Big Bertha build thread

[buggy5872]

Shot the first coat of primer on the cab and started making the mounts for the seats. I used 05 suburban leather seats. The back seat gave me some trouble due to how the cab gets narrower as you go up. Had to take an inch out of where the seats joined to get it to fit.

[buggy5872]

Now its March 2012 and I have to pick the camper up from storage by the end of April. I was starting to get nervous but did not panic yet. I focused on getting the door's body work finished next. A friend that owns a body shop suggested I use Z-chrome primer on the doors since there was so much work done on them. I had never heard of the stuff but it is like sprayable body filler with zinc to control any rust. He offered to spray them for me so I dropped them off at his shop. Here is what they looked like after being sprayed.

I block sanded them down and I am hooked on the stuff. I have two brothers, one that owns a body shop and one that works for a body shop, they are both hooked on it too now. I then shot some more primer and cut in the edges so i could assemble the doors.


Somehow I do not have any pics of the other doors but they looked the same.
Check out my alcoa wheels in the background of the one pic. Alcoa had not made the wheels since the 80's and I knew they were out there somewhere. I had been looking since I bought the truck and finally got a set. had to lay down 2 grand for 6 of them but I had to have them.

[buggy5872]

Now I finished blocking out the rest of the cab and got it in final primer and cut in for assembly.


Then the fun of wiring, interior and dash items to put in.


Here is a word of caution. Do not buy a windshield made in mexico. I fought it for 3 hours and it just would not fit. It ended up shattered on the floor of the garage. I went and dug through my stash of original windshields and found the best one. 20 minutes later it was in with no issues.

[buggy5872]

Here it is assembled and ready to make the trip to my brother's body shop for paint. He thought I was crazy painting it before I even test fitted it on the chassis.

[dmack91]

All I can say is "WOW"!! And I am happy getting some sanding and filling done in a day.

[JRANGER]

yeah this is looking good...Awesome that your just catching us up on it too!! lol

[mknittle]

That looks loke it was a fun build!

[hopped up]

Awesome build. I wanna see more!!! You have some serious skills
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[AUSSIE54]

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[AUSSIE54]

G'day buggy5872,

I thought I had serious issues! Man, that is extreme!!!! Absolutely fantastic workmanship there. I, like the others will be hanging out for more.

Go the mighty crewcabs!!
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[buggy5872]

AUSSIE54, I wish I had your shop to work in. I like your project too and it is comming along very well also.

[Larry Lindley]

WoW I like this build,only thing is the 350,but hey very good so far.Man if I had your skills and such the sky is the limit.

[buggy5872]

After wet sanding until my finger prints were gone, She went into the spray booth for some color. I forgot my camara so I have not pics of it in the booth. While it was drying I headed back to my house to get the chassis. Here it is as it arrived at my brother's place.


I could probably use a slightly bigger trailer but it works. Now came the great union. Would it fit????? Thank God my brother has lifts in his garage or it would of been a nightmare to put together



I did not get any pics of the uion but it went pretty smoothly. Had to raise and lower it several times. Frame mounts went right on where they should and a few bolt later and it was a perfect match. The front clip did not line up so I had to take it off the tilt mechanism for the ride home. Here it is safe and sound back at my house.

[buggy5872]

Originally Posted by Larry Lindley

WoW I like this build,only thing is the 350,but hey very good so far.Man if I had your skills and such the sky is the limit.

The 350 is not as bad as you would think. It has 5.38 gears and puts the 350 in its sweet spot for torque when running down the road. It does slow down on really big hills but what truck doesn't when pulling 11K pounds. We were just on a 1200 mile trip for vacation and turn 9 mpg towing and around 13 with out the camper. A diesel would be better but I would have spent another 10k to do a diesel and big blocks just suck too much gas.

[buggy5872]

By now it is mid April and I spent the next 2 weeks hooking up wiring, brakes, and steering. The moment of truth was here...turn the key and....it fired right up. I was relieved it was running and moving under its own power. Seeing as I was not going to make it to be able to pick up the camper in time, I borrowed a friends dually and got it home. Now that the camper was at my house, I could figure out the fifth wheel hitch. They do not exactly make a standard bolt on hitch for something like this. I figured it out and test fit it to the trailer.



I had reserved several camping spots through the end of summer and our first one was Memorial Day weekend. Three weeks to go and I was starting to get nervous.

[buggy5872]

Three weeks left...not front clip, no bed, not lights, and most of the dash was not in. I worked on the front clip tilt mecanism for a while. I have a hydralic cylinder that is suposed to tilt for me but it did not work out the way I wanted it so I abandoned it until a later date. I got the front clip mouted and tilting correctly.


Good thing for my hady shop crane or I would not of been able to get it on and off the 20 or so times while I cut and welded on things to make it work. Making a one piece tilt front end out of a regular front end is not as easy as I first thought. Now on to the body work. I knew there was some bondo above the driver headlight and assumed it was from some rust out. Silly me to assume. I pulled a 5" thick piece of bondo off and the fender had been hit and pushed back that far. It was a mess but there are not many around so I had to cut it off and hand form a new top of the fender. This summer I did score a nice fender and front grill panel. f i would of had them earlier it would of save me a ton of time.

[buggy5872]

It's now the weekend before Memorial Day. Front clip mouted and a make shift bed until I get the other done.

4 days left still need, bumper mounted, grille, lights working, insurance, tags, exhaust, and inspection....... Tuesday night of that week was the first time on the road. I drove it to work Wednessday so I could run out to my brothers shop to bend up some exhaust and throw an inspection sticker on it.

Thursday night I wired up the brake controller nad took the camper for a test spin.

[buggy5872]

As we pulled out of the driveway with the camper my wife askes me if I think it will make it. I told her there's nothing like a road test pulling 11K pounds. It was either going to go or stop......We made it with out any major issues. Nine months from start to "funtional" enough to use. I was just worn out at this point. Our first trip we had no functioal gauges, power windows we put up and down with a motorcyle battery, no ac, and no running boards to assist in climbing in. It was a huge hit at the camp ground and the questions and pictures have not stopped since. I thought it would get some attention but not this much. Yogi and Booboo bear even came and checked it out.

[buggy5872]

My progress slowed down since I am not under the gun to get it functional. I worked for months till 1 am evey night and then back up at 5am to go to work. I would not suggest anyone tourcher them selves like this. Anyhow....back to the progress. I had to make the running boards from scratch since the old ones were trached and about four feet too short. Luck I have a friend that had a fabrication shop and we were able to bend up some that look pretty stock. The fender extention piece was very difficult to make. It bends in curves in 5 different directions and is only about 10" long. I had to completely hand form them with some clamps, various diameter rods for bending around and at one point beding them over my thight to get the right shape. They turned out nice though.

[Dunenutt]

You have some mad skills!!!

Looks awesome!

[Pop's C-10]

Awesome

[buggy5872]

Originally Posted by Dunenutt

You have some mad skills!!!

Looks awesome!

Not bad for an Accountant....just think if I did this full time......

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by buggy5872

....just think if I did this full time......

you'd be broke, like me

awesome build. you have a truck to be proud of.

[buggy5872]

Ogre, I need to learn some fiberglass skills like you have. I have looked through your interior build thread and it has given me some ideas for this winter on my interior....

[Russell Ashley]

That is awsome. This is definitely one of the top builds on this forum. You have some serious fab skills.