The guy had listed it up on Craigslist for 1000 dollars for welder and an empty bottle. So I grabbed my hood, a piece of steel, and one of my full bottles and went running as fast as I could.
When it welded fine I offered 900 dollars. He told me he had already turned down 900 twice that day already. I don't know who those two people were, but it was worth full asking price. I'd never have walked even at 1000. Anyway, he told me he would take 900 for it, but only if I bought the extension cord along with it for 1 dollar per foot. We measured it out to 60 feet, so I gave 960 dollars for the welder, a hood, a little bottle, extra liner, vise grips, and a big ass 60 foot long cord with 50 amp ends on it.
I'm still plugging along on the truck every day I can. Today I focused on boxing in the notches, cutting the frame away, and finishing up some welding. Still more boxing to go though, so no pictures of that.
I did change gears for a few hours to break the monotony and notch my center crossmember for driveshaft clearance.
I used one of those six inch diameter tube cutoff I bought at the scrap metal place.
I did a poor job of cutting the center crossmember to fit the pipe into it, so I had some problem solving to attend to.
After fitting and welding the notch I made cardboard patterns and cut out some 3/16 to make a full box job out of the pipe notch.
The final product is way secure and strong. Its level, plumb, centered and such, but I did slip my mental clutch when I fit it in place and wound up getting frustrated trying to fit a half round pipe up into a channel factory crossmember. Not my best day in old trucksville. I ain't proud of it, but I'll be honest and show my failures along with my wins.