Recent content by Fopar

The wheels on the 2003 Lightning The day I got them And last of all how the project sits today....:frown:

Hey everyone sorry I’ve been gone so long but I do have a little progress to report even though I'm not working on it I do keep planning and picking up parts. Something new is I have decided to go with a fuel injected 4.6L from a 98 mustang I picked up. It was my nephew's car that he loved and...

my join date was June of 2011, the last update was in Dec. 2012 but with the Suburban parts rig taking over I haven't been able to do much on it. But we did pick up another truck. It's going to be my daughters truck & it's a bit ruff now but we have 2 years before she can drive to work on it and...

So my wife says my truck is my mistress and that I spend more time with it then her, so today being Valentines Day I bought my truck a gift. a new dash bezel and white gauges..lol not really my wife got them for my Valentines gift. Here are a few before & then the new one. Have to...

Had an unexpected take-over of my shop.... a dam chevy moved in....LOL I ended up getting a great deal on a 1997 suburban parts rig for $450.00 (no engine or trany) but I needed a new fender, AC compressor and a bunch of small items for our suburban so a lot of left over parts to sell. I think...

Burned in the drivers side, cut off the rounded part that was sticking out and welded in a little plate. and then ground everything smooth. So now I can bolt the front end back on and get back to the front bumper..

On the passenger side I cut right down through both the new plate and the frame then clamped it in place and welded it in. The drivers side I traced it onto the frame & cut it out. Then tacked it into place to check how it lined up.

I then lined them up and tacked them into place.

So I took the supports I had cut off of the 2002 frame and cut them to match what I needed for each side.

I leveled the frame to the shop floor and took some measurements. With the front end all lined up and bolted together you can see that the bottom of the radiator core support is at 26" on both sides but the top of the drivers side frame rail is 1/4" lower than the passenger side.

Ok, so after a lot longer than I wanted I finally have the radiator core support done, as you can see from the pic's the first round hole I drilled didn't line up to well and you can really see it looking down through the bolt holes. Still not sure how I got it so far off :hmm:

Well been working on the truck but ran into some problems getting things to line up, so I had to blow the front end apart again. The radiator core support isn't lining up with everything else. I marked where the mounts should be with everything bolted to it and lined up but it still isn't...

So this is what I have so far. I have more metal work to do to make it all smooth and fit together right, but you can start to see the idea coming together. I will body work it and primer it to see how it turns out before I decide if I'm going to use it or stay with a more stock look.