Bought a CC Dually 454 Whipple

[JSlezak83]

Went to the pull and pay for piddly **** for the flipper, but decided this needed to come home with me as well.

Damn, I need a deal like that. Everything in the yards around here look like it was pulled from the Titanic.

 

[Supercharged111]

It's a little brown up where it contacted the frame, but not pitted or remotely near what you'd find up in your neck of the woods. It'll buzz right off with the sanding flapwheel on my angle grinder. I grew up in the upper peninsula of MI so I remember what real rust is.

 

[Supercharged111]

Well I wanted to put that hitch on and I decided it would also be a great time for the diesel bumper swap. Since I was that far in, I decided to finally fix the frame tears up but the tow hooks.

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I also sucked out all the dirt that you see in there and recovered a 1/2" socket that I didn't know was lost. I sprayed the front of the truck and now am about to go recover my angle grinder so I can clean and paint the very front section of frame after I've welded it back as one.

 

[Supercharged111]

Got the frame repaired and painted, first 6 inches or so. The rest I can get with the bumper on. Also got the hitch bolted up. I probably wouldn't use this on an off road rig as it does hang a little low.

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A lot of people talk about and do the diesel bumper swap, but I don't know that I ever hear about swapping the little shroud that goes with it. If you're doing this mod to help with cooling, then this piece is a must. Unfortunately I'm missing the filler pieces that snap in, so I had to make my own.

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Next I had to trim them to fit with the lines and cooler mount.

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Got the bumper on and valence half on, it doesn't coexist very well with the hitch. 1/4" down and it would fit much better. My license plate mount was destroyed on this bumper so I ripped it off, will have to pillage my original bumper for that. I like that this bumper also has the little push dealies.

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Gonna go fight with the valence and get the rest of the face back on. My neighbor wanted to polish my headlights too, so I obliged. I really need to get some aftermarket housings on like what I have on my 1500 if I want to see at night.

 

[454cid]

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I also sucked out all the dirt that you see in there...

I wonder if I've got dirt in there. That's the area my frame is rusting through, and why I almost twisted a tow hook off.

 

[Supercharged111]

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Tough to see the hitch with this lighting, but I got the face back on. Also, the license plate frame was different on my other bumper. Figures all the piddly **** wouldn't be the same.

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Now I'm getting my zero rate add a leaves, basically a 1" lift block. My 4 foot hitch extension was pointed at the ground last it was all loaded down so need to address that.

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[Supercharged111]

I wonder if I've got dirt in there. That's the area my frame is rusting through, and why I almost twisted a tow hook off.

That or MI.

These lift blocks were an absolute asspain, why? Because I had to disconnect the airbags and swaybar endlinks. I realized this after I started bending hardware, whoops. Now the swaybar endlinks are too short, so the mangled hardware is a bit of a moot point. Here are the blocks, they bolt in with the leaf pack and allow axle relocation if you have a shackle flip. I swiped these off of my 1500 which also needs them back and had them powdercoated last fall.

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My 1.5" spacers would have been a simpler install, but I didn't have enough u bolt for them.

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And unfortunately my jack situation sucked for this. I managed to top out my 6 ton stands and had to stack 2x4s under them, as well as the mountain that went under my itty bitty bottle jack. Face down ass up.

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This here was the moment of truth as I had to yank the little leaf pack bolt and go longer. Luckily this setup held and the new bolts slipped right in with the spacer.

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So now I get to go hunting for longer endlink bolts and tubes to hook the Hellwig swaybar back up. I also need to decide if airbag lift blocks are necessary. When I dropped the truck, the lower bag mounts were in contact with the axle housing. The rake looks good, but it was too dark for a pic when I finished. Now it's time to repair my 7 pin on the hitch extension and set up the new hitch to make sure the trailer sits level. The whole point of these blocks was to correct the trajectory of the hitch sitting at the end of a 4 foot extension. The back doesn't squat all that much compare to empty when I pump up the bags, but the front does lift almost 2" which points the hitch at the ground. A 1" lift at the axle should return more than that at the hitch itself, so we will see very soon how this all works out. If I need more, I'll just decrank the nose a smidge even though that completely goes against my beliefs.

 

[Supercharged111]

Went to Fastenal and Ace for some 12" long 7/16" NF bolts and neither had any. Ended up ordering them off of McMaster Carr. The bolts supplied by Hellwig for their setup were 9". I raised the truck 1", set the bar to level, and had to add 3". Kinda kicking myself for not seeing that in the first place, but yet another reason I'm unimpressed with the hardware supplied with this bar. I'm hoping the plumbing section at Lowes has what I need for the sleeve that goes between the bushings. Got lazy again and failed to snag a pic of the newfound rake. It looks better and can't wait to see how it sits fully loaded now. Plan is to get it all hooked up this weekend and stash the dually back in the hanger under the camper and go back to DDing the 1500 which I get to drop the tank on this weekend. Again. I want the car loaded and the whole 9 2 weeks before my next race so I can concentrate on other stuff.

 

[454cid]

Went to Fastenal and Ace for some 12" long 7/16" NF bolts and neither had any. Ended up ordering them off of McMaster Carr.

Rarely do I find what I need at Fastenall. Even McMaster Carr can be hit or miss.... I'll start paring down the options an all of a sudden there's nothing left. It's when I double up on features that are out of the ordinary (apparently) that my choices disappear.

 

[Beeffajitas]

I wonder if I've got dirt in there. That's the area my frame is rusting through, and why I almost twisted a tow hook off.

Probably. I had to repair that area of the frame. There's no drain hole in the bottom of that swoop in the frame.