Man. I'm going slow too and catching up at the same time. My issues money. Your issues time. Gotta love it right.

 

When you have the time you typically don't have the $$ to buy parts.
When you have the $$ to buy parts you can't seem to find the time to put them on.

It's the way life seems to go!

I'm out of both time & $$ currently though with the new house & a bunch to get done here.
I'm inching my way back towards working on the truck though & finally getting to putting on some of the parts I've stashed away over the years.

 

I am finally putting on some of the stuff that has been taking up space in my garage and shed It sucks to have 1000s of pounds of parts that you move around all the time, and they would be much better off just installed in the vehicle

 

I know that feeling all too well. I just moved parts for 5 projects out of the shop & into the garage here. I'd have a TON more space if I could get some of these parts ON the cars/trucks!

 

Come on Chase, show us some progress.....I need some motivation, its -7 degrees here and trying to work on wiring is not really doing it for me....

By the way, the mounts turned out awesome! Thank you again for all of your help. If I ever get this pickup wired I'll send some video your way...

 

hopefully I'll be back to at least trying to make progress soon, but not sure by the looks of it...

I walk by it & make a sad face daily, but that's about it

 

Just take a pic of a tack weld... just one, and we'll call it GOOD!

 

He's got more talent in one tack weld than I've got in my entire skillset in the shop.

 

Hahahaha - thanks guys.

How about this... I lied! I did spend an hour working on it (or at least trying to) the other day & it was a waste of time & materials that just pissed me off and effed up my home made press brake. So yeah, I didn't feel like admitting to it - haha
Scott's already seen the pics, but I'll link from another site (I posted um in a "what are you working on?" thread) so you can feel my frustration...

Here's my post:
Currently I'm pissing myself off!
Finally had a free minute to mess with something truck wise & it backfired for sure. Wasted my time & messed up one of my tools in the process - so pissed!

So yeah, does anyone know if Deaver will bend up custom u-bolts? If not - who does?

I emailed Deaver through the site a few weeks back & got no answer. Hadn't had time to call them. I did call Ruff Stuff last weekend though & they only do 5/8" u-bolts which is too big for what I need.

I need something like this:



Tried to make my own starting with the old 9/16" U-bolts off the crew. They were really long due to the lift blocks that were in the thing so I tried to use the legs of them to make what I needed. Turns out grade 8 stuff is pretty hard

So I started by trying to bend the things in my home made press brake. Poor choice as I made a nice half-round in the middle of my press break die




After ruing that tool I moved on a bit...
This is 3/4" DOM that I slipped the u-bolt material in. That is then sleeved in a 1" piece of 4130, and that went in a piece of 1.25" mild tube. Overall that thing was about 5' long.

I stuck the opposite end - all the sleeved square tube in the hitch receiver on my welding table.

This got the 1 side almost bent & then my brilliant **** realized that even if I can bend 1 side of this thing I probably won't be able to hold it once it is bent to go at the other.

Back to trying to find someone who can make these... ugh!






So yeah, there we go.

I have since called Deaver and $20 will get me what i need. Good to know I wasted over an hour & a tool (well, somewhat the pressbrake will still bend stuff, just not as cleanly) on that!

The u-bolts I'm needing are to hold the fuel cell strap (4" wide, 16 ga. stainless) to the cross member. I was originally going to weld custom, stainless T-bolts, but with how much bouncing around this thing will do and the weight of the 46 gallons of fuel, plus the cell itself I got a bit nervous & figured a u-bolt is a stronger choice.

I've also reconsidered using the stock, .188" or so, L bent, sheetmetal cross member to attache the rear section of the fuel cell strap to. I picked up a piece of 1/4" thick angle iron last week & cut it to size today. I'm still a bit nervous about it so I'm looking at using the stock one to weld to the new one to either add some thickness or box the structure. Haven't figured out which yet. Oh, and can you tell I'm a bit overkill?!?

So yeah. There's the 1st real update in 6+ months

I hope to work on it here & there but only see getting half a lunch break or so on it now & again so don't expect much of anything fast.

I also still need to whip up an A frame for moving the bed & cab & then a paint rack type deal before I can really get to work too.

 

I'm picturing the ubolt setup now. I like the idea.

 

Thanks. A buddy came up with it as we were discussing. I like it a lot too. Should be really strong & I don't see a failure happening like I could with the T bolt setup

 

I bet 1/2" would be way over kill. The t bolts on a stocker are prolly 3/8" - 7/16"

 

yup - so my 9/16" or 5/8" I have here are waaaaaay overkill. That's why I am going 1/2" - haha.

Plus a stock tank is only 19 gal - less than half the fuel in this. A bronco tank is closer at 33 gal.

I think I'll be safe with my 4" SS straps and grade 8, 1/2" u-bolts

 

Hell yes. I love overkill. Better than picking destroyed s&$t out of the weeds.

 

The local spring shop near me makes all of their own ubolts because it would be a pain to keep so many in stock. It might be the same by you.