Truck looks awesome! What size lift are you running here with those 35's?

 

Not sure what lift it has. It was on the truck when I got it, but if I had to guess I'd say it's a 2". The tires are 35's (315/75-16). I've since switched to 285/75-16's.

 

Got a few things done the last few weekends. Permanently removed the side tank and associated fuel lines. Now I have room for my air tank for onboard air. The install of that is a little farther down the priority list though.

The main reason I did that was to enable the movement of the carrier bearing to the drivers side a bit. Before my driveline angles were off which brought on a shudder during takeoff. So I moved the carrier bearing over and down about 3/4". Now no shudder

Took the crew over to my buddy's shop and we installed some plates in the cab so I can run shoulder belts in the rear. I cut a hole for 6" speakers about 10" from the floor which provided access to get the plate in place. Now I just need to get some seatbelts.



Took the front seats out. The drivers side padding was too worn and very uncomfortable. I've had a set of front seats out of a '98 Dodge in the garage for 3 months waiting to go in. They guy that did the restomod on my truck back in the early 2000's made a seat frame for the current seats to sit on. So just had to modify it a bit for the Dodge seats to fit.



MUCH BETTER now and the larger center console is great!!

Next on the list is side steps. Going to try and get something mocked up tomorrow. It's nice working 4-10's and having Friday's off

 

Oh, and I forgot one more thing. Took the truck over to another buddy's shop and switched out the front gears. Changed from the 4.10's to 3.54's. Then had a driveline made up and installed. It's a complete truck now............



And here's an updated pic of the truck with the different wheels & 285/75-16's

 

Nice seats! Same as the ones in my '97 Dodge. If you want to add seat heaters, you can get them here: Accessories - Interior - SEAT HEATER - ROSTRA - DUAL ELEMENT

 

Do you have more details on the rear seat belt plate? I'd like to do this to my crew also.

Looking good!

 

X2 Meatloaf. I'd like to see what that plate looked like before you welded it in.

Your truck is looking great!

 

No before pics of the plate, sorry.

But it's about a 3" x 3" piece of 1/8" plate with a 1/2"-13 nut welded in the middle of it. Drilled one large center hole in the cab for the nut to fit into and then (4) 1/4" holes near the corners of the reinforcing plate. Plug welded those 4 holes.

There's lot of opinions on how large the reinforcing plate should be.

 

Started on the side steps this weekend. I don't really like the normal aluminum steps you can buy, and not really impressed with bolting them to the sheetmetal.

I really wanted something like this:



So I began with 2"x2" square tubing (I like square better), made some mounts to near the front and back. The problem was that the bar would run right in front of my camper tie downs. So I incorporated the camper tie down in to the step.

I still have some brackets to make and attach, plug the ends and of course fab the steps. Just got the passenger side started for now, will hopefully finish it up this weekend.



That square hole about 1/2 way down is where I stick the camper tie down into and pin it behind the step bar.

 

Worked on the step rail & camper tie down more yesterday. Now all that's left is to make the steps.





Camper tie down. It's sitting exactly where it was before. With the bracing I added, it's pretty stout



Rear mounts. The one in the rear bolts to the fwd spring hanger.





I do have one possible flaw......I had someone bring up a question about the body/bed hitting the bar if I take it offroad. I don't take it wheeling, but there are times when the body will flex. I have about an inch of gap between the step & body, so I need to see if it hits or not. This is why I'm not a professional fabricator

 

Well if it does hit you could always just box the frame...

 

These old frames will flex (twist) from side to side. There is not a whole lot of cross member strength to keep them from flexing like this compared to newer trucks. Boxing the frame will not help this issue. Boxing the frame will only help from flexing front to back, which the frame should not do a whole lot of anyway.

 

If one were to undertake boxing a frame, I am sure they wouldn't (couldn't, if you think about it) use the stock cross members.

 

I took the rig on a couple hunting trips. Had the camper with the Bronco on the trailer. Hauled it pretty damn good up the passes. Flexed a little coming up the road to our Elk camp due to the humps in the road. The step bar doesn't look like it hit at any point, so I think I'm safe.

It may hit if I take if offroad.....but that won't happen.

Here's a pic of when I arrived at Elk camp:



Also added a Warn grille guard and winch. The brush guard is for a '78/'79 so the hoops are too high for the '73-'77's. I think I'm going to switch the earlier grille out for a '78/'79 in the future so I'll bolt on the hoops when that happens. Plus the later grille will give me extra room for another trans cooler and A/C condenser.

 

Loving this rig!!!!