i thought i would add my build to the list. the truck is a 1994 suzuki DD15T. I will add more as i go. so far the have painted the whole truck in truck box liner. including some select parts of the interior with some orange in. i am in the proses of dropping the front diff, tranny, and engine 2" with nylon blocks to act as spacers.there is also 3" lift kit on the way! and i plan on doing an axle under and add shackles if needed. here is what i have done so far,
taping it off for paint. and sanded the whole truck with 80 grit sand paper to help the box liner to stick
we also took the box off to make everything easer to work on. there are only 8 bolts holding the box, some brake line, and some wires attached to the box. i tied the brake line down to the frame now so the only other thing that will be attatched the box when i put it back is the ground cable and tail light wiring.
starting to tape off the interior to paint the floor and inside of the doors as well that the orange striping on the doors, as well as starting to prime the front Suzuki logo
thats for the photos. keep em commin! cant wait to see how it turns out. Do my eyes serve me correct? are you painting a shark mouth on the front? that would be too cool.
getting ready to paint the striping on the other door. and the final product of the Suzuki logo. before i primed the logo i put a light layer of grease on the front face. then when i put my final layer of orange i was able to peal the top away so there was only orange on the sides. then i needed to do some touch ups where the tape took some paint off because i couldn't sand properly.
lol no im not painting a shark mouth on it that was my buddy having fun with the masking tape. we debated it but decided there was no way we could do it and still make it look good.
there was one small rust hole on the drivers side floor by the wheel well. so i took a wire wheel on a grinder and removed all the rust the sucked as much dirt/rust out of the hole then filled if with silicon. after the top of the silicon cured i finished it over with the box liner. that was the only major rust on this truck. then i got the headlights back in and finished painting the interior
now for the interesting part, the lowering. i went to a local industrial plastics and got a 4 foot bar( way more them i need 2feet would have worked) 2 x 2 1/2 and cut it to size to make 2inch spacers for the tranny mount engine mount and control arm mount to prevent any problems when i get my 3inch shock spacer. i dont have the other spacers in yet. only the transmission mount and one side of the engine mount the other have to wait for tomorrow. i also had to get longer bolt from my local bolt supply store the stock ones are far too short if you look the cv joint is angled up a couple of degrees. lol it really needs the spacer
sorry guys i forgot my camera at home, but i installed the rest of the nylon spacers today i just have to manufacture one more spacer for the front mount on the front diff then the lowering will be done. so far everything is super solid. plus i have an extra 2 inches of space now if i ever need to do any work on the engine!
What's the point of dropping everything 2" when you're only lifting 3"? I'm just curious... seems like you could get close to a 3" lift with just springs and a 2" spacer lift which won't bind your CV joints. I've always thought the tranny drop was only for super extended lifts like 4-6" to fit massive tires under there. Here's my main point; the only times I've gotten stuck are when that transmission brace hits the ground/snow so if you drop it 2" you're defeating 2/3 of the extra clearance you gained and you might as well just lift the truck 1" and be done with it... Regardless, good work! It looks like you're covering your bases pretty well and could very well prepare your truck for a 4-6" lift if you really felt like it... and you could probably sell those spacers if you figured out a way to mass produce them
i figured i would do the 2" drop so i could do my 3 inch lift. then put in the 250lb front springs because they add about an inch so i geuss it is going to be a 4inch when its complete. the as far as bed liner a little of both spay in the hard to get to places and roll every where else.
How big of tires are you putting on the truck? It took me awhile to calculate how much actual ground clearance I needed and figure out from there what kind of a lift/tire combination I needed to achieve my goals. One of my friends wants to undercoat his truck so he's probably going to buy a sprayer... was it easy to do or do you recommend the roll on method?
I havent decided on tires yet, what ever comes at a good price. If I had a sprayer I would do that. I just had rattle cans and 4L containers of roll on. But its coming out good for me but spray would be allot easer
I got 3" in the front with 1.75" OTS spacers and 1.25" from the 250# QA1 springs. The struts top out a tad more than they used to so I might cut a half a coil out of them to drop it a touch. At full droop the CVs are smooth as silk. 24x8x12s fit just right up front with no rubbing. I didn't even need to lengthen the front torque bar to center the tire, it's only a smidge towards the front. Jon.
yeah i also put 24in tires on mine without lengthening the torque bars. but i think they should be bent like truck-kens http://www.minitrucktalk.com/showthread.php?t=6461&highlight=radius+rods i havent bought new 250lbs springs yet but they are on the too do list. i really need to update today the truck is getting a wheel alignment.
Yeah, after lifting my truck I think I'm going to have to space the trans down even though I don't want to... the angle for the CV joints is too much for my comfort. I'll probably only do it an inch or so though.
The problem is I really need that much ground clearance for my plow mount :/ I may have to re-vamp that for next season.
That's why I only went 1.75" on the strut spacers. Every truck is a little bit different but all I did was let the PASS side droop down untill I could feel the CV bind, then raised it till it stopped, took measurement, made drivers side the same. Once I cut the springs a little more I should be around the 2.5" mark. The 250# springs are a little much though, with all of my work crap on the PASS seat, me and the plow setup the front only drops .5". It rides like stock with all that weight on the front, bounces like a wagon without it. 225#ers might be a better choice. Jon.
My tires would rub when I turned if I had any less lift... and my plow mounts under the truck for optimal pushing power, so I need the clearance for the angles to be right. Although now that I'm thinking about it I don't think dropping the trans is going to mess with the geometry of my plow mount so I think I'm ok.
I am dying to know how anyone is sloving this little problem when droppin the front pumpkin... THanks in advance... Please post pictures....
Mine were that way at first, but they've since relaxed a bit. When I originally put them on, I would go bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy all around the farm. Now I just go bounce, bouncity, bounce . Seriously though, they have gotten a lot better with time.
o8k thanks for the reason to update. i welded a mount to drop it 1" 3/4. as you can see my cv's are almost horizontal which is why i think i might turn my 3" lift to a 4". even with the 24" tires i have on it with the 3" lift it drives great and doesn't feel unstable. it is registered and feels fine at hi-way speeds. but i just use it for around the city. its lots of fun in the snow. im having problems with pics ill get them up soom
to pass time untill pics heres some videos of me driving through deep snow today after a large snowfall. i found an unused parking lot to test it out. its gets around alot better than i thought i would. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fL3eestsvw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Nzpnd-An2Y