Got some stuff done this week. Finished attaching the 2nd rear traction bar and removed the spare tire cross member.
After a lot of thought and changing my mind multiple times
, I finally decided to mount dual shocks in the rear. I was conflicted how to mount them as recommended -
one towards the front end - one towards to rear bumper. But as discussed earlier in the thread, this would have put the rear upper shock mount in the way of where I planned to mount my aluminum gas tank. So I decided to mount both towards the front. I considered having them side-by-side, but instead I'm going to have one mounted a little bit further forward of the second so you can see both from the side. Basically, there is a space to the rear of the current bracket where I plan to put it. The brackets I plan on making will be bolt on so if I don't like the look of this I'll have them side by side since my current upper shock bracket could handle this with just a little bit of surgery.
To make this possible I needed to build a lower shock bracket that could handle two shocks side-by-side. You can see where I took a current 1/4" thick shock brackets I bought from
Barnes4WD, cut them in half and welded enough 1/4" steel to allow two shocks side-by-side with a bushing in between the two (3.7" inside width).
I hope to finish my other shock bracket today as well as beginning fabrication of the two upper shock brackets.
I also wanted to say thanks to 'Brossow' for a thread he put together back in 2008 which helped me out tremendously with a shock bushing bolt he recommended.
I went to NAPA yesterday and picked them up and they worked like a champ. They even came with rubber bushings with the same bolt diameter as my lower shock brackets so I plan to use these in between two two shocks going side-by-side on the same bracket.
All-in-all yesterday was a good day even though my compressor motor died. Does anyone know of a good place to send my motor to be rebuilt? I thought about doing in myself but I need it fast so that won't work.