Tail Lights – Part 1: The Weld

I ordered a piece of pre-cut metal from http://www.onlinemetals.com/ it came in and fit like a glove. As you can see I put down the longest weld ever on it to ensure I had attachement all the way across the tail pan. Previous to these shots I used a grinder (cuttting disc) to cut the lower lip away from the tail pan. The metal is some of the thickest I have seen on this truck at about 12 gauge. I now have my stencils for the tail lights stenciled in and will be using a sawzall to cut them out. More pictures to follow as the mini-project progresses.

Grip to Go

DSCN3498 a photo by nwaringa on Flickr.

I just finished up the rear end of the truck. It has some slight modifications to it including a Ford 8.8 rear end out of an explorer and some funky work with the leaf springs and shackles to get it low. The axle now sits on top of the leafs as opposed to under int in the stock IH configuration and I built some new lower spring plates to accomodate the shocks.

More pics below: