| The shorter pitman arm slows down the steering and also limits, overall, how much the wheels turn. Sort of like a lower ratio steering box and setting the steering stops at the box itself rather than at the knuckles. I can still snug the tire up against the frame and the springs, but I was also catching the lugs on the body. |  |
| The guys at New Era Furniture made short work of tubbing the front fender and welding in a striker plate that can deflect any future contact without grabbing the lugs or harming the fender sheet metal. |  |
| In the rear the tread was touching the junction where the inner fender and the deck of the flat bed meet. The side wall was also rubbing against the frame rail. |  |
| The answer to the sidewall rubbing, I had decided, was to cut out that section of the frame rail and tie each side into the flat bed allowing the bed to become the structural member. That particular section of frame rail provided mounting points for the driver side shock and the LSPV, both of which were affixed to the bottom of the flatbed. |  |
| On the other side the stock shock mount was retained but the exhaust hanger had to be moved to the bottom of the bed. |  |
| The fender was tubbed in at an angle to allow full stuff without contact. Since the clearance mods I've only ramped on a Camaro and a big block of concrete, but so far so good! |  |
| Here are the offending pieces showing the rub marks indicating where and how they limited travel. |  |
| Ronnie makes the first cut on the frame rail... |  |
| ...then the second. No turning back now! |  |
| The front tie-in completed. |  |
| Eddie works on the plate for the tubbed rear fenders. |  |
| He was apparently scared by a brake proportioning valve as a small child. |  |
| Max goes at it with a grinder. His bad-to-the-bone 4Runner will be at AZ rocks. It is very slick! |  |
| The same front support as above, this time with the frame member gone... |  |
| ...and on the other side. |  |
| This is how the rear frame section is tied-in... |  |
| Ronnie sees if it passes the stomp test! Actually, I think having Frank and Max's 'Runner in the shop is giving him the Toyota feeling. |  |
| Someone mentioned the beads on their welds and I wanted to point out that these guys are real artists. I had to tell them to dial the work on Frank back a notch, but I don't think they could run an ugly bead if they tried. Check out their furniture on newerafurniture.com. This is a pic of the couch they made out of Max's bobbed 4Runner bed when they were just goofing around. |  |