New Crew Cab Project Truck....

[Jeebus]

Hello everyone. I introduced my self on here a few months ago, but i will go ahead and do it again now as well. My name is Taylor, i own a small fabrication and machine shop called Michigan Metal Works. Im no stranger to building trucks, or doing this type of work, going on 10 years now haha.

Anyways, I recently sold my previous daily driver truck which was a 2003 Dodge ram quad cab truck, layed complete frame and still hauled around my toys for me. When i sold it i really wanted to get something a bit different than normal for myself, so i happened to find a 85 Crew Cab c10 on this very forum for sale in texas. I contacted the seller, and contacted a shipping company, and a week later, the truck was in my shop.

The previous owner had done a fair amount of work to the truck, the main of which was a LS swap to a 5.3 motor. the rest i could have lived without, becuase it made some serious head aches for me, with broken off leaf spring pearches, and off center rear ends.... it was a nightmare, but that motor install appeared to be very solid so i was happy.

I pulled the truck into my shop friday of last week and started on it. I am building a very solid daily driver, weekend tow pig that will be layed out on 24" Centerline Rotary wheels, and 305-35-24 tires for some meat. It will have a full kicker audio system, with an ipad in the dash controling it all.

Anyways, heres my start after 3 days now, im trying to work on it around customer orders and in my spare time after my work day, so im hoping to have the truck ready for paint at the begining of may.

The day i got it:







What im building:




The start:

Gutted it friday night, stripped of every thing that needed to come off


Rear frame rails prepared for the notch. trimmed to 3" wide on top and bottom, so the notch will the tight and clean fitting. Dont mind the ext cord and rear end lol, i was trying to sweep around everything to clean it all up so i can weld the notch in tonite.








Starting the notch, going to lay frame on a 33" tall tire. Dont want the notch any bigger than it needs to be at all! So, measure 40 or so times, then cut it all once. Got it all cut out on the water jet and lined it up. The bars are there to help keep it straight, as well as keep it in line. Have not decided if im going to use them in the final design or not.

Set the notch up with all fillet welds, and all .250 plate:





Then you weld. Its about a 2 hour procedure from start to finish to get the entire top welded up. You have to let the metal cool after some of the longer beads or your frame will turn into bananna, there is a lot of heat and pressure there. The longest bead you should run on something like this is about 8" total. I personally like to alternate sides after each weld that way it distributes the heat a bit better.

Im gonna come back out after dinner and cut the frame, then cap in the bottom of the frame.

enjoy.














center cut out, inside plated and fully welded.









Some accuair gear showed up, as well as my electric compressors that will back up my EDC, so i started to make a mount for them on the lower part of my frame on the passinger side.













That brings me to today, monday morning. After a long day in the shop working on other peoples orders, i will crank a bit on mine. I will post pics!



Taylor

[dropd80s]

Very nice, Did this truck came from houston?

[Jeebus]

it came from Waco. From a guy named tommy. ive been less than happy with the transaction details so far, but the truck is here atleast.

[mooseknuckles]

gonna be an awesome build!.....I can't wait to see some more. you do some great work man!

[Jeebus]

thanks man, ill keep it updated!



Taylor

[silvereagle07]

Looking forward to this build!

[75ChevyGuy]

Holy crap! I only dream of being able to something like that to my truck.

[Jeebus]

Well the tires showed up today. 305-35-24

took a comparison shot next to my dog, beacuse she wanted to crawl inside them lol

[Jeebus]

Well, i tried to work on the truck for a few hours today, but i just was beat.

Got the link bar mounts installed and ready to rock. fully welded parallel brackets. Going to try and get the watts installed this week too.

[joe231]

Right on!!
Taylor!
I'm glad to see it went to a good home
Posted via Mobile Device

[justpball]

very nice work!

[dropd80s]

Originally Posted by Jeebus

it came from Waco. From a guy named tommy. ive been less than happy with the transaction details so far, but the truck is here atleast.

I thought I saw it on CL some where. Well your work looks great as always. GLWTP.

[bharrison1]

Nice work!!!!!!

[Driveway Dreams]

The work looks nice. I want to try & follow this build, which may be tough with the speed of your progress on it and my limited opportunities to get on lately. But I am gonna try.

[Tagg33]

Love that water jet! Great work, subscribed!

[502ss]

Very nice work! Also subscribed!!
Posted via Mobile Device

[SBTork]

very cool. I am glad you made the way over here. I have seen some of your work on c10forum. Keep up with the build, it should be killer

[bagged74]

Very nice build...quick question, is your truck on a stretched 1/2 ton frame, or is it a 1/2 ton rear clip grafted to the 3/4 ton frame?

[N2TRUX]

The graft makes me think it's a C20 frame with a C10 back half slid in.

[bagged74]

Originally Posted by N2TRUX

The graft makes me think it's a C20 frame with a C10 back half slid in.

good eye Ken, I didnt even see it. I knew the shock locations were 1/2 ton, but i didnt notice the graft location

[Jeebus]

yea, its got the 1/2ton rear clip spliced onto the 3/4 ton front section.

From what i under stand thats the only way to get a short bed crew cab??

I was initally worried about the splice point. The first thing i did when i removed was measure all the points from the stock side of the frame to the new side, and everything lined up great side to side and front to back, so it looked like the piece was spliced correctly, but the method was not to my liking, so i re-plated the inside and welded it up myself


Taylor

[bagged74]

Like I said I was just curious since I noticed the shock locations were correct for a 1/2 ton. The 1/2 ton clip is not the only way, the last one I built as well as the one I just bought , both were just shortened 3/4 ton frames. To me I think it's actually the easier way to do it.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Jeebus]

Yea, it definentally seems like it would be the easier way to do it.

The previous owner appeard to do alot of skimping on the "right" way and scabbed a lot of the truck together. So, im trying to fix as much of it as i can so its safe.

Hell, when i got it, the leaf spring pearches were broke directly off the frame. The previous owner says they were not like that when they left his house... and he failed to mention it..... kinda like he failed to initally mention he had a loan out on the truck as well.

All in all, i would not deal with him again. Very misleading on it all.

Taylor

[dropd80s]

Originally Posted by bagged74

Like I said I was just curious since I noticed the shock locations were correct for a 1/2 ton. The 1/2 ton clip is not the only way, the last one I built as well as the one I just bought , both were just shortened 3/4 ton frames. To me I think it's actually the easier way to do it.

I agree this is the way I did mine, well actually with a 1 ton frame and swapped to 1/2 ton suspension. Doing it that way seems a lot easier and cleaner than splicing two different frames. Both can be done to look and hold up well though.

Originally Posted by Jeebus

kinda like he failed to initally mention he had a loan out on the truck as well.

Taylor

Sounds like a nightmare....

[Jeebus]

I dont have any worries about it holding up now, its plenty sturdy to handle everything im going to throw at it, and then some.

Yea, dealing with him was a nightmare. dont get me wrong, im sure hes a good guy, but there were A LOT of details on the truck he purposely avoided when answering questions. And when i asked him if the title was clean and ready to sell, he said yes.... 3 weeks AFTER i recieved the truck, i finally got the title becasue he took a pay day loan out on the truck, and could not release it.... it was a big gulp to find out that i just paid a guy for a truck, and he had lied about the title being clean...i got worried very fast.

Its the main problem when buying a truck you cannot see, you have to trust your seller. I thought i could trust him beacuse everything he told me lined up, untill the money was in his hands... then the stories started.

either way, ill fix it and make it right, and i still got my money worth. Hes a member on here somewhere, JJAB is his name. I suggest you either buy in person, or get very good description from him when buying something you canot see in person.


Taylor