Used Parts Build

[tinydb84]

Originally Posted by Joe Pass

This is getting crazy.....lol...nice work

Im just making stuff up as I go at this point. You going to the Intervention in Sept?

Originally Posted by TrybalRage

Me reading this thread....

The picture isn't coming up for me.

[tinydb84]

Left work early to work on my truck yesterday. Got some stuff done.

Kinda hard to see in some of the pictures. I welded bolts to tabs to the bed frame so I don't have to use two hands to put the plate on/off.

[tinydb84]

Welded up my compressor mounts. Took too many pictures...

[tinydb84]

Made a quick catch can mount





Mounted my fuel filler

[aggie91]

Like the look and location of the oil catch can mount!

[tinydb84]

I dropped off my rear end over at a friend's shop to have it rebuilt and shortened. Its going to get a posi and 31 spline axles. Turns out it was a bit bent...



Started making mounts to do my wood floor. I never liked the look of the steel strips on the bed so I am building brackets that will allow me to screw them in from the underside. I found predrilled aluminum in the scrap pile at the steel shop.

[tinydb84]

Got my battery cables done. Picked up this cool tool off amazon. Works great.



Started making a mount for my trans cooler





Ill weld it to the frame under the passenger side seat later this week.

[Joe Pass]

Great work.....I have a Crimper like that....use it regularly.......

[cebra]

Awesome work, any chance you can snap a full chassis picture?

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by tinydb84

Got my battery cables done. Picked up this cool tool off amazon. Works great.

Do you compress in a vise, press, or BFH?

I had cables made @ NAPA when I did the under hood clean-up for my nephews El Camino. They (NAPA) basically used the same ends as you & possibly some sort of die.... but it looked like they whacked them w/a chisel tip & hammer. I was not happy. They were planning to charge me a fee for the Neanderthal assembly until I balked. I know I would have done a cleaner appearing 'crimp' than what they did.
Would be nice to have something in my box for future use that isn't too hard on the 'limited-use' tool budget.

[tinydb84]

Originally Posted by Joe Pass

Great work.....I have a Crimper like that....use it regularly.......

Thanks Joe. It worked better than I hoped.

Originally Posted by cebra

Awesome work, any chance you can snap a full chassis picture?

I dont have any. I didnt think ahead enough to do so. My instagram has bits and chunks of everything though.

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Do you compress in a vise, press, or BFH?

I had cables made @ NAPA when I did the under hood clean-up for my nephews El Camino. They (NAPA) basically used the same ends as you & possibly some sort of die.... but it looked like they whacked them w/a chisel tip & hammer. I was not happy. They were planning to charge me a fee for the Neanderthal assembly until I balked. I know I would have done a cleaner appearing 'crimp' than what they did.
Would be nice to have something in my box for future use that isn't too hard on the 'limited-use' tool budget.

BFH. It was $15-20 bucks on Amazon. Totally worth is just on the drive to the store and first use alone.

[tinydb84]

Slowly chipping away. Welded up my license plate box and painted it. Ill cut it in to the tailgate but wanted it painted so it doesn't rust from the backside.

Welded on the bolts from the backside since I wont be able to reach them later.


Painted my trans cooler mount too.

[tinydb84]

Dropped my rear end off at my friend's shop. Shortened 1.5 inches on each side. Upgraded to 31 spline axles and posi.

[tinydb84]

My thread got to the second page. Figured I might need to work on it a bit. Turned out to be frustrating as hell...Got my reared back.

Started stripping all the old paint. Then found this monstrosity.

I spent two hours chasing down leaks out of the silicon bronze before giving up and using some JB weld to seal it. Not my finest moment.
Well during my hunt for leaks I used a bit of compressed air in the vent tube to find where the oil was seeping out. Which led me to find this...


I hit is with a burr and it opened right up

So I welded it up


The housing was pretty beat up but I figured since I was replacing everything in it who cares. Now I am wondering if I should replace the housing. I just dropped $1500 into it to have it shortened, posi, and new bearings and seals. So frustrating... Any thoughts??

[Joe Pass]

Years ago when I built the 56 it came with a 12 bolt "Camaro" housing that some one had torched off the old hangers and installed spring pads....Under the paint was that exact porous pattern you have.....I filled it with brass to prevent any oil weeping....painted it and called it good....Until that day when leaving a friend's little get together I did the biggest burn out I believe I ever did...Later that evening I had gone in to the garage to wipe off the truck when I noticed an Amber fluid under the truck.....My worst fear came true, the housing had broke in two exposing the axle between the cracked right axle tube. I repaired it in the truck....knowing my repair was substandard....It had lasted 15 more years until recently, oil started dripping in another area of that weld...Long story short...I was able to buy a Moser replacement housing with 1/4" tubes and cast steel center.....Added my own spring perches and built it knowing it will never fail......This will be your weakest link in that 9", especially with the power your building into to it,,,
My suggestion would be to disassemble it and try to slip tubing in the inner wall of that area and plug weld it,,,,You could do it on the outside but it would be seen like a scarf patch....Just an opinion

[tinydb84]

Originally Posted by Joe Pass

Years ago when I built the 56 it came with a 12 bolt "Camaro" housing that some one had torched off the old hangers and installed spring pads....Under the paint was that exact porous pattern you have.....I filled it with brass to prevent any oil weeping....painted it and called it good....Until that day when leaving a friend's little get together I did the biggest burn out I believe I ever did...Later that evening I had gone in to the garage to wipe off the truck when I noticed an Amber fluid under the truck.....My worst fear came true, the housing had broke in two exposing the axle between the cracked right axle tube. I repaired it in the truck....knowing my repair was substandard....It had lasted 15 more years until recently, oil started dripping in another area of that weld...Long story short...I was able to buy a Moser replacement housing with 1/4" tubes and cast steel center.....Added my own spring perches and built it knowing it will never fail......This will be your weakest link in that 9", especially with the power your building into to it,,,
My suggestion would be to disassemble it and try to slip tubing in the inner wall of that area and plug weld it,,,,You could do it on the outside but it would be seen like a scarf patch....Just an opinion

Thank for the detailed response. Honestly if this thing last 5 years I will be more than happy. I am leaning towards running it for now and see what happens. I still need to buy a few things for the truck and I don't want to hold it up more... My main concern is a catastrophic failure while I'm on the freeway or something.

I am thinking about filling it with oil tonight so I can see if it leaks anywhere else over the week and if it doesn't Ill paint it this weekend.

[daddyjeep]

I think the hole in the tube will be fine now that you have welded it up. The bronze looks more concerning to me, if that's what it is. I might be inclined to go back and grind most of that out and do a better job of welding it up. Then, if you still aren't comfortable you could build some sort of a truss like us off road guys do. A back truss is very common on the 9", but you don't have room there. With the butt welded axle tubes a truss really isn't a bad idea anyway. With the fab you have already done I am confident you can make something work and look right.

[tinydb84]

daddyjeep-I thought quite a bit about adding some bracing and cover that area but I figured Id get it running first. So here is where I am at:

painted my rear end

got my tank installed

installed the rear end and adjusted everything


I am heading out of two for two weeks so more of no truck work coming up!

[tinydb84]

Been busy (and broke). A wedding, honeymoon, two dog surgeries, property tax all really hit my wallet! Anyway I am back at it. Going to work on the stuff that doesn't cost much. Figured Id work on something different.

Cut a hole

Trimmed down a license plate box

I spent a lot of time on fitment so I could fusion weld as much of it as possible.

Welded all in. Still need to grind it a bit. Any recommendations for a custom license plate?

[rodstored-72]

VERY COOL!!! it looks to me like your welding is pretty good!!! I just started seeing the thread... Do you have any pics of the overall truck? i would like to see it? i am not able to see the beginning pics...

[daddyjeep]

Originally Posted by tinydb84

Been busy (and broke). A wedding, honeymoon, two dog surgeries, property tax all really hit my wallet!

Well, I suppose Congratulations are in order then.

The dog better now?

Damn taxes!!!

[tinydb84]

Originally Posted by rodstored-72

VERY COOL!!! it looks to me like your welding is pretty good!!! I just started seeing the thread... Do you have any pics of the overall truck? i would like to see it? i am not able to see the beginning pics...

I don't have any good pics of it. Everything I had was on an old computer that crashed. Photobucket stopped hosting for free and when I saved everything to transfer it my computer took a dive. Blah.

Originally Posted by daddyjeep

Well, I suppose Congratulations are in order then.

The dog better now?

Damn taxes!!!

Thank you sir. My dog had a second TPLO surgery. It takes forever to heal but she is doing good right now.

[tinydb84]

Did some more work to my tailgate.

Bent up some steel to roughly match the patch area

Welded it in

Ground it clean

Welded up some trim holes

[tinydb84]

I had to cut away some of the backside to fit the license plate box where I wanted it.

I made some filler panels and cut them into the next step up in the tailgate. It should blend well into the original body lines.

I bought a "muffler" off amazon for $8. Its 409 stainless. I am going to reroute my exhaust out the fender so I can put the hood back on.

[tinydb84]

Welded up the patches

Bought a trim ring

Small hole

Bigger hole

Had to shape the ring a bit to match the fender

Rough idea

Started chopping up my old exhaust to reroute it. I seem to be getting a lot of practice redoing everything :/