[NewType72]

Alrighty! Back to it, Friday and Saturday morning brought forth some solid progress taking care of a much needed collector gasket swap as the ones from Doug Thorley did not last more than the year or so they were on.. bummer but onto better horizons with the old faithful I always had with my longtime style headers. Installed the shocks and know that I'll definitely need to grab some that have about two inches less on the maximum squat and at least 3" shorter overall now that I'm much lower getting rid of the blocks under the axle. Oh well they're old now anyway. Stopped by the hardware store and picked up some steel spacers and a flange bushing as well to take up the massive space having to run a smaller size bolt in the bottom of the bag through the trailing arm. If I had access to a lathe I would absolutely run the correct size and mill and thread to the size needed but alas I don't this round :/
Bags are in officially now utilizing the factory spring bolt location by upping the size to the larger mounting bolt I used in the spacer cup. With those tasks completed I could take care of running the rear bag lines down the frame and doing a quick pressure test and all passed and held through the night!

Bring on Saturday morning as I cleaned up a bit and started work on the air control plate that will hang from the back rail of the bed frame. I utilized some 18" wide 22 gauge steel from the rack at OSH and built my redneck engineered "brake" to get a nice 40 degree bend in the plate so that the fittings can be accessed and aired between the bumper and tailgate space without interference from the gate dropping down on the schrader valves accidentally. I'll probably end up creating another one down the road after I get through the summer as the paint and finish edges didn't turn out great by the time I finished it and installed, oh well it's not a feature that will be staying long and is just a creature comfort at this point vs. crawling under the bumper. Accidentally crushed the seal on the pinion so had to get a new crush sleeve with seal to take care of a leak and put maybe 100 something foot lbs of torque on the new yoke to take care of that procedure. Driveline has a TON more room between the manifolds now with them being pulled up and out from the center. Gained a little room with the new yoke being a shorter overall height also. My good buddy Jeremy helped bleed the rear brakes with me and took care of the gear oil loss and helped keep me motivated. Definitely couldn't do this without all their help from pops to the few good friends I have left from school. It pays to be a good soul most days right?

MORE TO COME!