Jbaker33
Member
So, this summer I have kept myself quite busy and given my truck lots of attention. I have an 06 1500 quad cab 5.7 with a put 162,000 miles on it.
I ended up replacing basically the entire front end, except for lower control arms. I replaced upper controls arms, struts, inner and outer tie rods, upper and Lower ball joints, both cv axles, both the Intermediate and stub axles(pretty sure thats what they are called)and both axle seals of course. I replaced the rear shocks as well. I ended up replacing my tail lights with leds ones and my headlights with the halo led projectors. My biggest project and the one I'm most proud of was the body work that I did. Now I'm just going to throw this out there. I'm no where near a professional and I know it doesnt look like greatest so I dont need any comments like "that's a redneck way of doing things" or the "that's just wasting your time, it wont last" crap. I know this already but it looks way better than it did. This is not a how to guide, just going to explain a little bit on how I did it.
So, just like every truck, my rear wheel wells rusted out and looked like crap. I love my truck but absolutely hated the way it looked because I'd the rust. So this winter I put it in my head to do something about it this summer, so that's what I did. I bought a set of replacement upper wheel arches from amazon for 100 bucks I think. I dont have a welder so I had to come up with a plan to attach the new panels after I cut out the old. I ended up buying a pneumatic panel flanging tool, some panel adhesive and a rivet gun. Once I attached the new panels, bondo'd and sanded it down I used rattle cans to repaint the entire bed(I figured its better to paint the whole thing instead of trying to make the repaired area blend with the rest of the bed..again, im not a professional) and then clear-coated it and buffed it out. Like I said, it's not the greatest but I'm happy with it.
So, after i got done with both sides, i moved onto the nasty rust spot on my tailgate. Because it was at the bottom of the tailgate, it made my tailgate pretty flimsy there so I decided on using aluminum coil stock. I measured, cut and bent the piece I needed and then flanged, riveted and glue it into place like the wheel well panels. Heres a couple of pictures including before, during and after, also the headlights and taillights I got. Thanks for reading and looking
EDIT* sorry about the order of some of the pics, I couldnt figure out how to fix it
Like Christmas morning!
I ended up replacing basically the entire front end, except for lower control arms. I replaced upper controls arms, struts, inner and outer tie rods, upper and Lower ball joints, both cv axles, both the Intermediate and stub axles(pretty sure thats what they are called)and both axle seals of course. I replaced the rear shocks as well. I ended up replacing my tail lights with leds ones and my headlights with the halo led projectors. My biggest project and the one I'm most proud of was the body work that I did. Now I'm just going to throw this out there. I'm no where near a professional and I know it doesnt look like greatest so I dont need any comments like "that's a redneck way of doing things" or the "that's just wasting your time, it wont last" crap. I know this already but it looks way better than it did. This is not a how to guide, just going to explain a little bit on how I did it.
So, just like every truck, my rear wheel wells rusted out and looked like crap. I love my truck but absolutely hated the way it looked because I'd the rust. So this winter I put it in my head to do something about it this summer, so that's what I did. I bought a set of replacement upper wheel arches from amazon for 100 bucks I think. I dont have a welder so I had to come up with a plan to attach the new panels after I cut out the old. I ended up buying a pneumatic panel flanging tool, some panel adhesive and a rivet gun. Once I attached the new panels, bondo'd and sanded it down I used rattle cans to repaint the entire bed(I figured its better to paint the whole thing instead of trying to make the repaired area blend with the rest of the bed..again, im not a professional) and then clear-coated it and buffed it out. Like I said, it's not the greatest but I'm happy with it.
So, after i got done with both sides, i moved onto the nasty rust spot on my tailgate. Because it was at the bottom of the tailgate, it made my tailgate pretty flimsy there so I decided on using aluminum coil stock. I measured, cut and bent the piece I needed and then flanged, riveted and glue it into place like the wheel well panels. Heres a couple of pictures including before, during and after, also the headlights and taillights I got. Thanks for reading and looking
EDIT* sorry about the order of some of the pics, I couldnt figure out how to fix it
Like Christmas morning!
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