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Body work and Bagging it!

My toy in the making for the last 8 years! Its a 1993 Isuzu Pickup. I have finally realized that I might finish it. It takes time, money, and space. All of which I have none of. But I working my ass off on it anyway!! I have done all this in a rented one car garage in the apartment community I live in. It has undergone tons of work and its all been done by me!! I refuse to pay anyone to customize my truck then I too would be a poser. So lets go through the mods...

It has a rodeo/amigo front end swap (basic stuff). Rodeo grill and headlights. Amigo front fenders and bumper ends.
I shaved the door handle, mirrors and antenna hole.
Shaved and relocated the tailgate handle. Then I molded in a roll pan. Made it smoooooth. I have 17" escalade wheels on it and I found some aftermarket smooth center caps for them (no caddy emblem on em). I will go with 18" wheels in the end because I want to still be able to roll real low and keep my turning radius. Besides you all already know what I think about real BIG wheels already.......

I also molded in some rear amigo quarter panels and shaved the gas door. Big flares for tuckin wheels.

That was a BITCH!!!

Now I'm building the suspension.. Oh Boy..
The 4 link is a bit of a challenge. If you cant weld or fabricate. Dont even try this.
First remove your bed (det da dee). Then cut out your exhaust and gas tank. Then you have to find the axle center to start the notches.
then all hell breaks loose.

Square them, measure 40 different times in every direction, then start welding!
Then you have to drop out your axle and remove all the shit you dont need anymore. Leaf springs and brackets gone! then bring your axle back in and set it at you ride height and re-center it. Use your old U bolts to hold it in place.

Now the fun stuff begins! I chose to build my own bottom link brackets. so I figured out where I was going to put them and measured and squared 40 times again and welded them into place.

Now hook up the bottom link and find out how much you have to cut off of the link to bracket it to the bottom of the axle.

After I finished both sides of the bottom links I figured out the placement of the new cross bar and welded it in place. then cut out the factory one to get it out of the way of the top links.

So seting up the top links is a nightmare. Well maybe not that bad, but you really have to plan this one out. I set and figured out my angles and measured at least 100 time in 100 directions. Once I was 100% sure, then I did the welding.

Then I cut the frame out of the notch.
When I was done I put the wheels back on and tested the travel to make sure everything was smooth. Here is a pic of it laid out.

Now I did the welding on the upper and lower bag mounts. Then I welded in the the shock tabs and mounted the shocks. Then a little pant to clean it up.

I mounted the bags and drank a beer to celebrate!!

Now the front end was a litte tricky too.
First I grabbed a seat and stared at the shock tower and upper control arm for about 2 hours trying to figure out how this was going to happen..
So I decided to cut out the lower part of the shock tower. But first I made some measurements figuring out the clearence needed for the upper control arm to the top bag plate and space needed for the deflated bag. Made several guestiments. And cut it! Then I welded in the top plate.

Then I had to figure out where and how to mount the bottom plate. I mocked it up several ways and decided to weld the plate to the lower arm, but first I notched the lower control arm out just enoungh on one side so I could get my fingers in there to put in the bolts for the bottom of the bag.

Then came the pain in my ass. Figuring out how to mount the shocks. I sat on this and thought about it for a good 2 days. I couldnt come up with anything, so I said F-it and just started trying crap out. So this is what I came up with..

This set-up actually worked great. I didnt even loose any of my turning radius. So heres pics of the shock mounted and bag bolted in with the air line connected.

Im gonna eventually build some new upper control arms. There is one other thing. I made a new brake line mount. I moved it about one inch closer to the shock tower and extended in about 2 inches further than the stock one did. This gave me the length I needed for the bag travel.

Now for my Air set-up..
I bought all my stuff from suicidedoors.com
I am using 8- 1/2" SMC valves w/ 1/2" air lines.. 2-5 gallon 8 port tanks and 2 Viair 480 compressors. A 200-165psi pressure switch. (The Bags) I have Slam Specialties RE 6 up front and RE 7 in the back, 9 switch AVS box. Im also using SMC dump controls to keep myself from getting concussions. 1/2" anything in a air system is pretty violent, Just to let you know.... Here are some pics!

And I also used a 10 gallon RCI aluminum fuel cell. But I think Im going to go with a bigger one with a sending unit (dont want to keep guessing how much gas I have left). another pic..

Old setup

Now there where little things here an there that I didnt mention that you have to do. and If you use this as a step by step to do your truck you are a TARD. I am simply telling you how I did my suspension without alot of the little details. BUT If you have questions I will be happy to answer them! Later!

New setup.

If you post negitive, uneducated, or just plain stupid comments.

I will delete them.