I like the looks of those headlight bezels over the solid front lense look. If I knew about those I might have been looking a little harder at the gen 2s <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Here's where the tool box will go roughly, it will actually sit between the flatbed rails a few inches. The open areas on the sides of the tool box will have d-rings for tie downs.




This is where the gas cans will go, they will be raised up and sitting just below the flatbed deck with a lockable trap door. It should work out pretty good, I'll be able to carry 10 extra gallons of fuel without taking up space on the flat bed. I may even invest in a good siphon pump so i don't actually have to take them out of their hole ever.




Here's the new shock location, the lower mounts are only tacked on right now. I need to drop the truck down on the bumpstops and build a shock tower. It seems like this is the only good location to put them which sucks because i might have to move my exhaust to the side of the truck.

A little progress, still need to make the jerry can holders, mount the rear shocks, 3 link the rear, add D-rings, install the engine, install NathanC's doubler <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/ignore.gif" alt="" />, install the 3" body lift, install a ton of lights i got for it, weld in the round headlamp buckets and lasty the synthetic wood planks for the open areas of the bed. Oh and paint.

Anyways the flatbed and rollbar is welded in now, the tool box is mounted, the interior is back together and the tank filler is in position. I'm kind of still playing with the spare tire mount, it turns out that the factory tire carrier is at an angle from the factory. I never noticed it until i welded it to a flat piece of steel, now i can see it on the truck. They must have done it to match the slight curve of the rear door but it still doesn't look right. I may just space it out or custom fab my own. The other thing i did was test fit the gen 2 round headlamp bezels i bought, they look great and will look even better with lights mounted correctly. The reason for the conversion is that one of the original lights had a hole and those things don't come cheap but these do and if i break bulbs in the future no big deal i can get a round one anywhere for about 5$ a piece. here's the pics

I'd say more than "a little progress"! Looking very nice dude! And you're slapping a doubler in that puppy too? Very cool!

I wish I could've easily swapped the headlights from my shorty into the latest truck. It was a fair amount of work, and then I would've had to swap the flush units into the 2door before I sold it... The rounds look much better, and yeah, you can throw a $5 bulb in, or a real nice E-code Hella.... Did you reuse the grille?

Thanks Phil, yeah it's the same grille. It would have been an easy but time consuming swap for you, you would have had to swap core supports on the trucks. I'm just gonna weld in the parts from a gen 1 core support i'm getting from rxinhed. Should be a pretty mean machine when it's done, this truck will get an SAS but not for another year or so. I want to take it out on the trail soon so that will have to wait, It'll be plenty fun with IFS for now.

Looks real good. I think I'm going to be doing this to my Raider soon.

Damn Toasty! That thing is coming out awesome. It's nice to see a few of you guys getting nutty with the Mods. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Was reading back through this, and seeing your new pics and them still showing the rust on the square tubing. Prep that with Ospho before you paint. You should be able to get it an autobody repair supply house. It's phosphoric acid based and turns the rust into inert metal (iron phosphate I think) that you can prime and paint from there.

Good call, the rust on the tubing is actually really light it only sat outside for like 6 years i was told. It still welds nice and the rust will come off with a quick swipe of 120 grit. The part i'm wanting to do something about is the frame, it's not real bad but it's a Utah truck and does have a few spots i'd like neutralized.

Today i made little progress, picked up 8 cans of flat black Rust-O-Leum <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />