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72 Custom/20 on Rocks, new pics.

Modblacksmith

Modblacksmith

1/2 ton status
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Jan 13, 2012
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This is what I started out with, my 72 Custom/20 but it was a Custom/10 from the factory. My father purchased the truck back in 86 he gave it to me to drive 02 and I bought it from him in 2004. I met the original owner in 06 when he walked into the shop I was working at asking about the truck. He told me the whole life story of the truck and all the changes that had been done to the truck until my Dad bought it.
454 with 396 closed chamber heads.
Th400- np205
D44 with 4.56 gears
C14 with 4.56 gears
My Dad lifted the truck 4inches , had the motor bored .30 over and had it painted. Other than that he didn't change it much.
Then I got a hold of it, I drove the truck in high school and a few years afterwards then I bought a new truck and parked this one for years. After doing a little time in the local concrete hotel and losing everything but the truck I decided to rebuild the truck to be the way I want it and have it be capable enough to do anything I ask of it.

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First order of business was to install the Dana 60 that I had been dragging around with me for four years. I rebuilt it from hub to hub in my garage, note this was two years ago. I wanted more lift but I didn't have the money for new springs so I had the old ones re-arched "mistake #1" and built a zero rate for another inch. Later on I had a set of 73-up springs arched to fit the 72 which gave the truck a little over 6 inches "mistake #2" plus the zero rate and I ordered new brake lines from Superlift.

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Once I had the front up in the air it was time to address the rear. I don't have a lot of money to dump into the the truck so when I can build something myself I do. I did a little R&D into the shackle flip brackets and built my own with a little help from my machinist roommate in the measuring department. I also rebuilt the rear springs that had two add a leafs per side and broken leafs in them "thanks Dad". I cut down a set of half ton leafs out of a 90's truck and re stacked them.
The shackle flip brackets are made out of 3/8 and 3/16 plate that I cut out with a grinder and a box of cut off wheels. I've been thinking about redoing them to make them stronger and make the shackle angle adjustable just for the hell of it, with a cross-member tying them together to help with the frame flex problem.

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Here's my dirty worn out 454, its bored thirty over with 396 closed chamber heads and a mild cam. Here's the Hooker headers I picked up last spring, there on the truck now with new exhaust that I made to shut the neighbors up, they didn't like the open headers for some reason.

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My new front shackle hangers came in from DIY4X and I finished up my new cross tied shackles. Should help with the side to side movment from the cross over steering, thanks again to all who helped me on that one. I also ordered the new lug nuts for my H2 wheels I got for almost free. I'll post more pics up tonight.
 
Here is a few more. Mud flap mounts and new mud flaps. New shocks and the tips of the exhaust I scabbed together.
The last one is of the truck when I had the re-arched 73- later front springs in it. I borrowed a set of 37x12.5r16's from a friend to see how she how much bigger I could go. Yes the light bar has been sold and a headache rack has been built to replace it.

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One more tonight won't hurt.
After running the truck around a bit I borrowed another set of tires "38's" and decided I wasn't happy with any of it, the ride, the height and just unusable the truck had become. I started looking into what others were doing to there trucks and decided to tare it apart again. I wanted what I call the Bull Dog stance back the truck had before but on 37's not 35's, so I started collecting parts.
Crossover steering, which I'd wanted to do the first time and I made my first order to DIY4X. I looked at his B52 kit for my truck and decided to build my own. I'll get more into that when I find the camera.

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Found my camera tonight.
Here are the more recent changes to the truck. As I said before I built my own B52 kit using DIY's brackets. I used 1.5" heavy wall square tubing to make a twin cross member and to add a little more lift. The only thing I wish I would have done different was to incorporate the bumper mounts into it so it would all tie together. Yeah I thought about taking it back out and redoing it.
While I had the front end apart I also installed the 2WD steering box and the crossover steering.
I originally started with four leaf 52's but they were to soft, so I combined them with the 52's that came out or the rear of the truck. Pulled a set of 56'' camper special springs out of a truck at work.

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Update-ish.
I started sanding and taping off my H2 wheels this weekend what a pain in the arss that is. I'll post pics when I get one of them painted.

Feel free to comment or give your two cents on things. I'd like to know what everyone thinks.
 
H2 wheels painted.

Update, I was going to have my H2 wheels powder coated but after talking to a couple local shops it turned out to cost too many fun tokens for the budget right now. I talked with my nut and bolt supplier and he hooked me up with a high temp industrial flat black bomb can. He said he used it on his brake calipers five years ago and they still look fairly new.

Here's a sneak peak at the rear bumper I built. Its not finished yet, still need to finish grind it, prime and paint it.

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Hello fello first gen owners, I had my thread moved over to the first gen section to hopefully get some more feed back on my project.
That being said, what do you guys think about the Nitto Mud Grapplers? Anyone run them or has run them? I found a pretty good deal on a set of 40x13.5r17's that I'm thinking about buying.:woot:
 
Nice rig and welcome to the best section on the forum. After all, we take GMOTM like I take empty beer cans out of my garage after a good weekend. A Lot. :D

You do mention earlier in the thread that you have two years of pics on the build.


Well, get to postin' some more of them.....We like dem thar pics, up in here... :pimp:
 
NorCal69 said:
Nice rig and welcome to the best section on the forum. After all, we take GMOTM like I take empty beer cans out of my garage after a good weekend. A Lot. :D

You do mention earlier in the thread that you have two years of pics on the build.


Well, get to postin' some more of them.....We like dem thar pics, up in here... :pimp:
Click to expand...

Thanks. I have more pics but they'll be out of order. I tryed to post most of the progress pics up but I'll look tonight to see what else I have.

Noob question, GMOTM?:dunno:
 
Modblacksmith said:
Thanks. I have more pics but they'll be out of order. I tryed to post most of the progress pics up but I'll look tonight to see what else I have.

Noob question, GMOTM?:dunno:
Click to expand...

GM Of The Month:waytogo:

We had a 4 month run on it here in the first gen section, no big deal:pimp:

Glad to see you're making some progress! That rear bumper looks SERIOUS!
 
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