Wow I am impressed with the project.....Keep up the great work

 

OK... so my search for that infamous Dana 60 continues. So back to work on the frame rails it is. Here are a couple pics from this weekend.

Strengthening the frame joint.....





Alittle extra clearance for the 78-79 power steering box....



Front cross member test fit...

 

Finished welding up both sides of the frame splice and boxed in the joint....





Same on drivers side....

 

Test fit the 78-79 power steering box...

 

have you got some weight estimates on the finished product. ?
that is some thick ole stuff there.

 

Ya, it does look beefy!

Same thickness (.250) as the rest of the frame... going to cut out the drivers side like I did on the passenger side. The cross member and the the most recent steel used to box the joint is only .187 wall.

 

was wondering the weight of the truck also...
we are in the middle of a m-715 with 390 ford and 4 link all the way around.
kind of guessed the truck will weigh 6200 lbs.
the weight .25 mob for the brackets and 1/2 " thick tube for 4 link is getting out of hand in my opinion.

 

Waiting for some steel and other parts.... so I started striping the front radiator support and measuring for mounting.

 

My big mistake..... ordering reproduction fenders! These things just don't fit very well at all! The bad part was that when I received the fenders, I primered the back sides.... So no chance of returning! I have even tried modifying the fender for propper fit with no luck. Here is the worst area in the pic below...

Second waste of time was.... stripping the inner fenders down and repairing the rust under the battery trays, as I found some real nice inner fenders this weekend and bought them....
Misc pics fropm this last week...

 

Worked on the front cross member/spring hangers this week... had to take the fenders back off to get in there and measure. You know measure once cut twice

 

Todays progress.....
Next thing is to through that D44 on w/tires, put the motor in and load the springs to see if I like

 

Ive noticed when vehicles are advertised as "rust-free",often that only means that the seller is giving you the rust for free,no charge! This Crew-cab looks impressive as-is,BTW,and im interested in seeing how it finishes up,GOOD WORK!

 

Ya... I got plenty of free rust with that one!

BTW the truck is in Vacaville if you're ever up this way.

 

This last week I worked on the power steering mount. Thought about many different ways to skin this cat, but decided that I didn't want bolts sticking through the frame.... so here's the pics. Somehow I had taken more pics during fabrication of all this, but they didn't write to my card... Hmmmmm.

 

Finally feel like I'm getting somewhere this week.....
Still waiting on all the rebuild parts for the axle... new kingpins, spindles, bearings, u-joints and seals.