The Boss 72 Chevy 4x4 Cummins Dually

[MrBeast]

I got a lot done today, no pictures though. I managed to get the boxes all welded up, and the rust garden ground off the cab. Tomorrow morning all I have to do is wash the whole works, and get the welder mounted up.

Then I have to build a mount for my cooler, and spare tire, and I am set!

It is going to feel awful good being able to drive this thing to work Tuesday with that machine mounted on it!

[MrBeast]

Wow, what a crazy 4 days it has been. I got the truck all ripped apart and put it back together again, including organizing my tools and stowing them in the boxes.

The truck has really come a long way since I started working hard on it a few months ago, I am auful damn happy with how it is turning out too.

Before:


After:






I still have a lot of stuff to fab up, like a cooler mount, and a mount for the spare tire, a holder for my oxygen and acetylene bottles, as well as a rack for my cords. But over all I am so happy with it right now. Once I get all that stuff knocked out, I think the next step in the project is going to finally be to get off my butt and put the air conditioning in it. Although the narrowed 14 bolt dually rear with the 3.55's is something else I will need to do too.

Tomorrow night I start school again, I am starting on the Machinists program this semester, as well I took a new job here in town that I start Thursday next week. Took a small cut in pay to start, but they are going to teach me to weld pipe, aluminum, and titanium. And the education will be better than what I can get at welding school.

Seeing as how I am still going to the same college though, I am taking the book work for the welding school, and in a year or so once I am really rockin and rollin with my welding, I am going to go take the remainder of the bend tests, this will allow me to get the degree with out having to spend the time in the class room!

I am really happy with the whole build, and I feel like I am kicking ass at life right now. All the pieces are just coming together.

[MrBeast]

I haven't been working on the truck much the last couple of weeks, been working with it though, the welder has been great.

Made this with it tonight -



And last week built this gate.



The star goes on the gate in the middle, matching section on the other side.

Hopefully soon I will have more to post.

[67_C-30]

Wow! Awesome work!

[watahyahknow]

realy nice

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by 67_C-30

Wow! Awesome work!

Thanks, I installed it to the gate this morning, I should have pictures later this week, I am really happy with the way it turned out.

I also am working on making a roller for rolling flat bar into hoops, it will allow me to roll them into any size above 12 or so inches. It is going to be pretty neat. Being able to do a 6" radius, I should be able to make plenty of goodies, especially when it comes to working on my trucks and cars when it comes to building frames and what not.

[67_C-30]

You be careful, Paul Teutul Sr. started out building gates out of the back of a '69 Chevy truck!!

Senior started Orange County Ironworks some 30 years ago out of the bed of his aqua-green 1969 Chevy pickup truck.

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by 67_C-30

You be careful, Paul Teutul Sr. started out building gates out of the back of a '69 Chevy truck!!

What a terrible thing that would be (sarcasm)

Oh, by the way... I have been holding out on you all.

[67_C-30]

Ohhh!!! Pontiac Man, huh? Awesome car!!! Check out my '71 1/2 GT-37. I have 3 Pontiac 455's hoarded up, a '69 390 HP 428, and a Ram Air III 400, and a set of ported #16's (Jim Butler Performance) that flow over 300 cfm at .500" lift. I also have a '67 Firebird 400 body that was factory 4 speed with A/C car. It looks like dammit, but it is very solid. I hope to put the 428 in front of a M22 my '67 Firebird on day. I have a full list of Pontiac engine code numbers and head numbers on the site also, if you ever need to use it. I put the info on there as sort of a Mortec.com thing for Ponchos.

www.bassettracing.cz28.com

Pontiac engine ID
http://bassettracing.cz28.com/custom3.html

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by 67_C-30

Ohhh!!! Pontiac Man, huh? Awesome car!!! Check out my '71 1/2 GT-37. I have 3 Pontiac 455's hoarded up, a '69 390 HP 428, and a Ram Air III 400, and a set of ported #16's (Jim Butler Performance) that flow over 300 cfm at .500" lift. I also have a '67 Firebird 400 body that was factory 4 speed with A/C car. It looks like dammit, but it is very solid. I hope to put the 428 in front of a M22 my '67 Firebird on day. I have a full list of Pontiac engine code numbers and head numbers on the site also, if you ever need to use it. I put the info on there as sort of a Mortec.com thing for Ponchos.

www.bassettracing.cz28.com

Pontiac engine ID
http://bassettracing.cz28.com/custom3.html

Thanks, the 67 Firebird is one of my favorite cars of all time, I have wanted one for ever. I have been 1750 miles away from my TA for almost 2 years now, it really sucks, I miss my car so much. It is a great car. Someday soon I will be going to get it. And the other two I have there as well, my 71 442, and my 93 Z28

[Devon]

Wow! What a wicked truck! I don't think I've ever been more glued to a computer screen. I just picked up a 72 C3500 and am even more inspired after reading this. I want to make mine in to a worker/hauler with a dump box and its great to see these units still in service. Thanks again for the inspiration!

Check out my new baby if your interested:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=299541

-Devon

[watahyahknow]

allmost forgot about this truck , did you done anything to it lately?

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by watahyahknow

allmost forgot about this truck , did you done anything to it lately?

I haven't done much over the summer, work has been kind of slow, also a couple of weeks ago I ran over a piece of steel that fell out of the back of a truck in front of me, blew my front tire, shredded my fender, messed up my clutch linkage and put a nice hole in my exhaust. so it is going to need some serious work to get back on the road again.

I am also going to need to get something figured out with my shop situation soon, I need to either buy the place I am in, or buy another place here in town. We will see what happens. Once I get that figured out, I need to get the truck bandaided to the point I can drive it for a while, then I can work on getting my 8 lug equipment installed in my blazer, as well as get it converted from a TH-350 to a NV4500. Then I can get busy tearing my dually down and fixing it proper.

Probably 2 weekends from now I will be building a small trailer to mount my welder on so I can tow it around. Then I will be set to tear the body the rest of the way off the dually. Just a lot of hoops to jump through right now.

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by Devon

Wow! What a wicked truck! I don't think I've ever been more glued to a computer screen. I just picked up a 72 C3500 and am even more inspired after reading this. I want to make mine in to a worker/hauler with a dump box and its great to see these units still in service. Thanks again for the inspiration!

Check out my new baby if your interested:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=299541

-Devon

Thank you, what I would suggest you consider doing is building a good solid flat bed for it, with a dump bed mechanism, put in some well reinforced stake pockets, and build some good side boards. This way you can have the best of both worlds, a truck you can haul a load of gravel with, or a truck you can haul a couple of bundles of lumber with. It would be very multi functional this way.

[LUV2XCLR8]

Nice Gate Work

(Wish you were closer)

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by LUV2XCLR8

Nice Gate Work

(Wish you were closer)

Lol, thanks. I am waiting for the guy to finish getting it painted, once he does I will have some great pics to share.

[Palf70Step]

Great work on your truck and on your gate stuff. Makes me want to have a 1 ton, but a computer nerd doesn't really need one.

[watahyahknow]

ohw man thats a shame that happened to the truck i hope you got the licenceplate of that truck so yo could deal with his insurance
mounting the welder onto a trailer is prolly a better idea cause you can hang that behind about any vehicle thats able to tow it even a rental if sumtin happen to your daily .
with youre dually being out of commision youre welder is now kindah stuck at where it is now , makes it eazier to work inside a building too and have it serviced without being out of transportation

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by watahyahknow

ohw man thats a shame that happened to the truck i hope you got the licenceplate of that truck so yo could deal with his insurance
mounting the welder onto a trailer is prolly a better idea cause you can hang that behind about any vehicle thats able to tow it even a rental if sumtin happen to your daily .
with youre dually being out of commision youre welder is now kindah stuck at where it is now , makes it eazier to work inside a building too and have it serviced without being out of transportation

Definitely, I was using the truck to make a living this summer, but I just got a new job in an entry level management position. I think it is going to work out well, and the plus side of that is, now I can fix my truck the way I want to fix it. not having to worry about making a living with it.

And I can have my welder setup to do small jobs on the weekends.

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Great work on your truck and on your gate stuff. Makes me want to have a 1 ton, but a computer nerd doesn't really need one.

Of course you need one! *nods*

[MrBeast]

The project taking a new turn.

As it were, my deal on the cumins fell through, Looking at cost, right now I have decided not to convert the truck to a 4x4, it is going to stay a 2WD and it is going to get air ride, and a 4 link rear.

The genesis of this decision all started with these 2 photos from the day I put the mirrors on the truck.





I have come to the conclusion that I really love the western hauler look on this truck. I really think I would be doing a disservice to it if I turned it into a flat bed. It just doesn't fit the truck.

The body that is on it at current has been cut up and modified into a welding body. It was old, and somewhat poorly constructed, It looks great in the photos, but there is actually quite a lot that is wrong with it.

What I have concluded to do is I am going to build a new body from scratch, based upon the design of the old one. This will allow me to construct the body exactly how I want it, as well it will allow me to build a lighter body using box tubing to frame parts of it out, and the sheet metal brake I am getting in a couple of weeks to make better fitting tool box doors, and other such components on the bed.

I am going to do somthing a little different this time though, when I build the big box on the front of the bed, I am going to turn 1/4 of it on the drivers side into a tool box and a 12 volt refrigerator, and then the other 3/4ths of the box will actually be a compartment for my best buddy.



I am even going to see if it would be feesable to put his own heating/air system in there with a thermostat, at the least I am going to use semi style "sleeper" vents to keep him with fresh air. And I will throughly insulate the roof so as that the sun doesn't warm it up. The front and bottom of the box will be padded so as that he can lay in there with out getting hurt if I brake fast. And I am working on a way to stuff a window in the door for him. Possibly even one that opens. But we will see on that.

In 2 weeks I am going to run up to Houston and pick up the rest of the front suspension and hydra boost out of the 95 that I parted out to get my NV4500 and dually 14 bolt. I will be narrowing the 14 bolt to the same width as the stock HO72 axle, thus keeping the lines of the side of the truck the same.

Also in machine shop class I am going to be building a custom accessory drive pulley kit, that has a engine driven air compressor for my suspension. I am actually going to go with a unit designed for a class 6-8 truck, with a clutch off of an air conditioning compressor. I think it will be pretty trick, I will hook that clutch up to a high/low control circuit that will keep my air pressure right where I want it.

This will also provide me with enough air pressure and flow to run air tools off of my trucks air system. As well I will be able to tow an air ride trailer with this setup. I am even considering a nifty pair of semi air ride seats!

Another big must is I am going to get a vintage air sure fit system for it, it does get really hot in south Texas, and I want that system for the long road trips I am going to be taking with the truck.

Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will get a bunch done on my autocad drawing of the bed I am working on, and will be able to post some images of it. I am still a bit of a beginner with autocad so it has been kind of slow going.

[watahyahknow]

since youre building the eeeh dogpen close to the cab the simplest thing would be to reroute one of the hoses feeding the footwhell with warm/cold air through the back of the cab (under a center consolle ) and intoo the box or use a squirrelfan behind the seats , that way you can hear him when he barks too .
heating the box shouldnt be too hard just a small radiator (like the one from the trans that heats up to 180 i believe) with a 12 volt squirrelcage behind it and that will work nicely , cooling might take a complete rearunit out of sumtin like a suburban and splice it in the existing unit or use a seperate compressor for it .

hmmm maibe using a electric coolunit out of a icebox might work good enough

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by watahyahknow

since youre building the eeeh dogpen close to the cab the simplest thing would be to reroute one of the hoses feeding the footwhell with warm/cold air through the back of the cab (under a center consolle ) and intoo the box or use a squirrelfan behind the seats , that way you can hear him when he barks too .
heating the box shouldnt be too hard just a small radiator (like the one from the trans that heats up to 180 i believe) with a 12 volt squirrelcage behind it and that will work nicely , cooling might take a complete rearunit out of sumtin like a suburban and splice it in the existing unit or use a seperate compressor for it .

hmmm maibe using a electric coolunit out of a icebox might work good enough

All Ideas I am playing with, when I get closer to having to do it, I am going to hook up with Vintage air, explain my need to them and see what they can rig up for me.

[MrBeast]

This morning I have been working on the panhard geometry for the truck.

This is an Autocad drawing I did.



This is just a quick drawing to determine side to side deflection using Airlift D6200 air bags, they have a 9.7" stroke, and a max load carrying capacity of 3055 lbs each, I am currently working on figuring up a guesstimate of my curb weight, so I can realistically figure how much of a tung weight my truck could handle.

More updates to follow today. I am probably going to run out and get dimensions off of my bed so I can start drawing it too.

[MrBeast]

So I carried through with my promise, I sat down with my truck today, took a whole bunch of measurements, and designed a rear suspension.

Heres the result.







Pictured are the max lift, max lower and ride height configuration. I am going to use 4 leveling valves on the truck, 2 front, 2 rear, these will act as sway bars helping the truck stay level in the corners. I am also considering using a Ride Tech Level pro system, but man they cost a little coin...

Anyways, About the first of October I will be tearing the truck apart, and starting on making this a reality.