xBLAKEx's 1988 Supercab Build

[xBLAKEx]

I've been wanting to start a build thread for awhile now.. I've come to a standstill with my lift install so seems like a good time to start it. This truck will be a daily driver/ off road truck. And it'll take a long time before it'll all be done.

1988
2.9L V6
4x4
Supercab

(Edit) Down the road I wanna switch out my D28 axle for a D35 axle and my 7.5 axle for 95 and up explorer 8.8 axle. And get 4.10 gears. Get a one piece drive shaft also.

All stock suspension..

I've only done little stuff to get it running strong again, spark plugs, wires, valve cover gaskets, timing.

Installed swig mirrors.



All cleaned up.

Went mobin awhile ago, didn't do to bad for being all stock.

The Lift:

Front- Superlift brackets, going to use the 4" top hole (4" of Lift), 6" skyjacker coils (Known to get 4.5" of Lift for a supercab 4.0L, I have a supercab 2.9L), Skyjacker Extreme Drop Pitman Arm [FA600], 6" Used Shocks[ Nitro Skyjacker shocks i think..], Stock Radius Arms[for now], and most likely these Camber/Caster bushings http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx?R=NCP2643950_0161988468

Front: 4.5" of lift


Rear- Chevy 63" leaf springs (1.5" of Lift), Bellteck 6400 Shackles (1.5" of Lift),Factory 2" blocks (2" of Lift), And 6" used shocks[ Nitro Skyjacker shocks i think..]

Rear: 5" of lift


Here's the lift i bought for $500 only for the front. Pretty rough. But i cleaned it up.

Shocks

6" Coils

Radius Arm Drop Brackets

Superlift Drop Brackets [Reinforced]

Skyjacker Extended Brake Line [ not sure if they are for a 4"-6" lift or 8" ]

Few Extra Warn Hubs [Came with Used lit]

Pitman Arm [ Came with the lift not sure brand or anything..Not going to use]

Skyjacker Extreme Drop Pitman Arm [FA600, Going to use]

What I'm using for the Rear..

JAI Leaf Springs '15659738' [Off a Chevy 1500 4x4, assuming they were replacement leafs.]

Bellteck 6400 Shackles

2" Factory Blocks

Going to be running 31/10.50/R15 Big O' All terrain tires with Pro Comp Series 52 Wheels.

Fab:

Front/ Rear Bumpers, Sliders, and a Headache Rack.

The drawing i came up with for the front/rear bumpers.

Like i said earlier i started my lift.

Started the rear

Kinda Started taking pictures late.. So I don't have any of the tear down..

I had soaked all the rivets and bolts with PB Blaster for weeks, really has helped so far. I got the bed off in about 15 minutes. Unplugged the tail lights, unbolted and pushed the tank hose through the hole. And took the 6 bolts out with a T-55 torx bit and breaker bar/ ratchet. Lifted it off with 3 people no problem.

Going to have to extend my brake lines

Stock position of the hangers.

Drivers Side.

Passenger Side

Hanger off
To take the rivets off, i just ground them down, took the hangers off, then ground them down again, and punched them through.

Old position..

Roughly the new position..

Me and my dad didn't like the idea of cutting up the cab bracket, nor the idea of welding a plate to the frame to create a flat surface for the hanger. Here's what we did.

Cut off the top part that would be mounted to the cab bracket. Cleaned it up and put in a little reinforcement.

Had the leafs all mocked up and was just about to attach the axle when i realized my u bolts were to short.. So i ordered some form rocky mountain suspension. Hopefully they will be shipped fast!!

How it's sitting of today.

My exhaust was just in the way.. I felt it was hanging to low.. and the tail pipe tip was hitting my shackle.. So I cut it all up and came up with this. Still not done though, need a tip.

Hanging down pretty low..

Kinda mocked it up where i wanted it..

Took a few bends out of the tail pipe..

Little support

Little Paint

Now it's outta the way!

Feel free to comment, let me know what you guys think!

 

[RangerSVT]

You welded the reinforcement, but bolted the hanger, why not burn in the hanger... Also on your muffler, you need to have a rubber mount, otherwise the engine vibrations will tear the exhaust apart with the muffler mounted solid, not to mention transfer the vibrations to the frame, causing all nuts and bolts attached to work there way loose. Other than that good work!
SVT

 

[xBLAKEx]

Yeah i believe for what I'll do with the truck the bolts will be plenty. And the reinforcement was welded there just to replace the part i cut off. I suppose i could have burned in the hanger and used bolts. I'll see how it all holds up the way it sits now. And your probably right about the little mount.. Hmm I'll have to see if i can't reuse the old one for the tail pipe.

 

[RangerBoy94]

Nice! I've been looking forward to this build.

 

[xBLAKEx]

Thanks! I have been waiting so long getting all the parts; I just can't wait to get to the lift all done and get her rolling again. Hope the u-bolts i ordered wont take to long to arrive..

 

[1lonlyranger]

looks like a good build. i will be following this one for sure.

 

[jhammel85]

Such a nice original truck. It looks like a perfect project!

Looking forward to the rest

 

[xBLAKEx]

looks like a good build. i will be following this one for sure.

Such a nice original truck. It looks like a perfect project!

Looking forward to the rest

Thanks! And yeah mostly everything is original. Most of the body isn't in bad shape. When i took the bed liner, and bed off the other day. I noticed little bit more major surface rust on the frame on the drivers side around the gas tank, and some on the front drivers side of the bed [ above the gas tank ] I'm not completely positive, but i think water is getting trapped under the bed liner without being able to evaporate.[ on the front drivers side of the bed liner there's a gap where water can get in ] I'll probably get rid of the plastic bed liner, and get some roll on stuff.

 

[xBLAKEx]

Alright me and my dad did some work tonight, it's our project together I received a tracking number for the u-bolts i ordered.. they are suppose to arrive on the 26th MONDAY.. Hah I could not wait that long. The only reason i bought them online was because all the 4x4 shops were closed for the weekend. So today i got some u-bolts locally, and I'll just end up returning the online ones or something.

With the u-bolts i could pretty much finish the rear end up.
Besides

-Extending brake like bracket.
-Figure out oh long the bump stops need to be? Build them.
-And remount the e-brake bracket.

Made me soo happy

Length: 10.5"

Width: 2.75"

Diameter: .5"

Little side by side comparison

Stock U-bolts

Length: 9"

Width: 2.75"

Diameter: .5"

The new U-bolts were a little wider at the top..

A little squeeze in the vice and good to go

I roughly put the U-bolts on both sides, and equally tightened them. Didn't have to hard of a time lining up the center pin with the factory block hole.

Hanging by it's self! Not sure if i should have kept in the overload leaf.. The plan was to swap them out for the ranger overload leafs. But they were really twisted! Not sure how it'll all work out.

Me and my dad agreed we didn't like the the E-Breake cable coming through the chassis[ Not sure if it's suppose to go through it? ], so he unhooked it all [ wasn't going to well until we pulled out the torch, and heating it up ] and pulled it out of the chassis. The plan is to bring it under the chassis for a better approach on where the bracket will be at [ right behind the leaf hanger, under the chassis ]

The Mess..

Really worn by the back and forth rubbing against the chassis.

Cleaned up the bracket and drilled a hole [ from a welding spot in the middle ] and cut out a notch.

Didn't really get to take a picture of the new set up for the E-Brake.. I'll be sure to take some tomorrow.

Kinda stuck on how long to make the bump stop extension?? Would it be a 5" extension because that's what the estimated lift will be? And not sure about the front even though I'm not there yet.

Going to make them out of the 2" by 2" steel, make some caps, drill a hole on one side and weld in a nut, to screw in the original rubber bump stop. Then burn it all together. Just not sure how long to make them.

Mocked up

Decided to put on the wheels to see where it was going to sit [ with out the bed ]

Shackle Angle looks about right with out the bed, i think.

Pinion Angle

Really stoked on the clearance between the ground and the Diff

 

[xBLAKEx]

Alright tonight me and my dad finished up the rear lift! I drove it around to have the front facing the garage. The truck seemed wayy different, kinda squarely. [maybe because there no weight in the back]

Now the attention goes to installing the front lift, most likely going to take longer then it did for the rear.

Here's the last that needed to be done for the rear fine tuning.

Like i said earlier, going to mount the E-brake bracket under the chassis for a better approach.

E-brake bracket mocked up.

Tacked into place

All put together

I think having the cable out of the chassis is a lot better.

Brake Bracket Extension.

And then the Rear was done!

Alright time for the front.

Took a bunch of pictures of the Stock.. Height, Drop Brackets, Coils, Brake Lines, Shocks, Camber/Caster Bushings, Anti-Sway Bar, Pitman Arm, and the Steering Linkage. All to compare to later.

Stock Height

Drop Brackets

Drivers side

Passenger Side

Coils, Brake Lines, Shocks, Camber/Caster Bushings

Drivers Side

Front

Side

Rear

Camber/ Caster Bushing

Passenger Side

Front

Side

Rear

Camber/ Caster Bushing

Anti-Sway Bar

Pitman Arm, And Steering linkage.

Here's how she sits for now. Let me know what you guys think, still not sure about the Bump Stop extension length.

 

[xBLAKEx]

No suggestions on the extended bump stops?

 

[scooter]

I would make them long enough to keep the tires from rubbing the fenders, or before your u-joints bind up.
Dont make them too long, defeats the purpose of a lift.


Todd S.

 

[xBLAKEx]

Alright so I should probably figure that all out once the bed is back on, and the front is finished. All I have to do is jack up each side of the axle, and see where the limit is at. Thanks!

 

[xBLAKEx]

Made some good progress yesterday. Got the whole front end out and ready to install the 'new' lift kit. Hoping everything will go well with the install. I'm glad i took a bunch of pictures of it all stock, that way I'll defiantly be able to see the difference.
Have any questions, or suggestion go ahead and post.

I started by taking out the Anti Sway Bar, with no intentions putting it back on.

Then dropped the steering linkage [ used a pickle fork and a hammer ]

Disconnected the front Drive Shaft

Unbolted the Radius Arms and Coils.

Unbolted, then lowered it.

Wish i had a D35.. would have been convenient.
D28 is out for now.

All out.

Didn't take a picture of unbolting the drivers side bracket.. but here's the passenger side.

I'm so over taking out rivets now.. But it's become easier.

Ground the rivets off, then only had to punch one through. The bracket just popped off.

Kinda cleaned up the chassis and painted it.

Took some comparison pictures.

Brackets

Drivers Side

Passenger Side

Coils

Stock coil length: 13.75"

New coil length: 18.75

Shocks

Feel free to comment.

 

[pwrranger88]

awesome build. btw what are you doing with your factory pivot brackets?