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Saying goodbye to the Cookie Cutter TJ
So the day has come where the Cookie Cutter TJ was sent down the road. I was at a bit of a crossroads where If I kept going down the road I was one, the TJ was going to get fairly built. This would have destroyed whatever value that it had as there isn’t much of a market for “Built” 4x4s. Also, with another kid on the way, the thing was just too small for us to load up and…
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The Lone Ranger – Front Bumper Guessing
I started playing with some ideas for my front bumper tonight. I was having difficulty trying to figure out how to make the front bumper not seem retardedly huge. With the help of the wife, I think I’ve got a decent concept to work on. The issue is that I’m trying to meet IL lift law, which states 27” in the front for my GVWR. The lower part of my winch plate currently meets that: That’s cool, but as you…
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The Lone Ranger – Diff armor on the Cheap
Being the cheapskate that I am, I opted not to buy some fancy diff covers. Instead, I reinforced the stockers that came on the axles. The stock D60 cover that came on the ’99 E350 (Left side) measures at 0.130″ thick The stock D44 Cover that comes on the ’78 F250 (Right Side) measures at 0.170″ thick Since both covers are pretty dang thick, I felt that they only need a little protection around the ring gear portion of the…
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The Lone Ranger – Trans mount v3.0
On the last trip out, I managed to kill another transmission mount. This mount was a hacked up stock mount with poly bushing in place of the stock rubber. Since I might have been a wee bit drunk when I made this mount died, it help up for quite a long time, so in keeping with the theme…. Dead mount: Version 3.0: This one stopped the string of dead trans mounts!
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The Lone Ranger – Reid Knuckle Upgrade
After doing this to the stock Ford Knuckle: So I pulled this off: Slapped it next to the new knuckles (quite a bit more beefy): I wound up having to grind on my new knuckle to make the brake bracket fit correctly. Kind of disappointed that I had to do that, but not a big deal to get it done: One side done: Now everything is much happier! The Reid knuckles use a lower point for where the tie rod…