive home a touch cheaper (that is, if you're not trailering it).

Sounds like the end of the tunnel is closer now. How's the engine coming together?

Once it's all done, I'll be looking to get my motorcycle jack and engine hoist back, friends...

John B.

I'll bring your jack back soon just gotta get my alignment done and i'll toss it in the tool box and drop it by after work either this week or next guess it will depend on if i need parts or just a bit more preload.

If you need to stretch your budget on this some more maybe wait on the 4.90?s too for now, those normally are not hard to find on the cheap but now seems to be a bad time for whatever reason people aren?t crashing their sports.
We should probably get it drivable and then get on to the cool stuff again, I can keep moving on the fab work with the stuff i have but you might get a front crossmember made from an old driveshaft tube <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Lloyd, here are some bumper pics. I'm not a big fan of winch on bumper really, I liked it better before when it was only 1/2" away from the body <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. So you'll need to let me know what you think about the spacing and if you're ok with the look of it. With the winch plate and spacing the bumper out about 2" I now have a pretty big gap in front of the headlamps. I'll have to find some 1/8" plate to take up that space.



Main bumper body


Underside


This is the gap you can see it on the passenger side





We could do something like this with 1/8" plate to fill the gap


The side piece will follow where your fender will be cut, I put some tape on your fender to give you an idea where the cut will be. Not sure we need to extend the sides.

That does look way too far forward. On my other trucks I had the bumper a bit lower, with the winch slightly recessed back in under the grill. So the winch plate was between the frame rails, then the bumper and fairlead hole lined up with it.

Either we need to get the plate onto the frame rails, or go with your more tucked in plan...

That's actually what i suggested originally, I wanted to put the winch on top of the frame rails. It's not a big deal nothing has been welded, I'm glad you posted up so quick. I'll put it back how i had it with the first mock up and post up new pictures.

We need to work on our communication <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

That is what my wife says <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/ignore.gif" alt="" /> What communication? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Broke it all apart this morning, I'll weld the frame back together and start looking for a section of 3/8" for the winch plate. Good to get back on track, this will be easier, much stronger and look correct. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Yay I'm back in the US again! Anyone need/want/volunteer to take away any of the stuff that's at my house? Engine, axle, etc?

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />