It's been a while

[Oldtruckfanatic]

I also have a rebuilt cluster coming from TBONE1964. Got some pictures last night. It looks like top notch work and I cant wait to see it in person !

[TBONE1964]

Thank you sir for the complement. I hope you will be pleased with it in person as well.

I look forward to following your build(s) on these trucks. It is a great talent you have so keep up the beautiful work there.

Take care,
Tom

[Oldtruckfanatic]

Well, its been super busy here at the shop so im not doing well keeping on top of the progress pics. Here are a before and after shot of the current build. The bed im using has a real bad left bedside. The front lower section shows where I was chipping half an inch of bondo out. Im going to have to replace quite a bit of the bedside with better metal unless I find another whole side soon.

[Mikeeal33]

Nice work Tim! You make quick work of them long beds, they look great.

Nice cluster too.

[flashed]

Looks much better ,those wheels realy suit it .I would have thought beds and bedsides would be easy to find out there . Good luck.

[Oldtruckfanatic]

Thanks! I have done so may of these things I can pretty much do them in my sleep now lol. On the last couple pf customer trucks the exhaust even had joints under the cab so I cut right next to the welds and pulled out the piece that was slipped inside then cut the appropriate amount out of the pipe and slipped it back together with the frame and welded everything back up. Its getting where I can pull a longbed in in the morning and drive a shortbed out in the afternoon if I have a driveline and a short or shortened bed on hand. The clusters Tom Iis building are beautiful work! I will never build another one of these trucks without putting one of his clusters in. Im about 2 weeks from ordering 2 more.

[Oldtruckfanatic]

Originally Posted by flashed

Looks much better ,those wheels realy suit it .I would have thought beds and bedsides would be easy to find out there . Good luck.

Thanks! I can buy stepside beds all day long but fleetsides are getting tough. Usually I shorten the beds too but its starting to take more time than its worth. Im thinking of buying bedsides and building custom cross sills and wood floors on all my own builds.

[flashed]

I had forgotten that this was a long bed ,had to go back and start over .You do amazing work in a short amount of time.

[boynton]

Nice job! Is it difficult to keep the bedsides from warping when you cut them and weld them back? I have seen a lot of people do them that way and have thought about it but didn't know how hard it was or how much body needs to be done afterword.

[Oldtruckfanatic]

If you arent very very comfortable welding sheetmetal you can make a bedside scrap in a very short time. Its impossible to weld sheetmetal with zero shrinkage and there are way better sheetmetal guys out there than I am but I grew up in bodyshops so I do ok. I constantly check my panel as im spot welding everything back up because im continually working the panel to try to keep it as close to the original shape as possible. The beds dont just line up perfectly when you cut the sections out at all. You have to do some work to get everything to look uniform like it was from the factory. The two most noteable places are the upper body line that starts out at the front of the bed and drops as it goes back and the lower section behind the rear wheels. Also you have to cut the floor in the right places to eliminate the two floor supports you dont need and get the others to line up with the factory bed mounting holes. Im all for people trying things themselves but body panel welding takes a lot of patience and a lot of practice.

[Oldtruckfanatic]

Here is what the frame seams look like now. Need a little more cleanup but I will do that when I rack it up to work underneath.

[Mikeeal33]

Originally Posted by Oldtruckfanatic

Its getting where I can pull a longbed in in the morning and drive a shortbed out in the afternoon if I have a driveline and a short or shortened bed on hand

LOLOL, dude that's awesome. Those cuts and welds you made look CLEAN.

[Oldtruckfanatic]

Thanks man. Theres guys on here way better and more talented than I am but Im having fun.

[Oldtruckfanatic]

Mike, I gotta ask...what is your avatar. The suspense is killing me.