Not one... BUT TWO trucks! '12 JKU and '03 GMC Sierra...

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rho

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So, i'll prob spare you all the details of YET another JKU but just give you a run down of the build of it so far...
I bought it new in 2012, after our fam outgrew my XJ, I ended up picking up a new JKU with zero options, and lemme tell you, it was not an easy task to find one. A few months later I found one for 25k, and away we went! After a couple months and the silly truck bouncing off the front bumps on our ski-jump like freeways around the Bay Area, so I put a leveling kit on it to help with that. Soon after that I put some some 32 tires on it to replace the stock 29" tires and I basicly kept it like that till those tires wore out, then went up to some 33's and a 2" lift, sliders, stuck my old milemarker winch on a winch plate on the front bumper etc.... 2yrs after that gears, 35's. Broke some control arms so started replacing those, trackbar, etc etc etc. Its been a great truck so far with a 135k on it and i'm planning on keeping it pretty much until it dies. And its got like standard jeep stuff, lol

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My wifes GMC sierra is going to be getting its own post a little further down and it'll prob make up a majority of the posts here as thats a bit more out there in terms of whats going on with it and some fairly major re-engineering of the front suspension to make it suck less... well, needless to say, it'll be interesting! My dad bought the truck new in '03 and it pretty much was his worktruck for a number of years until he picked up a '14 Xterra Pro-4x, so my parter picked it up as it was a good step up from her previous GMC Sonoma.

Its only a 2wd but it has the max tow package n stuff, so it has the V8, G80 in the rear, etc etc. Over the past few years we'd just been going through the truck and doing general maintenance and stuff until a bunch of crap started falling apart in the front suspension and it needed tires. Luckily I had the set of 33's at about half life from my jeep and a half-baked plan was born to do some minor suspension work on her truck, a small lift, some better lights, stick the 33's on, get some skids on it and see what we can do with the truck.

Just before we started tearing into the suspension. An idea of where it was when we started... This is when I was replacing the stereo, blown af speakers and generally getting the light bulbs on the interior to be not sucky... and started running wires to the backup cam.

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Soon I'll have coilovers to replace this mess...

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Pulling the old super worn out coils out... these had 190k on em and they were super dead.

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And uh, here's a cat.
 
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rho

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So... I'm in the process of gathering parts for a bit of mad-science for my partners truck, got two of these on order, some LCA coilovers from Atomic Fab, some bayonet upper shock mounts.. Also have some 800lb springs on order for these coilovers...

I still need to source limit straps, and figure out what I'm going to do for upper control arm stuff. The current plan is to go with Camburgs mid-travel kit which will have a new control arm for the uppers and spindles and will yield a ton more wheel travel!


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Box of relays!
We have a six switch panel inside the cab, currently only 2 on active circuits, One is reserved for a dustlight and we have 3 free ones still, with all the wiring routed and ready.

relayssss.jpg

New headlight housings because the old ones were AWFUL! So new reflectors was a massive upgrade.
I'm torn on doing HID's on this truck or not. I have LED's in my jeep and they were one of the best things i've ever done on that truck... for my partners truck, well, we'll see.

LIGHTS.jpg

I ordered up a bunch of DT series connectors, locks, contacts. I've gone through her truck already. I still need to go through and do my jeep, but I'm going to put that off until I start tearing into the electrical on that truck again. I need to replace the batt and re-do a LOT of the wiring as its grown over the years and its a general disaster, lmao.


connectors.jpg

Just after we got the reverse lights installed... they're wired to go on with the normal reverse lights or a seprate control in the cab. Decent flood pattren...
We still need to get the rear dustlight installed and aimed, but that going to be a soon thing I hope.

bumper.jpg


I'm super duper sick at the moment so I won't be doing a ton of work on the GMC or the Jeep this weekend. I was planning on doing the dustlights this weekend but depending on how I feel that most likely won't happen. Hopefully the rest of the coilover hardware gets here soon...
 

rho

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Oh man how fun doing all that modding!
Totally! My day job deals with the engineering and production side of space stuff, so the trucks are a nice distraction from the stresses of that environment where you have to have paperwork and design reviews n all that stuff before doing anything with our various vehicles there. With the trucks I can just sketch something up and then attack em with an angle grinder. Its awesome.
 
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RoarinRow

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Totally! My day job deals with the engineering and production side of space stuff, so the trucks are a nice distraction from the stresses of that environment where you have to have paperwork and design reviews n all that stuff before doing anything with our various vehicles there. With the trucks I can just sketch something up and then attack em with an angle grinder. Its awesome.
Yeah I can imagine! Will keep an eye on your builds and adventures.
 

rho

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Got a few things done to both trucks... First up the jeep.

Swapped out a connector for the #2 camshaft position sensor as the conductors ended up getting twisted and broken inside the insulation at the connector due to poor twist and strain relief from the factory. The engine wiring harness is kind of falling apart in general, so I don't know what i'm going to do with that in the long term. I spent a couple hours fixing tape and putting more split seam tubing over all the bits that were falling apart.

Upside after all the work and 55$ later... the sensor is behaving correctly now with the connector replaced, yaaaaay.

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Now... For the GMC.
After our last trip with this truck, we snagged the front lower bumper on a bunch of ditch crossings and water bars the last time we were out with it..., and most of the little plastic clips that held it on were either broken or half broken. So it was time to pull it off and start measuring and planning a bit for bumper/skid sillyness.

Now with these NBS trucks (99-06) there flat out isn't that much on the market for em. I'm totally spoiled with the jeep in this regard where i can just order whatever and it'll come in the mail in 2 days and it'll fit. The truck, not so much. 2wd performance suspension is one of those things where there isn't anything out there for em, bumpers is another one. Skidplates are another. So with the aide of a sharpie, a lot of cardboard and a knife, I started doing some modeling in Auto-CAD. I'm hoping to start shopping for some metal this week and hopefully starting the first bends this weekend.

Here it is with the bumper shell removed

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Bumper supports and fog lamps removed

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First mockup of the front skidplate

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mostly finished with the skid plate mock ups for the front of the engine, the front skid, part of the skid-bumper plate (not pictured is another part of the front skid that goes and covers the gap between the bumper and the frame)

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JCWages

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Look at you using CAD and cardboard templates. You would have laughed at my method of modifying the DV8 steel skid to fit our stock work Canyon. Angle grinder and "eyeballing it" FTW. LOL
 

rho

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I haven't drawn anything up yet. I might. I might not. Depends on motivation!!! besides, I've hacked PLENTY of stuff up with an angle grinder. my jeeps bumper being the most recent in that line ;P
 
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JCWages

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I saw you ordered a bag of electrical connectors. What would you recommend I use for basic 2 wire connectors that I can unplug easily and are waterproof? I need something for my bumper LEDs and ditch lights. I'm using shrink tube butt connectors at the moment and I need to remove my bumper to fix a bracket which will require cutting the wires.
 

rho

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rho

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Got the front lift spindles in the mail, so is tarted looking at measurements for the GMC. The new spindles are a little taller between the upper and lower balljoints and they change the geo of the front end a bit additionally they push the front track out a little bit. So whenever I get the stupid springs for the coilovers in, we'll start tearing the stock spindles/springs/etc apart for the third time and hopefully we won't mess with it too much more, lmao.

Stock spindle, and a super rough measurement... pardon the dust, lol.

StockKnuckle.jpg

The new lift spindle! Cast iron is heavy. -_-

spindle.jpg

'nother shot of it, because why not.

liftspindle.jpg


It should be interesting!

I also picked up some wheel spacers for the rear wheels to push them out to match the front track. Seeing all the silly lifted full size trucks around me that never ever see dirt with wider front tracks than the rear is just AAAHHHHHHHHHHH. Anyways. This will be a silly when its done.
 
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rho

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Got the chase light mounted up on the wifes truck today. Bad in process shot....

dustlamppartialmount.jpg

Good n bright...

chaselamp.jpg
 
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rho

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Sweet! Did you clean up the seal really well before screwing the light back in? :)
Yep, this is a 16 year old truck, lots of stuff like that needs attention after all these years.

Also had to swap out the trans mount and a rear bump stop as they both were turning to dust...
 
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rho

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The coilover springs finally came in! So aided by a jar of anti-seize and some spring compressors I got the coilovers put together. Also picked up the arbor shims for the top shock mount to close up the gap.

I got roped into supporting some crane lifts at work on my day off tomorrow so I won't be getting started on this project till Saturday... But I'll be starting on this at like 6am most likely and hopefully I'll have the old springs/shocks/spindles/old brake line out after a couple hours and get the new stuff in before noon so I can get it aligned in the afternoon. I've ripped the font suspension apart on that stupid truck often enough that i'm getting pretty good at it now, haha.

Having a huge cordless impact driver helps massively as well ;P

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I also got a big brake kit in for my jeep... 13.3" rotors. They're MASSIVE. I can't wait to get those in.. but more on that later...
 
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