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Hey man. Nice work as usual. It would take some gearing up for me to hack into a nice box like that as well. It sure turned out nice but that's no surprise.
I look forward to the updates.

Richard

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Awesome build!:metal: Can you tell me what those rims (the second set) are in post #80? I like those!

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Just wondering, But with all the welding on the frame and the welding of the new trailing arms did you plan on stress-relieving and magnaflux the parts?

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C-10 those rims are made by Black Rhino Kenyas'. I really liked thoses, but then ended up getting the Racelines.

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Bac, to be brutally honest, i never really thought of that. I have never done that on any of the customer frames that i have done in the past and not once have had a problem. And the other thing i would honestly not know where around here to magnaflux things or how to stress relieve it. I will be the first to admit that i do not know everything. Any ideas will be appreciated, i take criticism well, so do not worry about hurting my feelings.

Thanks James

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To be honest most people don't think about it ( or think there welds need it). Most places that do structural welding of any sort should have the equipment, I'm sure it will very from place to place on the price. the form of stress relief I'm familiar with sends a vibration through the metal to relief the stress from welding, heat and what not. then you would magnaflux it to find any cracks made form the stress relief, then you can fix them. The only reason I ask is I use to weld for a company and would pieces from the size of my hand to main frames for VERY LARGE mining equipment, we did this to anything leaving our weld shop. I have had welds the size of my thumb that after stress relief crack out. I'm sure you wouldn't have a catastrophic failure, but cracks can form and then from there get worse and start rusting.
Now if the only place I could find wanted any more than 500.00 I wouldn't worry about it.

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Well, i have got some more done, this last week has been hard, both being sick and things bothering me mentally, but i hope all good now. I went out the last couple of nights and got some done on the rocker area on the passenger side. I made a couple of rookie mistakes, sad part is i do this for a living i should have known better. But like i said mind was busy elsewhere. Here are some pics of what i got done.

James
Total Hours: 228.5;)

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Also, my wheel spacers showed up for the rear rims so they now sit a little better, and my one piece windows showed up from the group buy, can not wait to install them. And the best thing showed up, my personalized licence Plates that my wife Mel got me for my birthday. Oh how i love her!! Thanks dear if you are reading this.:metal::metal::metal:

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Cool plates

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That thing is looking great, keep us posted.....

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Look Good

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James,
Sometimes our projects are the best therapy when we do have "things bothering us mentally". Too bad about the mistakes but they may have helped you through a rough time. Glad to see you working through it.
Really helps if you have a supportive wife. A man can walk through fire if he has a good woman telling him he can do it.
Also.
I have watched and read your build from the beginning, but never posted.
Really great work.

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Thanks for the feedback guys, it is always nice to know someone else appreciates it.

VA72C10, thanks, i have wanted them since i was 16, but was too cheap to get them.

Lee, you are right, i have the most supportive wife ever, would not trade her for all the money in the world, ( although, lol, just kidding) And yes she stands behind me no matter what, As for the rough times, they are still there, i just have to get through it, sooner or later, perseverance is what it is all about. I really want to drive this truck though, that would mean more than anything, so as of now, Mel has kicked me out of the house when i get home from work and out to the garage i go till midnite everynite till it is done she said.

Bosses orders, so ok. I was gonna do a show truck, but realized that i just want tto drive it also, so it will not be the best but will be good. And driving it is better than looking at it.

Later and thanks guys.

James

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Stress relieving your welds should not be needed. I'm a boiler inspector and do the required code inspections for boilers and pressure vessels. Because of the thickness of the materials your welding, it's not needed. It's usually only done on steel over 1" thick, and even then it depends on the pressure/temperature and type of use. Only high pressure boilers get stressed relieved using steel thinner than that. The most common method is heating the welds and weld effected zone. It's brought to a specific temp at a specific rate and held for a certain time, then slowly cooled again.

As far as magnafluxing goes, any machine shop that checks blocks and heads for cracks should have the equipment. You could do about as well using liquid die-penetrant on your own. All you need is the penetrant fluid, a cleaner, and developer spray. You just clean the weld area, paint on some ink, clean that off, then spray on the developer. Any cracks will immediately show up.

But to be honest, normal welding on thin mild steel will not usually create much cracking. It's a more common problem on thicker, harder alloys, or stainless. Magnaflux does not work on stainless BTW, not magnetic.

Cracks that happen on this type of welding, is not induced by the weld process. It's usually cyclical stresses from use afterwards. That's what is meant by "stress cracking" usually. If that happens, you grind it out and re-weld it. Maybe add in some bracing for that area to prevent a reoccurance. Problem solved.

Hope this aleviates some doubts.

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I'm glad you (someone that qualifies someone elses pressure welds) chimed in on this.

We have 3 boilers @ the manufacturing plant where I work. I BS'd w/a couple of the welders & inquired about the welding I was going to do on my frame (since I'm not certified). They told me about the same thing as far as my localized welding on the thinner material of the frame. They even mentioned the idea of the dye checks after several hundred miles of use just to ease my concerns. Thanks for sharing.

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No problem. There is a difference between structural weld requirements and pressure vessels, but the metalurgy is about the same. Most boiler inspectors are trained to know what to look for on welds to meet codes, I'm one of the few that was actually certified as a welder also. I even did some nuclear grade welding when I was in the navy, which is where I got some experience with more exotic alloys.

Heres a tip for anyone welding thicker metals, pre-heat the weld area to about 300 F before welding and it will significantly reduce weld stresses.

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Preheat is usually even required on structural steel weldments when the thicknesses get over 3/4". One of the best jobs in the winter time was welding column baseplates. You had to preheat them to 300 degrees before welding. Made that cold welding shop a bit more tolerable.

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Hey SCOTI and hgs_notes, the two of you make some really good points, some of the things i already knew while other ones i did not, always nice to learn something new, thanks.

I also finally got the passenger side all wrapped up, just have to grind the welds down and voila, it is done, there should be hardly any mud on this side, turned out nice. However it is still aftermarket, so not perfect. Here are some pics of what is done, so as of tonite i will grind it down and then start on the drivers side.

Later guys,

James

Total hours: 236hrs

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Looking good! Keep up the good work.

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Nice patch panel work too......

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Nice job. What size are the spacers?

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Hey Nuke, you didn't use anything to support the door opening (cross supports welded in) and the cab is on a dolly, are you not worried about door gaps etc.? Will that more or less work itself out with the pre/post measurements etc.? Just ignorance asking here since I am about to do the same on my truck.

Excellent work BTW. Wish my skills were that good but hey, we all gotta start somewhere, right?

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Thanks guys for the compliments,

ERASER5 the wheel spacers are 1.5", he rims are 9.5" with a +16mm offset, this puts thr rims very close to the out side lip, i will have to roll the inside lip yet, but at least it will match the front rims.

Dynomutt, i do use braces more often, but doin this one i knew it would be ok, i pre measure every thing and triple check as it gets welded back together. this one moved alittle but i got it back in place. And a big YES to we all have to start somewhere. it all works out in the end. Sometimes not as you wish, but it still does.
Practice makes perfect and i am still practicing.

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great progress. I need alot of practice to catch up to your practice level...

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Nice work.