Looking good there, I like way the frame turned out. How long did it take you to sandblast the frame?

 

Only really had to do the front stub and all the welds to clean them up, so only about two hours.

 

Got the firewall done today, I think. About smoothing out the center, I decided to leave two of the "bumps" in.
The one on the right is going to be used for the engine controls. MSD wiring, oil pressure, temp, and maybe a couple of others will run through there. The MSD box will be mounted inside the cab, just to help clean up the engine bay some. Over all, it came out nice.
The one on the left, it will be used for the fuel injection wiring, if I ever get it. Right now, the focus is to get the truck back together and running with putting Holley fuel injection on it later. I'm making sure everything is covered for doing that, fuel cell has extra ports, extra fuses for the wiring, and a place in the firewall for wiring to go through. If it never happens, it's no big deal, as the firewall doesn't look bad the way it is.







Got that primed this morning and am basically at a standstill until I can get the cab back on the frame. Decided to start tackling the suspension.
Components for the upper control arm

Getting pressed together

Completed and bolted on

And now both on


Had to order all the ball joints and lower control arm bushings, so they'll wait until another day.

On to the rear. I really wanted to start seeing some progress on the frame, so got most of the rear bolted up.

Sway bar and brackets


The brackets worked out really good.


Then decided to put in the axle housing, shocks, brake hose, breather, and put sway bar links in.





Since I'm waiting on parts now, decided to tear apart the steering box.



Figured I'd get a head start on that for now until the rebuild kit comes in. That will give me time to get things cleaned up then just put it back together.
Maybe next weekend the frame will be a roller again. I'm really looking forward to that so I can get started on building the interior. I'll take plenty of pics of that for sure.

 

Awesome. You are really making some serious progress. I guess it helps if you know what you're doing. Alas, I am learning as I go. As I've said before, you got skills!!

 

I am totally in awe! And, jealous as all get-out.

 

Thanks for the compliments guys.


It feels really good to see it this far and how good things are working out. For knowing what I'm doing, well.....I'm learning as I go too. I've built and restored a few cars and trucks before but nothing to this level.

I was fortunate years ago to get a job working mainly with wood (designing, building and maintaining tradeshow displays). Now working in a metal shop, I have learned so much. The knowledge I have picked up in the last ten years is priceless. I've also learned to be more patient when designing and thinking before doing.

Here's a couple of sample drawings I've done in TurboCad.

One of the frame layouts that was done. This is what the frame was designed from.



Here's the drawing for the pulley setup that was made. I think there's about 12 hours just into designing this.



Designing the new box side profile.



The layout for the box covers. Needed to make sure everything was going to work.



Drawing for the fuel filter mount I made.



Ignition wire holders that bolt to the valve covers. (I believe there's a pic earlier in the thread.



This is the drawing for the new side marker blanks that were made. After the machining, they were installed and sanded flush with the bumper and body.



I don't even want to know how many times I've banged my head trying to figure things out. Yeah, kind of like that. Now that some things are done, I'm not even sure how I got them to work. Weird.

 

Wow, another TurboCAD user! Maybe we are the only two? I'm running a many years old version that does all I need and more. And, I've used it to design my shop crane, powder coating booth, engine stand, and especially the spacer for the ZF5 on the M-block. It sure is a good feeling to draw it up, make it, and have it fit perfectly. I couldn't work w/o it.

 

Haha, yeah quite possible the only two. I would like to get into Solidworks, but a little too much for my blood.

I have looked at your drawings and wondered what software you used. You do a great job with the drawings. Don't think I could live without it right now. I have version 9, but just installed 18. A little different, but many upgrades. I think I like version 9 better though. For cutting parts out at work, I just make a line drawing, convert to a dxf, then I can program the laser from that.

 

Thanks. Yeah, Solidworks is quite pricey. My nephew got me to try Google SketchUp as he uses it to design things he gives to their machinists, but there were things missing from it that TurboCAD has and I couldn't live w/o them. Like fillet. I got the thing drawn, in 3D no less, and found I couldn't put a fillet on corners. So, back to TCAD I went. I know where everything I need is, and even though my version will do 3D I find it is much too hard to do so and 2D works just fine for me.

 

Front end parts came in earlier than expected, so figured why not? Got the front end almost all together, but it's on the ground again, which is the important part right now.




Ran into some problems with the axles. The passenger side went in and torqued down just fine, the drivers side, that's a different story.

I can put the axle in and spin the nuts on hand tight and everything is fine. Once the nuts for that side are torqued down, everything locks up. Now I'm scratching my head. It feels like then tightened, it's pushing on the ring gear and causing the gears to bind. Not good.

Dabbed some grease on the end of the axle to check what it's hitting. I figured it's hitting the center pin, but when pulled, the grease had no marks on it. Cleaned it off and put grease on the bevel and re-installed. When pulled, yup, there's the problem. It seems like the splines are bottoming out in the side gear. Now I need to machine off approx. .030 off the end of the axle and re-bevel. Hopefully that's enough to make it work.

Before:


After:

 

Got the end of the axle machined down, took .050-.060" off just to be on the safe side. No more binding.
By the way, the axles are only hardened approx. 1/8" through the splines (seen where is goes from shiny to dull). The center was not very hard at all.



Put the cab back on the frame to finish the tunnel and start on the interior.






I'm going to start by getting all the plastics modified to fit with the chop, then go on to fab up the dash and center console. Thinking of making templates for the gauges and stuff, hold them in place and build around them. We'll see how it really goes.

 

I think I speak for everyone on the planet when I say, Looking at your work makes me feel like I'm the village idiot playing with a bucket of Legos.

Unbelievably inspiring. The only reason there aren't more comments on this thread is that most folks can't find the words!

 

Amen, brother! That sums up my feelings as well.

 

I first read your comments this morning, and well, I didn't know what to say. I've been thinking about this all day, and still unsure.

I guess I'll start here, for everyone: Don't ever think you can't do anything. If you fail the first time, step back, look, and think about what you want to do and how to do it. I always try to encourage anybody working on anything. The satisfaction is just great when you can step back and say "I did that". And that means anything, no matter how big or small the project.

I started this project basically blind. I have never chopped a top, never built a frame, the list goes on and on. I was actually kind of scared to cut up a nice cab in case things didn't work out. I've done a ton of research (mainly looking at pictures) on how to section tops, how to design frames and much more. Basically a couple of years before I even pulled the truck apart.
Yes, I have had to do and re-do a few thing that didn't work out. I just don't have any photos of them (not thinking about pictures when something goes miserably wrong). The chop actually took me two times to get right. Didn't realize the pillars were not square and that was the reason for things not lining up, cut it all apart and started over. When the frame was first started, I had things tacked together and the cab sitting on it, to check fitment. I'm not sure what happened, if I bumped it or what, but the whole thing collapsed to the floor. The frame ended up back in pieces, cab sustained damage, not a good day.

I guess what I'm trying to say is,

1. Don't ever think you can't do something. Just think about the best way to go about it and take your time if needed.

2. Ask questions. There's no such thing as a stupid question. Especially if you are learning.

3.There's a lot of trucks on here that are really, really nice, and the owners better not think different. I'm always impressed with the devotion to these trucks, the knowledge, and everything else that goes with this site. That's what makes it so great. You guys should be proud of your trucks, if they are mint, banged up, or a little rusty. That's character, nothing less. I check out and read the threads, and even if I don't reply (mainly because somebody asked or commented on what I was going to), I'm always interested.

4. Please, please ask questions, make comments or give suggestions in this thread. I'm more than willing to answer questions or think about suggestions or comments. Or just give me crap "Hey, when are you going to get that stupid thing done already".

I enjoy chatting, especially with such a great group!!

Anyways, back to things....

 

Though I'd separate the last post from this. I actually did get some work done today. Going to do kind of a step by step here.

Starting on the interior. With the chop, the interior plastics had to be shortened. Oh, what fun.

Stock rear panel


Cut it about in the middle of the rear window


Dropped the top piece behind the lower to scribe a line for cutting




After cutting and checking fitment


Decided to add some brackets to keep things straight.


Cut out the seat belt indention, need this flat as there will be 4 point harnesses installed


Filler cut out from another set of plastics so the curves were there


Used some 20ga galvanized to make the backer. Had to be very thin as the panels are very close to the sheet metal on the cab.


Used some flat head rivets to secure


Guess I got carried away and forgot to get a pic of attaching the other piece.

Installed


Just a shot to show how much was cut out.


All of the interior panels are going to be covered in a matte black vinyl, so I'm not too worried about how it looks right now, as long as things line up good. Just need to do the rest, fill any gaps with epoxy and sand out to get ready for the vinyl.