Well, the reverse shackle kit is on its way here, and should be here on Thursday. Then it's rounding up B code rear springs and the OUO traction block, and we should be ready to do the SD spring swap. The U codes are laying in north Jersey already.

In the meantime, another "SD Swap" type item. Found this little issue the other day when I couldn't understand why the bed was flopping around like a fish...



I just thought the nut had backed off the bolt somehow, and needed retightened. Boy was I wrong. That was not the case, because today, I found this:



The bolt at the front of the bed, passenger side, had completely separated the head from the shaft, and what I thought was a "loose nut" was just the fact that what was left of the head had fallen through the bed to the rail where the bed rests on the frame. Had to do a bit of hacking and whacking to get the bolt out.

I replaced them with something a bit better - J clips and SD bed bolts. You know, these things:



These came from Harrisburg, from a guy who does take-offs for utility beds. Ford has two different part numbers for these - one with threads and one without - and they're much more expensive (so I hear anyhow) but this take-off set was only $65, and they're threaded. There's 8 bolts there (and 9 clips but who's counting?) but of course my particular bed only needs 6 of the 8.

Today, I swapped out 5 of the 6. The two at the bumper, the two at the front, and the one on the passenger side, midway. The midway one on the driver's side is in an awkward spot between the two tanks so I decided to tackle that another day - the rest were pretty easy. Bed is tight and solid now - no walking around at all.

 

I'm wondering if the body shop didn't get them secured enough? They did have the bed off when they did the repair work on it.

 

Hard to say. The other bolts that I changed were snug (not ridiculously tight). I guess the with the one that broke and the one missing at the driver's side bumper corner of the bed, it was enough to let it bounce around some. The new clips and bolts snugged it right back down though.

 

Nice truck. That colour combination seems to be popular around here.

I'll keep an eye out for the seat, light grey trim is common.

I just happen to be looking for a set of Alcoa wheels...do you still have them? Let's talk.

 

Thanks. Not sure I'm going to be parting with the Alcoas just yet. Haven't fully decided what look I'm going for in terms of wheels and tires once I do the reverse shackle/spring swap stuff.

 

Parts, parts, and more parts!

The first piece of my "mild lift" arrived today. This is the Sky Offroad reverse shackle kit. Just lovely. Needs painted though, and we can fix that.

 

How does that work, Bill??

 

The part you see bolts to the frame behind the bumper. There are also shackles that bolt into the stock back of the front leaf shackle location. The new springs then bolt to the dropped shackles. Provides about 3" of lift.

 

Oh, okay. Saw this on FB last night, wasn't sure what it was!

 

It's a heavy piece. Sky's Offroad Design builds a sturdy part for sure. Gotta paint it first.

 

Yeah, looks pretty damn solid.

 

40 lbs of steel, it better be lol.

Trac blocks next then time to do it...

 

point of order...in PA (and ohio and NY etc) those j clips will disappear quickly if exposed - you need to coat them with a sacrificial paint, then undercoating to have a fighting chance. trust me, been there, done that, have the t shirt, wrote the book, dated the model...

 

That's been addressed, Ed. Actually once spring comes, it will probably all get the same kind of frame paint treatment that the other two have gotten, and actually probably a better product now that I have means to spray it.

So, today was play around with lighting day...new LED cab bulbs...





Still need to fine-tune these a bit more but the dashboard is now all blue:



I need to do a photographic update on the other one, at some point also. The suspension's in pieces getting re-shot with paint.

 

Cool, nice upgrades!