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Well this is a new thread to document the ongoing saga with Brians orange Sonoma. To back it up with some history, I've known Brian for at least 2 if not 3 years and I have never personally seen this truck move under it own power. Heres a pic of it from waaaaaay back in the day.
Brian was one of the few in NJ to have a bagged ride. He then decided to take it a step further and have it bodydropped. He dropped it off to this guy named Buddy who turned out to be a complete hack. The truck came back dismantled and in very dire condition, unable to be reassembled.
It was soon evident that the truck needed to be redone by a professional, so Brian then took it to a body shop for them to look it over and complete some of the work. Well that shop then hacked it up even more, and so goes the progression of work performed on the truck until he then dropped it off to me FOUR YEARS after it was first bodydropped. Heres a pic of how I got it...this truck has something like 33,000 original miles on it.
Needless to say it was in bad shape. The rearend was held in with wood blocks and a tie down, most of the parts were inside of the cab when theyre supposed to be underneath, and everything was rusted pretty solid. I wish I had taken more pictures before I opened it up to start going thru everything.
Its hard to tell just how bad it is, but the cab was cut and welded back very unevenly. Its hard to really tell how much drop he was orginally going for, but telling from one frame horn, I had to say 3". The back two cab mounts were bd to 3.5", the passenger front was bd to 3.25" and the drivers front mount was bd to 2.5". The pass frame horn was dropped to 3" and the drivers frame horn was dropped to 2.25". Supposedly that idiot Buddy just cut the floor out, let the cab fall straight onto his rock driveway, then welded it back up. The floor pan was very warped and nothing was straight. I still cant figure out how/why one frame horn would be so much lower than the other tho.
Some pics at the bottom...
I first started by trying to shim the cab up level with the frame to see what could be salvaged. As soon as I attempted to drop the drivers corner down, the firewall hit the motor and tranny! Thats why some sections of the new tunnel and stuff are all cut out, none of it cleared. However, once I shimmed the cab up/down to where its supposed to be, it was quite clear that the cab itself was warped about 1" and I decided it couldnt be fixed. I tried bolting the cab down to see if the 1" could be straightened out, and it actually lifted the corner of the frame right off the jackstand, which proved even further how bad it was warped.
Needless to say, most of the orginal orange sonoma has been put out to pasture to never return.
Stay tuned to this thread for updates and info, but theyll prolly be slow-coming since this is the back burner project and I have so much other work to do..anyone in Nj what a part time job as a fabricators assistant??? :dunno: heh
Brian was one of the few in NJ to have a bagged ride. He then decided to take it a step further and have it bodydropped. He dropped it off to this guy named Buddy who turned out to be a complete hack. The truck came back dismantled and in very dire condition, unable to be reassembled.
It was soon evident that the truck needed to be redone by a professional, so Brian then took it to a body shop for them to look it over and complete some of the work. Well that shop then hacked it up even more, and so goes the progression of work performed on the truck until he then dropped it off to me FOUR YEARS after it was first bodydropped. Heres a pic of how I got it...this truck has something like 33,000 original miles on it.
Needless to say it was in bad shape. The rearend was held in with wood blocks and a tie down, most of the parts were inside of the cab when theyre supposed to be underneath, and everything was rusted pretty solid. I wish I had taken more pictures before I opened it up to start going thru everything.
Its hard to tell just how bad it is, but the cab was cut and welded back very unevenly. Its hard to really tell how much drop he was orginally going for, but telling from one frame horn, I had to say 3". The back two cab mounts were bd to 3.5", the passenger front was bd to 3.25" and the drivers front mount was bd to 2.5". The pass frame horn was dropped to 3" and the drivers frame horn was dropped to 2.25". Supposedly that idiot Buddy just cut the floor out, let the cab fall straight onto his rock driveway, then welded it back up. The floor pan was very warped and nothing was straight. I still cant figure out how/why one frame horn would be so much lower than the other tho.
Some pics at the bottom...
I first started by trying to shim the cab up level with the frame to see what could be salvaged. As soon as I attempted to drop the drivers corner down, the firewall hit the motor and tranny! Thats why some sections of the new tunnel and stuff are all cut out, none of it cleared. However, once I shimmed the cab up/down to where its supposed to be, it was quite clear that the cab itself was warped about 1" and I decided it couldnt be fixed. I tried bolting the cab down to see if the 1" could be straightened out, and it actually lifted the corner of the frame right off the jackstand, which proved even further how bad it was warped.
Needless to say, most of the orginal orange sonoma has been put out to pasture to never return.
Stay tuned to this thread for updates and info, but theyll prolly be slow-coming since this is the back burner project and I have so much other work to do..anyone in Nj what a part time job as a fabricators assistant??? :dunno: heh
