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

[bluex]

Probably a good thing you decided to go your own way on the rear suspension. I started my install yesterday and the trailing arm crossmember doesnt fit at all. Pretty dissapointed with that...

[Low Elco]

Nice welder, and thanks for someone finally posting a MIG weld like I was trained to make in both Steel and Aluminum. Nice smooth bead, with a bacon fryin' buzz.

Notch looks good!

[Tx Firefighter]

Since its Friday, I wanted to spend some time running around and gathering supplies so I can work hard Sunday (I have to work at the fire station tomorrow).

First, I need longer u bolts. I'm going to be running a 2 inch lower bar plus a further 2 inch lowering block built onto it to bury the axle up into the notch. So, off to the spring shop.

Its a dark environment in there so my pictures aren't too awesome.

Racks of threaded wire which they use to make the u bolts.



This is the machine. It has a curved lower die that sets the diameter of the bend. In my case, he used a 3 inch die. You can see the selection of various sized dies hanging on the wall. The bin to the right is nuts and washers for different sized threaded wire.



The final product. I was in the place less than five minutes start to finish including paying the lady at the desk.



I posted these to illustrate to folks who don't know that there are local spring shops all across the country. They're usually in industrial areas and not easy to find, but every old car guy needs to have one in his arsenal of shops that he patronizes.

Border Collie photo bomb.



After the spring shop I headed to the steel scrap yard. I found me a stick of 3/16 wall round tube for my stepnotch cross brace. And I found an entire dumpster full of these cool cut-offs or round pipe. They're 3/16 wall and 6" diameter. Perfect for c notches, or in my case, c notching my center crossmember. I paid 6.25 for the stick of round tube and the two cut offs of big pipe.



Then to the junkyard.

I wound up buying bumpstops off of the back of a Ford pickup.



They're about 2.5 inches tall.

And I also got a little power steering rack hardline I needed off a crashed Mustang.



I gave five bucks for the bumpstops and hard line at the junkyard.

The reason I even need the hardline is that I bought a rack and pinion for my Porterbuilt Dropmember and it had a damaged line when I received it.



I bought the rack off of Amazon and got the last one they had. It was 108 dollars total delivered. And there was no core charge. I couldn't figure out any cheaper way to get a reman rack than that. Even with it arriving with the shipping damage and needing the new hardline, I'm still way ahead of buying parts store and paying a huge core charge since I didn't have one to start with, or buying the new Unisteer that Porterbuilt recommends for 300 dollars

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Nice work so far Kevin. I need a bigger plasma cutter to play with you guys.

My plasma cutter isn't too stout actually. Its a Miiler Spectrum 375. I think it's rated to 3/8 or 1/2". I didn't want to spend more money to get a bigger one since effectively this 1/4" and 3/16" is about the thickest any car guy will usually deal with.

Originally Posted by rusty76

Looking good!

Thank you.

Originally Posted by 83 Silverado

In a earlier post you said you are looking at doing a rear mount tank to make room for longer links, and the blazer tank was out do to ground clear ins, but how about a 15gal tank from a jeep yj, just from a quick search the dimensions are 25-1/4 x 18-1/4 x 10-7/8 and be easy to tuck up in the frame. The other thing is the sending units look to be 90 ohm's like the stock GM senders.

I liking the direction your taking this truck, I'll be following along on this one.

I'm still back and forth on the gas tank deal. I'm stuck in cheap mode and don't want to spend any money that I can avoid. I keep hoping something will fall out of the sky for free. Patience usually pays off in saving money on purchases though so I just sit back and stew on it.

Originally Posted by aggie91

What's up the artsy fartsy black and white photos?

Two reasons. One, I think it lends more clarity and definition inside of my dark shop. And two, paint will be forthcoming and I want to keep the final color choice to myself until I'm ready to debut the finished project.

Originally Posted by bluex

Probably a good thing you decided to go your own way on the rear suspension. I started my install yesterday and the trailing arm crossmember doesnt fit at all. Pretty dissapointed with that...

That sucks. I'm kind of down on mine right now too. I won't deny it, overall I'm off 1/8" here and there. My truck had been rearended in the past and I had about half an inch of bow in the frame from the axle back. I had to work around that when I did the notch. Lots of leveling, jackstands and such. With cutting for the notch, I got it back pretty close I think. Everything falls within the bubble on my long level any place I check it. I hate to admit it because I know Scoti built his truck on a frame table and I know his final product is probably true to within a 32nd of an inch or better.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Nice welder, and thanks for someone finally posting a MIG weld like I was trained to make in both Steel and Aluminum. Nice smooth bead, with a bacon fryin' buzz.

Notch looks good!

I was taught to weld in airplane mechanic school. My instructor was a real bastard. He wouldn't tolerate any funny stuff or bad technique. He always told us to get a game plan, get set up, and pour the coal to it nice and hot and in one motion.

I love this welder. I bought it off Craiglist for 960 dollars a few years ago. It still did/does have the original spool of wire in it. The plastic wrap was still on the welder and the little paper warning tags were still hanging on the knobs. He threw in a 60 foot gigantic extension cord, a box of good welding vise grips, and the original receipt where he paid 2600 dollars for it. It's been money well spent.

[rusty76]

The notch looks good! I think you are doing really well. I don't know crap about air but it looks good to me.

[Low Elco]

You better have worn a ski mask when you picked up that welder- you stole it. Nice job!

[Tx Firefighter]

The guy had listed it up on Craigslist for 1000 dollars for welder and an empty bottle. So I grabbed my hood, a piece of steel, and one of my full bottles and went running as fast as I could.

When it welded fine I offered 900 dollars. He told me he had already turned down 900 twice that day already. I don't know who those two people were, but it was worth full asking price. I'd never have walked even at 1000. Anyway, he told me he would take 900 for it, but only if I bought the extension cord along with it for 1 dollar per foot. We measured it out to 60 feet, so I gave 960 dollars for the welder, a hood, a little bottle, extra liner, vise grips, and a big ass 60 foot long cord with 50 amp ends on it.












I'm still plugging along on the truck every day I can. Today I focused on boxing in the notches, cutting the frame away, and finishing up some welding. Still more boxing to go though, so no pictures of that.

I did change gears for a few hours to break the monotony and notch my center crossmember for driveshaft clearance.

I used one of those six inch diameter tube cutoff I bought at the scrap metal place.



I did a poor job of cutting the center crossmember to fit the pipe into it, so I had some problem solving to attend to.

After fitting and welding the notch I made cardboard patterns and cut out some 3/16 to make a full box job out of the pipe notch.







The final product is way secure and strong. Its level, plumb, centered and such, but I did slip my mental clutch when I fit it in place and wound up getting frustrated trying to fit a half round pipe up into a channel factory crossmember. Not my best day in old trucksville. I ain't proud of it, but I'll be honest and show my failures along with my wins.

[faribran]

TX I have one of those Millermatic 250's. What size wire are you running in yours?...and yes u did get a deal on it.

[Tx Firefighter]

I'm running .035 wire. It came with that big spool when I bought it, and I'm still using it.

I also have a smaller 110v Lincoln welder that I use with .023 wire for more petite work.

[rusty76]

Everything is really looking good. I'm impressed. Killer work.

[Hankster]

Looks good!

[79gmcclassic]

love this build, subscribed.

[TheBlueBomber]

It looks awesome. I can't wait to see what you do with the cab.

[aggie91]

Great work, nice score on the Miller Welder. I have a Miller 250X that I got at a steal too. Mine needed a new torch lead and did not have a bottle or the other things you got with yours, but I am still very happy with mine.

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by aggie91

Great work, nice score on the Miller Welder. I have a Miller 250X that I got at a steal too. Mine needed a new torch lead and did not have a bottle or the other things you got with yours, but I am still very happy with mine.

The 250X that you have is a better welder than the plain 250. The 250 carried a common complaint of poor arc starting. Mine does it too. The complaint was so widespread that Miller shortly thereafter introduced the 250X with changes to address the arc issues. Mine definitely does it. The first second or so of a fresh arc is erratic and hot. I usually go downstream about a 1/4 inch from where I want the bead to start and do a quick squeeze to get it established then whip up to where I want to be to really start laying the bead down.

Funny thing is, I had to put a new torch lead on mine too. I damaged it through carelessness and put a kink in in and split the sheath enough that the gas leaked out. I wound up upgrading to a Bernard torch which is significantly better than the Miller torch. eBay is full of surplus Bernard torches, brand new for cheap. Only thing is, they have .045 liners in them. So I bought one of those and a .035 liner and had a bad ass new torch for about 175 dollars. The glut of new torches with .045 liners is that there is some industry that buys new welders and outfits them with some kind of feeder or something, thereby making the factory torch unneeded so they surplus them on eBay brand new in the box.

[mcbassin]

Looking good Kevin, nice work on the driveshaft tunnel
What do they charge you for those longer U-bolts?

[Tx Firefighter]

They're proud of their u bolts.

15 bucks each.

I guess I can't complain though. Back in the early-mid 90s I was paying 27 dollars per pair for u bolts when I'd put lowering blocks in and need a longer set. That's not too bad for inflation over the last 20 years.

[Jonboy]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

I hate to admit it because I know Scoti built his truck on a frame table and I know his final product is probably true to within a 132nd of an inch or better.

I fixed that for you, Kevin

[Tx Firefighter]

I respect Scot for being that guy, but I just don't have the motivation to go to that level. I'm not going to let scope creep set in on this one I swear. Get it good and solid then move on to the next task is my motto on this build.

I'm actually pretty bummed this morning. I've been working and my brain is always churning when I'm out in the shop so I called Dave at Porterbuilt to discuss with him about engine location changes due to dropmember. Its widely known and publicized that the DM moves the engine up and forward. He couldn't give me any specifics but he told me that the fan shroud is a goner. Must run e fans. And he told me I'd have to cut the floor for a high hump. I knew this was the case for 72 and earlier, but several 73-87 guys I've spoken to first hand did not do any floor mods during the install. High humps for square bodies are pretty freakin rare. So that means my virgin factory floor mat is toast and I'll have to rip my entire interior apart, do the cutting and welding, then buy all new floor covering.

If anywhere, there was a halfway decent guide to the dropmember and some details about stuff like this, I'd have just sectioned my crossmember and not had to lose my fan shroud and cut my virgin floor.

[aggie91]

Don't get to bummed on this now. Since you seem to have some conflicting info on the cab floor mods and you are not planning to lay frame, just wait to get the DM in and worry with engine/trans placement then.

Just move forward with the rear part while you wait for the DM to come in.

[Tx Firefighter]

I guess I'm mostly annoyed at the phone conversation. He never asked what engine I'd be running, what trans, nothing. I won't bother to call back that's for sure.

[Jonboy]

Scot definitely has an eye for details, for sure. It really makes it nice coming in behind him, though. I wish I had that kind of patience. I will be doing good to get mine running.

I wouldn't let the DM get you down. It will be a nice piece when you get it.

[rusty76]

You'll have this in the bag before long. Get the DM in then see where everything hits. You don't know until you try it and I'm sure there is a thread on here buried deep that has some of the info you may be looking for. You just never know.

[aggie91]

Your PB conversation about the cab floor had me thinking that I had seen something about that in another build here on the forum. I found what I remembered Crawdadfox's build thread of his old 77:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=317834

Post #114 shows some under hood shots with the SBC installed, and in
Post #147 he states "No cutting on the cab at all..."

Check it out, he could give you first hand answers to what he did.

[Tx Firefighter]

I've been closely emulating this guys build. He didn't even pull the engine as a matter of fact.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=332365

And in this post specifically, he shows his engine compartment with stock fan and shroud intact.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...7&postcount=44