'52 Rot-box Turned Tire Roaster.

[xpickup]

Wybrow, nice job. Love the back half. So smooth looking.

Shannon

[skip99]

Love it, great job on fab work..what are you using for the bushings on the ends of the links at the crossmember? Is the 4 link itself stiff enough to keep the rear from swinging side to side? Or will there be some sort of panhard .? Bar for side yo side deflection?

[99 to Life]

might I chime in, I think this set up is def beefy enough. Check out what some companies are selling, this is by far strong enough. Pan hard is only needed on parallel 4 link or 2 links, this is a triangulated 4 link so a pan hard isn't necessary.

[yawdie1]

Still awesome!! I still want that back half for my truck! good work

[Wybrow]

Originally Posted by skip99

Love it, great job on fab work..what are you using for the bushings on the ends of the links at the crossmember? Is the 4 link itself stiff enough to keep the rear from swinging side to side? Or will there be some sort of panhard .? Bar for side yo side deflection?

Originally Posted by 99 to Life

might I chime in, I think this set up is def beefy enough. Check out what some companies are selling, this is by far strong enough. Pan hard is only needed on parallel 4 link or 2 links, this is a triangulated 4 link so a pan hard isn't necessary.

What 99 to Life said. I run almost an identical 4-link on my S10 (much more basic, but built off the same principal) and I can literally only fit a credit card between my tire and the bed side (and it's rolled flat) and I have painted tire lettering, of which the paint never gets rubbed off, and I corner hard frequently.

We ran out of room on the '52 and could only pull off 28 degrees for each bar. I figure that will still be lots, this definitely isn't going to be a corner carver by any means.

Hi, fellas. Got a lot done on the weekend but I have been entirely too busy and tired every night since to update this thread. Sorry! Anyways, I chipped away at the welding spatter on the rear end on... Monday (I think) and installed the rear end. For the first time ever, the truck laid-out Monday on tires that are about 3" smaller diameter front and rear than what I will be running.

I am ****ing stoked.











Last night I went out for a couple hours and finally got that god-awful factory crossmember knocked out for good. Then I got curious and sat down and did the math on how much original frame is left, keep in mind I added in all 5 Crossmembers that were removed. I have 21% of the original frame left. Yeah, that's it.





Ignore the bolts, I have a bunch we use for building the link bars and stuff, I'll be replacing them all with stainless button-head bolts.



Also scored a set of drop spindles for an S10 this week for $80, which in the world of drop spindles is CHEAP. They'll allow me to run a higher air pressure in the front while still riding super low, which is the best of both worlds and exactly how I like it. I didn't take a picture of them, they aren't exciting.

NOW, for the really exciting news. Over the last few weeks I had some **** luck, my winter beater (a 2004 Grand Am my mom bought new and replaced last fall with a 2013 Cruze) **** the differential out in the transmission. I decided it was time to get a fullsize truck for a daily, I am pretty sick of continually borrowing one of my friends to tow a trailer, etc and I think they are too. After browsing the used ads I found nothing but junk. I started pricing out new ones expecting to get my hopes up and not be able to afford one/be declined by the bank, etc. Well, long story short, I just ordered a 2014 GMC Sierra "Double Cab" 4x4 completely loaded with a 6.2L v8 and 3.73's to boot.

8-10 weeks will take FOREVER to show up. However, I'll have new suspension and some other goodies sitting waiting for it to show up. This is the height it will sit.



Mine is all black and a Sierra, so really, only pay attention to the height. Haha.


Next, 99 to life mentioned our bench/fab area and I decided to share. We built the bench when we moved in. It measures 18'x3' deep. Honestly, not sure how tall. It is built entirely out of 2x2x1/4 wall tubing, with 1/4 gussets and a 3/8" sheetmetal top. It is heavy as **** and no matter how hard you're reafing on something in the vice it does not budge. I love it.





All the attachments on the bench are actually drilled and tapped into the bench top, we are planning to build a few different sets of control arm jigs for the bench and also a sheet-metal brake.

We built these two rooms also when we moved in, the one on the right side houses the compressor (which is wired, but still not plumbed 6 months later :rofl) and my laptop for music to the stereo upstairs. The room on the left is the "engine closet". It's a safe spot for our engines and stands to sit clear of dust and grinding debris.



There are three different welders in the shop, a Miller 180SD TIG machine, a ThermalArc 220V MIG and a Lincoln Electric 120V MIG, we can pretty much make anything stick together. There's also a King vertical and horizontal combo bandsaw under the bench, it gets used a lot.


I think that's it, you guys got a little mini-tour, sorry about all the pictures. More to come this weekend.

[Kabwe]

Great build, wonder craftsmanship. I really enjoyed going through your build thread.

[Wybrow]

Originally Posted by Kabwe

Great build, wonder craftsmanship. I really enjoyed going through your build thread.

Thanks, man!

We kinda ran out of material so tonight I got anxious and decided to half-ass throw the body on. It was beyond motivated, even though I haven't lost any motivation, this helped a lot. Probably going to leave it look like this for the week and tear it back down next weekend and finish the back-half.













The bed is sitting on the axle and a single jack-stand holds up the front, the front panel is bent all to rat **** so I have no idea how close the bed is to being where it's supposed to be, but it looks kinda right. There's a swap meet local to me this coming weekend, and I've found a set of southern running boards for sale that I'm picking up on the way next weekend.

Overwhelmed with how far this truck has come in the three short months we've been working on it.

[oldman3]

Looks sweet...Jim

[ghettoluxury]

Looks killer! You guys are doing some very nice work.

[Wybrow]

So, hey! I haven't updated in a while due to some laptop issues but we've been working just as hard.

The body is back off the truck, and we've pretty well got the back-half finished up suspension wise. The 4-link was done previous to the body pictures. The next step was to set out and get the upper bag brackets placed and welded in for good. We didn't really have a plan until we started and just kinda went with it...

We used a piece of 2x4 bolted to the upper and lower bag plate to simulate the air bag at "zero psi". RE7's squish to 2.9" at zero psi, but I fully intend to drive this thing as low as physically possible, so we added an extra inch to allow a higher air pressure at the same ride height to firm up the suspension. Same sorta idea I had going with the drop spindles in the front.



The first night, we got this far, these bars run parallel with the upper link bars, and from the back of the crossmember they all look solid mounted.





We had planned to run a bar up over the top of the link bars and tie it all in to the bag mounts. We measured it up the Friday night and then built it Saturday night. As soon as it was tacked in, we all didn't like it. Couldn't all agree on tube placement and decided to scrap it.





So, we went home, I believe at 10:30am Sunday morning after a long night of staring and thinking.

As always, one of us came up with a plan even before we all got home. This is what Dave came up with, I love it. The outside bars (even though you can't really tell in the pictures) are parallel with the lower link bars and the frame rails.











I honestly couldn't be happier with the outcome. I haven't uploaded the newest set of pictures yet, but we've had bags in it and everything is fully welded. I've got the frame torn down now and have spent lots of time blending in everything for good.

Until the next update!

[STOCKISH]

Amazing fab work man, Looks killer.

[99 to Life]

Looks cool, great job.

[oldman3]

Very nice work...Jim

[mr incredible]

anything new update?

[99 to Life]

I been wondering the same thing

[johnnyclack]

Originally Posted by 99 to Life

I been wondering the same thing

Ok ?

Whats up........

[Wybrow]

Boy oh boy, I haven't updated this in a long, long time. Thrilled to say the truck was in it's very first invite-only indoor car show... well over a year ago. It has been the best weekend I've had with the truck to date. Unfortunately, after that show it has more or less not been touched since.

Here's a handful of pictures from MegaSpeed and one how the truck currently sits. The body is going to get blasted this week, then I am going hard on metal working the cab. Consider this my unofficial round two.

[ghettoluxury]

I'm glad to see you are getting back at it. This is an awesome build and you guys are cranking out some nice work.

[oldman3]

Glad to see you back...Jim

[99 to Life]

Iv wondered about this build. Glad to see it back. Good luck with the metal work. I always enjoy seeing that.

[Trixxterr]

Looks good. Can't wait to see the finished product.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Hey Wybrow,

I'm usually on the 60-66 forum, but I noticed you're nearby so I came over to check out your build.

Nice work! I really like seeing clean fab work. I'll follow along to see how things finish up.