keep it up man your about 3 steps from deserving your own show on the speed network lol that is some fine work you did on your tank..... its good to see you back

 

Lol, yea progress got a little slow for a while. But I have my finals on Monday, and after that I can hit it even harder. I'd like to be ready to get a key made by the new year. Tomorrow ill post a little more of what I did today.

 

This is soo awesome!!!! I can't wait to see more. Mind blowing.

 

Ok so yesterday I did a little bit of work, not much but enough to be productive for a few hours. First I needed to see about welding on the front frame tabs to support the core support. Originally I was thinking that the original frame pieces would be able to weld back on if I cut them to length. I don't know why I thought it would be like that but when I mocked them up, the old Ford frame pieces needed to be lowered about two inches, making it all just look ***** jawed. So instead I used some 2" square stock and 1 inch round stock(not pictured) to extended the rest of the length of the frame to support the core support and bumper.



Also you can see how much, or more like how little clearance, I will have with the front fender. This wouldn't be a problem if I were building a little sport car but I'm not so this is an issue. As you can see in the picture the truck has a rake to it so I'll just buy or fab up some leveling blocks to put on top of the springs. Now honestly as much fab work as I've put into this truck I don't think I'd feel right purchasing parts, but we'll see. But something I am kind of happy about is how much the front tires stick out of the fenders. I think its perfect, I was never a fan of the tires appearing to be "sucked" in the fender. To me this looks like the wheels and tires fill out the fender wells perfectly. It'll look much better one I do something about those wheels as well.

 

I wanted to use the Ram's radiator and cooling fan as well, seeing that it is probably rated just fine to cool those 400 horses. However the electric fan won't clear the fan clutch in my application. So I will be using the radiator I had before. Which is cool to because the radiator I has is a 4-core, and about two inches wider giving me much more cooling surface. I don't think I will have any cooling issues and later on I can get on of the those slim electric fans that will fit.





A long time ago when I built the truck for the first time the original radiator was stolen from where I had it stored. Seriously I have no clue where it went. Anyway my dad had an old radiator from his 1980 F-150 laying around so I brought it to a radiator shop and got it back good as new, with 2-cores added of course. I don't know what I was thinking but when it came time to mount the radiator I just made some mounting holes and bolted the radiator right to the core support. Now rubber or anything to protect it from vibrations ect. Luckily it never developed cracks, probably because I didn't drive it enough. I'm sure that if it had been a daily driver it wouldn't have lasted long. But now I'm going to fix that. Right now I just have the radiator held up with ratchet straps and will finish making proper brackets today. I know I have some original brackets with the rubber somewhere I just need to find them. Either way its gonna get mounted soon.

 

Never apologize for a messy shop....it tells the tale of progress.

I'm really liking your build so far. Your fab skills are impressive, as is your drive to 'think outside the box'. Purists like things as they do...which is fine, to each their own. But I can appreciate what it takes to make different parts (that are generations apart in design) work together effectively. Kudos for having the foresight to see what CAN be done, instead of following the status quo.

Excellent job! I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished product!

 

I got really excited when I read the title of this thread, thought it would be like a 426 or one of the other early hemis. I have a 331 hemi hanging arond the garage waiting for the perfect home. This is still cool, and you've put some amazing work into it already, cant wait to see the finished product.

 

Yeah a big ol' hairy Hemi would be cool. I have a friend that has an old Desoto in a field with a 331. Perhaps one day I'll see if he's ever ready to sell.

 

Alright here is another update

I'll start out with the gauges. As you know the original gauge cluster in our trucks is divided into three sections. I will be using the ram gauges and so those dividers needed to go. Also I am using all the Ram switches and harness as well so I needed to get rid of the headlight and windshield wiper switch on the dash. In their place I will position the new headlight switch. The blank area at the bottom will be used for aux. switches later.
I just used fiberglass and filler to go over everything, and it looks decent, good enough for now anyway. I have another trashed bezel and later I would like to make a better one.

I'll have to take some day time pictures sometime but these are what I have for now.

 

Also you can see that I made some quick brackets to mount the fuse box and the radiator.

 

Something else that I had got done was mounting the brake booster and master cylinder. I'm a little nervous about hood clearance but I'll get to that in a minute.

The Ram's booster bolts up to a bracket that bolts to the fire wall. And the rod from the pedal to the master cylinder is pretty much a straight shot. Well the boosters in our trucks are as simple. There is a series of joints and it makes a "Z" shape from the pedal to the master cylinder. I wanted to use the for brackets to keep everything as simple as possible. So I started by trying to get the ram bracket to fit the Ford bracket. I only needed to drill one new hole and slot another.




So then once I had the brackets where they could bolt together I then found another problem. The rod that comes out of the booster extends past the plane that would be the firewall on my truck. So I needed to go ahead and cut it to length and make a new hole for a pin. However there were a few things that worried me. Such as the fact that cutting and welding would produce sparks and heat that could potentially damage the seals and plastic components of the booster. So I learned how to disassemble the new brake booster.





After marking where I wanted to cut the rod and disassembling the booster I cut the cut it off with an grinder. Then I hit the end with a BFH to flatten it and make it fit within the new bracket with a little clearance. THEN, I was able to drill the hole, presenting a new problem. The new hole didn't have very much material around it and looked like it'd rip apart without much effort. So I took a small piece of strap and welded it around the end to help give it a little strength. And after it was all said and done it was a perfect fit.








Then it was time to bolt the whole thing up to the firewall. It went on without a hitch. And the pedal moves just fine. However the new reservoir is uber tall, and I'm a little nervous that there may be hood clearance issues. We'll see soon enough.

 

that is some fine work you have done on the gauges and great improvisational and intellectual skill on the brake booster...... keep it up i love this truck

 

Alright I need some help. Since my last post I have gotten the ABS module mounted up and all but two hard lines plumbed. I'm using all the factory Ram hardware since I had an entire donor truck to pick parts from. However one of the brake fittings has gone missing. I have searched my entire garage and pulled everything out, but haven't found this rouge fitting. I tried going to the dealer but they only sell the entire brake line with the fitting on it and that's $70. A little much just for the one fitting I need. I also tried wrecking yards but it seems that owner's of 2010 Rams are apparently safer than I thought. So I'm looking for a place that might sell hard to find fittings. Does anyone know of any sources?

 

Did you check lmc? They have a catalog for Ram trucks through 2012

 

Yeah they had things like lights and other do-dads for Ram trucks but nothing like the fitting I need.