rearranged the shop, the home garage and outdoor work area. i can now keep the truck in the home garage and store my parts piles in the work shop.
i corrected the striker areas on the new cab
i fixed the cowl rust areas
i made a trailer to finish prepping, stripping the cab and easily move around - it is now stored in the outdoor work area under cover until the frame is ready for it.
i pressure washed the frame.
i stared sand blasting the frame.
i found the proper screws for the tailgate and repaired the fasteners in the bed to accomodate the new ones. still need to line it up but at least i can move it around and remove it easily.
my parents installed an am/fm 8 track radio in the truck. i wanted an original radio so i made a patch out of an old dash and welded it in. i am very pleased with my welding skills!.
i ordered a disc brake kit from AAJ - really nice setup. i need to buy some aspen rotors and then i can install the whole set up.
found
a pair of doors on ebay. Dan in Tarpon had a truck being shipped from
CA so shipping was FREE! my dad also came up the following weekend and
saw my progress for the first time. he was shocked and proud. he helped
me weld up some holes in the bed and fit the strikers for the doors.
my siprits are lifting now that i have pushed passed the issues i was
feeling with the cab.
bought a really nice pair of CUSTOM emblems for the doors
i
am in-between jobs this week so i took advantage of the time off and worked
on my truck - i got a huge amount of work done on it. in the photos you
will notice the spliced parts are painted with bloxide weldable primer
(silver). i cleaned and stripped all the "new" sheet metal pieces.
the tunnel cover and hump are from my rusted out D100 cab. the bed has
only minor surface rust. all the black parts are from my truck - not much
of the old truck left!
i have some mixed emotions right now. i have put a huge amount of time,
money and energy into this new cab and i keep hitting "road blocks"
with it everytime i look at it. i am able to work through them but it
is starting to wear me down.
after splicing in the pieces to fit the cab to my D100 i noticed the steering
column mount that is part of the cab was a little more in-board on the
new cab as compared to the old cab. i pulled out my tape measure and sure
enough - it is 2 FULL INCHES inboard. this was VERY discouraging. this
made me want to stop and dry fit all the big parts on the frame. the steering
column is off center in relation to the dash pod and the brake pedal now
sits very close to the gas pedal.
i am going to have to modify the column mount and drill some holes in
it to center the column. i will probably have to make some minor mods
to the column bracket and straighten the brake pedal to get the proper
gas/brake pedal alignments. this also brings to question the valve cover
to master cylinder alignments that i will have to deal with later - at
this point i don't think it will make much difference.
it was very exciting to see it come together - even if it is only temporary.
this has me leaving the week of hard work on a high note - i am very proud
of my welding/fabrication skills in getting this D300 cab to fit my frame
rails. it is really nice to have solid metal to weld onto. i think everything
will work out fine but it is no less discouraging to see all these little
things when i really wanted something i could just bolt on and go.
maybe i am being too
much of a perfectionist - i can't decide! i am sure all my negative feelings
will subside when it is Black and Beautiful and i turn the key and go.
I
have taken the past few weeks off from the truck to work on some fences
and find another job. my day job has been going in a different direction
and it was time for a change.
Terry Holcomb was kind enough to sell me the metal i need to modify the
new cab to fit my D100 chassis. that will be in the next update.
In the meantime this update shows some of the interesting parts i have
acquired over the years:
The first set of photos is of the HD gauges i have. there are three sets:
Foreground is from my D100 with the HP package (note the 6000 rpm tach
and chrome trim rings)
Middle set is from a Custom Cab non-CSS truck with a 318 poly (note the
5000 rpm tach and chrome trim)
The Background set is from a regular cab utiline D200 with a 318 Poly
(Note the 5000 rpm tach and plain silver -not chrome trim)
Another pair of photos show a Holley Three Barrel carb. Very odd looking
thing but lots of fun!
the blue van is something i saw in my travels
I borrowed my friend Mike Nelson's car trailer and transported the frame to my parents on Dec 28th. I had a few problems towing with my 98 dakota so this left me with very little time for visiting with the family - i could not tow any faster than 60 mph and had to make a couple cool-off stops along the way so the trip took an extra hour each way. My dad was involved in an accident earlier in the month so he was still recovering from the shock - good to see he was ok.
I was able to use my dad's stick welder to repair the crack on the passenger side.
Before i drug the trailer down to St. Pete I borrowed some of Mike's time and he pressure washed the frame.
Even after a thorough pressure wash it is still very grimy (nearly 40 years of grime on that frame!). I started scrubbing it with a degreaser and a wire brush. In doing so I discovered two more cracks on the driver's side where an earlier crack was repaired.
To repair these complicated new cracks i decided that a good approach would be to make a couple of gussets out of angle iron and some flat stock. I made them in such a way that when welded with my mig the edges of the weld would still be in-board of any frame rail edges. this way i could minimize any stress risers and still add strength to the area. basically i tied the engine cross member to the bottom edge of the frame to spread the load out across the bottom. I think the big problem is the springs load the frame about a foot and a half on each side of the motor's cross members and those cross members contact the bottom edge with a small footprint and two rivet holes. the torque and weight of the big block motor sits right on the point where the frame bumpers have weakened a critical stress point of the frame. I am sure that this area will always be a problem so i will have to keep an eye on it.
Fat Man Fabrications makes a Mustang II independent front suspension set up for hot rods that may be a good solution for this area - however - i want to stick to using only bolt-on type mods and the fat man set up is a weld in deal. So my plan for now is fix as described (see photos) and keep a watchful eye on these problem areas. if they com back then re-evaluate and see what the options are at that time.
