2011 AMG G55 Build

[speedkills]

PM me when you get them. I'm loving my 35" KM3s, that might be the way to go.

[Max]

Shane is a madman! I saw this thing in person. It's humongous! It's awesome! Haha. You just have to laugh. It makes my Jeep look small.

[speedkills]

It makes me chuckle every time I get in it. It is absurd in the best way.

[Jim]

Hold on a second...

WOOFgang... Bakery??? and Grooming.

Sure, WOOFgang Grooming. I can see that. Now toss in Bakery? No thanks, I don't care for dog hair being baked into my cupcakes.

[speedkills]

Maybe it’s one of those places that bakes dog treats? I’m not going in to check.

[TDash]

not sure if Jim was joking or being serious but that's exactly what it is, they make dog treats for people who like to spoil their dogs on a whole other level

[Jim]

I was serious - it just didn't equate. Eventually I searched on the name and saw them as baking dog treats.

I could see that as a positive place to take a dog who did not like being groomed - the smells of good stuff once the grooming is over.

[speedkills]

Mounted my spare tire today. I still don't have my 5th Tibus wheel from GFG but got tired of having a spare tire only in the back taking up space so I had a tire shop mount the 5th tire on an old non-beadlock wheel.


The mount came with zero instructions but I managed to figure everything out after staring at it for a bit.


The hardest part was drilling into the existing hinges, I had to convince myself that this metal part was definitely a template for drilling.





Installed the main support which ties the two existing hinges together and carries the bulk of the weight for the spare instead of putting it to the hinges via the door.





There is an additional block of steel on the back of the hinges to reinforce them a little.





Next I pulled the stock mount off and replaced it with the new door support.





Then I washed my truck, and put the main support arm on, plus the plastic guide/support on the door. The white plastic wheel here appear to be made of a tough plastic similar to what a cutting board would be made out of, and has a cone in the center to guide the tire support arm into the correct placement when I close the tire against the door.





The tire support with centering cone.





Lifting the tire into place wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.





Almost done. Once you close the tire against the door there is a large bolt that secures it to the rear door.





Bolted on the hinges for the tire cover.





Then installed the rear lock as I was running out of light.





I'll need to align it a bit tomorrow, the part that attaches to the door is slotted to allow some adjustment up and down and I think I need to raise it up just a bit. Hard to tell precisely how much as my truck leans to the right anyway, but that's an issue for another day.


I'm not sure if the carbon will grown on me or not, I'll leave it on there for a while and if I don't start to like it more will probably shoot some plastidip or black paint on it.

[FINOCJ]

I'd be inclined to just skip the tire cover entirely....

[speedkills]

I might, want to see if it proves useful first. Was thinking of maybe keeping my tow rope and a couple of shackles back there.

[jayson44]

looks great, Shane! I'll be over this week to check it out in person. I finally got my 4Runner back from the wife. we found her another Jeep to replace the one that was totaled.

J.

[speedkills]

Small update, I took James advice and removed the rear cover. I might try to do something with it someday but for now I wasn't feeling it. I also got my onboard compressor working well. It had been running for a minute or two and cutting out, I traced it down to a voltage drop caused by the 250 amp circuit breaker I was using so I removed it. Out of habit I tend to put a fuse or circuit breaker on everything I install but I am starting to see why people don't tend to do that on large motors like winches, or in my case my compressor. Next up I have a small air tank to install, it's only a couple of gallons as I just don't have a lot of room underneath for an air tank and don't want to take up room inside for one. Worst case if I find the small tank is an issue in the future I can revisit the decision but for now I figured I would start small and see if that is good enough.

[speedkills]

Forgot to mention Ty swung by my place and helped me straighten out that tire carrier, it doesn't sag down anymore like in the picture above.

Made some progress on the CTIS this weekend. Don't have everything mounted up but did a functional test, it's pretty cool.


Pressure shows in bars, not my first choice but I don't mind too much. There are 5 presets I can adjust or air up and down manually per wheel or axle. Pretty fun to just select a setting and a few minutes later have the tires all adjusted correctly for me.



Still missing the centercaps on my wheels, GFG is trying to get them for me from Tibus. Parts on those wheels are a nightmare, if you buy them buy spares in advance.



Single wheel test, all four at once is slower of course.

[speedkills]

Fender flares showed up

[jayson44]

when are you working on those? I've got a free night tonight...

J.

[speedkills]

Sometime next week, but we could try to work on your sliders if you want.

[jayson44]

hmm, interesting...I do have all day tomorrow with no plans until 8pm...

J.

[speedkills]

I dropped my truck off at Hoover Mercedes in Parker, CO to get aligned and to finish up some projects I haven't had time to get around to as time is running short before I trip I have planned to CA to see family. Very impressed with their shop.


He replaced the stock rubber units with poly bushings, the rubber units were 10 years old and torn in multiple places, maybe front the articulation without the sway bar. I'm not always a fan of poly bushings as they can squeak and reduce ride comfort but in my application with the extra leverage coming from the portals I thought they made sense to tighten things up as much as possible.





Hoover also fabricated a nicer mounting bracket for the Fox damper. The Eurowise bracket that came with the Fox damper hung down way to far, I think it was designed to show the damper off by having it hang low where it could be seen from the front. This solution allows me to run the stock damper as well and if I find it is too much it's only a couple of bolts to remove it. He also installed some adjustable track bars I had and new tie rod ends while he was in there.

[speedkills]

The front track width was an inch or so narrower than the rear, which I didn't love but wasn't an issue until I installed the CTIS, then I realized that the air port actually stuck out an inch too far on the front as well. Werewolf suggested I put some 30mm wheel spacers on the front and this made everything line up perfectly. Still waiting on GFG for the center caps and spare tire, and still waiting on the sliders.

[speedkills]

I had Hoover put the sway bar back on when he installed the poly bushings since I am planning on putting a few thousand highway miles on and between the two it really drives nice on the highway now. Will see how much impact it has offroad in a week or two. With the extra height of the portals the sway bar makes a bigger impact so if needed I'll do some pins for a quick release or some other solution but I think I'll leave it on for pavement use now.