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Gorgeous. The only thing I'm not digging (and I know it's all personal preference) is the clear tail lights. They just don't look right to me for some reason.
Gorgeous. The only thing I'm not digging (and I know it's all personal preference) is the clear tail lights. They just don't look right to me for some reason.
They actually look a lot more like clear in the photos. They're actually smoked, and look much darker in person. I've never liked clear tail lights either.
So after seeing the engine bay, underside, interior, and exterior... I'm scratching my head and wondering "what will he do next???". Seriously. Simply. Amazing! So, what are you doing next?
When I saw the "lack" of grill, I wondered if you were going to make something custom to fill it in - with "speed holes" of course... Not that you need to fill it in. Knowing you, it won't be long until my question is answered, and my jaw is dropped again
So after seeing the engine bay, underside, interior, and exterior... I'm scratching my head and wondering "what will he do next???". Seriously. Simply. Amazing! So, what are you doing next?
When I saw the "lack" of grill, I wondered if you were going to make something custom to fill it in - with "speed holes" of course... Not that you need to fill it in. Knowing you, it won't be long until my question is answered, and my jaw is dropped again
Thanks! Have you been peeking in my shop? Haha, yup, custom grill coming up!
So after seeing the engine bay, underside, interior, and exterior... I'm scratching my head and wondering "what will he do next???". Seriously. Simply. Amazing! So, what are you doing next?
When I saw the "lack" of grill, I wondered if you were going to make something custom to fill it in - with "speed holes" of course... Not that you need to fill it in. Knowing you, it won't be long until my question is answered, and my jaw is dropped again
Holy cow!! there are no words to describe how bad *** this build is! I have a regular cab 79 that I want to rebuild with my son, and thought about putting a cummins in it. That's what got me to open this thread, and then I lost track of time and made it all the way through. I think my mind is made up about the cummins though. if my truck turns out half as good as your is I will be ecstatic! I have some fab knowledge being a pipe welder, but your thread has convinced me to take a shot at starting some of the body work on my own. Keep it up and thank you for sharing. Also, as a fellow firefighter thank you for your service!
Thanks for all the compliments guys!
I have a few stock grille inserts lying around, but I've decided to make my own. I want it to be custom, but understated. I started with a stock grille, and traced the outline onto a piece of wood leftover from a shelving project.
After I traced the outline onto the wood, I marked around the inside of the perimeter 1/4" to make another outline 1/4" smaller. This will make up for the thickness of the material I'll be using.
Here is the wooden jig I cut out. It's short, because I only really need it for the outer contour. The inboard section is straight, so I don't need a jig, just a square to line it up. Plus, this was the biggest piece of wood I had on hand.
I spaced my fixtures 1/4" from the wood jig to hold the aluminum bar in place.
Here is the aluminum bar that I'm using for the main structure of the grille. It's 6061 T6 annealed to make the bends using the ol' sharpie trick.
Starting to take shape. For some reason in all these photos, the grille looks symmetrical from top to bottom. As you all know, the stock grille is wider at the top than the bottom. These are too, it's just hard to tell.
Here's one full side. As you can see, I just used a larger piece of flat bar for the inner end cap. There does need to be a slight radius on this part, but that can be accomplished by contouring the weld.
The inner end is much wider that the main structure, but that's because it bows out to fit the shape of the grille shell. I'll simply cut this to fit that curve. This will all make sense later if it doesn't yet.
what did you do to get the backrest to the rear seat to latch?
Originally Posted by bryanmartin
I'm keeping the rear bench, because I love it's functionality. I'm going to pattern it to match the front seats with diamond pleats. I've already made the stand-off brackets to raise the seat for the sub box as I outlined in a previous post, so now just the upholstery is left.
Step 1 is cutting apart the old covers. I then traced the pattern onto a sheet of chipboard-type material. I decided to change the straight across pleat pattern to two sections of diamond pleat, with a smooth center section.
I then transfer the board material to the leather, adhered the leather pieces to 1/8" scrim foam. I used chalk to mark out the diamond pleats.
Stitching the pleats with contrasting black thread.
Here's the complete bottom seat cover. The factory foam is in great shape, probably barely ever sat in. The seat frames were stripped and powder coated.
Installed.
Did the same for the seat back. Here's one panel marked out.
Etc., etc. Here's the complete seat back.
Installed.
Seats installed in the rig.
Here are the stand-offs to raise the seat with it installed. Also a good shot of the aluminum bars set in the finished rear side panels from my earlier post.
what did you do to get the backrest to the rear seat to latch?
Oops,I always forget to document something. I searched my computer and found a few photos, not sure if they'll make sense or not, but here ya go. I'll try to get more photos in the morning.
I cut these pieces out of steel and welded them together to make a bracket for the seat mounting latch.
Sorry for the fast-forward, but here's the bracket done with nut-serts.
The curved back side of the bracket is shaped to fit the curve in the rear corner of the cab. The open holes are where screws will mount this to the body.
Next I cut some pieces of aluminumand welded them together. This will be a cover to hide the ugly mechanism.
Aluminum cover done.
That's all I could find on my computer, I'll try to remember to get more detailed pictures of the finished assembly tomorrow in the daylight.
03-11-2019, 11:00 AM
