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The team
We started with a $750 2000 RWD Astro with almost 300k miles on it and slowly made it more capable and more ridiculous. It survived its first Gambler in November, and we have been adding even more to it since.
We pulled the front bumper and cover, pulled the rear bumper cover, flattened the steel front bumper with a sledge hammer, and made a skid plate out of it. The front section of the skid plate is a piece of the roof we cut out to create a sunroof.
You may recognize the new front bumper as the front crossmember that hangs down and ruins your approach angle. It got cut off and welded on the front instead. Those shackle mounts were made out of the stock leaf springs, because those got replaced with s10 springs for some lift in the back. The front has Express 1500 springs, because the stock springs were too soft to take the abuse we were throwing at them.
The shackles were extended with some steel from the stock leaf springs as well for about 2 more inches of lift. The rear lower shock mounts were cut off and those new ones were made out of, you guessed it, our trusty leaf springs. They give us better clearance under the axle and more droop. Also, we snapped the end off of a shock when it was mounted in the stock location.
Speaking of involuntary mods, we have a safari window on the passenger rear because the window that used to be there was slammed into a rock at the Gambler.
This thing has been a ton of fun to both build and beat on, and we're hoping it will keep going and get us through some more Gambler and HooptieX events before it's done.
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