This truck has been in the family since the late 60's, I drove it when in high school. Back in the late 90's my dad gave it to me, telling me it had a oil pressure issue. Comes to find out, it had spun a cam bearing. So I rebuilt the engine and drove it around for several years. Rebuilt the C6 since it was acting up. Then I blew out a disk in my back as I started to take it apart to do body work. It set for 20+ yrs before I started working on it again. Now I'm not a big guy 5'10" 140 lbs but I have long arms and legs. I disliked not having enough leg room and the steering wheel in my gut. So I decided I need to make the cab larger. So the project began with me completely stripping it down.


This is what I'm starting with.

Dodge seat, beats the wore out one.



Used my gantry crane to take it apart. One of the most useful tools I have in my shop.

Cut the back off the cab to extend it.

Bottom piece to extend the cab, 10 ga

Fitting the back back on


Fitting in side panels

Fitting the back back on



Roof skin test fit for crown. The most time consuming part of this project. I spent months working on this.


Extended the internal support

Now I have enough leg room.
Primed to keep it from rusting till I need it.

Now this leads into the next step. Frame is too short so I decided to make a custom frame with IFS and 4 bar parallel w/watts all on air ride suspension. I was needing the IFS since the twin I-beams were not really designed to go over 60 mph.

 

Wow, awesome fab work sir!

 

Great work! Wonderful project. I look forward to seeing it as it progresses.

 

Here are the photos from my chassis build. I had to build a frame table to get a level flat surface to work off off. My shop floor slopes real bad (old pole building) line 1" in 5' in some areas. Building the table that I could level gave me a platform I could work off of. The frame came out good, straight and true, ~1/16" diag from being true square, closer than factory specs. I'm maintaining the full bed size, need it for hauling stuff. With my bad back it does not like being jarred, the reason for air suspension.



My completed chassis, 2x5x3/16"wall, Setting on a frame table that I could level since my shop floor is anything but level and flat.

Front of frame

Rear of frame

Parallel 4 link setup

Watt's link built and set

Watt's setup

Rear suspension completed, waiting for limit travel straps
The Watt's link is billet Al with sealed ball bearing on the pivot axis.

 

Here is the IFS that I built. I have a total of 5" travel on my air ride front and back. I needed to build a jig to hold every thing in alignment before I could start. I did the complete build here the moved it to the chassis. adding shock towers.



IFS build jig front view

IFS build jig top view

Drilling my IFS 2x6x3/16"w support to mount the R&P on my end mill.

R&P mounting inserts ready to weld in. I did not know what I needed for clearance so I did 2 2" apart.


Shock tower set

IFS together with Ridetech Shockwave


Decided to go to a C7 hub setup for strength and durability. And I can change bolt pattern by just replacing the hub.
The brake rotors are 13" on the front and 12" on the rear (not shown yet). This setup requires a min of 17" rim to clear the calipers.

 

Looks like an amazing build and great fabrication skills

 

Next up was the fuel tank. I wanted this to fit behind the rear axle with a large fuel capacity. I had a fab shop shear the 1/8" 5052H32 AL for me to finish machining and weld. It had been 20+ years since I welded any Al, but did not take long to get the field back. I was pushing this 175amp welder to it's limits though. Had to stop a few times for the welder to cool, aka duty cycle. The estimated capacity is 28 gal, which should give me some range with the new 5.0 Coyote and 10R80 transmission. The reason for dual pumps and return line to the tank.

I set the panels in my mill to mill the slots and tabs to interlock the panels for the baffles. All welding is done from the outside the tank for ease.


Machining Al panels for baffled fuel tank continues

Machining Al panels for baffled fuel tank
This shows that I setup for 1/8" gap for gas flow between panels.

Fit of panels for fuel tank.

Inside baffle system in fuel tank
Setup fuel pump and level gauge in tank while I could see the placement.


Shows fuel pump and level sensor

Front panel tacked on

Since I wanted full access to the bed I had to run the fill neck to the finder.

Filler neck placement
Completed. Had to move the vents due to a cross member on the bed was going to be in the way.


Fuel tank completed


Rear view of tank in chassis


Top view installed into chassis

 

The last thing I've done is mount the 3 gal air tank and run Al air lines and SS brake lines. I have my test box plugged in to manually control the air valves. Using my shop air for air supply since I don't have any wiring done yet. Brake lines are done except the 1 line from the rear ( located in front of the compressor) to the front. I'm waiting for the engine to be set to see how much clearance I will have or not for the brake booster.


Accuair tank side view

Accuair 3 gal tank and compressor

I did do a temp hookup with the air controller to test out all the sensors and function. Had to rewire the valve connector to match my configuration. Factory config had the tank Horz so it was not controlling the right wheels. A little plug rework and all's good.

This competes about 1 1/2 year of work. Still have probably another year at my rate.

Got a call today saying my crate engine and transmission will be delivered later this week. Then I get to check to see how little space I have with the big wide Coyote engine between brake booster and fire wall. These old trucks have a lot of engine space and I gave my self a lot of clearance for the low end.

 

Absolute killer work!

 

Isn't the Watts link arms supposed to be parallel to the ground with the full weight of the vehicle on the tires and suspension loaded suspension so to speak ?

 

Killer work. Looks great. That is a lot of work for more legroom, but looks like you've got the shop to accomplish anything on that build.

I'll be watching the progress since I'm hoping to begin my '67 build later this summer. Not quite to this level, but it will be getting a QA1 suspension. Hoping I can steal some of your ideas.

 

I spent close to 6 mo doing the extension on the cab. With over 1 mo of that trying to get the crown right on the roof, royal pita. I bought repair door panels to do the lower 1/2 of the sides. Which left me doing english wheel work to contour the rest of the panels. I tig welded the top skin in, which is easier to hammer and dolly out. Doing a roll seam on the sides minimized the shrinkage, used mostly mig on them. I mig lap seams and tig weld butt seams.

I looked at QA1 but since I needed a longer chassis it was a way cheaper to just build every thing. Getting a custom built long chassis was over $20k and over 1 yr delivery time. So that killed that. Steel only cost me around $1500 for the chassis, chassis table, and another $500 for tubing for parallel bars and a-arms. Just a lot of time in doing the build.

Having a lathe and end mill gives me a lot of options on making custom needed parts. I would love to have break, shear, tubing bender, but no place to put them. I had things really stacked in my shop due to minimal space. With low rafters I have to be careful on how high I run my gantry crane up, it gets lower toward the back of my shop. I've lost count on how many times I've rearranged my shop to be able to do things. That and doing test fits of the body checking alignment. I just shuffled it again in prep for my engine/trans delivery tomorrow.

 

I always feel handy and crafty about my projects and my build and then I see a work of art like this and realize I should stick to coloring. This is just a level above the rest. Very impressive.

 

Thanks for the compliment. I use to do R&D work so every thing needed to be right on and repeatable. I've always strive for the best but since I'm turning 72 this month my skill sets is dropping in some areas, welding. I'm not near as steady as I use to be. Beside I worked around some of the best fabricators and machinist every. I always had people I could contact for help if needed. I ended up being the supervisor of our machine/fab shop, so I got to use a lot of high end tooling.

 

Holy Crap man, that is some amazing work there! Makes me embarrassed for posting proud pictures of my booger welds I can't wait to see more updates, and the finished product should be something else.

I was toying with the idea of getting a driveline from a Mustang to put in mine, but over here in Sweden they are stupid money! I'll just have to look at yours and drool ;-)