SkinnyG's '61 Apache

[SkinnyG]

Sprayed some more epoxy on parts/spots I missed.

Measured the old angle strips (1" tall) and the new angle strips (1-1/8" tall), then did some math for the raised bed floor, plus the thickness of the composite boards (15/16" vs 3/4" pine) to figure out where the new strips need to be mounted.

Drilled holes for plug welding the new strips.

Removed one offending fender bolt (offender?) which is right where the strip needs to go.

Hung the doors on the cab, and sat on some lumber to make some vroom vroom noises.

Placed the inner fenders and front fenders just to gaze once again at the awesome hard park height. Hoping to get the bed on soon.

General tidying of the shop.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Sprayed some more epoxy on parts/spots I missed.

Measured the old angle strips (1" tall) and the new angle strips (1-1/8" tall), then did some math for the raised bed floor, plus the thickness of the composite boards (15/16" vs 3/4" pine) to figure out where the new strips need to be mounted.

Drilled holes for plug welding the new strips.

Removed one offending fender bolt (offender?) which is right where the strip needs to go.

Hung the doors on the cab, and sat on some lumber to make some vroom vroom noises.

Placed the inner fenders and front fenders just to gaze once again at the awesome hard park height. Hoping to get the bed on soon.

General tidying of the shop.

All that sheet metal hanging & no images for your peeps? That's such a tease.

[88Stanger]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

All that sheet metal hanging & no images for your peeps? That's such a tease.

ummm... ya must agree fully!!!!! WE ARE DYING HERE!!!

[53Sparky]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Sprayed some more epoxy on parts/spots I missed.

Measured the old angle strips (1" tall) and the new angle strips (1-1/8" tall), then did some math for the raised bed floor, plus the thickness of the composite boards (15/16" vs 3/4" pine) to figure out where the new strips need to be mounted.

Drilled holes for plug welding the new strips.

Removed one offending fender bolt (offender?) which is right where the strip needs to go.

Hung the doors on the cab, and sat on some lumber to make some vroom vroom noises.

Placed the inner fenders and front fenders just to gaze once again at the awesome hard park height. Hoping to get the bed on soon.

General tidying of the shop.

How'd you get so productive? That's a month's worth of work for me! I'm lucky if I get part way through the vroom vroom noises before I'm out of time. And general tidying of the shop? Please! That never happens.

[SkinnyG]

I guess I shouldn't also tell you that before I went into the shop at all yesterday, I snow-blowed the driveway to the house and around back to the shop.

Also cut down and chopped up my neighbour's low growing pine which didn't withstand the heavy dump of snow (and was now blocking shop access), then hauled all the evidence to the dump.

All the while wondering what the hell I did to my back, because it hurt to move, and Robaxacet wasn't helping. I move even more like the old man I am. Sweeping the shop is easy "productivity" when I'm in pain.

As of now, it's 12:37pm, and so far I made bed floor risers out of 2x4x0.120" rectangular tubing, which also required TIG-welding my bandsaw blade back together (this is the 3rd repair I've done, and then it broke again almost right after!). Also made some 4" extenders to move the "step" mount lower.

Home Depot called to say the composite decking is in. Once I finish my tea, I'll head down. And pick up another bandsaw blade, too.

Oh, and you guys are a tough audience. I wanted to post a pic with the bed on, but here you go:

[cwcarpenter98]

Oh yeah, that's gonna be super nice!

[SkinnyG]

Home Depot couldn't find the Trex boards, so I went home. I called this morning to see if they found them, and they had, so I went down again.

Looks like forklift operator tagged something immobile, and chipped two boards and broke another, so another length is ordered, but I brought what would work home. Be a couple weeks for the replacement to come in.

And, it seems my '77 is now stuck on "turn right" mode. Not sure what's up with that - steering box issue?

[SkinnyG]

Found the "turn right" problem on my '77. This was unexpected.

[53Sparky]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Found the "turn right" problem on my '77. This was unexpected.

That's not good! Glad you're safe. Was it sheared off?

[jayoldschool]

I had alignment shims fall out of a Caprice once. Drove ok, but the right spindle would move fore and aft about an inch and a half when on/off the brakes. Apparently it's pretty common. My cross shaft bolt stayed in, though...

[cwcarpenter98]

Oh dang, that's sketchy

[SCOTI]

Bolt/stud rot away?

[SkinnyG]

Not rotted at all. Shank is cherry, and the clean break has zero corrosion at all on it. Not sure why it failed.

In other news:

Boards just set in place with strips for that "feel good" moment:

[SCOTI]

I like the board set-up. Wish they came in 'to spec' widths. I couldn't find anything available in wider widths when I searched.

[SkinnyG]

Fascia board come in 8" or 12" width, but the 3/4" thick fascia boards I found didn't come in colours I wanted, and the colours I wanted were either 1/2" or 9/16" thick.

Fascia boards would have cost me $650CDN, whereas these deck boards were $240CDN, which is cheaper than buying white oak in raw planks (zero waste for the Trex).

To fit these boards meant having an extra skid strip.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Fascia board come in 8" or 12" width, but the 3/4" thick fascia boards I found didn't come in colours I wanted, and the colours I wanted were either 1/2" or 9/16" thick.

Fascia boards would have cost me $650CDN, whereas these deck boards were $240CDN, which is cheaper than buying white oak in raw planks (zero waste for the Trex).

To fit these boards meant having an extra skid strip.

Yep.... Sounds like what I learned. You can find one aspect you want @ the cost of another....
The 'better' widths didn't come with color options desired.
Color options limited width choices or thickness of the planks.

[88Stanger]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Not rotted at all. Shank is cherry, and the clean break has zero corrosion at all on it. Not sure why it failed.

In other news:

Boards just set in place with strips for that "feel good" moment:

Oh ya, now I really like this!!!

[SkinnyG]

Started welding it back together today.









Added my 4" floor riser at the rear. Turns out the Trex decking is 0.850". Spot welds mean less warping.

[SkinnyG]

Nothing photo-worthy of today's adventure in the shop.

I dressed up some pin holes and welds, epoxy primed over the shiny metal area, attached the bed header and wire-wheeled the fasteners.

Also dragged out the gas tank (S10 EFI Blazer tank), contemplated how to attach it, and braced the rear frame ends together in anticipation of cutting out a crossmember.

Also primered the welds on the floor patch.

[cwcarpenter98]

That's some nice progress. I like your way of filling in that area caused by raising the bed floor

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by cwcarpenter98

That's some nice progress. I like your way of filling in that area caused by raising the bed floor

x2

[SkinnyG]

Bed supports now located at their new height:





4" Bed risers, made of 2x4" rectangular tubing:



I need to lower the step braces 4" as well. Thank you GM, for being drunk and disorderly on the assembly line:

[72cs20]

You're really showing some serious skill. Thanks for posting the videos too!

[88Stanger]

Damn fine work sir!!! i am inspired with some ideas from this!!!

[SkinnyG]

I lengthened the Step Brackets by adding a 4" length of 2x4" box tubing, with one end cut off. I then transposed the mounting holes 4" down.

I also fully welded the bottom "stand" of the bed brace since I want to hide the bed mounting bolts. These are merely spot welded from the factory, as the whole shebang is clamped down by carriage bolts - but I don't want that.



The step was shortened by removing the box brace underneath, and I cut 14.5" out, removing some stress-fractured holes.

The undercoating was wire-wheeled off (knotted wheel on an angle-grinder), and the step was clamped to my welding table (1/2" plate steel), washed with lacquer thinner and TIG welded with zero filler (though I kept a length of 0.023" MIG wire in my hand for the three spots that needed it).





I went TIG on this, because TIG welds are so much more malleable than MIG welded, and if I needed to correct any misalignment of the "beads" I wanted it to be easy. MIG tends to crack as you beat on it. I went -against- Oxy-Acetylene, as I'm finding it harder to work with such a large Heat Affected Zone. With TIG I set it on pulse to keep the heat down.