***SkrapinSask from stock to layin frame***

Right on

Well today i talked to my friend who is still attending highschool and he has the best hookup for steel because he can purchase it through the welding shop. The school gets almost a 75% discount from retail on ANY metal. Today i put in an order through him for some:

3X2.5 for my 4 link crossmember and to replace the factory rear spare tire member.
14G sheet metal for the front engine bay side walls/fire wall pocket
1x1 to reinforce the back of the grant skin
1/4" plate to cover subframe/UCA mount pocket as well as gussets for ontop of bag plates

My thought was to tap and die the 1x1 tubing to mount the trailer fender to. but if just using sheet metal is the fender just bolted once at the fire wall and once at the rad support? how should i go about making a mount for the fender bolts if i am not using tubing?


some balljonts i picked up from scrpnmazda. I picked them up knowing one had a few damaged thread but i have been able to get them back to about 98% perfect. My tap and die set goes up to just slightly smaller than this size so i used a "thread mate" It barely fits the thread size but i was able to use it on any point of the bolt and it worked very good for a $20 tool. I still need to fix about 1/8" of the starter thread.




Thanks for looking

Well today at work i got the machinist to perfectly fix the balljoint with the damaged threads. I also got my 2.5" x 2.5" for the rear 4 link tab crossemember and to replace the spare tire member as well as some 1x1 for the inside of the grant skin.

It took ook alot longer than i had thought but after a few cuts and multiple measurements i have the trailer fenders cut and mocked into place. I think i will have to lower them about 1" so the hood clears them.

looks good. Are you going to put inner fender walls back into it or just leave it open to the fender.

Yes I plan to rebuild the walls with some 14g and fully complete the front sheetmetal work and suspension before i start on the rear of the truck.

Thanks for looking

that will be cool man, you dont see full iner fenders much

no you dont and that truck is looking sick bro

looks good man

Well today after doing even a little more work with fitting the front fenders properly i decided to put the sheetmetal work up front to a stop until i have my wheels. Doing anything is plain stupid until i know what kind of wheels i will be running. I plan to move to the rear suspension but i am pretty worried about not getting it set up properly as well as driveline vibrations.

Well i'm selling my daily driven 2wd Dakota and plan on picking up a ram 2500 right away.This is a bit of a longshot but i have 20's in a 6x114.3 from my Dakota and rather than sell them with the vehicle or have to sell them seperate i would like to get them on the mazda. Now i know this would involve custom hubs and even then if the offset was off they wouldnt work. the tires are a 255 45zr20 150y. I'm thinking most of you guys will tell me not to bother wasting my time and to just get some wheels that fit but since i have them i thought i would ask. The rims and tires have under 3 thousand km and i would be happy to get them on my mazda!

So i'm about to make my cross memeber for the link tabs and get the 4 link mocked up. I'm using the rest of the factory frame in the back besides adding the notch and a new rear member. Should the 4 link be fully tacked into place before the notch goes in? how do you know the where the axle center will be when laid out in order to install the notch with the frame still in place? I'm still pretty worried about getting the rear end all set up properly.

Thanks