Build #2 Crusader!

[mrhino]

No pics yet! I spent half of the day on the pass side measuring cutting, welding and grinding supports for the seat. then realized that this way its not going to work. the seat was not going to sit flat. (not so much level front to back but flat so that it bolts flat to the floor. Then spent the other half of the day, removing what I had done and thinking about how to mount it to make it flat. Im thinking Im going to have to elevate it just a little. but not sure just how yet.

[mrhino]

I have been working out the details of starting my own internet based business. I have many Items lined up to sell and Im hoping to kick it off, right here on the Forum, then branch out into eBay, Amazon and then my own website. Im hoping there is a good market for the products here with older trucks and hotrods. some of the Items are: Auto-dimming rear view mirrors, either plain or with temp and compass, Home-link (garage door openers) back up cameras a 3" screen on the mirror turns on when the vehical is put into reverse. I can even get them with Navigation in them as well. some other things include Bluetooth for your truck. Seat heaters that you can add to your factory seat and stand alone home link for either the headliner, sun-visor or any where else you can think of.

sorry I getting excited about that. and cant help myself.

Any way i got on the seats this weekend heres how it turned out.


with the humps removed from the floor I thought it best to tie the front part of the floor into the rear and not necessarily use the part I cut out to support the seat. so I welded a a piece of 1/8 flat stock to the front. Heated it till i could get it to bend to the curv of the floor.



then I took 3/16 flat stock all the way across the floor to the back. I welded that to the front piece I welded to the floor.


In the rear I "Boxed" it in and then welded that to the floor.


Then I set the seat back up there to measure for the other side.

I welded a piece of 1/8 plate to the small raised part in the floor

heated it till I could bend it around the hump

Once again took my 3/16 piece and welded that to the hump. I also had to heat it up and put a slight bend in it.


Same thing in the rear, gave it some heat so i could bend it then welded it to the floor


essentially what Iv done is tied the front and rear together for the best strength. and still keep it low.


Next drilled some Mounting holes, weld a small washer to the bottom of the seat track just to keep the track off of the floor a little, then bolted the seat in with Hardened bolts.






Once it was all mounted in I put some battery power to it and took it for a ride. As you can see there is plenty of room, Tyler is almost 6' tall and there is a good 8" or so of head room, I even had Deb climb in and tyler got in the back. It looks snug but hes a big boy, I got back there its comfortable.





Im pretty stoked about how it turned out, still need to finalize some stuff. Oh and do the drivers side.

[Car'n'Guitars]

Very smart "rigging" your doing there. Hope all your business stuff works out for you. I'm also trying to get a crewcab in Shipshewana. I hope it works out, but with my luck it won't. Do you know how long these are wheelbase wise?

[old Rusty C10]

If youre planning on selling here you do need to become a vendor for the volume that you are anticipating.

[joe231]

I love the seats!!
Nice work!
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[VA72C10]

Nice work on thee seats!

[mrhino]

Got the other side put in finally. I also got the center console. mounted in as well. Here are a few pics













When we got the truck, it had that lift on the back so it never had a bumper or hitch. Last weekend Tyler got the bumper mounted on, along with the hitch. I dont know what the hitch use to fit but after some cutting and drilling it fits this truck now.








You all think I should weld it?. or would the bolts be enough? there is one more bolt for each side for a total of 4 its just not pictured

[Car'n'Guitars]

Good work, are you going to put carpet in it or no?

[thirdstreettito]

Looking at the mounting of the hitch and all of the pitting on it. Buy a new hitch or build one. Make sure it mounts to the frame itself. Dont weld it to the frame. You'll hate yourself later if you do.

[mrhino]

Originally Posted by thirdstreettito

Looking at the mounting of the hitch and all of the pitting on it. Buy a new hitch or build one. Make sure it mounts to the frame itself. Dont weld it to the frame. You'll hate yourself later if you do.

Yea i really didnt want to weld it to the truck. just in case it needed to come off.
I didnt even think about the pitting, I never questioned the integrity of the hitch itself. I dont think its as bad as the picture makes it out to be. It is 1/4 thick steel.
The hitch is mounted to 3"x 4" 3 1/6 tubing that is welded all the way around to the frame. this is what the lift gate use to be mounted to. I did wonder myself about its strength, but had no reason why it wouldn't work. other than it just looks odd. It sure looks like it is plenty strong enough.

[mrhino]

Originally Posted by Car'n'Guitars

Good work, are you going to put carpet in it or no?

yep Ill put in some carpet. but that"s far down on my list of things to do. This past summer we went to a few Junk yards and pulled a bunch of interior parts for the truck. To my surprise she enjoyed herself. even planning a date night around it. Crew cabs aren't that common in junk yards, much less finding one's with all the plastic trim on the inside, but thanks to a hand full burbs, reg cabs and one red crew cab with a off white interior, we manage to get what we needed.


See look at that happy face.



Now I need to get Deb cleaning up all those plastic trim parts so we can to get them ready for paint. Are you listening dear?

[Car'n'Guitars]

Cool look forward to seeing this truck done.

[Evil Trailblazer SS]

Looks like a fun project for both of you...I sometimes wish my girlfriend was more into these trucks but then I remember that it's a great "me time" thing to do!
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[mrhino]

Originally Posted by Evil Trailblazer SS

Looks like a fun project for both of you...I sometimes wish my girlfriend was more into these trucks but then I remember that it's a great "me time" thing to do!
Posted via Mobile Device

I hear you. There is defenitly more "me time then we time", but Im willing to bet she'll say the same thing about household chores.

[mike'swife]

Originally Posted by mrhino

Now I need to get Deb cleaning up all those plastic trim parts so we can to get them ready for paint. Are you listening dear?

Dear, Did you say something? I couldn't hear you. I must have been too busy doing "women's work" to hear you. If you and the kids would help out it might free up some time so I can work on the truck too.

[joe231]

Busted!!!
Posted via Mobile Device

[Car'n'Guitars]

Ha, love her username it's just screaming Mike is in trouble.

[thirdstreettito]

OH SNAP!

[mrhino]

Originally Posted by mike'swife

Dear, Did you say something? I couldn't hear you. I must have been too busy doing "women's work" to hear you. If you and the kids would help out it might free up some time so I can work on the truck too.

Ah your first post. and of coarse you had to bust my balls. but your right!


we are also "discussing" what color to paint the truck. we originally decided on white. then she wanted dark gray, then I thought we both agreed on black. I get a text yesterday telling me she wants blue with no metallic. WTF!

[gmech]

Any colors good as long as you keep your better half happy. At least thats what I have learned over the years. Well except pink or lavender or something like that.

[Car'n'Guitars]

Anything is better than what it is painted now.

[STOCKISH]

Originally Posted by mike'swife

Dear, Did you say something? I couldn't hear you. I must have been too busy doing "women's work" to hear you. If you and the kids would help out it might free up some time so I can work on the truck too.

UM, I heard that! Watch it Mike!

[Last_Paladin]

Have you run those rear disk brackets before?

Most of the ones I've seen have spacers for the bracket or bent brackets, since the bolt is designed to provide clamping force, not shear resistance. Especially grade 8 that you have there.

Simple pipe cut to fit your space would provide more friction in the "clamp". Better would be a solid surface mount on the entire flange.

I am sure that a lot of people have run them this way, but I am also sure GM mounts theirs solidly for a reason after thousands of hours of testing and design modelling.

Sort of like this:


My opinion on the hitch: Do you have bolts running vertically into the piece of metal welded to your frame (I assume that's from the lift gate?). If so, I would run it. Plenty of clamp force and each one of those bolts is rated for more than the truck would tow. Bolting in two planes is always stronger as it can resist more lateral force, which is where most trailers cause problems in side to side sway or worst case, flipping.

[mrhino]

No! this is the first time iv used this kinda bracket, and the first full floater iv worked with. Because its designed differently than others the manufacture has offered this explanation on there ad.

" we no longer using DOM tube spacers and now taking up the space w/ 4 small angles that have been laser cut for a precise fit and welded to your brackets. What does this mean? Well for one it means no more having to use a BFH to try and get a bent bracket to line up, only to have your pads wear at a quick uneven pace. Would the pads not lining up correctly causing bad brake performance? The answer is yes and in the long run more money from your pocket. I have never heard of bolt failure as some claim can happen. Do not be fooled by gimmicks, multiply hole locations for different pinion angles mean nothing. The only thing that matters is that the bleeder needs to be on the upside, so that the brakes can be bled. Increasing pinion angles only means that the bleeder will be higher, which is what you want anyhow! Disc Brake brackets that have been formed (bent in a z - shape) will fail under stress! Forming steel of any kind creates cracks (sometimes very tiny) at the bend areas! This could be very dangerous! The tensile strength on one grade 8 1/2 inch diameter fine thread bolt is 24,000 lbs. This is multiplied by four per bracket. Your rear brakes that contribute 20% of your overall braking on the vehicle will not shear off 96,000 lbs of tensile strength!"




once again That was from there ads. all I can say is I found there product to be exactly what they said and i was pleased with the quality of their work.

as far as the hitch I dont believe it is bolted to the frame in the center. Id have to check to be positive but i dont think it is. being welded all the way around, I never gave it a thought. I see what your saying about the back and forth motion a trailer would apply (unlike the lift gate). Prolly would be a good idea to puts some bolts in there.

[mrhino]

I did the rear seats this past summer and fall. Here is how that process went.

The stock rear seat weren't in too bad of condition. but they have to go.





after removing the stock seats me and deb vacumed and scrubbed the floor with dawn and purple cleaner to get all the nasty crap off.
Tahoe seats are one piece. meaning the the bottom and back are together on one frame. so the seat will fold up and lay flat. Because of the rear humps this type of set up just wasnt going to work. I cut the seats in two pieces actually 3 different pieces. The left and right bottoms are now two separate pieces.
Working on the back first, I figued out how to mount the backs of the seats to the back raised section using a piece of 1/4 angle iron. drilled hole so it would bolt in to the factory seat mounting holes then welded it to the seat back frame.



I then made three pedistall mounts for the front part of the backrest. Leveled everything then welded those to the floor. I also welded lock nuts inside the square tubing, so the rear section could be easily bolted and unbolted.




I wanted to try and keep the folding up feature if at all possible. I cut off the piviot points on the seat bottoms and After carefully aligning I welded them to the floor.


the front piviot points have thru bolts which not only allows them to pivot but they can be removed easly as well. 6 bolts and the whole thing can be removed.
here is what it looks like all mounted in. Even the center armrest/cup holder goes up and down



with everything in place the bottom can fold up to either give access to space under the seat bottom.



When you unlatch the seat and pull it forward the cables then pull and releases the latch mecisisim for the backrests so you can get behind the seat or lay it flat for a little bit more cargo space.





because the seat belts were that tan color and they were for lap belts mad for the bench seat they had to addressed as well.
I end pulling some belts out of a dodge caravan at the local salvage yard. The color was a exact match to the center seat belt that was original to the Tahoe.

The truck had plugs in the c pillar for what looked like shoulder belt mounting but when I pulled the plug all I found was a hole no threads




I took a piece of 1/8 plate found center, drilled a hole and welded on a nut.





I marked the c pillar and then drilled a bunch of holes. Fed the plate with the nut up the pillar and bolted it in place and then welded each hole. Test fitted the belt, then ground all the welds flush and shot on some primer.








On the bottom I welded a piece of angle iron to the floor and then used the existing seat belt mounting locations to mount the last of the three mounting points