Very long day at Solofabworks saturday.
But very productive.
New mods were
Installed new milemarker manual hubs
Relocate ARB to rid myself of the dreaded ghetto gap
Trim fenders a little bit more.
Build some tubular fender bars.

Here are the pix..
ARB removed

Mounting brackets cut and prepped for 2" filler plate (also note the BENT 3/16" steel angle under the winch)

2" filler plate tacked in

Clearances checked and mocked up

We allowed for about 1/4" gap all around just to allow a little movement for tweaking my fenders
Welds filled in

Bent portion of ARB removed

Reinforcement welded in


So overall we..
Chopped the mounting brackets on the ARB, added a 3/16" thick 2" filler plate (well, 1 3/4") to raise up the bumper reusing the stock mounting (that I through-bolted already in the frame).
After we were happy with the clearances, Dan went back in and reinforced the mounting brackets with more 1/4" steel plate on the outside of the brackets, then chopped off the bent angled air dam portion,
and welded in two pieces of 3/16" flat plate just below it to further reinforce it.

Looks great and should be plenty strong enough to winch off of since we did lose any mounts on it.

My minor fender trimming and some custom fender bars.

Masking it out with the new ARB location.

No turning back now.. :shock:

:shock: :shock: :shock:

Now with 75% less sheet metal :mrgreen:


ARB looks a little weird sticking into the wheel well now..


Off it comes

Much better. LOL


A little bit of fab work.


With the flat fender extension.



We are definitely not complete, in fact the driver side has both bars, the passenger side only has one so far.
It was a LONG ASS day, from 9am until 11pm. :shock:

The fender bar will be capped, a short diagonal bar will be going from the corner to the fender bar to the outside bar.
And the gap will be filled in with either dimple-die sheet metal or black diamond plate.. haven't decided yet.
This bar will be reinforced by running a piece of tube to the new shock hoops on the inside wheel well, or
to the frame, then will go across the engine bay to the other side for the engine cage.

It's safe to say that the newly relocated ARB is going NOWHERE now. LOL

I really have to thank Dan, his friend Jay and helper Jep for the long hours they put in on this.
Looks awesome so far. Can't wait to finish it up.

I'm going to throw some paint on it to prevent rust.

Thanks again!!
Solofabworks FTMFW! :yesnod:

Exos are becoming the new SAS!

quote:

Exos are becoming the new SAS!

LOL
Very true.

Hopefully back-to-stock will be the new Exo. I'll be ahead of the game for once.

That is a cool idea. Nice

Yea exo's are getting really popular. kinda like candy.

Looks really good, I noticed you have a milemarker winch also. Looks like the 9K. How has it been for you? I kinda don't want to weld my arb bumper on because if the winch quits there's no way to service it. Due to the sas I have no other choice but to weld the bumper to the frame.

quote:

Looks really good, I noticed you have a milemarker winch also. Looks like the 9K. How has it been for you? I kinda don't want to weld my arb bumper on because if the winch quits there's no way to service it. Due to the sas I have no other choice but to weld the bumper to the frame

Thanks.
It's the E-8k MM winch. I got it for $300 when it first came out and it has performed flawlessly the entire time. I've used for recoveries and landscaping. LOL
Worked really well for both.
I highly recommend going with synthetic line, Masterpull or stuff like that.
It drops 30+lbs off the weight of the winch.
Every little bit helps.
I refuse to believe that you have to weld the ARB directly to the frame.
Weld some mounts up to the frame, then bolt it on. There is ALWAYS a way to do it, and keep it removable.
I'll be cutting these bars in two spots and getting the heavy duty clamps after everything is all finished.
I don't like permanent without use of a grinder.

quote:

I refuse to believe that you have to weld the ARB directly to the frame.
Weld some mounts up to the frame, then bolt it on. There is ALWAYS a way to do it, and keep it removable.
I'll be cutting these bars in two spots and getting the heavy duty clamps after everything is all finished.
I don't like permanent without use of a grinder.

I haven't gotten to the front bumper yet. I am going to try and make it removable as all possible.

Mine also is the PE-8K winch. Has been pretty good so fare. Whines when I'm under extreme high stress pulls. I just got a MM 9K for out back. I plan to swap over to synthetic line before install.

quote:

Originally posted by LordBiotree:

quote:

I refuse to believe that you have to weld the ARB directly to the frame.
Weld some mounts up to the frame, then bolt it on. There is ALWAYS a way to do it, and keep it removable.
I'll be cutting these bars in two spots and getting the heavy duty clamps after everything is all finished.
I don't like permanent without use of a grinder.

I haven't gotten to the front bumper yet. I am going to try and make it removable as all possible.

Mine also is the PE-8K winch. Has been pretty good so fare. Whines when I'm under extreme high stress pulls. I just got a MM 9K for out back. I plan to swap over to synthetic line before install.

Sounds good.
Have you had any issues with the PE-8K winch?
One of the LINXC members had issues with the Mosfet solenoid shorting out pretty quickly.
He called MM and they immediately sent him out the new design for free.
Great Mfr to deal with.

I have the PE-8K with the old style box. I had the on/off switch brake on me. I ordered a new switch, box and remote. The new box is back up. At that time they were switching to the new mosfet design. Once they said it was electronic box I said no.

The old box has two solid state solenoid and a metal on/off switch with plastic operating piece. Very easy to rebuild the box. You can also buy the solenoids separate if you manage to burn one up.

Yes, mile marker was awesome to deal with.

quote:

The old box has two solid state solenoid and a metal on/off switch with plastic operating piece. Very easy to rebuild the box. You can also buy the solenoids separate if you manage to burn one up.

I believe I have the same winch.
The first time I unplugged the remote it ripped the plug off the solenoid housing. LOL
I epoxied the crap out of it, called them up about it, and they sent me a replacement.
I have yet to install the replacement.

I like my simple winch. Only issue I had were with the leads being too short. So I replaced them with longer starter cables. I was able to match them up and get longer ones without any issues.

I had to do the same thing. I just bought new starter cables and 2 couplers. I just extended the existing short wires.

that looks like a pretty extreme cut on the fender. Are you going to be able to use all that stuffing room?

quote:

Originally posted by Crunk Ride:
that looks like a pretty extreme cut on the fender. Are you going to be able to use all that stuffing room?

Well, my 35's won't rub ever again with my current IFS system. LOL
I'll be able to stuff the 35's a bit more once I do my IFS coilover swap, but the CV's will ultimately limit the travel.
If I eventually SAS the truck with the same coilovers, there's more than enough room to stuff the 35's I'm currently running.

We finished up the fab work on the tube fenders on friday.
Just need to clean them up a bit and paint em and get a cap for the passenger side.
And the Canon 50mm, 1.8 lens is AWESOME.

Nice work. I have thought of something similar but I don't know if I can handle my truck looking like it has jeep flares. I'm not trying to dog you, just trying to reason with myself out loud. It's between something like that and an exo and I really don't want an exo because it is just my style.
Lator....