my build thread

[creep]

Looking good! Those fish plates turned out nice. They remind me of old, ornate furniture.

[sams60gmc]

Thanks Creep!
Got my motor mounts finished so now the motor is ready to go in.


The angle is to get my motor to kick back a bit.

Who said machinest can't weld!!

[sams60gmc]

Motor is now in. Needs to come back out for the trans but in for now.

[Cameron 1137]

those welds are amazing! nice work. that front shot is cool too

[creep]

Killer!

[sams60gmc]

Well the motor is back out because the steering wouldn't work so I made some 1/2" spacers to get it up a little. Now the rack will fit under the balancer. I just got another Flaming River joint in the mail to make it all work. Should have big progress this week.
Posted via Mobile Device

[sams60gmc]

Well I thought I was just about done with the front end then I ran into more problems with the rack placement, If it sits how I want it to now the motor is too high so I thought hard today and found out a way that I could mount the rack off the front to get it lower and have the motor down where I want it. Progress soon, kind of frusterating.
The steering has changed 3 times, Motor placement has changed twice, I've made 3 sets of steering shafts and hacked up the crossmember way too many times. I also dont have much of my SMOOTH fire wall left anymore
Oh well at least I have a game plan, so I thought the last 3 times too. haha
I also managed to land my red hot motor mount on all my air lines while toarching it out,,, so now I get to run ALL new air lines.
I did build this trick little Pyramidy thingy to hold my support bearing for my heim. Took a bit of laying out but fitment was perfect. Hopefully I can end up using it after I change my steering again, if not I'll whip out another one, Its made out of 10g steel with a 1/2'' thick threaded top.
Also here are some pics of the cross member as it is now.

[sams60gmc]

Well the truck was in its first show today.. Lots of attention and some cute girlies too.
pics.
Parked next to a super cool 63 Carryall.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Damn I missed the sonic show agian... Truck is looking good and almost complete..

[sams60gmc]

Thanks Luke.. Its getting there, just been pluggin away at it almost every day after I punch out and usually on breaks too.
Went to the swap meet today and found some really cool stuff to frame up and hang in my batch pad ha.
I'm really into vintage bikes so the auto car one is super cool.



This picture is incredible I had to buy it. 1929 LA auto fire.

[sams60gmc]

I set a goal today and that was to not leave work until I had the new motor mounts finished and the motor and trans in. After about 3 hours of doing it by myself I succeeded and left to drink beer.
I built new motor mounts and a trans crossmember. Its all ready to come out and get fully welded and painted then I can start fixing my hack job on the fire wall.
Here are some pictures.
Trans crossmember. I was going to build one out of round tube then got lazy and built this.

Motor mounts look like this. 1/4'' plate with 7/8'' 3/16 Wall DOM and the bushings sleeves are 2'' DOM with RideTECH bushings and grade 8 bolts.

Clearance for steering rod. Probably about 3/8 of an inch. More than enough.

Inside the cab. I just got a full sheet of 18G cold sheet to build a new tunnel.

And this picture just for fun. The 6'' Harmonic balancer came in handy and gave me just the clearance I needed.

[sams60gmc]

Been working on the truck a bit lately. Today I decided to start re vamping the rear end, really haven't been happy with it since I did it. So all the links will be cut off and bag mounts and the front cross member of my back half.
The new set up will be a triangulated 4 link with a bag on bar set up.
My first setup was the first I built and turned out ok but I've wanted to change it for a while now. So here is the start of the new set up, I'll probably start cutting my old stuff off tomorrow.
Took some tips from the newest street trucks mag, the lower links are 2x2 1/4 wall. They will have bag plates on them that sit 2/3 off the link so I can get it close to the frame. I will so a rounded gusset around it that will look super clean. The ends have bungs welded in that are 3/4'' - 16. And the axle end will have a bolt on saddle that I will hopefully machine tomorrow.
I also made a new trans crossmember out of DOM tubing because my other one was ugly..

[creep]

You, sir, have some serious skills.

[sams60gmc]

thanks Creep!
Started cutting her up last night after work.

and this is how it sits now. Kinda weird cutting up all my new work..

[protrash64]

You may have mentioned it, but why did you change steering? Seems stock or power would have been out of the way on the outside of the frame. I know you made a lot of mods; looking good by the way!!

[sams60gmc]

I can't remember why I changed the steering but after I bought my rack I was comited. But yeah the stock steering would have been way easier. I could have put my motor in the stock place and not have had to cut so much fire wall out. But oh well I really don't like the looks for steering boxes much anyways.

Headed out to work on it here soon. Should make some good progress.

[sams60gmc]

Got some work done. Pinion angle is set and arms are tacked up. Been working on the upper links. Front cross member is done. Simple and clean. Hope to have it be a roller this week.

[sams60gmc]

Shaving the axle with the BIG Dewalt.

[protrash64]

What are the bags gonna push against in this set-up?

[sams60gmc]

They will have some sort of mount that comes off the frame that I haven't figured out yet.

[sams60gmc]

Getting closer, Thought the rear end was done but had to prove myself wrong that this set up won't work. I need to change the rear saddles over to a hiem joint instead of being fixed to the axle and I'll be done. I'll probably go down to the shop this morning and make the new saddles that will accept a hiem then either rob the rod ends off my steering to get the rear end going or just wait till Monday morning when I can get new ones.
Progress Pic.

[sams60gmc]

Picked up my heims today after work, and machined my new axle brackets Sunday morning. The rear end will be completely finished by this weekend no exceptions, it needs to come home and get out of the rain!!

[baggedbigblock]

I pm'd you but I am curious about bump steer w the mustang rack. the stock lower control arm is 20.5" and the mustang rack is 24.5" pivot point to pivot point. I ordered it anyways an plan on making it work, but did you need a bump steer correction kit? Look forward to hearing from you so I can install this rack over the holiday weekend

[R.A.D]

are we getting serious yet? fantastic

[sams60gmc]

Here is a picture of the current set up. I had to do something to connect the lower bars because the bag sat off of the bar and I wasn't about to change around my upper bag plates because I had so much time into them. They have a gusset in the front now also. This set up seems to work good. It hangs a bit low but is back a little from the front of the tires so hopefully wont hit that much stuff. And if it does its made out of 1/4 wall, so bring it.