Dubbed: GC 2 NV...
Posted by: Dori Ninja @ 2012-01-21 08:43:39.
so my6 other thread was way long...and its nolonger bound to daily duties (although it should still play the part...) so i decided to start a new thread for my RS...parts aquisition is coming along nice and hopefully everything will go together when i get my leave from this god awful place!!!!so...heres a copy and past of my build thread on other forums...lol follow along if u would like...if not whatever...and please tim and gavin....dont hate too hard...id like to have one clean ride thread on this board....lol
welcome to my Build Thread! here u can follow the progress of my 00 2.5 RS SRP Sedan!!!
I bought her in Sept 2008 and loved it ever since.....
when purchased:
Winter 2009-2010
Spring 2010:
Summer 2011:
Now im deployed To Afghanistan and am spending ur Tax Dollars on getting her to tip top shape!!!!
Current Mods as of Pre-Deployment are:
AGX/Ground Controls
WRX 20mm Rear Sway
JDM STi Front Strut Bar
No name Rear End Links
Custom 2.5" exhaust with DynoMAx Muffler
Borla Headers
OBX CAI
JDM front 4-Pot Calipers
Exedy Clutch
JDM V4(iirc) Nardi STi Steering Wheel
ADR M-Sport 18x8.5 Rims
Red Digi Cam Vinyl Wrapped hood
CUSCO Rear brace
Tinted Tails, Signals, and Side Markers
Coupe Wing
...i think thats it...
I have sitting at home waiting patiently...
Walbro 255
Perin (iirc) modded 816cc injectors
Invidea Up Pipe
HKS SSQV (Yes, yes go ahead and hate!! lol)
AMR 3" Turbo Inlet Pipe (hard Pipe...should be fun to fit....lol)
GM 3-bar map
C-West (real deal) Front Lip
OEM 06 STi rear diffuser
GrimmSpeed Boost Control Solinoid
Morettes (2x...one moded with BMW Projectors...might have jacked them up too much so found another set incase i did... lol)
C-west Rear Spats
06 WRX EJ255 swap w/ trans axles and rear diff
06 Dash and cluster
ATI Tripple Gauge Pod
ProSport Oil Filter Sandwitch adapter for gauge senders
Water temp sensor adapter (goes in rad hose)
Cobb Knock-off Exhaust
GrimmSpeed Ported/Polished/Coated/Deleted TGV's
Prosport CF Hood Damnpers
ISC Coil-overs with teh BC Racing rear adj. extensions
06 WRX front and rear seats (same as STi but all black...)
JDM Hazard Switch
XXR 522's 18x8.5 +45 gold w/ Ecsta SPTs 225/45/18 (For Sale...)
XXR 530's (not in possesion yet..still not released...) 17x9.75 +25mm Gold
inovative Wideband w/ gauge
Z store Fender Flares (best fit aside from high dollar TRIAL/JUN flares)
GrimmSpeed 8" Plenum Spacers
GrimmSpeed Antenna (goes in the windshield...the stock one is sooo ugly so ill be shaving it...)
SSAC FMIC
Tsudo Down pipe
....and i believe that completes the parts list....
Coming Before March (when i get home on R&R and spend the whole time in the garage)
Blouch 20gXT-R turbo
Spec "stage 3" clutch
ACT Street light Flywheel
Cobb dual adj short shifter
Torque solutions engine mounts
Torque solutions pitch stop
Whiteline bumpsteer/tierod end kit
Defi Advance CR Gauges) Boost(52mm) oil press, water temp, EGT (60mm)
and possibly more if i shop right...but if not it will be bought after R&R:
whiteline 24mm rear sway bar
whiteline 22mm front sway bar
any and all poly bushings i can find
new head unit/speakers and probably a single 12" sub in the trunk
and probably get into some links and what not in the suspesnion
would possibly like to incorperate a cage/bar at some point when i get a good daily
should be about it...collect more wheels as time goes on....also probably next winter when i get everything together and all the kinks worked out pull some things apart and have them prettied up...probably get some GrimmSpeed porting dont as well...debating on going aftermarket exh mani or ported...the ported ones are getting great reviews with the high flow cross pipe.....
for engine management i will be goin with open source tuning....got a buddy thats been getting good reviews with his skills in such endevers so hell get her up and runnin for me from that stand point...probably have it looked at when i get to a dyno for some numbers too...plan to play around with e85 as well so we will see where i end up...similar set up in a 2011 WRX (Still stock block as well) is hittin a little shy of 430 to the wheels...i im cool stoppin at 400..wont even want that for a bit im sure...id rather build the boost up slowly then just jump from sub 200#s to 400 lol...plus ill probably need e85 to get there on the stock block anyway..but this should be about perfect for me....
any ?'s comments, constructive critisizm, or knowlage to add feel free to add
hope to meet a lot of you guys at the meets n such as well after july when i return state side 
next purchases to be
(1 comments)
Bag dat shit
Posted by: Angry Swede @ 2012-01-21 07:06:52.
It's been a while since I've posted on the forum so I figured I'd add a little commentary since I'm sitting in a hotel room in Missouri.Some...or most of you know I sold the Dmax and bought a Cummer 1-ton about a year ago now. I did the normal Banks 6-gun, exhaust, etc, but the truck still needed more.
I did a LOT of searching in the past on lowering a 3500 dually and really didn't come up with much so I figured I was on my own with this one. I also priced out some of the more popular bolt-on kits and really didn’t feel that they were for me. I’ve tinkered with a lot of cars in the past, but never really had to do much with suspension work. I’ve never built a low rider or really had any reason to. This was all new to me and was a bit intimidating.
Here were the goals of the project:
* Must lower the truck as much as possible (down 6” in the rear and 2” in the front)
* Must retain the stock bed with no modifications
* Must not sacrifice any load carrying ability
* Must not ride any harsher than the stock steel suspension
* Must be nearly indestructible
* Must not break the bank
That said, I made sure all my hauling and truck needs were accounted for and started ripping the truck apart. Prior to starting this project, I ordered some pretty sweet 24” Alcoa wheels from the boys down at Aztec Custom Wheels in Texas (Aztec Custom Wheels). I just need to give a shout out to Chris who was a big help to work with and made spending large sums of money worry free. More on the wheels later.
After spending some time amassing some initial parts, it was time to start the fabrication. Below is a picture of the victim...2007 Dodge 3500 4x4:
The typical response I’m going to get from at least 60% of this forum is “why lower a 3500...trucks are made to be tall...get a car if you want something low...yap yap”. Well, I have my reasons which include, but are not limited to the following:
* I live where it snows and need a 4x4
* I don’t take my truck offroad...ever
* My truck needs to fit in a parking ramp
* I've had one before, and I’m too old to climb up into a truck every day
* Because I can
DISMANTLE:
We started by removing the box. The box was heavier than I had anticipated and the plastic tie-down hooks in the bed of the truck are nothing short of pathetic. I can’t even begin to vent my frustration over how pitiful those hooks are and how ashamed and embarrassed Dodge engineers should be for putting those in a 1-ton truck. Shame on all of you. :spank:
With the box off and after some quick measurements, we turned our attention to the leaf springs and got those removed from the truck. It’s important to maintain the pinion angle so we made sure to get an angle finder on the differential before we changed the geometry of the suspension with our tear down.
Next, we removed the unnecessary frame mounts. Most of them came off with the assistance of a zippy wheel, sawzall, or the plasma axe. Then the frame was sanded smooth leaving little trace of its past life.
REAR BAG MOUNTS
I had purchased a sheet of 5/16” steel that we would use for most of the brackets and structural bits needed for this project. I ordered Firestone airbags for this project based on some specifications I found online. The bags for the rear are W01-358-9422 and are designed with a load rating of 5900 pounds each at 100PSI. Should be able to handle just about anything this frame could take.
I started out by cutting some circles out of the steel for the top and bottom bag plates. Yes, I’m plasma cutting in shorts. Yes, I know it’s a dumb idea. Yes, I’ve also done it wearing sandals. It takes me a little bit to remember why I normally wear pants when I’m in the garage.
Most of the kits I’ve seen have the bags mounted between the axle and the frame. Because I wanted to lower the truck, I needed to effectively mount the bag lower than the axle so that at the designed ride height of the bag, the truck would ride approximately 6” lower in the rear. I made some scale drawings with the measurements I had and committed to a design I liked. The bags were going to now sit to the rear of the axle and hang under it a little bit to accommodate the drop I was going for.
Next, I started welding up the bag brackets and got things mouted where I wanted them on the truck.
We popped a Schrader valve in the bag and fired 5PSI or so into it just to see how things would sit. Very nice! These bags have a ton of power too and I'm curious to see just how little air they will need at empty ride height.
4-LINK PARALLEL BARS:
Since the 4-link bars are pretty critical and hold lots of stress with towing, I wanted to make sure that they were as strong as possible. I sourced the biggest heim joints I could find. A lot of the bolt-on kits used pretty small heim joints and link bars that I’m sure would work, but I just didn’t feel like they had the “overbuilt” protection I was looking for.
The guys at Ballistic Fabrication had the right stuff. I ordered up some of their 1.5” forged and CNC machined rebuildable joints and threaded rod ends. I then hit up the local Speedy Metal for the 2.25” OD 0.25” wall DOM steel for the parallel bars, panhard bar, and bushing ends. These should definitely be strong enough to handle anything I can throw at it!!
Heim goodness:
I figured my link bars might be about 18-24” or so, but without really knowing how my design was going to pan out, I couldn’t know exactly. I had ordered enough steel that I cut my chunks 24” long and would go from there. I hit the mill and notched out the ends to fit the bushings I had made previously.
I chamfered edges for a full penetration weld and sealed it all up. I also put a grease zerk on there to make sure these could be maintained for a long life:
4-LINK PARALLEL MOUNTS:
Next, we turned our attention to the axle and frame mounts for the parallel bars. The front mount was decided to sit where the existing front leaf spring mount resides. I think I figured that I was going to have about 8” of spread on the bars which would give me enough clearance for the axle as well as make sure that I can pretty much hide everything behind the box side.
Axle brackets:
The axle brackets span the stock leaf spring perches pretty well which was an unexpected benefit. The bolts are all 3/4" grade-8 bolts so they should also be able to hold up to what is going to be asked of the truck. Here’s a shot of the 4-link in place with just a few minor tweaks yet to go:
AIR MANAGEMENT
We took a little segway from finishing up the 4-link and mounted the air management system. I had done a lot of research in this area as well and decided to go with the Airbagit (Air Suspension Pros | Find Quality Suspension Lowering & Lift Kits) air management system. I had heard mixed reviews on their stuff, but with their valves and pump, I felt I got a solid deal compared to the competition. The kit was “plug-n-play” which isn’t exactly what it says, but the hookup is pretty simple once you understand the concept.
The pump supplies a 5 gallon tank with a 150 PSI pressure switch and 1/2" hose to feed the bags. My suggestion for anyone out there is to make sure and buy nice (read: expensive) fittings that are rated for the climate you are in. They are much nicer than the cheap fittings you can find at certain stores.
My kit came with analog gauges that are referenced by 1/4" lines run from the valves. I threw out the stupid crush sleeve fittings and went with push-locks. I maintained the weather rated crush sleeve fittings on the 1/2" bag lines that would be seeing the weather.
I also hooked up a quick disconnect air chuck to the tank so I can use air tools if needed in the pits at the track or in a bind on the side of the road. On board air is SWEET!!
Here you can see the air management box installed on the rear frame with the air tank on the very rear between the frame rails:
The air management kit with the up and down valves:
EXHAUST
Conveniently...or not so conveniently...the air bags in the rear landed exactly where my MBRP dual exhaust exited the truck. I wasn’t really feeling the duals so this gave me the opportunity to cannibalize it and turn it into something more custom. I hacked the bends out of the duals and made my single rear exit exhaust complete with 7” black tip. You can’t see it unless you’re looking at it and then if you don’t know what you’re looking at, everyone wonders what the sewer pipe is for. haha!
Yes, that’s an 18 oz can
PANHARD BAR
Controlling lateral movement is one of the things leaf springs do inherently. Since I yanked the leafs, I needed a secondary way to accomplish the limiting of the side-to-side movement of the axle. This is where a panhard bar comes in. I wanted to keep the panhard bar long to limit any lateral movement normal articulation of the suspension would incur, but at the same time, I was a bit limited to where I could place the panhard with everything else that was going on. Since I was only going to be using this truck for road use and don’t have a severe length of suspension travel, I opted to mount the panhard offset on the axle. I made sure the articulation of the heim joint used would facilitate the level of travel needed and that at normal ride height, it was centered. Probably not an ideal placement for extreme suspension travel applications, but it works great for mine.
Tied back in to the driver’s side frame rail:
Once I had all the link bard welded up and finished, I sprayed everything with a coat of undercoating to help prevent rusting that I’m sure is bound to occur.
Everything was then torqued to spec.
We then tested some up-down movement with the bags and everything looked good. We were able to easily achieve the 6” of suspension drop in the back we anticipated.
With no box on the truck, the bags only needed about 13 PSI of air to lift it to ride height. Pretty impressive level of power these bags had. Of course this number will go up once the box is put back on, but nevertheless, it leaves us with a pretty solid amount of capacity available for hauling and towing.
FRONT AIR BAGS
Unfortunately it seems we got caught up in the moment and didn’t document these steps quite to the detail the rear was done...but it was much more simple to design the front bags. Again, we took the approximate 2” drop into consideration when calculating the design of the new suspension.
Here is the front suspension all removed:
Here’s essentially how the fronts look. There is a plate on the bottom of the bag that ties it into the factory shock mount. Nothing fancy. Then a standoff on the top to make up the difference between the ride height of the bag and the total suspension height we were shooting for. Incorporated in this is the lower strut mount. The stock strut length was taken into consideration and we made sure that the struts maintained their “factory” length. The top strut perch was incorporated in a different part I’ll try to show in another photo:
The top mount for the front bags I actually utilized the stock strut perch and fabricated a bracket to relocate the strut out in-line with the new bottom of the strut. We punched a hole out the back of the stock spring perch for the air line.
The specs of this bag are less than that of the rear bags. They are rated for 2700 pounds or so at 100 PSI which really isn’t that much considering the weight these engines have. Good news is that at about 50 PSI, they start lifting off the bumps and at about 60 PSI, they are sitting pretty at ride height. I’m never going to be mounting a plow or anything, but it’s still nice to know you have some wiggle room and aren’t running the bags at the ragged edge.
LIMIT STRAPS
Lastly, we made some limit straps for the rear. I have to admit, we haven’t done this with the front yet, but I need to. The bags aren’t made to hang anything from them and neither are the struts. Limit straps are a good idea in the event that you need to get your vehicle serviced and it’s being lifted up by the frame. I made these out of 3/16” braided cable that has the clear plastic jacket. The hydraulic crimping tool is a marvelous thing.
WHEELS
As mentioned earlier, I designed some sweet wheels and the boys down at Aztec Custom Wheels did a fantastic job with the machine work. In no time, I had 6 Alcoa wheels, 6 feet of tires, and 250 pounds of adapters sent to my door:
Since my truck is white, I decided to have the centers colored as well. I enlisted the help of a local shop to powder coat the centers for me. They were a bit hesitant at first, but they did a fantastic job when it was all said and done.
Rear:
Front:
With the tires mounted, it was time to get these pigs on the truck:
BEFORE SHOTS
Now, here’s what we all really wanna see. Here are some before shots of the rear:
Before shots of the front:
AFTER SHOTS
Here is the truck at ride height:
Here is the truck slammed on the bumps:
Big fat a$$:
(6 comments)
Updates
Posted by: YuppieTrash @ 2012-01-18 17:26:47.
5/??/11: Sold Honda F4i after 1 set of tires, an HID kit, minor paint touch ups, and about 6,000 miles. Broke even.7/12/11: Got job offer in milwaukee. Start in 3 weeks. Thinking I need a more reliable vehicle.
7/15/11: I got tired of the Audi breaking. It puked a fuel pump while I was in Milwaukee, costing $800 for a next day repair so I could make it home for work. Threw it on Craigslist.
7/16/11: S4 sold after being on Craigslist for less than 24 hours. I showed it to a kid in MKE immediately after the FP replacement, and a guy in GB when I got home. The guy in GB had brought cash, and the car was his.
7/17/11: Carless... began searching for replacement.. really need a car.
7/19/11: Drove to Oshkosh to pick up a "new" used car. Couldn't find any hondas that weren't salvage title (or so f'd up they should have been) for less than $5k. A 12 yr old honda for $5k is not my idea of a good deal. Neither is one that has been hit on both ends and fixed with outdoor caulking and bondo. Found a '99 528i for $3500.
It was a good car. Great MPG for it's size. Between commuting in bad traffic and highway runs to GB, I averaged 25MPG. It had a problem: a bad coolant seal on the intake manifold and crap headlights. I bought some china lights and an HID kit. Put them in while in GB, and drove it for a month or two. At some point, it spun 180* while raining, and I realized that someone had pulled the ABS light (clearly ABS and TCS weren't working). This on top of the coolant seal was more than I could deal with while living in MKE and not having a garage to park it in and work on it. Started looking for something to trade it on.
9/07/11 Pick up new 2011 Nissan Frontier CrewCab 4x4:
9/30/11: Took it to IL and played in a field for a while. I think there is still dirt stuck in places from this weekend:
10/25/11: Started blacking out the grille and bumper
Today: Parking is a bit hard to find in downtown this time of year. Thankfully this Volvo wasn't half way into this spot like they were yesterday.
Looks just about the same as where I parked monday:
Testing paint adhesion on front end:
(4 comments)
FS: [Green Bay]18" XXR 522 rims BRAND NEW!!!
Posted by: Dori Ninja @ 2012-01-17 08:54:20.
Fudge it!!!! FS: XXR 522s BRAND NEW!!! 18x8.5 +45 Gold 5x100/114.3 with 225/45/18 Kumho Exta SPTs Will not separate 975 picked up in pulaski goin a diff direction now and commiting to it so i dong *NEED* these, but can keep them if i dont get what i want...ie price is FIRM paid like 1050 for these a couple months ago and they are with my buddy for pick up as i am in Afghanistan....his contact info will be givin upon sale!possibly trade for 17x9.5 or wider and nothing higher than 25mm offset...
and right now im gunna say pick-up only but ill shoot him a message and see if hes willing to ship...all shipping materials should still be there though so i dont think there will be an issue..
only have one pic too...but look the wheels up and ull be able to see more if u need..these are after all brand new unussed!!
(0 comments)
PST Driveshaft
Posted by: a2j @ 2012-01-01 10:04:28.
http://www.pstds.com/got a used carbon fiber driveshaft. Carrier bearings on my stock were done, long time ago. This one eliminated all bearings and some joints. It is only 17lbs. Feels very light. No vibration issues yet. Car now drives a lot better, quicker response, no low speed vibrations and clunking noises. Solid engine mounts, reinforced transfer case, and this driveshaft amplified rear differential bushings problem. so, now I'm in the process of looking for a solid bushings for rear diff and subframe.
I like this thing and "would buy it again"
(2 comments)
| Active Topics | Forum | Replies | Views | Last Post |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| got a new car!!! 95 Eclipse GSX | Members Rides | 103 | 4543 | January 23rd, 2012, 8:12 am by: Dori Ninja |
| OFFICIAL CHECK IN: DOMESTIC's | Members Rides | 111 | 7859 | January 22nd, 2012, 10:43 pm by: loopy |
| Dubbed: GC 2 NV... | Members Rides | 1 | 29 | January 21st, 2012, 9:43 am by: Dori Ninja |
| Bag dat s**t | Fabrication | 6 | 63 | January 21st, 2012, 8:06 am by: Dori Ninja |
| Updates | Members Rides | 4 | 62 | January 18th, 2012, 6:26 pm by: YuppieTrash |
| FS: [Green Bay]18" XXR 522 rims BRAND NEW!!! | For Sale | 0 | 30 | January 17th, 2012, 9:54 am by: Dori Ninja |
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