The one benefit to grabbing just a frame & taking my time attempting to get things right, especially since its my dd still currently until the end of the year.

Yeah with the heavy stuff: in the class I took we mainly practiced with 3/8th plate, and it really just takes practice practice practice. $180 bucks was worth every penny of 6 weeks of materials! But it seemed like it all goes the same, just watching your puddle and dialing it in off of that. I definitely like playing on a piece of scrap first to see where I'm at and adjusting if need be. Welded up a buddy's project 28' trailer/old rv frame (actually the first time ever with my new welder & first time ever with flux-core wire) had it dialed in perfect on 2x2x1/8 angle iron. BTW, I love tig the best and if I had the time I'd tig weld it all hahahaha

How can't you be fond of them? LOL We have them on every HWMMV in our motorpool obviously (Go Army ). So PROS: super puncture resistant on the trail, super affordable since you can get them from surplus companies. Buying any other 37" tire is going to cost you dang near $320/tire for a 15" rim version, where as with a 16.5" you still get enough clearance for nice n big calipers CONS: Heavy/Balancing issues (null and void since it'll be a trail vehicle in the future anyway) :P Just my thoughts HAHA it'll still be on the street on occasion but pretty soon this Blazer will be an almost dedicated rock crawler (no mud, that s*it tears up stuff worse was than the rocks do, especially since you can't see the damage with the mud half the time)

 

That last picture makes it look like you are building a gasser style blazer. Really like the build so far.

 

American1, it sounds like those tires would be perfect for you then. Their resistance to puncture is perfect for rocks. They sure do crawl thru the stones nice too. Mine is going to be on/off the road, and the wheeling I do is a big mixture of surfaces mud, rocks, stream crossings, and tight dirt trails so im probably going to go Goodyear MTRs or something of that sort. Also, thanks for serving!

Thanks! I was thinking the same thing about it looking like a gasser lol. I can't wait to get the rear end up too ... Probably going to be a few weeks though

 

I'm personally not a fan of that look because I see it down here almost every day haha We call it the carolina squat/poor boy's lift

 

I absolutely hate that look.

 

I think those trucks look like scared dogs peeing on themselves lol!

I've been there tho!

 

Haha I've heard it called the Carolina squat up here too. It does look stupid... Usually brand new mall crawler full size trucks with 8 light bars that I see like that..

Got the truck sitting up on a small floor lift in the rear so it sits level now. Pictured next to a Toyota Tacoma for reference of height...She's a tall one.

 

Nicely done. Looks like it should work out real well.

 

my god man! loving what your doing with the girl. shes gonna be a beaut when shes all done. looking foward and good luck!

 

Thanks guys! I'm going to get the front section of the frame ground down the rest of the way over the weekend, and epoxy seal it. Then I can start installing the engine and transmission while I figure out my rear leaf spring situation ...

I need to figure out what to do for leafs that will give me around 6 inches of lift, and not be ridiculously stiff. And I'm trying to retain my factory mounts .... If anyone has some input there, that would be really helpful.

I've been looking into bastard packs, but from what I understand that's not going to get me enough lift unless I added a ton of leafs...Maybe a bastard pack and arch the **** out of the springs as I go? I dunno.