69 short stepside build

[mandojunior]

thanks! where exactly are you from? when my truck is finished i want to drive it to shows and such and maybe get connected with more people in my area

[mandojunior]

i sandblasted my firewall yesterday. i couldnt finish because my compressor had water and the wet sand clogged the blaster. i also found more rust on the bottom of the firewall from the passenger side. i thought i was done with rust repair

[mcbassin]

Originally Posted by mandojunior

i sandblasted my firewall yesterday. i couldnt finish because my compressor had water and the wet sand clogged the blaster. i also found more rust on the bottom of the firewall from the passenger side. i thought i was done with rust repair

Been there done that. I feel your pain. I actually had some rust come back through on my firewall after it had be primered for over a year....not pleasant. You are way better off finding all you can now rather than later.

[mandojunior]

yea thats what i tought. better now than later. at least its nothing too complicated, just a couple of small patches. im going to try to patch it tonight while my brother in law does the body work on the back of the cab

[mitchell72]

Cab looks good. The other day I used my blaster for the first time in years and I found a dead mouse inside. Water was also a problem. I learned my lesson

[mandojunior]

yea i decided not to use it anymore untill i buy a good watertrap. and wow a mouse lol i left my sandblaster upside down with the lid off ill be sure to check in case anything else is in there

[mandojunior]

my brother in law is wrapping up the body work on my cab

[mandojunior]

i also started stripping one of the doors that came with my parts truck. i didnt want to sandblast it right away since the paint is so thick and i wanted to save sand. ive been using a gel from a local tool store and it works pretty good. whoever painted it before was a HUGE fan of high build primer.

[mandojunior]

i painted my firewall with kbs gloss black paint. i didnt have the original can so i didnt know what to thin it with. i ended up using lacquer thinner. it sprayed good n it looked okay before i left for the night. i hope i dont get there and find a huge mess tomorrow morning.

[mandojunior]

i haven't been workin on my truck lately. im going to start again today though. a cpuple days ago my brother in law finished all the body work in the cab. i also finished sanding the inside and its now ready for primer

[mandojunior]

i also decided to bite the bullet and bag my truck. i was going to wait to save up and buy the porterbuilt drop member but ill just buy it later. im thinking of fabricating a kp cantilever with a y-link or watts link to center it.

[mandojunior]

this is the setup.in my old truck. i bought the kp watts link and made the cantilever. what do you guys think of the y-link/wishbone vs the watts link setup? or should i make a setup like the super lift system thorbros sells?

[mandojunior]

so i decided to go with a cantilever setup and a wishbone. i started building the cantilever and got one side done.

[mandojunior]

i also cut out my front upper plates. just need to smooth out the edges and drill the holes

[mandojunior]

cantilever

[mandojunior]

I almost finished the back and put the cabin back on the frame. Im working on the front for now

[mcbassin]

Very nice progress on your project. Did you design the rear suspension system? How does it work?

[mandojunior]

Its a cantilever system I didnt design it, I just made one that worked for me. There is a link on each side where the arrow is pointing to ataching the cantilever to the axle. When the bag in the back inflates it puts downforce on the axle and since the cantilever is atached to the frame it lifts it up.

[mandojunior]

I painted my link bars and cantilever last week. Im gonna shoot another coat of paint before clearing them. I also painted the axle. Ill have more updates later today

[mandojunior]

Chrome cover

[mandojunior]

Frame is painted

[mandojunior]

Back is now assembled. Now I just need the shocks and brake lines

[mandojunior]

I bolted the cab in yesterday. Also finished up the front suspension tie rods, brake lines, shocks etc. I think now I can focus on the bed and tryin to figure out how im going to bolt it back down

[Justin@EntropyRad]

sittin' low...dig the cantilevers!

[mandojunior]

I test fit the bed. Its not gonna get as low as I wanted because of the fenders but its still low. Im going to fabricate some way to hold the bed onto the truck and then send it to get the body work done