and o ya this is my old grill.... which was also rattle canned it was a darker more gold color.LOL


i would have painted it right BUT it was a aftermarket grill and fitment sucked!!!!!!!!!!! the bottom corners have snaps to hold it in and the aftermarket one always poped loose and had to be pushed back in all the time. so thats why i used a different grill shell it is oem and fits great!

 

it looks like the spare tire will probably be fine. unless your pipes move around a whole lot.

 

You need some wheels BAD haha. A nice set of wheels makes the biggest difference, Im suprised you havent got any yet.

 

o come on.... they are some nice looking stock wheels! they are sport chrome wheels, same as older 454 wheels.
these are the most desirable stock wheels for any 88-98trucks. ive sold 2 sets of them for 280bucks for one set and 380bucks for the first set i sold, they had better tires.
and i got a second spare set which will be my summer wheels since they are in great condition as to the ones on my truck now that are pretty rusted on the backside.
which ill be getting 2 winter tires for the rear this friday. we got about an inch of snow this morning and lets just say the trucks @ss doesnt have good traction.LOL i lightly hit the gas and the @ss wanted to swing out on me just about every time.... tho it was fun as long as i wasnt in traffic!


but next year i will be getting some 20inch iroc wheels. and no im not going larger than 20s!!!!!! i drive my truck daily and im not afraid of beating on it from time to time so dont want to worry about trashing a 5-800dollar wheel and tire!
these are pretty much what i want. the top picture is with 22s but i think the bottom one is 20s.




ive already have alot to worry about finding the right rim size, width, offset with my truck since im lowered... then i gotta worry about tire size as well. which is ALOT OF RESEARCH i gotta do before i buy.
but right now i got a 2K dollar tv im going to pay off first.LOL

but for now my wheels do clean up very nice! and ive never polished them yet either... just to lazy.
give em alittle fine rubbing compound and afew mins and they shine up DAM GOOD! ive only shinned up the wheels ive sold so far.LOL and they where in worse shape.

 

o ya and on a side note, went to paint supply shop today and the paint i need for my grill is going to run me about 100bucks per quart. kinda sucks but its what i gotta pay for it to match so im going to buy a quart and repaint the grill and in the spring ill repaint the hood after filling a dent and big rock chips. hopefully ill have enough paint and then some! only good thing is im pretty sure we got some extra clear coat sitting around somewhere... i just gotta find it out in the shop.

 

dang i forgot about this thread.... tho its been awhile i havent done to much to my truck.
both high and low beam HID upgraded with higher wattage hids.
a escalade gauge cluster as well as white leds in the gauges and other door interior lights.
other than that i dont think ive changed anything else. front grill still missmatch paint color BUT hopefully within the next few weeks ill paint it MAYBE. just because i got one other project.
old fatter hids and new ones. thinner and more power.



also did the 4 HI LOW mod so the low beams stay ON when the high beams are on. so twice as much light output with the high beams now which i love!



and onto the interior white led upgrade.




and escalade gauges, only big difference is the needles arent orange (they look orange from the stock light bulbs, they are white during the day) and the MPH goes up to 120 instead of just 100mph stock.



they still look SLIGHTLY orange but nothing i can do about that any more. these are the whitest ones i can get.






^also did the AC controls with white leds as well. it turned out great! shockingly enough the ac controls look blue which matches my caddy gauges great!




i also got one more thing that ive been working on for the past month or so. see next post.

 

Nice work, as usual!

 

and here is my latest project.....




thats right a rear clip from a long bed pickup truck same body style as my truck but a long bed since my truck is a short bed.
originaly i thought i would just bent the stock frame rails over to weld on a trailer coupler BUT after looking at it more and more once i got it home i didnt like how the stock frame rails went down so much. so i hacked em off and went with tubing tucked up next to the beds floor.





and just for laughs.... doesnt my gas tank look tiny

my dads welding tanks lease was up last year. so i had to buy my own gas tank for welding. cost me like 250bucks just for that baby tank filled, and this is a one time buy the tank for life, and just pay to get another full tank for like 25bucks and i just take them this tank and swap it out for anew full tank same size baby tank... and i can upgrade the tank size by just paying the difference between the tank sizes that i wanna upgrade to, so at least i can always get LARGER later on! thats is all the cash i had for it at the time.
i used my dads stick welder at first which as you can see by the small spot welds i did on the ends of the coupler.... IT WAS BAD!!!!! my hands are not steady enough to stick weld and i hate all the chipping which is why i ditched the stick and bought a tank of welding gas!

so far ive gone thru 2 of these baby welding gas tanks. and ill need another one to do anymore welding for future mods on this trailer setup.












bought me a NICE heavy duty drop in under rail bed liner at my junk yard. great buy for only 30bucks.




and about a week later i got extremely lucky and found a mostly complete soft tono cover from the junk yard! only 10bucks for it. but i broke one bed clamps, and one of the corner pieces was broken and was missing 1 snap, and thats it! even with the brand new replacement parts, 2 bed clamps, 2 corner piece tabs, and 4snaps they only set me back like another 45bucks i believe and i got extra parts. so even after having to buy new replacement pieces i still got off cheap!






and lately ive been busy filling the rusty fender arches. YES im being lazy and just using filler, mostly short hair fiberglass filler, and then finished over the top with reg filler. almost done shaping the arches. now i just have to do some fine tweeking. BUT if my shaping doesnt turn out as good as i want then i also found some stock fender flares that i can easily slap on the trailer after i paint it and i dont like how it looks. i bought all 4 for only like 10bucks, 2 days later i sold the front 2 for 40bucks and kept the rear ones



the rust was alittle worse than i thought BUT still not to bad.



cut out all the rust and started fillen...










and afew days ago i got my MVIN approved so i grinded the vin into the tongue and also welded the vin into the frame rail as well. so now i have a temp tag for it and just waiting for the title and real plate to come in the mail.



thats as far as ive gotten on the trailer project as of yesterday.


main reason for this project..... i want a trailer of my own thats a decent size so i can still haul just about whatever id need, its small in size and CHEAP, also its nice and custom trailer that matches my truck so it will look great when im done!
future plans... of course fix the rest of the body work, primer it and eventually paint it to match my truck, weather depending since i gotta paint it outside since the shop is so full of stuff there is no room to paint anything let alone me having to cover up everything out there, so ill just be painting it outside and hope the bugs stay away while it dries!!!!!
i will also be lowing the trailer 6inches with a flip setup just like my truck has but alot cheaper! just Ubolts and some more square tubing to make a larger notch in the frame rail. i could go bolt in like my truck has BUT i want more axle travel clearance so which is why i will making my own notch in the frame, very simple just get some nice size tubing and laying it ontop of the frame rail and welding it to the rail, add alittle more braces to the frame and notch and then hack out the old frame rail to clear the axle shafts

should be a very nice setup once im done painting it!!!!!
i just dont like hauling to much stuff in my trucks bed since i dont like beating up my own truck bed, but this trailer deal i can do what ever and haul what ever in it.
only other thing i MIGHT have to do is put helper bags on it as well for hauling anything to heavy... but ill just have to load it up sometime and see how much it dips if i will need to add helper bags to it or not. im hoping i wont but if i do helper bag it ill be able to haul more weight, but i dont think i will... time will tell!

 

so far i bought the rear clip for 300bucks minus the wheels and tailgate.
i already had a spare set of chrome sport wheels which i slapped on it as you can see, tailgate i bought a nice one for 40bucks junk yard.
steel was a freebie so far... SHHHH old man doesnt know i used it yet.LOL ill find out when he sees my project how much he wants for his old steel tubing.
trailer coupler, 50bucks, wiring... pretty much freebie, junk yard wires from another truck to extend the wires and also a simply 4plug trailer plug i also found in the junk yard.
filler i got about 20-30bucks in, rust converter spray paint about 20, primer 15 so far.
i have a gallon of primer that i will be using to spray for real once i got all the body work mostly worked out.
paint i should have ruffly 200-300bucks in total. so im still under the 1K dollar range i set originally set for myself for this project.
im still debating weither or not i wanna replace that rear bumper or not... its got a large dent in it but it doesnt look to noticable... i also wanna slap on a trailer hitch on the back of it BUT to only put my funny skull led hitch cover on it agood bumpers gonna cost me like 50bucks. so far i think im going to just rock it as-is. i just got it registured and all so as of 5-06-2010 it is legal to be on the road

 

Really sick stuff man. I love what your doing, im an audiophile too but i dont have your mad skilz I bet you scare the **** out of people when they get in and dont see anything then you turn on your stereo and BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM their legs are rattling! I love it