Getonit.

 

Thanks! I am Private airplane and Airline Transport Pilot Rotorcraft. I flew the AS350 for about a year, I love that helicopter one of my favorites. I am going to have to make you jealous now with the new one I am flying now sorry, what do you get when you squish almost 4000 horses and 21 million dollars together? The AW139



Grinnergetter I saw your posts it looks awesome good job! I am going to copy your reinforcements.

Everyone else thanks for the encouragement and suggestions

Aaron-71 I ended up doing something like you suggested.

Now all this really hasn't been too hard, I am just not an experienced welder or body person so it seems hard to me. It hasn't taken too long either I just only get to work on it in short increments. I just hope it looks ok after paint someday.

So I needed to make up a gap in the pictures I posted earlier. So I marked some lines. (note, the very bottom horizontal line ended up being useless and I didn't need to cut it, but didn't figure that out till after it was cut)

and made some cuts

Then I thought about what a nice bed I once had and got back to work. I kinda bent everything to somewhat match the curve to make sure it would work.

Start tacking and bending.









Finally after lots and lots and lots of tacks and some bending.

Unfortunately I ran out of time to grind it down so I will do it tomorrow, I just wanted to get pictures up for Grinnergetter so he could see how I did mine.

Speaking of Grinnergetter, tune in to his thread tomorrow to most likely see an easier way of adding a drivers side tool box https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...ration-23.html

Also I have tons more pictures of everything (over 200 so far) here Pictures by helipirate - Photobucket

 

That wasnt to hard huh? Jeze.. i just wish i could finish the rest of the truck I really like the dual boxes idea

 

Heli...are you going to keep the inner wheel wells intact as factory or have you come up w/ or comtemplated any other ideas for that, ..you know how the solid supports/flat metal... hold dirt and cause rust later on, I saw some previous posts that the guys removed them and just installed supports similar to that of the lower bedside support arm,..thinkin' that is what I may do before I install the p/u bed,.... just a thought..while you are into it this far and it is just inches from where you are working now... ..as stated before great job!

 

awesome progress! i love supercabs and hope to own one one day!

 

You're right, I'm totally drooling. Flying is a passion of mine, I just wish I could afford it. You're lucky, you get someone to pay you to have fun. One of the benefits of having a commercial rating.

I don't know if we should talk truck or Helicopters! Wish you where out here in California I would totally fly with you and work on trucks! Here's some shots I have.

Shot this photo of the Sikorsky Sky Crane at a Wildland Fire I was covering for NBC Nightly News. It was just behind our live shot location.




Got one of my boys interested in flying but Mom's not to hot on the idea that I suggested he fly's for the Marines.


OK Here's a truck shot just so we can stay on subject.



BTW I'm also a sucker for Supercabs. My first 79 was a SC. Keep up the good work!

 

Victory! Drivers side tool box finally done. It is a nice smooth curve the grinder marks just make it look kind of wavy with the light.






The plastic tub doesn't fit because the indented area for the bed support is in the wrong area but I probably won't use it anyway.

 

I have been lurking on this thread, and I gotta say, I feel your pain. I am not good at bodywork either, so it takes me much longer than I think it should. Keep up the good work.

 

Nice job heli...sooooo what are your plans for the box? I was thinking of aluminum and mod it as to get maximum space as the frame allows.

Maybe even a divider to keep stuff from sliding around to much. I would think straps and chains would end up in mine. I'm thinking dividing both sides in different sizes.

 

AWESOME!! Im tickled that it turned out. I wasn't sure about the box, but was hopeful. oh well, now I'm in agony as I get to wait on doing mine till this winter!

NBC- Steve, was that Sikorski named Malcolm? Would have been on the nose. I got a bunch of sweet pics of it here in Wyoming. The crew needed a lift from the Airport to the hotel on their way to a fire in the black hills from Ca. I spent 4 years fighting fire in the circus, and never seen one of these. we only dealt with the Ag tractors or C-130 bombers

 

awesome job, i had to subscribe

 

Fan-friggen-tastic!

You did us all proud!

 

Well its been a long time but I wanted to prove I was still alive and haven't given up. Just been away from home more then I care to admit and busy with life. Not much progress but here is a small update.

My wife wanted her garage parking spot back for the winter so I ditched the old bed and put the other one on there temporarily.





I did a little work on the cab corner. Here is what I started with (after I busted off 3/4 inch worth of bondo and fiberglass).

Drilled some spot welds and trimmed a bit.

Support inside is all rotted.

Trimmed the support so I can fix it later.


Now how to get rid of all that rust.. Figured I would give phosphoric acid a try. This stuff is from Home depot, it loves rust and etches metal ( also etches concrete and can burn ya and all that good stuff so use some rubber gloves and safety glasses).

I wire brushed all the loose rust off and sprayed it on..

I wire brushed and recoated a few times over a period of 24 hrs, it took all the rust off. All the stuff that is left is black iron phosphate which is supposedly relatively stable. I tried sand blasting it off with my spot blaster and it wouldn't even touch it. In person it doesn't look to bad, the pictures look worse.



I bought these patch panels from Tabco a few months ago. I am not very impressed. They charged $60 dollars for shipping for two corners and the box wasn't big or heavy, it probably cost them $15 to ship. The fit isn't that great either, they are too long by at least 1/2 inch and the bottom curve is way off. I would return them if it hadn't been so long since I bought them and cost so much to ship plus, I hear Tabco is the best so whatever else I get could be worse.

I trimmed it along the tape since I don't need the whole thing.

Clamped it in place so I can make the final cut.

Lower bend that is pretty far off it looks pretty crappy in person.

This is the back of the cab you can see it is a good 1/2 inch too long.


Made the cut, with the patch panel clamped in place where I think I want it, through both the new metal and the old metal and stopped for the night. Before I weld it on I need to fix the rusted support, see if I can clean the metal any better and then apply some kind of rust inhibitor behind the panel. I will try to get some more done here in two weeks or so.

 

FINALLY....Sheesh

 

Good to see you're still working away at it. I (as most of us) understand family and work comes first. When those things are good then it's time to work on our trucks. I hope you have enough room in the garage so you can stay warm during the winter months.