Kiznook's Project DD Hardbody

[kiznook]

Well, clearly it's fall again, time to dust off the ol' "daily driver" and maybe even give 'er some love. So I figure it's time to go ahead and post up the evolution that has brought me to this point...picture style!

 

First was my Dakota. I really loved that truck, it was great fun, but it was a nasty 80's Mopar...not the best vehicle ever made :) And when you're a young kid, and you have a run in with pedestrians on a rainy night, driving the car just never seems the same, even after it's fixed. (not my fault BTW)

 

SUMMER 2004 so we traded the ol' Dak' in for a sensible Jap-Truck. Looks almost decent before I got to it

 

SUMMER 2005 Then I decided to go Pre-Runner style and throw some big cheap mud tires on. WORD OF WISDOM: don't think de-studding tires is a good idea, it's not!

AND the fading and peeling paint was getting to me so....Safety Yellow!

 

NEVER drive through a field without a battery tie-down!

 

Installed the Pathfinder LSD rear end

 

That was a LOT of fun! up to and including:

 

WINTER 05/06

Come-along and a BFH, I still have a "fresh" core support and inner fender assy. waiting to be installed for the "proper" fix

 

All better

 

But I couldn't find the exact same Safety Yellow in rattle-can so I had to improvise. BIRTH OF THE BUMBLE BEE/BRE!!! p.s. hard to do body work/pain in the snow:eek:

 

Then I rolled around low for a while, Actually went back and forth, low, high, low, high

 

Damn those stripes aren't very uniform :lol:

 

And pretty much nothing new up until now. Just got the BLINGIN! pathys complete with totally shot 31x10.50 15s

 

And coming sometime in the not too distant future,

New tires: back to 30x9.50s

Rebuild rear end (needs some seals and some perch tweaking)

roll in or spray on bedliner - theres a shop down the road that'll do any truck for $250

finally convert the interior to black or gray...pathfinder buckets, bedlined floors, maybe a not so short, short shifter

New exhaust...gotta pull the Spin-Tek muffler off for the dime...SIDEPIPE!!

 

and spring/fall, actually fix the front end, Cut and weld the new inner fender/radiator support

 

and I'm thinking real BRE paint scheme next summer...hmmm

 

And now you know, I'll update when I get some stuff done, Time to park the dime for the winter methinks

[nismopu]

you forgot this pic, lol!!!!!!

 

[kiznook]

LOL! it actually didn't look half bad with those wheels.

 

Maybe I should run some street tires for a while. What do you guys think, Prerunner w/ 30s, or some raised white letter radial t/a's?

[irsa76]

Well I feel we need more prerunners. :D

I'm planning on running 15" white spokes with raised white letter off road(ish) tyres. What's the BRE paint scheme look like, need ideas for mine.

[]2eDeYe]

Looks good with the stripes. I agree prerunner, and don't forget to take it off some sweet jumps :lol:

 

How about some pic's of that 5 in the driveway? :D

[kiznook]

prerunner it is! now to order tires :D :eek:

 

That would be my Dad's 68 CJ6. awesome rig, it was always one of his dream cars. I might play with it next summer...we'll see. I'll try to get some pics for ya. STUPID RAIN!!

[]2eDeYe]

I thought it looked a little long...kinda weird angle in the pic.

 

Don't hate on the rain...makes it more fun to slide around corners with less wear on the tires :D

[irsa76]

If you hate the rain, just send it down here. We haven't had any real rain in months. Some areas haven't seen decent rain in years, seriously!

[]2eDeYe]

It's dumping here as I type :D

[SHADY280]

were getting 2" of rain per day!!!! dang wet coast.

[kiznook]

but the rain does make sliding more fun :lol:

 

I ordered my tires this evening, decided to get the cheaper, more sensible Dunlop all seasons (standard LT m&s type) rather than the knobby All Terrain T/As...I made a thrifty AND resposible choice.

 

They will be smaller (235/75/15 vs. 30/9.50/15) and less agressive, but they'll drive a lot better on the highway, and thats 95% of my driving anyway, Just don't get out in the woods much anymore :(

 

She'll be the ultimate parts hauler/ tow rig someday, hopefully I'll make progress this winter since I'll be driving it daily again and stuff will bug me

[Icehouse]

YOu need the wide body kit and some long travel suspension. Thats what I want to do :D hit some jumps.

[BEEBANI]

Did you check into any BFG all terrains? If you haven't had those Dunlops before; I think you'll be annoyed with how noisy they are. I had 2 sets of BFG'S on my hb and loved them! They lasted forever and had good traction when I needed it. I ran some 33x12.5-15's and 32x10.5-15's with stock suspension.

 

Yours is a 2wd right?

[kiznook]

Ice- The log travel setups are SWEET! but lots of money, the kind of money that can be better spent on the dime :)

 

Bee- Yes it is 2wd. I was torn between the dunlops and the All Terrain t/a. The dunlops were $140 cheaper, and they look like they'll be better on the highway and in the rain, which is almost all this truck sees anymore.

 

Next summer I'll probably find another set of mudders of some sort, we'll see. For now I just need it to drive better, and the 31x10.50s don't track well :(

[Icehouse]

I guess it is kinda spendy :D

[kiznook]

That's too much! you can get the same thing much cheaper!!

[]2eDeYe]

Ya get that

 

Then you need to find a sweet jump...

 

I know where a few are round Seattle way :D

 

[kiznook]

yeah, I've had the front wheels off the ground, that was an interesting noise when it came back down :eek: we were up on the mountain screwing around and about half way down, I didn't feel like getting out to check everything so I just tip-toed my way down to the atv trailhead parking pit. Just slightly tweaked the tension rod mounts, no biggie. I proceded to cut coookies in the gravel there until I couldn't see.

 

Good times...dumb driving :cool:

[Bleach]

Its a nice sunny day today.

Keep the stock outside tire diameter. Larger tires slow you down and mess up your speedo reading. Nice truck though. I like the solid yellow.

 

This just in: 2000 pixels wide is not an acceptable image size for forums. :D

[kiznook]

Sorry about the giant pictures Bleach! Honestly I had no idea how huge they were since they've been hiding in my photobucket for quite some time now. It's okay now that we're on page 2 though right? :cool:

 

As for tire size, slowing down and messing with the speedo, since the pathy rear is geared so low (4.6 or somethin) I don't ave too much trouble getting up to speed. I can even roast the 31s :D The speedo is fubar, but it was messed up before I started ruining the truck, right now it's "close enough"

[kiznook]

HOW TO: make a custom driveshaft:

 

[]2eDeYe]

You let the King have at it? :D

[kiznook]

Late night, buddy's work (fab shop) 5 sets of eyeballs for super duper accuracy :cool:

 

Thats another thing to add to my list, Have the driveshaft balanced. I've probably got 10-20k miles on that thing only on the eyeball job. not much wobble...considering

[irsa76]

Mmmm, Burger King Bacon Deluxe meal.:drool:

 

Oh sorry, we were talking about your driveshaft. Did you just cut the old one off and reweld the new one on? I hope you know what you are doing. I know a few guys who've tried this only to come unstuck in a big way.

[kiznook]

yes, thats exactly what we did. The guy that did the welding was/is a professional welder/fabricator, and we were using a LARGE machine...lots of penetration (hehe)

 

At this point, there's no worry of it breaking, but it would be some nice peace of mind to spend the $50 and have it balanced

 

It was 9pm and I needed a pathfinder driveshaft. My friend insisted that we check craigslist (i didn't think it would work). Sure enough there it was. A guy parting out a pathfinder in vancouver, and his name was Jesus. I gave him twice his asking price to get it right away, nothing like fabbing a driveshaft at 11pm for a truck you need to drive the next day.

 

Now whenever we need a random used part we say "I need to find Jesus"