life and death of a clean $200 toy...................

[CrabDiggs]

Just read your whole buildup. How bored am I?  :screwy:Its nice, your a real John Grisham.  Anyway, I like your rig and your wheeling style. Reminds me of me.  Hyena is most deffinitely right, it is extremely nice to beat the piss out of your pride and joy, but it is even better to strap it away safely and hop in your nice warm tow rig for a peaceful ride home, instead of the death shake from fugged up parts and the constant wining in your right ear from your extremely cold, tired, and dirty girlfriend.  Or is that just mine?

[Ramrod]

no are girlfriends are hot and hungover so instead we just leave them at home

[toynorcal]

alright I have the plan set and finalized in my head now.  I dont have the time or space to build a whole truck again so i'm keeping the one I have and also after looking into it I wont be able to get a good tow rig for about 3 more months when I have a better work history and better pay so for the time being I am just going to keep on building it like I have a tow rig because I barely drive it anymore since I no longer work out of town.  I just got a bender from a friend so in a couple weeks when I have all the parts i'm going to tube out the front clip and cover it with new fenders and a hood

Right on man, I wish I had stuck with my old rig after trashing it. I spent alot of money redoing work that I didn't need to, not to mention all the wheelin I have missed out on.

[Ramrod]

Right on man, I wish I had stuck with my old rig after trashing it. I spent alot of money redoing work that I didn't need to, not to mention all the wheelin I have missed out on.

true that!!! that thing wasnt even broken in yet

I just ordered some arp hub studs (what a rip off btw) and bought some chain for my motor mounts and drill bits to drill out the old studs and pulled my radiator so I should be wheeling this weekend, ahahaha

[RHG]

This weekend...where ya going? b*std, I have to work.

[Hyena]

Rubicon, if he can get his truck fixed 

[Ramrod]

spent forever trying to line up some holes in my tin can of a core support today to put in a radiator I had lying around and when I finally got it hooked up It leaked out water faster than it would go in so tomorrow is gonna be a huge rush to get this thing ready

[Hyena]

damn, did you put the thermostat back in yet?

[rockcrawlinredneck]

That last picture sums up the weekend right there. At least you have somthing to talk about for a while now.

Kevin

[Ramrod]

no thermostat yet.  Thats on the bottom of my list.  I hate working on this thing so I probably wont fix that for a while

[Ramrod]

took it out again this weekend up to the rubicon and the truck was working great besides some little quirks and lots of wierd noises untill I sheared all my hub studs on the passenger side and then broke the other hub some time after that and then got stuck and bent my  crossmember so that my rear cv is hitting my horseshoe crossmember.  This truck is officially retired from trail duty untill I get a towrig because it is just beat

[Hyena]

did you find out what was wrong with your tire?

[Ramrod]

nope I filled it up and its good to go I guess.  it hasnt lost any air yet at all

[toynorcal]

You bent your crossmember... I can't say that I am increadible supprised, but dude, did you jump it onto a rock or what?

Sounds like you two had a busy weekend

[Hyena]

It was a fun-filled weeked full of lots of laughs, lots of cussing, and somethings i can't really remember to well 

[Ramrod]

yeah it was pretty much a full on ramrod monuver that bent my crossmember and it also bent my 1/4" rear spring hangers.  its on video and probably the funniest footage caught on my video camera

[6.72:1]

FULL ON RAMROD MANEUVERS!

[Ramrod]

called up marlin today and it turns out that im the first one to ever bend one of these crossmembers but it is no longer under warranty because its over a year old but i'm not really worried about it because I dont want this style anymore anyways so if anyone is interested in a marlin crossmember with an additional 3/4" clearance let me know its now officially for sale

[Yota4life]

You should do a drivetrain lift and flat belly it now.

[Ramrod]

   thats the plan stan + a custom fror style crossmember

[RHG]

oooh sounds like you had fun, are you going to have a tow rig for MCR5? You better, either that or piece this thing together enough for the get together.

[Ramrod]

yes I plan on having a towrig before my truck even leaves sonoma.  I already found the one I want but I need my sister to refinance her car so that my dad can co-sign for me on it.  And fyi I still have not touched a single thing since getting back from the con such as either broken hub or the oil dipstick even and its running fine still.  I only used 3/8 a tank of gas all last week.  Gotta love working in town

[Ramrod]

finally took apart my drivers side hub to see why it wouldnt unlock and discovered that it is not blown but that my frankenhub was not working how i wanted it which means that i am officially hub less and I was planning on trading hyena for some hubs but have now decided that since this thing will never see the street again once I get a tow rig I am just gonna run it how it is untill then and get the longfield drive flanges

[Ramrod]

these pictures make me hate myself. the first 1 was taken 8/6/05




and these were taken 3 days later(also notice bed bob)




and then now the latest picture


I would never imagined I would mess this thing up so bad so fast and after looking at my album of pictures and seeing what this truck used to look like and then how much better my other truck looked I am going to redo this entire thing pretty much and cannot wait to.  everything on it was done half ass because I never had enough time because I always had to be able to drive it the next day but finally I am on the verge of getting a tow rig and cannot be happier. 

Here is a list of breakage for the last 10 months:
3 Hubs
2 sets of hub studs
1 rear chevy spring
1 front shock hoop
1 bent marlin crossmember
a couple starters
many blown fuses
1 full door
2 half doors
2 front fenders
1 hood
2 beds
1 rear 5:29 ring and pinion
1 sterio head unit
1 windshield
4 speakers
6 rocklights
4 headlights
4 taillights
1 radiator
1 battery
1 rear shock mount
4 rims
1 bent rear axle
Pretty good HuH?  most of that was since april

then here is the list of parts replaced because didnt work out well or I changed my mind:

1 22r oilburner and everything attached
5 different exhaust systems
6 carburators
1 rear axle
1 pair front springs
2 sets of tires
3 batterys

should be more on both lists but I just thought of that  stup off of the top of my head.  I am going to start the rebuild as soon as I get a tow rig which should be soon and will have it going again but not done by mcr5 and after that I probably wont wheel it for a while and the only run planned after that will be the tinbenders jambo 07 but will most likely be done way before that

[Hyena]

No, you gotta have for the round-up!

[Ramrod]

It will be at the round up dont worry but it will not be DONE DONE.  Probably just the tube front clip and drive flanges will be the only difference and hopefully bigger tires

[Hyena]

cool.  ya, my truck won't change at all.  i have some bad ass ideas for my little tailgate thingy.  It's gonna be awesome once i get done with it.  other then that it will be the same.  Are you gonna dovetail the front or leave it stock width?  i think since it won't be a dd you should dovetail it.

[Ramrod]

i'll be dovetailed f & r but the rear wont really be a dovetailed bed

[olivedrab85]

Are you gonna leave the suspension as is, or any plans with that? Seems to work good but just wondering.

[Ramrod]

In the front i'm gonna run some 51" 3rd gen rears mixed up with my current front springs and hopefully 15" bbcs shocks and in the rear it WILL have a dual triangulated 4 link with coilovers or airshoxs depending on how heavy it ends up being and how much money I have.  The current suspension works pretty good but only one rear spring is mine and that one is pretty worn and I'm pretty tired of the axle wrap and length of the chevy springs.  In the front I just want to try out the different springs and see what kind of flex and ride I can get and hopefully a better shackle angle