There is some irony. Its grammar HAHAHA! not grammer. All is good, I would have to agree that this is a really clean thread!

 

Love the progress!

 

No irony at all. If I had said "Decent speling" it would be ironic......I think.

 

Hahaha yea! True.

Sorry JayDoubleYou for the hi-jack!

 

Although I don't like the fact that there will be a Dodge engine in this dent (not an intended flame). But, I'll subscribe to this creativity because of this awesome nature !

 

Alright well I ran out of argon the other day, so the welding has come to a stop for now. However I did get the transmission cross member set up. as it turns out I was able to use my old factory cross member, all I had to do was flip it up side down cut some metal from the sides and cut holes for the bolts. The bad thing is that the metal that I cut out of the cross member came off the sides so it is not as strong as it was. Once I acquire more argon I will weld on some bracing to make it more rigid. As well as finish the welding to the firewall. Oh and something else. I was going to try and take my time making everything look really good then put it together, for example welding in all the excessive holes. But I figured that in the process of building the truck back up i may actually need some of those holes for mounting things. So I'm gonna go ahead and concentrate on just getting the thing running.

 

I also started installing my steering linkage. The intermediate shaft that goes from the steering column to the rack and pinion is just the right length, and as it turns out the steering column is adjustable. So I really lucked out there, I had to take the steering column bracket out and cut some out some material that was in the way. And then I'm going to have to fabricate some mounting tabs to bolt the column to. I'll post up some pictures tomorrow. For now I'm back hitting the books doing some homework, BLAH!

 

One more question before I go. Since I have replaced all the suspension and drive train. I am going to put the rear end and front suspension on craigslist. I was wondering how much should I ask for this stuff. The Front hubs are relatively new when I originally built the truck the first time I bought brand new front rotors and they haven't been turned since and really there isn't much wear at all. Then there are the I-beams, springs and lastly the 9-inch rear end. The 9 inch has 2.75 gears with a limited slip rear end. I saw one on ebay going for about 800. Would that be a good asking price for a used rear end?

 

Ok FTE'ers I know its been a long time since my last update. Whats even worst is that I was given credit for doing this while going to school at the same time. However progress did slow down for a little while. 17 credits was getting kind of heavy for a little bit so I wasn't able to put as much work into the truck as I would have liked. BUT, that's not to say that I didn't get anything done.
The forum leaves off at about the time I set the engine in. So I needed to start worrying about what was going to feed the engine. I wanted to use the original ram pump for a couple of reasons. One, the level sensor will work with the factory gauges like it is supposed to. Also since I am using the Ram harness it will be a direct plug and play type thing. And lastly that pump will put out plenty of fuel for the engine. However that pump is pretty tall, and as some of you probably already know the factory fuel tank is not. That being the case, I needed to see about a new fuel tank.
Contrary to popular belief I do not have boat loads of money to build a hot rod truck, and purchasing a fabricated aluminum fuel tank is out of the question. So it was time for me to see about building one. I've seen many people just cut the aluminum sheet and weld them up into a box and call it a day. But in my opinion if I can keep the welded seams to a minimum there is less of a chance of a fuel leak existing. So I wanted to use a sheet metal brake and make it to where the majority of the welds are on the top of the tank rather than the bottom.
That brings up another issue, I didn't have a sheet metal brake. So while I was at it I figured I'd make one of those too. After looking up several designs on you tube and other sites I designed and built one on the side of my work bench that works great. Then I was able to start on the fuel tank.
First I bought a 4'x8'x1/8" sheet of aluminum. Borrowed a plasma cutter from a friend and went to work. I first cut the piece that would make up the top, front, back and bottom. Then I cut out the sides, and a piece that would go on top and allow the top of the fuel pump to not hit the bottom of the truck bed. I decided not to use baffles just because the ram tank, as long as it was didn't use baffles either, and this is just a street truck. Not some kind of racer.
Now I'll take a break to post pictures of the sheet metal brake and fuel tank.

 

 

 

Oh BTW forgive the pictures of the fuel tank. The garage in the back ground was a total mess. It usually isn't like that, but I had alot of things going on at the time. It's kind of embarrassing that the garage looks like that but I wanted to show steps of the fuel tank being built.

 

Also the factory retainer ring the for ram pump is the typical cam lock type design where you put it on and twist it to lock and wedge it into place. Well I don't have the skills to make tabs and things like that so I made a ring that I could bolt down and compress the o-ring under the fuel pump hat.

 

Also I started routing brake lines. Originally my truck had one steel brake line that goes to the rear and T's off on the axle to each wheel cylinder. Well on the ram it goes from the master cylinder to an ABS module and then from the ABS module to four individual brass blocks that look like metering valves or something. I don't know how necessary those block and extra lines are but since the ram truck is designed like that I figured I would run my brake lines just like the ram had it.

 

And the parking brake cables are significantly different in length, however the Ford had a set up where both brake cables came up to a common point and then attached to a single metal piece that can be actuated by the cable coming off of the parking brake pedal.
As it turns out the new cables were easy enough to cut and keep the rubber sleeve intact, well appear intact anyway. I'll post pictures of those when I can. I haven't taken any of those just yet.