Next up was to install the hood brackets from member here Hart_Rod. I felt that there wouldn't be enough adjustment with just welding the porterbuilt hinge brackets in. Also was a little scared with the lack of templates/instructions. Plus I think that with the hood brackets it spreads the stress over a larger area in the hood. These came super fast and were a very straight forward install. Everything lined up perfect and didnt have to modify anything!!!
After drilling out the needed holes and inserting the Riv-nuts the brackets were ready to be bolted down.
and bolted!
Thats it, super quick and easy install. I was able to then put the rest of the front end together.
Fenders on...
Grille repainted and installed
Also you can see that all the new lower trim from Brothers Trucks was installed. I decided that I wanted to update that a little also. So I used some black brushed aluminum vinyl and wrapped where they were originally painted black. I never took any pictures of that up close so ill try and get some tomorrow...
Since everything else was getting updated might as well modernize the headlights!!
I love LED and have these in the 5X7" in one of my other vehicles and they are amazing... Truck-Lite 7" round LED high/low sealed lamps.
They would have went right in but I didn't like they way they stuck past the OEM headlight bezel so some modifications and customizing were done to get them to look like the factory lenses did inside the trim rings. Also the side marker lights were installed (with LED bulbs of course).
Now the hood was bolted to the hinges.
I just realized I dont have a pic with the hood up and bolted on. Just these few after it was closed.
Bumper installed (temporarily)
And taken off the lift and set on the ground!
Ok enough for tonight!!!