Another Crew Cab, {72 Denali style}

[Madkidd007]

Well not much on updates, been working my day job too much and combined with rain, yeah. So I’ve been collecting more parts, selling parts, getting cleaned up and a little more orginized since I don’t have much room.

Got the bed on a dolly so it’s not outside but can move it out of the way easy.

Weather was nice today so the 72 k5 blazer hangers got put on the front exactly 8” forward of the originals. If you notice the single thick fender washer that’s because the frame had a factory oval hole right there that lined up.
Here is the thought process, obviously I get the lift and they are correct for the narrow 40.5” leaf spring spacing. The wheelbase will now be 149”, regular cab short bed is 115” plus the 33” of the rear doors and you get 148”. Now I’m going to slide the bed back a 1/2” to avoid any rubbing on the cab when off road, now at 148.5”. Lastly I’ve always thought the rear wheels sat just a smidge too far forward when going with a large tire so that’s the last 1/2”. Should be perfect.

The lift is actually 8” also and the rear I will do a shackle flip which gets me 6” if lift in the rear which will make the total suspension lift 7” for the rear axle. My front is a 52” spring swap with 4” skyjacker springs, combine that with the weight of this thing it should be 7” of lift up front. When it’s all assembled I hope to remove the factory(I think) rear block and have it sit level.

[Madkidd007]

And the sun was out today so I got a bit more done. Over halfway to being a 4wd chassis now.

[Madkidd007]

Lost my job
Going up for sale
IF someone things work themselves out I’ll get back on it at that point. But right now is just bad timing

[71blksuper4x4]

Too bad to hear...hope things get better for ya.

[Madkidd007]

Originally Posted by 71blksuper4x4

Too bad to hear...hope things get better for ya.

Me too. This is what happens when you have a vendictive manager and a weak union. Maybe I’ll get back where I need to before it sells. I couldn’t believe how much money I had wrapped up in it already

[Average Joe]

Originally Posted by Madkidd007

Lost my job
Going up for sale
IF someone things work themselves out I’ll get back on it at that point. But right now is just bad timing

Wow!
Sorry to hear that. Ive been in a similar situation before and it sucks. Things have a way of working out though. Stay positive. Truck looks great!!!

[Madkidd007]

Well if I can make things work out for the next few months and it doesn’t sell. The new goal will be to cut my 70 halfway up the b-pillar and where the top of the windows start curving down. Then join it to the crew so I’ll have 95% of my original truck from high school, have a title, registered as a truck, Oh and the Cummins drivetrain.

[Madkidd007]

As you know, no progress on the truck. But I did want to share my drive home. I got to pull two fords off the side of the road at one time. The guys wife said she didn’t want me to hurt my truck trying to move them. Little did she realize I had a lot more motor than that broken down powerstroke.

[cashforclunkers]

Sorry to hear about the misfortunes. I really hope you get back on your feet and are able to keep the project. Do you still have and would you sell the 3500 badges? I could use them. Thanks. -Joel

[Madkidd007]

Originally Posted by cashforclunkers

Sorry to hear about the misfortunes. I really hope you get back on your feet and are able to keep the project. Do you still have and would you sell the 3500 badges? I could use them. Thanks. -Joel

Those are gone. Sold a bunch of stuff to help keep on my feet. Didn’t wanna dip into savings. I think now I’m about to get back on it. Sure hope so

[cashforclunkers]

Originally Posted by Madkidd007

Those are gone. Sold a bunch of stuff to help keep on my feet. Didn’t wanna dip into savings. I think now I’m about to get back on it. Sure hope so

Hey no problem. Glad to hear it actually. looking forward to updates. Just started on a crew cab project myself. Thx

[Madkidd007]

So I haven’t been real happy with the cab attachment. Strength no doubt, but just don’t like the custom look of it. So I picked up something today from my local member. So tell me is this a 67-68 only thing? I’ve never seen the floor center like this as I’ve always seen smooth center “tunnel” areas and the under fuel tank extra pieces of metal I’ve never seen.

[Madkidd007]

I did a lot less today than I really wanted to. But the weather feels so nice it was hard to push myself to do any real work. I did get the chassis into the garage, with the mindset that I’m going to get the suspension right, and the frame cleaned up first. Then transfer the cab over to the frame so I can start making my final modifications to the body. I love the duplicolor rust converter, funny seeing it turn blue/purple before it goes black. While I was getting the frame horns cleaned in preparation for the 4wd spring mounts I found these numbers. Anyone know the meaning of them?

[Madkidd007]

Itty bitty progress, I seriously am enjoying the weather too much to car about working. But here are the DIY4X front spring hanger body mounts that I had on the Cummins truck. Also notice my angle iron cross tie to the rear bracket/nut plates. I always thought the front of these trucks should have had the hangers tied together. Still need to drill the bottom holes but I’ll do that when I roll the front axle under it

[clay68c10]

Those are stout.
There’s a lot of numbers on these frames. The only ones I know about are the VIN. Maybe the others are part numbers or some date code from the stamping.

[Madkidd007]

Originally Posted by clay68c10

Those are stout.
There’s a lot of numbers on these frames. The only ones I know about are the VIN. Maybe the others are part numbers or some date code from the stamping.

They are so stout I was very careful not to drop them on myself when bolting them up, lol. Allows you to go stock spring location or in my case run 52” rear springs

[Madkidd007]

So the garage has had a family vehicle in it that does not park outside. So the chassis hasn’t been in there. Well I strung out the air hoses to the yard and decided I could do just a little bit. Need to notch the crossmember for the sway bar and crossover clearance like when it was all on my other truck. I’m hoping I have time before work tomorrow night to make the shackles and the it’ll all be bolted up. I plan on using 1/4” square steel tubing and notching for where it wraps around the frame and clearancing for the flat of the spring. Figured this way they will be strong and have lateral bracing more than any store bought units. Ofcourse I’ll post up a picture when I’m done.

[Madkidd007]

Got the shackles made up today and bolted up, didn’t want too much height being the frame is flat right there they didn’t need to be real long. Every cut and notch is for a reason, complete stroke in both directions just touching frame and body mounts. Seriously doubt I will ever use this much articulation but you never know. Note I also had to notch the frame as the 157” frame is wider. Notice the lower half of the shackle has a complete box around it which should help any twisting and sway with the longer springs. Also if I ever broke a shackle bolts or say lost a nut, The shackle would not come completely loose until the bolt walked all the way out

[Madkidd007]

Decided since the shackles are only 1/4” on the inside I will weld another layer to the shackle to stiffen it up. But today being as I’m sunburnt I’m not doing much. Just made a simple jig to relocate the rear cab mounts. The frame will be slightly sloped up so this will allow me to keep every thing in line/level. Now just to remove rivets and do some drilling. I figure this way it should help with sitting the cab back in place when I redo it

[Madkidd007]

Well I decided that wasn’t enough, the jig worked like a charm combined with the tape measure. Exactly 33” rearward and at the same height relative to the frame as factory. Weird how many numbers I keep finding on this frame, I swear I’ve never seen any of these on the smaller frames.

[Madkidd007]

Wee itty bitty updates, so I removed one bedside from the longbed and going to break it the rest of the way down tomorrow. Did realize it’s easier to treat the floor carriage bolts like frame rivets and just drill the heads off instead of risking stripping the square holes in the panels since I’ll be going with new hardware anyways. Plan is to do some half assed bodywork to make the panels look decent for my Cummins daily driver/work truck. Since my daily puts in hard work and gets scratches I’m not concerned with perfection, just want it painted uniform and prefer the steel floor. Going to take my longbed wood floor bed off my daily and shorten it for the crew cab. Doing this to make the bed easier to move so I can hopefully get the chassis under the body this week. Side not the steel floor bed I got from “Uncle” has a solid floor and wasn’t expecting it to be so nice

[Madkidd007]

Being a one man show, I’m exhausted so yesterday I got the bed tore apart completely and the only rust I found was one small spot on the driver wheel tub and the rear crossmember/support that is damaged and have to repair anyways.

[Madkidd007]

And for today’s whoopin........

[Madkidd007]

Old girl gonna be a big girl. And yes I need a lot more room

[Madkidd007]

Feels weird to visually be going backwards yet still saying I’m making progress