So, I'm putting a flat deck on my 75 F250 Camper Special, the box that's on it will go onto my 78 F350 Custom Cab dually that is mounted on an 89 F350 dually chassis. This is how the story starts, box removal.
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This is what I'm starting with, the wood will come in real handy
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Camper tie down brackets, this is the easy one to take off

I'll take the rest off when the box is out of the way

I've lifted garages in order to install a pony wall using these blocks


I've upgraded from using a come-a-long to a chain hoist

Told you the wood would come in real handy

It was a pita having to crawl under the truck and jacking it up a few inches at a time, but once it was in the air and the lumber was under it the job got easy. In case your wondering, I stacked the lumber and put some metal concrete stakes between the boards, rollers make life easy.

And this is what Katy looks like boxless, the tie down brackets need to come off and I need to repair my fuel gauge sensor. I've got a spare unit in another side tank that I'm not using so I'll replace the whole unit or make a unit from the best of their parts.

 

Very creative. We use the same idea to move large sections of submarines onto barges using the same basic steps at work.

 

Yeah March Iv'e used that system a couple of times, moved the cab on my 89 F350 frame onto it' back half and to put the cab from my 78 F350 onto the 89 frame.

That was the 89

A person has to be creative sometimes in order to get the job done. Once I get caught up with a few projects theres a gantry system coming. I just have to make sure I has a legal size shop to work out of, bylaw restrictions.

 

Sure does pay to be creative!

 

Cutting, cleaning and dressing old metal today, being 'frugal' is real hard on the ears, lungs and nose. Neighbour does'nt like it either as his wife makes him do work around the house when he starts complaining about the noise, LOFL To bad for him, maybe he'll keep his next job by being sober, not a bad neighbour, just drinks to soon in the day. Got my rails, ribs and siderails mocked up with headache rack in basic place, should be a good looking deck. Brought the argon in to warm it up and when I'm back from paying bills tomorrow I'll start putting it together, and we'll see what gets done and what it looks like. Maybe I'll start the grinder up just to bug Mark, according to his wife there's still more windows for him to install, the guy is a good carpenter.

 

So I finally got some work done on the truck, sure am getting tired cleaning and cutting metal.

Had to shorten the rails and find new mounting locations due to bumper mounts and suspension clearance

Had to make and weld new brackets to deck rails, had a supply of #8 grade bolts on hand. Got used to buying more supplies than I need at the time and it sure comes in handy.

It may look like a crappy weld but it's actually flux core wire that I had. Decided to use it as the metal wasn't the cleanest and it was cold in the shop today and the argon likes to freeze up my gauges in cold weather. These are support stools for the cross ribs.

I'm using the frame rails from my old 78 F350 for the deck side rails

24" on the bottom & 27" on top

The angle cut should give proper tire clearance and should look good when it's done.

Frome the speed square flat edge forward is 43" and the angle cut is the reverse of the rail I cut for behind the wheel rail. The splice in the rail is to remove the bend that was in the rail. Will weld in pie cut pieces after rail is mounted.

2 sheets of checker plate but the one in behind has a hole cut in it for a fuel filler. It's in a bad location so I got to fill it and make a new one. This stuff is heavy and Frankie isn't much help when it comes to moving it.

 

And heres todays adventure, had a 2 hour break running out for welding wire so I didn't get as much done as I wanted.

skeleton is done

I'll put in some bracing between the wheels when I get the checkerplate cut to shape, that way I'm only doing it once.

Theres not enough room in the shop for a decent side shot but this is how it looks so far.

Just enough plate to cover everything

I'll square this to the tip of the angle cut and that will be the size of my wheel well

This is the old fuel hole, I'll square it up and put in a patch with the left over plate

And here I'll use the overlapping plate as a guide and cut it across, depending how early in the day it is depends on whether or not I cut and dress the headache rack or dig out the flat plate that I'll be using. I try to get my cutting done by 6 so that my neighbours can have some peace and quiet.

 

Many years ago I worked at a place where we built truck boxes and sometimes we did some prototyping. when I needed to take a design from blueprint to buildup I would pull out bar stock, go to the bandsaw and cut my straights, set my angle and cut my angle pieces. I would then go to the shear and shear cut my plate, go to the punch press and stamp out any holes or slots that I needed and make my bends at the brake. Everything I needed was done in a matter of hours. Sure as hell isn't that way in my shop today, I am so sick and tired of slicing, dicing, grinding, cleaning and dressing metal with my grinder it isn't funny and I still have at least 21 plate pieces to make plus a tail gate. This is what's happened lately.

These are side rails, theres really 4 pieces

Forgot to take pictures of the front section of rails that had to be modified, I was to busy cutting and grinding


Headache rack, appropiately named

It would have to be an inch and a half to wide and the center section needed it's legs shortened 8"

And that's how that headache turns out to look like

I lied, I did have a picture of the front section of the side rail and I had nothing to do but stand around drinking coffee, smoking and watching Frankie do all the work.

And theres the side rail in place, good thing I use the swag method of design and build up. Otherwise I would know what I was doing and give up
The next stage is to cut a bottom plate for the rack,an end piece for the tail of the deck to close off the end and give myself a place to mount tail lights. When thats done I remeasure the distance between the axle and bumpstop, add an inch and that's the distance from the top of the tires to the bottom of the wheel wells. Then I get to make the fuel filler guard so that the kids at the Domo gas bar can fill-er-up without cursing at how much of a pita these trucks are to gas up. Who says Dick and Jane have all the fun and games.

 

So I decided to try to blow myself up today, didn't happen. Started myself on fire yesterday so I figured that meant that I should weld around the fuel filler neck and cap. Waste not want not is a common theme around my place, as a result anything that needs to be fabricated is usually quite easy as I have most of the part or piece already made. When I buy a parts vehicle I value it as to how much of the vehicle can be used. As a result, my total cost into this flat deck before paint is going to peak out at $74. The paint and rubberized rocker guard was bought last spring when they were on sale, so that takes care of shelling out my pocket money now. And now on with the show.

It was rusted out but I figured that it would save me some work building a part when I need it

I lived and there were no flames or explosions, Me like not having fireworks in my life. And now some of yesterdays work, there was more done than this but it will show up in the future. I prefab some pieces when I get a chance.

I know there are people looking in on this thread and it would be nice to read some opinions be it good or bad. maintaining this thread consumes my quality time and in all honesty I could be doing more entertaining things during the hour it takes.

 

Much progress!

 

Thank you Stuffz, your response is very much appreciated, I knew there are people watching this show but there was no feed back coming in. I was begining to think I was spinning my wheels while catching heat at the same time. At my age (53) and the shape I'm in ( sucking on an o2 machine 8 hours a day ), girlfriends aren't as easy to trade in or replace.
Everything is on hold for a week or so as I have to drop the shop and put up 2 smaller ones. Bylaw says That I'm allowed to have a maximum 107sq' of footprint and it has to be metal framed with tarp or metal wrap, no wood due to fire hazzard. I'm at 22' x 26', all wood frame and walls with a tarp roof, oops LOL screw em if they can't take a joke. I needed this place big as I had a couple of size large projects to do and the large part of them are done. On monday bylaw is going to come around with the cease building order but I've allready started to break this place down so he'll end up giving me the 14 day removal order. Been through this soap opera before on jobsites. According to the cats it's started to snow and the longrange forecast says that theres a week of -10 to -24 weather coming in so it's a good thing I got a beard and long johns. I'm trying to find some metal options through the kijiji freebie column, metal sheds, garage doors, square tubing or what ever is out there. I seriously want to put in a gantry system so I may even be going after a 12' cultivator as it's got some heavy metal on it. I dont mind buying metal but I'm pensioned off due to my health and I'm really working the budget hard, so on my next scrap run I'll see whats in the metal yard that I need.
Iv'e got a few maintenance jobs to due on the trucks and a shop to replace during the next 10 days then I'll be back on the projects. Theres square tubing going along the deck sides and over the wheel wells. That way I can put 3/16 plate sidewalls on and theres a tailgate to go on. The tailgate may be mostly made, I've just got to take a look at the piece I have and see how much needs to be modified to make it work. I'm using the tail lites from the box that was on the truck and the rear bumper is getting reinforced. Gotta go, hope your distributor works out ok, if this weather comes your way keep pushing it to Manitoba.

 

I have no plans to build a box for my truck, but like to check in to see what you've figure out how to recycle. Sorry to hear about your weather protection problem, but I'm sure you will come up with something creative. You'll just have to grind it out (pun intended).

 

Thanks for the post March.I was heavily influenced by my grandparents and the small Mennonite farm town that I was raised in when it comes to recycling/repurposing things. The grandparents were teens during WW1, survived the dirty 30s on the prairies and were WW2 war recyclers, gatherers. Worked as my own purchasing agent for years and got used to buying 6 - 10 months into the future. These economisers and recycling gurus have nothing on me, in my case it's almost genetic, drives some people up the wall but that's to bad for them. The bylaw man is coming by tomorrow so I'll run a few ideas past him and see what he says. Theres a communication problem sometimes when he says "you cant do that" he sometimes means that he can't do it due to lack of experience and thinks that means that I don't know how to do the project.
This weather is actually going to help me a bit, I needed a small break. This joint is screwed together so it comes down easy and safely, theres no thinking involved, I stay clean and no after supper hours so that should get the house nice and peaceful. Theres an open house on wednesday at the place I do my volunteering for and donating to. I picked up 15 xmas trees, a bunch of decorations, cards and other xmas stuff at an auction in july. It's all new in box and the auctioneer threw in a pallet of stuff for $40 that another bidder waffled on. Basically I picked up 3-3500 worth of xmas stuff for $220. So on wednesday thats out the door and I can get my storage under the stairs back and theres going to be a whole s-load of people to unload it for me. I get to putter around for a week until the weather gets better again, then back to work. Retirement isn't as bad as it seems sometimes. Speaking of trees heres your repurposing fix, I needed 2 more pieces of square tubing that were 34" long, they're going along the floor of the flat deck ahead of the wheel wells so that I can attach a piece of 3/16 plate for sidewalls.

This is whats left of my square tubing except for these 2 lovely pieces.


Thats whats left but I'm sure I'll need a brace or bracket in the near future. There is a piece of tubing left but is welded to a piece of 4" c channel and it can stay there.

 

I'm watching...gonna do the same flat bed thing come springtime.

 

Hey Grinner glad your watching, this is quite the project but then again I'm kinda beat to hell so a 6 hour day for me is about 2 or 3 hours for someone who's healthy. The biggest time swallower is cutting, cleaning and dressing metal. I found out a few years ago that the cutting discs that cost me .99 to a max of $1.99 seem to last the longest and don't shatter on me. I get them at a place called Quality Tools that's about 4 blocks from me. I had a half dozen Porter cables that were good for 20' of 3/16 plate. this last batch are 1/8" Dewalts that need a thin 1" wrench to take off, nobody buys them because of it so at .99, I can use a wrench, they get used to nothing and the aluminium disc that's left over will get used for something, leg stands or backing plates. The only part of the plate that gets cut all the way through is the first couple of "s at the ends, the rest about 3/4 through and then the panel gets bent and snapped on the cut line. the real key to this build up was the donor truck.

I bought this green beauty for $450 so that I would have a short wheel base frame for my 78 F350 dually. It also got me a Sterling rear, ball joint front suspension, sway bars front and rear and fuel injection fuel tanks. I still have the 351efi, ZF5, door and rear slider windows, rad and other parts including the rear cab wall.

This is my retirement project build up. It's my 78 f350 dump truck that I bought for $2600 and worked for 7 seasons doing pad concrete and landscaping. It is a true rust free truck. Parked no later than the first week of december, covered and in April it got an oil change, was sprayed with it's old oil and put to work. If it wasn't needed it stayed home, averaged 2800 miles per year. The cab is on the 89's frame and there is still a lot of the truck left over. Sold the saddle tank, trans, front and rear suspension, axle and hydraulic rams.

Theres a week of crappy weather that came in, Iv'e got a shop to drop and I think I found the solution to my shop problem at Canadian tire. 2- 10 x 20 portable shelters on sale, $500 for the pair. I set them up to be 10 x 10, bylaw is happy and on dec 1st when my complainer is gone, ( he got evicted ) they grow to 10 x 15 and when I need it they can grow to 10 x 20. LOL It's like having an accordian joint, once a carnie always a carnie or like a good scarecrow, I'm outstanding in my field. Should thank my Accountant Candace for raising up the Costco on line flyer, the girl sure knows how to get me thinkin evil thoughts.
Look around for a really USEFUL parts truck, think about whats good about it today and 6 months from now. Ugly trucks are cheap and some are low mileage like the green truck was, 136.kilom. It had been in an accident and the repair job was crap, the guy sold it the day I called him and the guy in Calgary realized he bought a truck that was of no value to him and it showed up on kijiji 2 weeks after he bought it. The price at the start of the story was $900. Good luck on your deck Grinner, this one is actually nicer than it looks, just have no room for a decent pic.