It's been almost a year since I updated this thread so I guess its time to let you guys know where I am at. I am still plugging away on this build. It has actually been really nice just being able to tinker on it and not have any time crunch or deadline for it. In the last year I have finished the switch suspension hood hinges, I final powdercoated and cleaned up my tubular PB control arms for the front. I am waiting on upper ball joints from Moog now which have been back ordered for over a month, they are supposed ship at the end of Jan. Once those are in the front end will be a roller. I ended up buying a freshly gone through 700r4 from my buddy Adam and got it painted and in the truck. I also bought all of my rear suspension parts from Tinworks Fab (super nice stuff). It is all. mocked up and ready for powdercoat. I am also in the process of fabbing my rear bag crossmember over the rear end. I have a set of Coker tires ordered and on the way, once those show up and my ball joints get here I should have a roller.
I also finished my pancaked crossmember and bolted it in. I was about to drop the motor in the truck and during a final pass over the motor I realized that the engine builder put the #7 rod on the piston backward (or vise versa). Unfortunately I had to blow the entire motor apart to get that rod / piston out and take it back to him to rotate it 180 degrees. I previously painted the motor with VHT engine paint but I also used the same paint on the Jimmy and that paint is already failing after only about 2 years of driving. So I figured now would be the time to strip it down and paint it with something better. I am going to try out the Eastwood ceramic engine paint which I sprayed out yesterday. So far it looks great, we will see how it looks after I drive it a few times.
So my current goal is to get the truck sitting down on the ground on all 4 as a roller, wheels tires and caps done, rear bag crossmember done and 100%, and the motor / trans sitting in the truck around the end of January first of February. After that I can focus on all of the components needed to get the motor started and broken in. Here are some misc pics of the progress over the last year
