My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade

[flashed]

I cant wait to see this one progress .

[Tx Firefighter]

I figured while I'm waiting for the official start date to this build, I might as well sneak in a little work here and there.

Today I built my lower bag mounts for the rear suspension. They will mount to my 2 link bars which are 2x2x1/4" square tubing. The bag mounts are made out of 1/4" plate.









I blatantly copied the commercially available ones. A pair typically runs about 40 dollars plus shipping. I've always said if I can buy a tool and use it to do something and not spend any more money than if I'd just paid to have it done, I will. You're left with the same end result and a tool for the arsenal. I paid 150 for the Swag Off-road press brake specifically so I could build stuff like this myself. I do think it will pay for itself on this truck project alone.

[Hankster]

Nice, its cool that your sneaking in work.

[rusty76]

Looks good to me!

[jhama78]

[Tx Firefighter]

I also got my air valves mounted today. I decided they went well in the radio spot.

The dash was previously cut (a lot) so I had to fab a little plate to go in there. Since these vavles are so damn heavy I made it out of 14 gauge. It needed the reinforcement of the thick steel to support them.



Next I'm gonna fab a thin appliqué plate to go over the radio area of the dash bezel to cover the old radio knob holes and the busted out mounting screw holes.



And I'm waiting on Travis to ship out an order I placed last week with my air gauges. I'm going to put them in this blank spot in the dash. I'll need to fab a mount for them when the gauges get here and I can measure them for fitment and hole size.

[lolife99]

Loving this build!

[aggie91]

Very nice work. How do you like that Swag press brake tool?

[rusty76]

Cool.

[Tx Firefighter]

I scooted under the truck today and just laid there and looked around for a good while just forming a game plan.

What I concluded is that I have a lot of work ahead of me. Much more than I initially figured. If I'm gonna get this thing finished and driving again by first swap meet next year, I best get to work.

[Tx Firefighter]

Continuation of my above post. Sorry had router issues.

Besides the obvious rear suspension fabrication, I noticed I'm gonna need to...

-tunnel the cab floor for driveshaft clearance
-notch the frame crossmember behind the cab
-build an entirely new exhaust system from front to back
-build a new trans crossmember

Figured I might cheat just a few days from my September 1 planned start date.



So I cleaned out part of my shop and brought it in and leveled the frame in preparation for modification.



Now, I am looking for advise and guidance from folks with experience in this stuff.

1) What thickness of steel are step notches typically made of ?

2) is there a common universal fuel cell from Summit or someplace that works real well when mounted in the back of the frame ? I can measure and comparison shop but maybe there's a well know fitter

3) In light of the discussion earlier about longer link bars causing less pinion angle change, is there an ideal formula or is longer better regardless ? I'm thinking I'm gonna move my mounts forward and build longer bars than I originally planned.

[tommyd241]

Very cool.

[tinydb84]

I did my notches out of 2.5x3x3/16. Got scrap for next to nothing at the steel shop

[bigblock73]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

2) is there a common universal fuel cell from Summit or someplace that works real well when mounted in the back of the frame ? I can measure and comparison shop but maybe there's a well know fitter .

Kev, here is the write up of the cell I put in my 73. Fit like a glove. Only thing I would change, and I will update my article, is to build new straps of small square tubing...the straps provided didn't support the weight of the fuel very well and the tank would bulge pretty good when full.


http://73-87.com/7387garage/chassis_...ellinstall.htm

[aggie91]

Kevin

I used a universal tank from Tanks, Inc. setup for fuel injection. Here is what I got from them:
UT-N-2-T 16 Gallon universal Tank,
GPA-4 255 lph in tank pump,
TAN-GML sending unit
Total: $501.36

I believe the tank alone is about $215 most places. You would not need the pump set up...

Here is what it looked like in my son's '82:



The silver straps running under the tank came with the kit and we made the angle iron bracket to the front and the two flat bar straps on the top. We added the lengths of all thread rod to the staps so that we could tighten it up snug. There is a thin strip of rubber (an old bicycle inner tube) under the two flat bar straps on top of the tank.

You can also see how I notched the one crossmember that is just rear of the cab. I made a part that folds up out of 10 ga then welded it all together.

The notch in the pics are made from 1/4" plate.

[Low Elco]

I used a 91 Jeep wrangler tank, with an 85 blazer shortened pickup. $90 from Summit. Roughly 18 gallons and compact. Look up the Silver Dollar thread. Our 70 frame measured .156, 3/16 is .1875, so you'd be good to go with 3/16 wall tube, or 1/4 if you want beef.

[Tx Firefighter]

I've decided that I'm going to move the front mounts forward somewhat. Not sure how far yet.

I also drove my truck to work today so I can stop at the steel yard in he morning and get a sheet of 3/16 plate to build the notches with. I'll also look for more 2" thick wall square tubing to make my arms with.

Last night I ordered four tabs for fabricating my front bar mounts and a new pair of axle saddles. With the store bought tabs I'll fabricate a typical front mount like all the places sell. Just a bent plate welded to the frame with tabs welded to it to mount the front swivel joint to.

[aggie91]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

I've decided that I'm going to move the front mounts forward somewhat. Not sure how far yet. ... Last night I ordered four tabs for fabricating my front bar mounts and a new pair of axle saddles. With the store bought tabs I'll fabricate a typical front mount like all the places sell. Just a bent plate welded to the frame with tabs welded to it to mount the front swivel joint to.

Since the front spring hanges need to come off anyways, why not just resue them for the front mounts just moved forward? A lot less fab work...

[lolife99]

Kevin,... you might want to do your gas tank install after you get the chassis layed out.
I have a bolt in 73-87 Aluminum fuel cell from www.performanceonline.com.
But bolted to the bottom of the stock frame rails it hangs too low in my old '86 dropmember chassis.
Your's may not be as low (as a fleetside bed truck), since your stepside fenders are going to limit your amount of drop.
I assume you will be raising your bed floor?

[TheBlueBomber]

Looking sweet! A lot of math involved with these notches. I can't wait to do one one day.

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by lolife99

Kevin,... you might want to do your gas tank install after you get the chassis layed out.
I have a bolt in 73-87 Aluminum fuel cell from www.performanceonline.com.
But bolted to the bottom of the stock frame rails it hangs too low in my old '86 dropmember chassis.
Your's may not be as low (as a fleetside bed truck), since your stepside fenders are going to limit your amount of drop.
I assume you will be raising your bed floor?

You've mentioned the stepside limitations before. I was under there looking yesterday. It looks like I can bury the thing and not have bed interference. There's miles of clearance. I could lower it like 10 more inches. I'm guessing its because I'm running 6 inch wide wheels with 235 tires. Am I missing something obvious ?

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

You've mentioned the stepside limitations before. I was under there looking yesterday. It looks like I can bury the thing and not have bed interference. There's miles of clearance. I could lower it like 10 more inches. I'm guessing its because I'm running 6 inch wide wheels with 235 tires. Am I missing something obvious ?

Step side fenders are ususally limited by total rolling stock diameter vs amount of drop.

[lolife99]

You have 10" from the top of the tire to the inside of your rear fenders?
Frame to ground measures what?

[lolife99]

All of these stepsides are layed out,... they just look like they are running a relatively short tire.

[TheChief]

i dont mean to take over ur thread but i just wanted to show that u can use all the factory early c10 components in anything and this is what i plan on also doing on my dually.

this is the frame for my 50 pontiac that i built using a set of 72 c10 T/A and fact cross member