ok well more work done today. BUT problem... I DEFIANTLY HAVE TO ROLL THE FRONT FENDER LIPS OR GET SMALLER TIRES for the front. sucks.... i heard it rub alittle on a hard dip but after checking it twice and not seeing any cuts i didnt think to much about it. i thought the camber was just way off with positive camber but i heard the drivers side rub a little also and it probably has negative camber since i didnt touch it.
tomorrow im going to stop by the alignment shop and see if they can do it tomorrow after work. at least this way i can see where the camber should be at and i can roll the fender just enough. i just hope i dont screw up the chrome molding since i dont want to debadge the truck. i learned my lesson about debadging my old truck from all the stupid inconsiderate bastards out there just swinging there doors open into my truck!

first ill show the carnage so far. sliced right thru the thread like a hot knife thru butter.




also i thought my LCAs would clear my wheels BUT as soon as i pulled the truck out of the shop and turned the wheel i heard it grinding. so i had to pull the truck back in and cut and grind em down.



clears good now.

and for the sexy pictures.









ALMOST time to put the truck on hold and start sanding on the civic!
i just have to roll the front fenders a bit, get a alignment, and but new front caliper/hubs and bearings and brake pads. and the truck will be put on hold until after i paint the civic.
tho with the civic i dont believe its worthy of a project thread... plus with body work is not much to show. it will just be a completed paint pictures when its done and dry.

im putting the suicide door project onhold on the civic.... i have all i need for it but i dont want to have the civic down for that long while i figure out how to do both doors at once. plus ill have the paint already so i can easily touch it up later on after i do it.

 

WWOOORDDDDDDD!!!!! it looks ill. lol.

 

You need some 22's

 

LOL you got some you can send me? im to broke BUT even if i had enough cash i would stick to 20s most likely... much larger and the tires get to thin and i hate skinny tires on a truck. at least on my personal ride because i know im way to ruff driving and i would tear thru tires and rims like crazy. so i prefer to have have some sidewall.


but a bit of update again. im 95% happy with the drop. it seems like my rear axle just doesn't want to hold proper pinion angle and torqued bolts after i adjust the pinion. im going to remove the flip kit brackets and grind down the axle shaft since I THINK there is some rust of just debri on the axle tubes that is not letting it grip and hold pinion angle very good. its not a huge problem but i feel some vibration in the rear when i first take off hard on the gas. so its just not right but close.
so my next day off ill tweek it.


today i took the truck for a alignment. and all is good. easy enough to set caster/camber and toe. 70bucks because the caster/cambers knockouts where already removed. if they where not already punched out they would have tried to charge me 140bucks.... OUCH. good thing i checked. but mine was already punched out so it was great for me. but it just would have took a air chisel to remove them IF i had them.



and after i got back from alignment shop i busted out the body hammer and started beating the hell outta the front fender lips.... luckily i was able to keep the factory chrome molding by just beating it as well and then just removing the center screw after i was half way thru hammering the crap outta it. it would have been nice to have my fender roller BUT i would have had to use there large wheel bracket which i didn't have and was extra money of course. but the body hammer was all i really needed and a lot of hammering!!!!!!! can't do it with just a few hits. gotta go little by little... defiantly a lot more time consuming than using a fender roller tool like i used on my civic!

i bent up about half of the lip which luckily enough SO FAR is enough to clear with typical driving over some bumpy roads. i still have yet to drive like a fool and see that it still doesnt rub but so far so good no rubbing or slicing my tires thread off.

before


after





i surprised myself how good i did with just the hammer. hard to get a good picture of it but it is pretty evenly bent
but mostly im just REALLY HAPPY that i dont have to buy smaller tires!

i also need longer shocks for the rear and to use the included DJM shock extenders... the shocks are angled sharply in back and even bent the top flap from it being at such a harsh angle. so i will be replacing these shocks with slightly longer ones and installing the shock extenders. but for now it rides alright its just shocks dont ride as good as i think they can.

 

o ya about the wheels... IF I DO get some wheels. im going to have them with well not sure what to call it..... either ANTIspinners or what i like to call them is floaters.
they are pretty much just spinners with a backing plate and abunch of weights stuck to the back of the spinner.

IMO that looks the sweetest driving down the road!!!! spinners are to every day and more for parked, stop and go driving. BUT floaters make it look like your skating on ice! I LOVE IT!!!!!
excuse the crappy video. i just did a quick search on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5J0byuBi1Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMvQJG-EdXI

you get the style that i really like... tho not that style spinner/floater. but since i have no money.... thats coming no time soon

 

well i got a little more work done. i said i was going to start working on the civic BUT my car show is next month and i have a few loose ends that need buttoned up to be worthy of my stereo comp.

i got 27ft of 1/0gauge wire for my amplifier so no more 4gauge ran to the amplifier, also tied both batteries under the hood together with 1/0gauge, 1/0gauge ground wire on the frame, still need one more 1/0gauge ground for the frame to cab near my amplifier tho.
i must have pulled a muscle or something in my leg and its killing me right now so i called it a day!
i also got my RF amplifier back from repair BUT main thing that sucks is the spec sheet is not as impressive. old amp was 1,620watts and new one is only 1,227watts. but o well it will actually work better with the type R 12s.

my next project for the truck will be adding a port to the subwoofer box! so far my best DB score is 129.8 which i think is respectable for a truck and somewhat stealth install but im not quite happy with it YET. ill try the port and see how that is for now... it should help my score for this years car show/db drag. but next year im going to be aiming for 140+Db! so that means i have to delete most of the rear bench seat.
but then again that 129.8db score is with the amplifier set low for right now because chevy sucks for making the tiny 105amp alternator on the truck hell even my tiny civic had 90 amp alternator... so to keep my voltage up i have to upgrade the alternator. my local alternator/starter guy can build me a 240amp alternator for 240bucks which is a good deal. i bought one from him before for my old truck and it kicked @ss!!!! cranken 2500watts and still holding a solid 14.4volt all day long!


o ya and my battery setup is not complete yet... i need more stinger top post battery terminals.... but for now my cheap @ss terminals work, just not purty




first thing i did to this amplifier is opened it up and pulled out that dam metal screen! this screen is what destroyed my old amplifier! after about 2years these tiny plastic melted tabs breaking off.... if they would have used a plastic screen or hell just mounted it in with screws or rivets just more secure it might have been fine but on my old amp it fell down and shorted out the internal board.



and since i had it open why not a gutts picture



so far the amplifier is just sitting on the back seat until next friday when i get paid and buy the high power alternator, just because the amplifier will be such a PITA to adjust once i have it mounted behind the bench seat!







for as fat as this wire is its very flexible!!!! i was even shocked.


and just because.



and YES i know i need to turn off that dam DATE feature on my camera. i keep forgetting.

 

you should totally get those floaters!! lol It's like winter in summer!! Except without the black ice.

 

here's my question... does it pull at all? The front camber/caster differences from side to side should cancel each other out, but with the thrust angle being -0.12*, I'd still think it would pull since it doesn't seem like the front end was set up to compensate for the thrust angle.

Anyway, the truck's coming along nicely

 

it seems to go straight just fine and the rear end isnt adjustable since its the solid axle. tho my spring Ubolts where striping themselves since they kept backing off for some odd reason... and well when i tried to remove the Ubolts to adjust my pinion angle more it screwed the threads all up so i had to buy all 4new U bolts those freaken things cost me 70bucks to replace BUT so far the nuts have stayed tight. this time i grinded down the axle tube where the U bolts went over to let them bite maybe abit more. and the new U bolts didnt come with the nylon thread nuts. which i think is what made them not tighten properly. but so far so good. maybe the ubolts also threw off the rear measurements with the old ones not staying torqued.
but its all good. i have alittle bit of a vibration when im taking off but i believe thats because i didnt use the shock extenders on the rear and the shocks have a wicked angle on them! so ill blame alittle bit of that vibration on some axle wrap. im trying to find soft shocks for the rear with the right length for my drop but its alot of researching! i might have to just use some belltech shocks for the rear still good shocks just not as soft as the summit racing ones i got.

 

ok well been awhile since i updated. but i havent done much work lately. just been tweaking on the civic alittle and doing some maintance work on the truck and fixing the water pipes out in the shop so i now have water out in the shop so as soon as i fix the brakes on my truck ill be putting the trucks progress on hold and start working on the body work and paint on the civic.
truck i think needs new front and rear brakes the rears started making noises at slow crawls stops. and the front has warped rotors ever since i bought the truck. im going to inspect the rear brakes today but i dont think its going to be pretty. last time i tried to pull off the drums they didnt want to easily pull off. so i asume they are old with a huge lip worn into them that will make them a HUGE PITA to remove!

but for the reason to bump... i ran into trouble with my subs being carpeted over... with the new RF amplifier hooked up pushing alot more power the subs excursion was alot further than before and over maybe a month i noticed my subs sounded odd, i cut the carpet back and found that the inner rubber surround had worn completely threw and seperated ruffly half of the surround and cone on one subs and then just slightly threw a few spots on the 2nd sub.
i used afew drops of super glue and then some Loctite vynyl,fabric & plastic flexable adhesive glue all the way around the damaged rib and the back side area also.... SO FAR a week later and its still holding strong even on fully cranked. it doesnt look good of course BUT WORKS. and i plan on swapping out the bass setup anyways this year.

my new bass is mostly planned but i might tweak the design a bit. i MIGHT or might not section of the rear bench seat... i might just delete it compleltly. all depends when i start measuring everything out. BUT i will be removing my front bucket seats and center console for a front bench seat... this will give me more passenger room in the truck which i was missing so much in my old extended cab. only problem is finding a truck with a tan cloth seats from a 95-98 truck at my local yard cheap
i havent tried the more expensive junk yards yet as every other time i go for parts they try to rape you on parts cost!

but the subs ill be using will be FIaudio BL two 12s ported keeping them under the rear window line to keep it street B class when competing to easily put up some nice scores to win in my class.
tho i have been considering 2 15s. tho that will put me in a higher class street C which is more competitive.
but as for the amplifier ill try to stick with this same style RF amplifier but the next step up to the 2K watt amplifier.
i figure ill slap these 2 12 type Rs and amplifier in the civic. i figure that would put the civic at ruffly 144db easily.