Blue Ribbon 4x4 Build Thread

I know the feeling. If I order something big or expensive, I try to plan delivery on a day that I am home or hold the package at the carrier for pickup. I get tired of hearing .

 

I’m usually pretty good about communicating with my wife about purchases, but this time I had to jump on this deal. There wasn’t any time to plant the seed and soften the blow.

 

Better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission?

 

Nooo. That’s a terrible idea.

 

That is true actually. Showed up home one time with a Shelby GT350 out of the blue. Live-in girlfriend at the time was not amused. I did eventually trade both, the Ford and the gf. I miss that car...

 

Back to business. Sanded off the stripes from the two plexiglass uppers, and recoated blue with clear. Gonna have a small redesign on these. We’ll see how they look, then I’ll match the rears.

 

Boy howdy do these make a huge difference. Srove her home in the Valley and then the freeway home so far. Gonna take her off road in a bit.
The truck is so much more planted. The 5100’s were getting a little bouncy in the dips and humps. I tried a few full speed dips and these shocks just ate them up. I’m super happy with this setup.
I measured the center of the hubs to the fender, and I got 25-1/2” in the rear, and 24-3/4” in the front. Which means I came up half an inch from the 2-1/2” lift I had before. There are four adjustments you can make with a snap ring on the shock body, I did the third highest to keep a little cushion, with a shim on each side. Total lift in the front is 3”, and the rear is at around 1-3/4” with the old Bilsteins and shackles.
The shop scratched the shit outta the top of my UCAs when they pried the down to install the shock. To be honest, I don’t mind. I needed an excuse to freshen them up. I’ll sand them and paint them in place. I need to spray some 2K clear on them when done.

 

Really want to give you shit for not painting the coilovers, but damn your truck looks too good to not give compliments!!

 

There’s hints of blue already!!

 

Shortage of blue paint lol.

 

Price per gallon is insane right now

 

Everything is....now a hot sauce shortage too.

 

So the patterns for Mammoth Guards are pretty bland. You can get a plain single color, hexagon pattern, the American flag is a sweet design. But I needed my own. I had the horizontal stripes, but they just seem like they need something more. I started looking at stencils of subjects I liked and started looking at decals and came up with this……ok, ok @RobertD gave me the damn idea, alright? We were talking about design a while back and he had this idea.
I like anything horror and decided bats would be pretty appropriate. The panels were all sprayed Cobalt Metallic Blue. So I layed the decals out as if the bats were flying out from the front of the wheel well and tried to size them up as they fanned out. Then I sprayed a light mist of black so the blue would still shine through (hopefully). After that, I decided on gloss clear coat. I can always change to matte if it’s too much, but I’m liking the deep color the gloss gives. This also means the UCAs will have to match.
Here’s a sneak peak.

 

Yeah, me too. I forgot about the UCAs being color matched and there is some color on the coilovers so, I will, officially, get behind the new suspension setup going forward. I know that this is a load off of @BlueRibbon4x4 Geno's mind. You're welcome

 

I've fallen behind on builds that I follow! Way back on page 20 at the moment, but just gotta say DAYUM! That is some solid custom work that looks fantastic.

 

Kinda surprised you haven't blacked out the upper console. Somebody on here did and it looked really good. If I see it a gain I'll post a pic/link to it.

 

Awesome, thanks! I’ve thought about it, as well as doing the A,B,C-pillars. But the headliner would still be grey. I’ve thought of reupholstering the headliner too, but that’s a big job where I’d really have to be committed.

 

Thank you!!

 

If you're going for the bat theme, and obviously can weld, have you thought about reworking the Victory logo in the bumper to a bat silhouette?

 

Well the front Mammoth Guards are just too reflective with the gloss. Pulled them off, ready for wet sanding, and the rears are on their way.

 

Nah, I didn’t wanna be Batman. That Victory logo looks pretty killer when the lightbar is lit up. Solid idea though

 

I get the Batman bit, and figured that would be the response, but when I saw it lit up that was the first thing I thought because I had seen the fender liners.

 

Gotcha. Would be sweet to put a Toyota logo that would be backlit.
But you got me thinking about the damn overhead console now.

 

Your truck is looking damn good Geno!

 

Thank you, sir!!!

 

Well I was gonna give it a break, but when I got home from work it was completely still outside. In the desert, ya gotta take the lack of wind when you can get it.
I masked off the stuff I didn’t want painted and sanded down the scratches from the coilover install. Scuffed up the rest of the finish and laid down new coats. I think the UCAs were matte before, but I went gloss, as they may be a good contrast to the matte Mammoth Guards.
Also wet sanded the rears and got the matte finish down.

 

Front Mammoth guards installed! I think these are way better than the stripes ones. Just darker and not so uniform is what I like best.
Tomorrow when the paint cures I can dry lube the ball joints and put the Icon caps back on and install the abs bracket.

 

That is sooo much better!!!!! And is definitely more personal to you too

 

That dog will hunt! Looks stellar and unique! Bravo!