2 for 1, My son's first Square Build

[aggie91]

We ordered some steering parts last week. Here is the first peice to arrive. Billet Half Wrap wheel from Forever Sharp Steering. Very nice wheel for the price. Came with horn button, and adapter set up.



Should be getting more parts over the next few days.

[bucknorris]

sweet wheel. great build. wish i had started with my dad that young. he tried. haha. had a 59 apache fleetside that i ended up selling. bad move

[aggie91]

Got a little work done on the truck. It is mocked up to check for fit at the firewall and to set up the steering shaft/u-ujoints. The stance is close but for now it has too much rake for Korbin and I. But it is still missing a few body parts...

Got the Driver's side cab corner welded in and rough finished. Just a few more patches on the cab, then epoxy and body work....


Here is how the front and rear look from the side. The rear needs to come down more, but the front is about where we want it. BTW these are NOT the wheel Korbin wants, but they are the right size for mock up...



That's it for now, no shop time today, its my Daughter's Birthday!

[ol'blazer]

i have been fallowing this build for awhile now and love this project! you guys do amazing work!

[JRANGER]

Really looking good

[made2drag]

best billet wheel out there for sure!

[aggie91]

We spent some time out at Martin Creek SP Sunday-Tuesday. Man it was COLD at night, but the days where nice. Korbin caught the only fish that made it into our hands...had some other bites but never got them on the hook. This one was on his second cast...pissed my wife off since she had been out for about an hour before he decided to fish...


Got a little more work done this week. Korbin had a buddy come over and help get the rest of the bed apart so that we can blast and get ready for primer and paint. Korbin put the seats in and I got the column and wheel mocked up. I just need to work out the connections between the column and the rack. I have to call Rob at No Limit to ask his advice on what I want to do.


I would like to run a single shaft from the column to the joint at the rack. Rob's kit comes with a third joint, but since I raised the crossmember, I just don't see it working like I want. I would like to cut off about 1" to 1 1/8" of the shaft coming out of the column to get the U-joint a little higher to make my angles better. What do you guys think?

[theastronaut]

Nice catch! I like the idea of of losing the third joint, never have been a fan of joints everywhere in the steering system.

I really like this thread, you're a few steps ahead of where I am so I can see how mine will go together!
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[Driver4r]

I would slit the frame and run a solid shaft down to the other u-joint.

[aggie91]

Got the steering shaft issue resolved on Saturday. I made a simple fixture to determine where the shaft would g thru the frame and verify that a straight shaft would work. Once that was done I marked the frame and made the hole. I used a step bit to get the rough hole then, used a carbide burr to finish out the hole. I used a high tech steering shaft to get it all hooked up, just need to get it stained a cool color . Final assy will be with a polished SS shaft:


Once that was done the boys had to go for a "cruise"...


The rest of Saturday was very unproductive, the sand blaster would not cooperate with us, seems like I was just not getting anything done and we lost a set screw for Owen's go kart throttle linkage. On a side note, we did get the back yard all mowed, edged and fertalized for the first time this year...

That's all for Saturday's updates...

[aggie91]

Sunday was much better. We all got up and went to church then after lunch I got to the shop and worked on the core support modifications. I have the top cover about 90% complete before body work and paint. I can finish that up in about an hour of time. It is removable to service the radiator.


It is made in three pieces that I welded together, it will be held in place with 4 machine screws in the front and 2 in the back of the radiator. I will probably use a chrome button head machine screw for it...
Here are some other views...


For the back side, I will make a panel that will hide the wiring and lights and cover the sides of the radiator tanks. I will have to make those after I get the lights and buckets installed.

From the front, we cut out the center of the core support and added panels on each side of the radiator to force air thru the core. I have one more lower filler panel to make and finish the welding before doing the body work on paint. I think it will turn out real nice when I get it done.


While I was working on the core support, Korbin was out blasting the bed sides. Turns out the nozzle was to small for the grit of sand we changed to. I went with a #4 sand to be a little more aggressive to get the paint off quicker. He got started late and ran out of day light to get them done, but he made progress.


That's all for the weekend work....

[Can't kech me]

i'm really happy the way that the steering shaft came out, what guages do you guys think would fit in a black carpet/seats/headliner and read sheetmetal interior. the standard 6 guages aren't enough because i want a tach, speedo, oil pressure, water temp, voltemeter, trans temp, fuel level, and fuel pressure guage. idk what to do about the extra 2, no one makes guage pillars for these trucks and there's no where i can think of to put 2 more guages, anyone have any ideas?

[MadManAndrew]

Fiberglass work is not hard at all. Look up some how to's on making fiberglass subwoofer enclosures and then apply that to making your own gauge pillar. You could probably start with your factory A-pillar cover, cut out some wood rings and glue them protruding from the cover with wooden dowels to position the gauges, and then glass over them. Easy peasy, and it'll be custom just like the rest of your truck.
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[aggie91]

Got some shop time yesterday, went for a little between work and Korbin getting done with baseball practice and again for about a hour after the kids went to bed.

I fabricated the cab notch covers and got them all bent up and the corners welded after test fitting them a few times. I did not think to take process pictures, but these started out as a flat sheet of 20ga cold roll. I made a cardboard template that some how during the process ended up being about 10" to long??? that is better then too short..

Anyway I was able to finish them and get them tacked onto the floor. These look much better then my first ones and clear the frame rails much better. I will finish weld them once the cab comes back off to finish the firewall.


Tonight, Korbin plays out of town, but to early for me to get there after work. I will head out to the shop and set the core support and fenders back on for one more look before the cab comes off so that I can finish up the firewall and trans tunnel/floor. Then it is body work and paint on the cab.

[Can't kech me]

Originally Posted by MadManAndrew

Fiberglass work is not hard at all. Look up some how to's on making fiberglass subwoofer enclosures and then apply that to making your own gauge pillar. You could probably start with your factory A-pillar cover, cut out some wood rings and glue them protruding from the cover with wooden dowels to position the gauges, and then glass over them. Easy peasy, and it'll be custom just like the rest of your truck.
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i know i can build one, but we are running out of time, that may be something i do later down the road, for now ill probly just mount the extra guages somewhere kinda outa the way and hidden

[Dirty-b]

Korbin, I just read this thread. You and your dad are doing a great job!! No matter what happens with the truck you will always have the memorys of building the truck not to mention the skills you learned from your dad.

It makes me smile just thinking about all the time my son(he'll be 5 in July) and I have and will spend in the garage. We are currently putting lights and a bigger battery his power wheels Jeep so he can drive it around the campground after dark this summer.

Keep up the great work it's almost done.

Jamie

[aggie91]

Got some more work done this weekend. Korbin had a buddy come over and he stripped the roof while Korbin blasted bed parts. I worked on the core support and the front inner fenders.

I used the fleetside fender wheels to make new front inner fenders. They are not 100% complete yet, but you can get the idea of what they will look like and how I got there...
Started with this: (green tape is for marking my cut lines)

Cut and welded to get this:

One more with them side by side: Still have to finish the rear of the inner fender that goes next to the firewall. I will need to make a few brackets to support it and will try to use a couple of the original holes in the firewall that were/are below where the AC/Heater box was...


All this work led to getting some of the front fender's inner structure cut out to fit our front tire combo that we are going to run. We verified the tire would fit and what rim width and back spacing we are going to use. Here is the tire/wheel size with the lower a-arm against the bump stop.


Here is what the inner fender looks like installed:


Thats it for this weekend's update.

[aggie91]

More progress has been made. Firewall is just about finished and close to getting a skim coat of filler. Got a few spots where I need to go back and weld up...



Going to put it back on the frame tonight and make sure that my tunnel mods are going to clear everything, then back off to finish the floor and spray on the Raptor liner. I should have the liner kit this week. So the goal is to have the floor done and the liner sprayed on the top and bottom sides of the floor this weekend.

[made2drag]

getting close! so the raptor liner will seal and protect all your hard work on the sheetmetal you did....is that a roll on type liner? and does it also eliminate the need for dynamat and jute padding?

[made2drag]

inner fenders look great! mount them as high as possible....just in case

[aggie91]

Raptor liner is a spray on two part system. It is also tintable with basecoat, so it will be red on this truck. It does have sound control, but we will still use some kind is pad under the carpet but not jute padding.
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[made2drag]

thanks!

[maxxxy]

Looks sweet!!!
Where did you relocate the firewall wire harness to?

[aggie91]

We are going to hide as much of the wiring we can. Most of that will be done when we start putting it back together. The engine harness will go thru the firewall directly behind the intake manifold to hide it as much as possible.

[aggie91]

Well it was basball last night for my other boy, Owen. He got to pitch last night for the first time, he usually is the catcher. He can throw hard, but needs work on his consistancy. He'll get better...On Sunday I was also able to finish Owen's go kart project, now he has something to do while Korbin and I work on the truck. Owen did alot of the welding on this frame and will do the grinding and finishing before I paint it. I will be painted red like Korbin's truck.
[IMG]http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii263/karlk91/51108AC2-8945-4536-93A9-A27E15AF7467-5884-00000CCFDA98DC41_zps9d024c5c.jpg[/IMG

Korbin has baseball tonight so most likely no progress on the truck tonight either. I might be able to get a little done after his game, but not anything post worthy...]

Here is where we go to Sunday:
Got the majority of the new trans hump done and seam seal applied on the underside. I used Eastwoods brushable seam sealer. Looks ok, it will be covered with Raptor liner anyway..


Got it put in on the floor and started to layout the rest of the floor, yes it was done once before, but I did not like it and tought it was not the safest set up for Korbin to be driving...This will look much better and is alot stronger for the seats to bolt to. I also did a better job with my welding this time.