Still nothing from Ruff Stuff for the supercab - so I was on this again last night. I got the rest of the front section of frame wire wheeled and painted.

Then I got the new delrin bushings set up in the shackle pivots

Time to order some bolts and start throwing things back together!

 

I ended up talking to visitors and on the phone too much last night so not much got done, but I did shank the bolts and get the hangers in.





I should have ordered bolts yesterday so I could pick them up today and use them this weekend, but I got lazy and now it might bite me in the butt...

We'll see what I can do tonight and this weekend without them...

 

Got a little done today, but spent too much time digging out and taking apart stuff for parts I'm going to sell tomorrow. Sucks I wasted a bunch of time but $$ is good because then I can buy more parts for the toys..

Got some more bolts shanked and some stuff is going back together (slowly but surely).

Never made the time to call Ruff Stuff today (STILL waiting on the parts for the supercab!!!!!) so will have to tomorrow.

 

looks like someone got a Dana 60!!! so is the diff cover TIG or are you going to have to run a bead on it? it looks good to me.

 

Yup - D60 got back a couple weeks ago and was waiting on Ruff Stuff parts after that. Cover is MIG welded which is the olny way Ruff Stuff does them. I was too lazy to run a TIG bead over it. I guess I've finally realized that if I ever want to finish this thing I'll have to give up y picky ways in some stuff.
Could I have made a diff. cover and TIGed it - yes. Would it have take a LOT longer and cost about the same as I could buy this one for - yes.
I guess I'm realizing now that it doesn't matter a ton, and my project will get done quicker if I buy some stuff. I will still be making most of my parts though and everything I make is still TIG welded.

 

Still waiting on Ruff Stuff parts for the supercab and working on this thing on the rare occasion I get to the shop anymore.

It's getting there slowly, but I've hardly been at the shop at all so I can only blame myself for that!


Axle is sitting under the truck again which is nice!



I started making spring plates since we flipped the U-bolts on this. Maybe they'll get finished on Sunday when I get back in town.


The next fun is going to be figuring out the rest of the steering and then the shock mounts!

 

With your steering gear set straight like that, your shock mounts will have to be different than normal, but you probably have some trick hoop set-up kicking around in that engineering marvel of a brain of yours anyhow.

Amazing how much clearance is gained by flipping the U-bolts. I did mine and used '79 F250 rear spring plates on the front. Works like a champ. Yours will look cooler though.

 

Shocks are either going to be a 2.5" body by 12" stroke dual bypass King or a 2.5" body by 14" stroke stay-a-way so mounts on the axle will be custom as will the upper hoops. Getting around the steering shaft may be a little tricky, but it shouldn't be too bad.

Never thought about using the rear spring plates as I have about 6 pairs of those sitting here. The problem I see with it is on the driver side one U bolt is a 3" and one is a 3.5". I guess I could have slotted the holes to deal with this. Oh well - since I started mine I'll stick with um.

If I was going to be really trick I would have sent the ones I originally drew in cad out for machining. I'm just too cheap and lazy for just a spring plate...

 

So I think my Ruff Stuff parts got for the SuperCab finally got here today. I really hope so. I did talk with a buddy yesterday who orders from them a lot and I guess he has had the same problem. So much so that he has mentioned to Dan that they need to get their shipping department in order or they won't do near as much business with him anymore...

And now back onto more "fun" topics.

If it's not one thing it's another... I did get a bit done on Muttly (the crew) again last night - even with another BS setback!!! About 3 months ago I was working and all of a sudden lost power in 1/2 the shop - like a breaker had been blown. Well, no breaker was blown so it must have been in the wall. Annoying, but now a huge ordeal. I ran some ex. cords and got on with life. Well last night same thing happened again on the other side of the shop. No breakers blown, etc. I looked at it again for a while and it must be crappy wiring in the walls so I can't get to it to fix it. I now have only 2, yes two 110v plugs/sockets in the shop that work. 1 at the VERY front by the tv and the other by the VERY back at the big door. I've got ex. cords going everywhere now and it is SO annoying. Need to plug along as is for a bit and press myself to make my goal of having Muttly and SB both running by December so I can move outta this shop!

Spring plates got drilled last night and test fit. They just now got their coat of self etching primer and will be getting their top coats of paint soon. Tonight I'll cut the excess off the U-bolts and decide whether I want to cad plate them or not before putting them on.

 

I picked up the U bolts from cad plating today so hopefully I'll have time at the shop to get them in soon.

I got a little sticker shock when I heard the price on this batch though...
This little bit cost me $63.


Whereas last time this much cost $85.



Something seems a bit off. Oh well, story of my life...

One of these days this thing will be back together. Hopefully I don't go broke before that. No more cad plating for a while!

 

& now I just got a 76 Crew to put together:


BTW you got hosed on that batch of cad or got a smokin deal on the last batch.




Going for a Kinda Long Bed Bronco Crew kinda thing.

The cab is from down south zero rust. it was off a 76 F700
They seem to bolt right up, still working on the Highboy Mounts.

 

Good looking project!

I got hosed on this batch... Irritating!

 

So I've got a huge progress report here


Since I got to a spot last night where I couldn't do much more on the supercab I spent an hour messing with the crew cab again. Not much got done at all, but I did get the front spring plates and u-bolts on and then I spent forever filing/enlarging a hole on my front hitch mount bracket. Progress is progress though so I'll take it!





I am now kind of at a crossroads...
My previous thought was to push on the supercab to just get it running (quickly if possible) and then get back to the crew and wrap it up. My problem is it doesn't look like the supercab will be "quick" to get running as I'm not the type to just throw something together and have to redo a bunch of stuff later. Therefore I'm thinking I might get this thing on it's wheels, stick it back out front and then focus on getting the crew running. I'd then come back to the supercab when that was driving.
My mind changes back and forth every day as both of these trucks will be cool when done and I can't wait to drive either. Thoughts?

 

Well it seems that on this truck you want it to be custom but factory looking. On the supercab you seem to want high-performance/fun/custom both are time intensive projects but I think of the two this one will be more of a daily driver. So I think I'd vote to finish this one so that you can "play" with the other and make as many changes along the way without time constraints.

 

This one is more of a daily driver for sure. Although the supercab will be driven on the street a bit. Neither one will be "done" for a LONG time, but either should be able to be driveable somewhat soon. In fact I was hoping to have both driving by December, but the more I look at it that isn't going to happen. Therefore I think I'm going to try and get the crew to where I can drive it and then come back to the supercab and just build it right from the beginning rather than throw it together for now and re-do a bunch later.