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Pretty sparse on the updates and progress. Getting closer to joining the body and frame again. Ran into a pretty significant problem in trying to fix the three broken body mount bolts. When I installed the body lift several years ago, I should have used antiseize so now some of the bolts were a little too rusty and I was in too much of a hurry. Two of the bolts snapped off and one had to be cut because the interior bracket broke and the bolt just spun. For reference, this is what the body bolts attach to inside the body. These are contained within the body crossmembers and held in place by a small cage that rusts away pretty easily. Had to cut open the crossmembers to remove these pieces.
Most of the harness has been installed and mocking up the exhaust. The existing muffler was old and shot so bought a Magnaflow replacement.
Also solved the issue of the unknown Rough Country upper ball joints. Bought a cheap equivalent to the Moog K6540 just to test and these control arms turned out to be the older type so I can use the Silverado ball joints. Bought a set of Mevotech TTX that should be here next week.
Installation of the upper ball joints. Seem to be of high quality.
Finally time to move the frame back under the body. Luckily no safety issues and everything went smooth. Used two floor jacks under the rear diff and front crossmember and had to remove the wheels to clear the underside of the body,
Body bolt and retainer. Installed a 1.5 inch body lift many years ago but had to replace a couple of the blocks that I cut up during the frame separation so ordered up some 2 inch blocks this time. Full body lift kits come with M12 x 140mm bolts but they didn't seem to engage as much thread so used 150mm bolts instead. Made sure to use some anti-seize this time.
Body mount bushings. Purchased the upper portion from LMC and managed to salvage the lowers from the existing ones and a couple from the wrecker.
Charcoal canister and brackets.
Installed cleaned up gas filler neck and hoses.
Getting the rad support ready for install.
If anyone wants to install a body lift and is cheap like me, I would recommend not buying a full kit and instead do the following. Should be able to do it for less than $100 or so.
1. Buy 2x3 inch (X10 for body) and 2x2 inch (X4 for front bumper) lift blocks from ebay or wherever. Cost about $50-60. To make it even cheaper, buy 3 inch blocks and cut them in half for a 1.5 inch lift.
2. Fab a spacer from square tubing or u-channel to lower the bottom portion of the fan shroud.
3. Extend the fuel filler neck hose.
4. Fab a drop bracket for the remote oil filter from some flat bar.
5. Buy M12 x 140 or 150mm bolts. Cost about $20.
5. Find some S10 rear bumper brackets and flip them upside down to lift the rear bumper. The bracket to bumper bolt spacing is the same as for the Blazer and is the same top and bottom. Did this years ago but now filled the holes I made then and drilled new ones due to changing from 1.5 to 2 inches.
Thanks, appreciate it. Starting to feel the pressure of finishing it up. I work a ton of overtime from Feb to April and I'm guessing time will run out on me. Rather take my time anyways, lot more enjoyable to do things right. So the updates will probably dry up for awhile but I'm looking forward to finishing.
Made a couple of braces to solidify the bumper brackets as they moved up so high and don't contact the frame enough. Also installed some tow points previously which will be joined to the frame by making another bracket that will be welded to the d-ring mounting plate behind the bumper.
This is the remote oil filter extension made for the body lift. Also installed new oil lines.
Getting the exhaust mocked up. Used the old cat, had a shop bend a new pipe to the muffler, bought a 2.5 in/out Magnaflow. Once everything is done, I'll bring it to the exhaust shop to get a new tailpipe made to adjust for the body lift. Just have to weld in a new 02 bung and attach a hanger.
This is a picture of the braces behind the rear bumper which link the d-rings to the frame. Probably will never use it but overkill is usually better.
Finally finished up with the rear bumper and the rear wiring. One of the things that I installed last year was the rear tire carrier. The biggest drawback was the loss of rear view mirror vision so I decided to buy a rearview mirror monitor with a permanent camera facing rearwards and ended up getting one of these https://wolfbox.com/products/wolfbox...oring-dash-cam
The unit is pretty good overall and good value for the price. Installation was pretty easy but I wasn't a fan of installing the rear camera inside the rear window so made a small bracket to mount it on the tire rack. Figured if the camera could be mounted in the center of the spare tire, the view would be better and it would still be protected. Ran the camera wire inside some rubber hose to protect it.
This is the underside where the wire enters the body. Pulled a door wire grommet from the wrecker to keep it water protected.
Originally wanted to run the wire inside the tire rack but that wouldn't work so it got zip tied to the rack and isn't too obtrusive.
To protect the camera and keep it hidden, the original center cap logo was removed and found some polycarbonate discs the exact size of the center cap. Used a dime to mask the center and painted the rest black. Cut a hole in the center cap backing and used double sided tape to mount the disc to the center cap.
The camera is totally camouflaged when the tire is on and totally protected from the weather. The vision with this setup is great and totally clear.
