Industrial Chassis Dakota IFS build

[FAKKY]

Has been a little while since I updated. Took some time off to teach myself some welding and then had my niece and nephew in town for a month so truck took a side stop.

The next couple of posts and pics will be mostly about the Industrial Chassis Dodge Dakota IFS kit I put in. Bit of a repeat from some earlier posts.
I am going to put an honest review (good parts/bad parts at end and some tips of what I found).

Kit can be found here.

http://www.industrialchassisinc.com/?page_id=281

The rough overall steps are

#1 Remove all Front end Sheetmetal and brackets including radiator and front support.


#2 Remove engine (and transmission and wiring if your doing this)



#3 Remove Front Axle and leaf springs.



#4 Put in supplied crossmember support up front - but don't tighten down.


#5 Jackstands and Ensure dead level across frame


#6 Remove all the rivets and take off the stock front engine crossmember - I used a electrical hammer drill with chisel and grinder. Needed a prybar even after that. Remove CM.



#7 Cut out the excess support flange to make sure the frame is straight. Basically I used a sawzall and a grinder to make the lower edge of the C frame straight - remove the excess "flaps" seen on lower frame edge here below .




#8 put in the boxing plates and make sure they align to holes as per instruction sheet. Use C clamps to tighten and hold everything in place and make sure no large gaps for welding.




#9 Put in the supplied crossmember. This is why I suggest not tightening up the front "tubed" support as I found with it tightend I couldnt get the main cross member in. Having 1/4" of play when backing off those bolts allowed me to get the main cross member into the alignment grooves .... and then I tightened back down. There are still 2-3 more other cross members rearward that keep the frame straight. But double check after.