After seeing this lead shot, I'm guessing that you're not wondering so much how progress is going.
Anyone who is able to complete a project on time has either cut corners or has gnarly amounts of money and resources. Since I don't want to cut corners and I get paid about enough to live in a cardboard box, you can see that progress is slow. Off Road Evolution is doing a great job on every piece of Jinxy that they work on, but someone has to pay the bills, so I always encourage them to work on their customer's vehicles rather than my big, red magazine project.
But nevertheless, we are making progress! The suspension pieces that needed to be ordered have finally come in, the axles are basically completed save for some new electric Ox Locker shifters we are going to try out, and I think we'll actually be able to roll Jinxy into a paint booth in another month.
But this month we got to work on some new bumpers for Jinxy. The bumpers that were on it were close to what I wanted, but some corners had been cut on the front one, and the rear one was just too heavy for the way I wanted to use this truck. I worked with Off Road Evolution, driving their fabricators nuts, imagining and then revamping each idea two or three times. I'm just glad they didn't push my truck out in front of a bus with all the changes and additions I kept making. But once done, Off Road Evolution had built some bitchin' bumpers for this 1994 Dodge Ram project.
 A few people have asked me...  A few people have asked me why I stuck this giant white fiberglass bumper cover from Good Hood on the front of my Dodge, especially when I once had a prerunner bumper without this fiberglass piece. Well, take a look at how much stuff is hidden by this...... |  .....We're obviously cutting...  .....We're obviously cutting it down (as shown by the blue tape lines), but without this lightweight fascia, the truck would just look ugly unless we cut and re-engineered the radiator supports and put a sort-of weird looking tube bumper on the front. |  Nate Dog of Off Road Evolution...  Nate Dog of Off Road Evolution got to bending some tube to start the front bumper..... |
 ......We were going to stick...  ......We were going to stick to a prerunner-style bumper theme, but maybe with a little more tubing and strength to it..... |  ......Nate used 1.75-inch...  ......Nate used 1.75-inch DOM .120 wall tubing to build the main hoop and the runners down to the frame. The main hoop and guards around the headlights were fabbed out of 1.5-inch Dom tubing to give a good look and cut down on a little weight...... |  ......The bumper ended up...  ......The bumper ended up coming into the front of the frame at two different points adding some real strength to the front bar..... |
 ......This was about the third...  ......This was about the third or fourth version after the changes and additions, and Nate seemed to be getting less friendly as time went on. |  In fact, I think Nate Dog...  In fact, I think Nate Dog might have turned the grinder and thrown these burning hot pieces of metal onto me on purpose, after all the changes I made. Don't worry, Nate--my eyebrow is growing back just fine. |  I really like the way the...  I really like the way the bumper and fiberglass fascia combo turned out. Of course, I would prefer not having to use the fiberglass piece, but it's very hard to hide all then stuff under the grille line on Dodges.Three Hella HID lights will sit in the main hoop and will create more than enough daylight in front of Jinxy. |
 I liked the custom rear winch...  I liked the custom rear winch bumper that had already been built on the back of this truck years ago, but it was a little too heavy duty and added a ton of weight.About nine years ago, I bought a Sir Michael's steel rollpan to fill the giant gap in back of my Dodge. I would have just given an angled cut from the rear fender opening up to the tailgate on the bedsides, but there is a lot of substantial support in the lower corners of these '94-01 Dodge beds. And besides, I always liked the look of a Dodge with a rollpan...... |  ......Unfortunately, this...  ......Unfortunately, this rollpan that was supposed to fit with no modifications and minimal drilling, sat .375 inches in too far from the body line. So much for easy fitment!Colin Fletcher of Off Road Evolution took the time to cut some metal strap, clamp it, and weld it in place on the rollpan. This would act as our spacer to make the rollpan line up better on the back of the truck. |  While the rollpan went on,...  While the rollpan went on, Nate Dog went to work making a new winch mount behind the rollpan. He cut out the original frame crossmember that used to hold the spare tire, and began making a new one out of .375-inch plate and 1.5-inch tubing...... |
 ......The plan was to place...  ......The plan was to place the winch behind the rollpan and have the winch line come out the middle of the rollpan where the license plate goes. I'll probably end up putting the license plate on a hinge so it flips down to give access to the winch line...... |  .....Nate Dog uses a special...  .....Nate Dog uses a special welding technique called "eyeseys-closeys" to tack weld everything into place before making the final welds...... |  ......Slinging the winch between...  ......Slinging the winch between the rear framerails seemed like a good idea, but it stuck the winch up close to the floor of the bed, and would have made it impossible to remove the winch should it need servicing...... |
 ......For this reason, we...  ......For this reason, we mounted the winch upside down even though you are tehnically not supposed to for draining reasons. We will have to make some special modifications to the winch to make this work correctly. |  Off Road Evolution's signature...  Off Road Evolution's signature billet aluminum hawse fairlead will be mounted directly in the hole in the middle of the rollpan. Nate reinforced this are in back of it with steel plate attached to the frame so the fairlead had something substantial to mount to. |  I couldn't just have a rollpan...  I couldn't just have a rollpan in the back because that would leave the truck open to potential damage off-road if something hit us from behind or I backed into something. But I wanted to stay fairly light in the back, as the old bumper was so heavy that it actually changed the handling characteristics of the truck.Nate ran a 1.75-inch DOM tube along the bottom of the rollpan, wrapping it around the sides for some added protection. |
 Tommy Longtravel, using the...  Tommy Longtravel, using the patience and angle-measuring methods of a golfer,.... |  .....went to work bending...  .....went to work bending a hoop to put on the rear tube. |  I changed my mind yet again...  I changed my mind yet again after Tommy had finished the rear hoop. I liked it, but we realized that the bar would get in the way of the cable coming off of the winch spool...... |
 .....Instead, Tommy made two...  .....Instead, Tommy made two smaller hoops with a space in between to allow the winch cable free movement when spooled out. |  I obviously wasn't going to...  I obviously wasn't going to be using this hitch to tow giant boats with, but there is jet ski trailer and a utility trailer that I'd like to still tow with this Dodge...... |  .....Tommy Longtravel used...  .....Tommy Longtravel used a tow hitch he found in the back of the shop, cutting the necessary piece out and welding it inline on the lower tube of the bumper. He even took the time to make some nice gussets to add some strength to the hitch point. |
 Like it or not, the rear bumper...  Like it or not, the rear bumper came out very uniquely, and the look has really started to grow on me. What started out as a compilation of compromises actually turned into something pretty cool looking that I knew no one else would have. On top of that, we were able to keep the rear tubing to a minimum to keep the weight down behind the axle. | | |