SUPER CREW!!!

[m880cummins]

Its pretty safe to say I have a legit obsession

[cmann250]

There's defiantely worse things

[1STGENFARMBOY]

We will forget we saw that stolen stop sign......

[m880cummins]

HAHAHA I'm pretty sure the last guy left it there. We have several road signs around, none were picked off of posts but they were found in ditches etc hahaha I don't know how I got them but someone left them with my dad and I.

Charlie

[m880cummins]

Here's what I did Friday & Saturday afternoon

I like the look of a short bed standard cab. Would look good with a 1 ton chassis and diesel





MOCK UP!!!!












Took about 3 hours to blast The inside, front and bottom side of bed. Love the new sand blaster!











Welded the tail light extensions and boxed them in from the back to avoid the annoying build up of dirt and whatever material you haul. Also adds a lot of strength to the tailgate area to prevent stress cracking in the latch area







Added D rings. Need to add 2 more in the front.









Need to paint strip the outside of the bed and add a second filler access for dual tanks before I epoxy prime it.

Going to do orange between the 26-30 so I can assemble the body and interior. Then in January I'll do the outside in one piece.

Charlie

[kansascrewcab76]

I like the corner boxing idea, mind if I copy?

[m880cummins]

Go ahead!

The one side is 2 pieces, then I got smart (along with laziness) and made the drivers side out of one piece. The rectangular area is 11.5" tall by 3.5" wide. Once I marked that out on a fresh piece of 16ga, I used a 45* engineers triangle and held it square with the width mark and traced it. Cut it out with the grinder and then stuck it in the vice, bent the angle. I did the top piece at an angle to prevent water/sediment build up. Its your option to drill the hole. I drilled the hole to spray rust preventative in it with a wand and then put a small plastic plug in the hole. Plug will be invisible after line-x in the future. Makes tailgate area A LOT stronger! Typical use results in a poor latching tailgate and cracks. Weak and poorly engineered in the first place. Only meant to last as long as the body before it rusted out!

I didn't have to do any trimming, fit like a glove! Make sure you CLEAN the area by the tailgate opening perfectly or else the seam sealer will make your welder act up.

Charlie

[m880cummins]

Finally getting into the part I really like on the build. FAB WORK!!! It may be annoying to have grinding grit on your face, in your mouth and plenty of other areas but the finished product is quite rewarding. Tonight, I made my front spring mount. This is similar to Jim's on Ramcharger Central but I designed it to double as the cross member and spring mount. The frame on this truck is going to be all one piece with only the rear shackles bolted on. The rest will be solid with no bolts etc. Mind you, I haven't mounted this piece so I can't continue the fabrication on the top side that will tie the rails together below the rad support. I also finished the D ring mounts to go in the front of the bed. These are just like the rear ones. TSC has D rings with the retaining hoops you can weld on for $8 each. Pretty good deal in my opinion. Besides this tonight, I started prep work on the bottom of the bed and sandblasted motor mounts, pedals and other engine/ chassis parts.

Drum roll please!













This was made out of 1/4" steel and was all done with an angle grinder, bench vice and mig welder. Every welding area was beveled to ensure a deep penetrating weld.

And, .040 pistons showed up!

[1STGENFARMBOY]

did you box the front corners of the bed also...they really need it.

i wish i would have done something to mine other than weld up the cracking
in the original places.

[m880cummins]

Never thought of it. What issues does the front of the bed have?

[NJDodge]

That thing is insanely awesome, can't wait to see the finished product! Wanna do the floors in mine? hahaha.

[CE_TX]

Very nice fab work!!!

[1STGENFARMBOY]

the dang welds crack, for shure if you don't run a tailgate...

[m880cummins]

Here's what I got done yesterday and today (Wednesday/Thursday)

Epoxy primed bottom of bed and boxed in the rear bed tie downs:







Bent these up out of 16ga to box in the front corners like I did to the back by the tailgate:





Paint stripped outside of bed. Used rustoleum "aircraft" spray stripper. This stripper is not messy like the gallon size stuff. I spray it on then lightly hit it with the wirewheel then DA sand it.



Inside of bed epoxy primed:









Welded the front top lip:





Boxed-in front areas:





Sprayed these with "Cast Aluminum look" paint:



Constantly morphing bare metal pile:





The MODEL A!

Firewall and floors started. All 16ga. Kickout for driver's pedals:



Firewall:



Floors






Trans tunnel started. Not much room for a seat at all!







Steel brake a buddy loaned me. Definitely helped these last couple days:



Going down Friday/Saturday and should get a lot more done!

Charlie

[m880cummins]

What 48 hours of work, eat, sleep (a little) yields!

Sandblasted the entire frame and started with shortening it 16" for the short bed conversion. Decided to make the cut behind where the front shackle will be for the 63" springs. Spent an hour with a sledge and a chisel to remove the old rear spring shackles. Kinda sore you know.....



Lots of measuring:









Everything I modified is accurate to 1/32" of an inch.







Tack welds:







Lots of strapping and clamping:



Finished weld on outside. I welded the inside too. The cut is a 65* angle. Some say the fish plate method is better ( "Z" cut to join rails) but with the shackle being welded on and a small box on the inside it should be plenty strong.

Cleaned up:







Had to modify the bed mount to clear the shackle. The long bed mount closest to the bigger cross member aligns with the front mount for the short bed so I don't have to drill any holes to mount the bed.







Shackle welded in place:



Sprayed 1 coat on the back half for the night. Really love the paint. It is Magnet brand Antique Satin black. It goes on really nice, dries in a couple hours and is tough as NAILS.







Going to the sky with the help of those handy D rings I installed last week:







Approximate ride height. May be about 4" higher not to sure yet without axles. I just measured off my W250 and it sits 56" high at the bed rail stock. With the shackle flip (+5") and chevy springs (+1-2"), I am looking at around 7" of lift. Now, tires should be between 35-37" to make it look somewhat proportionate with height so if I ran a 35" tire, that would give me 2.5" of more height over stock. This brings me to a grand total of 9.5" of height bringing the bed rail to 65.5" or with a 37" tire, 67.5". This seems pretty high to me. In the picture, I am 5'9" so that gives you an idea. I believe the bed rail in this picture is at 62".



Onward we go....

Rear shackle measured and holes marked:





Shortened area boxed in:







Knocked out the 2wd Pillow block crossmember for the drive shaft, tacked in a brace to prevent frame movement, took a front rail width measurement, knocked out old front crossmember, clamped up the new cross member and welded. Then I added some supports on the outside and cut a piece of 2x4 (1/4" thick box) steel and put that across. Still need to finish that.













Still need to weld the box steel and the bottom spring bracket together.







More paint:









Closing up and leaving. Snapped these pics of my '93. Thought the cab lights looked kinda cool with 3" of snow on them:





zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Charlie