Its looking good! I'm about to tackle the shift solenoid swap myself and I'm not at all looking forward to it I really like the look of those tires as well. Instead of using bondo which will be nearly impossible just cause of the amount needed to fill all that space I say use the expanding spray in foam in the can. Its cheap its durable and you can trim off the excess! It might be a little work to remove it later on but at least it won't fall out and you can spray some spray on bedliner over it to hide it a bit

 

I will look into it. My dad says there is no way the expanding foam will hold up? He has no explanation to back that up, besides "it's not what it's made for". Thanks for the reply.

 

Okay a couple things.

Got a new spare tire carrier with a wheel...... But the wheel has a locking lugnut, (no key, actually needs a key, not a special wrench) I went to a locksmith and he said there is nothing he can do about it. I called a dealership and they said they can see if they have a key that fits it, if not im going to have to cut it off. Is there any way to pick it?



Also Picked up these bad boys from my girlfriends dad for free! Im gonna mount them on the roof! They are orange but they are bright as heck!



Dealership tomorrow... Hopefully they have a key so I dont have to get the grinder out. :-/

 

Those stupid locking nuts are hard enough to get off WITH a key, let alone without. Needless to say, mine is never going back on. Good luck!

 

I hate those keys!!! I had them on my Landrover and the deisgn was so stupid that when I tried to take the wheel off the actual key part inside the round portion of the key stripped out and was completely useless. I tried everything to get them off for days and they wouldn't budge!! Luckily I had the original paperwork to the keys in my truck so I was able to call the company and they sent me a new one at the cost of $40 The worst part was this all happened while I had a guy standing there trying to buy the rims off the truck while I was parting it out and he had driven 2 hours to get them!! I ended up delivering them to him once I finally got them off so I didn't make much money on that deal heck probably lost money if you figure in all my time.

 

Well for the locking lugnut..... looks like the grinder is in the future, should hold pretty tight with 2 studs cranked anyway.

Pitman and Idler arm replacement tomorrow along with alignment..... woooohooo

 

I just picked up the same tire carrier as you have from the wreckers. I got the lock off with a hammer and vise grips. Beat the craps out of it and pulled the remainder with vise grips.

Anyhow....what did you do for reinforcing inside the body for the tailgate and around the tail light? Pictures would be fan tas tic.

 

Can you explain in more detail what u did to get it off?

I didnt do anything except fender washers (just big washers). I have a pretty big flex by my liftgate handle, but that doesnt bother me too much because you cant see it when the tire is over it. As for the rear quarter panel, i really didn't do any reinforcments, but there is a tiny bit of flexing at the bottom bracket.

I am planning on trying to get the tire carrier 100% rattle free and reinforced this weekend (hopefully), I will throw pics up then.

In other news....

Idler arm and pitman arm are replaced. The steering has never been so tight, I love it! Also got an alignment, she rides alot nicer.

This weekend I plan on working on the rear tire carrier and buying a new roofrack and mounting the lights on it. Should be a good weekend. =)

 

I basically drove the outter sleeve in toward the rim, smashed the now protruding key assembly off, pulled the remaining outter sleeve with vise grips. Scarred the rim a bit though. Not a very secure system...

Good luck with the projects this weekend!

 

Got the spare tire off the wheel, literally used a socket to smash the outer sleeve in and pryed the locking mechanism clean off and pulled the sleeve off.

The new tire carrier is on the truck and is amazing, not even a rattle when going over large bumps, very nice and tight. Pics will be up tomorrow, not enough light right now to get a good one.

Next projects...

Fill in fender
New roof rack with lights