November 13, 2022 By Nick Viggo
Now that we have the stiffing plates completed we can install the mounts for the Four links. The kit is made by Rusty offroad products. This is their “competition” Kit and it does appear to be plenty strong. The mounts are 1/4″ steel and the lower is 2″ dia DOM Heavy wall DOM while the upper arms are 1.5″ DOM and use 1.25″ heims. All in all, it appears pretty beefy.
So it was time to strip the interior. I’m stripping the interior because it is totally trashed and I need to get in under the carpet to install the four-link brackets.
The Interior will remain stripped for the most part. I will be installing some bucket seats and 5-point harnesses. rear seat may go in just as the factory had it. I’ll strip the rust out and likely bed liner it. Luckily, all the rust is mostly surface, so I’m not worried about it, but I do need to stop it from getting worse.
Installing the mount on the driver’s side also meant contending with the fuel lines on the uni-rail. Fortunately, the clips pop out fairly easily and you can pull the line out of the way as long as you are careful not to kink the lines.
Note the piece of sheet metal that had to be notched to allow the mount to fit. I was able to move the fuel line inches away during the cutting but extreme care needs to be exercised here.
After the mount is in place and positioned correctly. According to Rustys that is .500″ forward of the t-case cross member. Now we will drill the three holes inside up onto the floorboard and the two outer bolts.
The three holes in the center are a little bit of a guess as to where to drill. You use the floor plate as a drill guide.
Then I used a carbide bit to allow clearance for any miss-alignment from my drill work.
After all the bolt holes are fitted, I used a flap disk to grind off any burrs from the drilling. I also use a stripping wheel to remove the surface rust and lastly painted with self-etching rust-preventing primer.
In the next update, we will finish up some welding. Then begin reassembling the front axle, suspension, and steering. Not necessarily in that order.