Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step

[Xeen]

Vic you could just make a new set and sell those.
No but seriously you will figure it out, I wouldn't stress over it too much.

[Elliot949]

I finally got to meet Vic and his Bride Kathy Yesterday... what a wonderful couple... They made my wife and I feel like old friends... Now for the truck.. Guys if you haven't seen Vic's work in person you truly don't know how AWESOME this truck is... Picture really do not do this truck Justice...

His other project is just as awesome...

Dan

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Elliot949

I finally got to meet Vic and his Bride Kathy Yesterday... what a wonderful couple... They made my wife and I feel like old friends... Now for the truck.. Guys if you haven't seen Vic's work in person you truly don't know how AWESOME this truck is... Picture really do not do this truck Justice...

His other project is just as awesome...

Dan

Hey Dan, thanks for the comps! You all can drop by anytime if you're gonna say nice stuff.
We really enjoyed your visit as well. Hope you got all your errand running done, sounded like you had a full schedule. Looking forward to seeing the "Class Act" come together.

[Vic1947]

I think I've come up with a solution to the control arm situation. It finally occurred to me that the key to making this work had to start with the position of the airbag in the lower control arm. Get it where you want it, then reinstall the control arm and mark where the top lands on the upper plate. Remove the plate and relocate the hole pattern as needed. There's a ton of room where the coil spring goes up thru the crossmember, so I can't see there being any interference with the bolt heads or the 90* air fitting.

So I removed the bottom spring retainer cup, cut off the ledge where the sway bar bolted up and removed one of the reinforcement bars that was in the way. I'll relocate it so I have plenty of clearance around the entire bag. I'll also build a 1.25" spacer to weld on the bottom plate, then mill a window below it for access to the mounting bolts.

After cleaning up the surrounding area, I mocked up the bag where it would sit if I were to mount it in the stock location. You can see from the photo it's hard up against the tubing. So I'll move it over and toward the ball joint slightly. That will give me plenty of clearance all around. When Dan was here yesterday he told me about a guy who had a bag blow out going down the road at highway speed. Truck immediately went down all the way and suffered major damage before it stopped. I don't need anything like that to happen, so I'm going to do whatever's necessary to insure none of the bags is even close to rubbing on anything.

[Elliot949]

Man that sounds like a great solution...

[Low Elco]

Seems like that'll work! Thanks again, the pan fit awesome!

[Xeen]

Attaboy Vic I knew you would getrdone.

[snipescastle2]

Vic,
Looks Great! Glad you sorted it out!
Ben

[Vic1947]

Woke up this morning with big plans for the day. Get the lower control arms ready for the mounting brackets, fabricate the brackets out of some 14ga SS tube I've had for-ever, revise the rear mounts to eliminate the angle iron and set them up like the ones you can buy. Just a little laundry list that seemed very do-able while drinking a cup of coffee and reading the paper. As the day progressed, however, reality set in and what I actually got done pales in comparison to the wish list. I did get the SS tube cut and turned to length as well as slots milled in the ones for the rear to allow the air line connections. I also welded a reinforcing tube back in the first control arm and began cutting on the second one. The rest of the day was spent yakking on the phone and staring into space (planning). Ahhh, there's always tomorrow...

[jeh]

Nice work again Vic

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Ain't retirement great?

I think I'm putting in more hours now than I ever did while working.

Originally Posted by jeh

Nice work again Vic

Thanks Jay.

I've spent the last coupla three days doing mid-course corrections. Wasn't happy with some of my previous efforts so I started over. The reinforcing tube I removed and reconfigured turned out to be unnecessary. So I cut out the tube I scabbed on and replaced it with a chromoly tube in the original location. The spacers I built move the bags up enough away from those tubes that they won't rub. Had I left the spacers out, there would have been an interference issue, but that's not the case now.

Also the more I looked at the rear spacers, the less I liked the angle iron. Angle has it's uses, but this was a bit crude, so I cut them out and revised the spacer to be more like the ones I saw for sale on a couple of sites. The main difference was that I put a cap on the top of mine with a captive nut welded in instead of a stud coming up thru the middle. Put a couple of access holes in the cap so I can attach the fasteners to the top of the bag.

[Low Elco]

Ain't retirement great?

[Elliot949]

Nice work as always Vic...

[sduckworth13]

Nice work Vic, I always like to see your work. It always looks brand new when your done.

[swamp rat]

School is in session!

[Low Elco]

Looks good! Always enjoy seeing Innovation in Action!

[Xeen]

Looks good to me Vic, I'm no rocket scientist but I wouldn't think it would cause a problem.
The bag angle is static so all that matters is the lower arm.
The upper mount really has no bearing as long as the bag is perfectly vertical and from what I can see it is.
At least that's what makes sense to me.
P.S. Is there any interference from the tie rods?

[Low Elco]

Looks fine, as long as the bag's supported by good meat on both ends and nothing rubs, especially at full compression. Seems to be all good sir, roll on!

[jlsanborn]

Nice and tidy and well thought out!

[Elliot949]

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

Nice and tidy and well thought out!

That's Vic for you... if you ever had a chance to see his work in person you can really see how meticulous he really if...

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Dean'smeanmachine

sweet

Originally Posted by Elliot949

That's Vic for you... if you ever had a chance to see his work in person you can really see how meticulous he really is...

Thanks, guys!

Today I moved over to the passenger side, tack welded the bag spacer in, attached the bag and put the lower control arm back on. After marking my reference lines, I removed the upper plate to drill the new hole pattern for the top of the bag. At that point, I realized that one of the new holes was in a bad place. I either needed to patch the original plate or build a new one. After mulling it over I came to the conclusion that putting Porterbuilt parts on CRLS is like trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

So off to Metal By the Foot I went to procure some 3/16" mild steel plate. I traced the outer pattern and used transfer punches to locate the holes. Plasma cut and bandsawed the outer edge then cleaned it up on the belt sander. Drilled and milled the holes I needed and I'm almost home free. The forward attachment bolt for the bag hits the crossmember, so I'll countersink the hole in the plate and swap the bolt for an 82* flat head socket screw. While I'm at it, I'll probably do the same for the two front bolts that attach the plate to the crossmember. Right now, the nuts hanging down could possibly rub a hole in the bag ...and that ain't a good thing.

[Dean'smeanmachine]

sweet

[Xeen]

Hmm I must be missing something here.
I don't understand why you had to fabricate a new upper bag mounting plate for this side but not the other side.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Xeen

Hmm I must be missing something here.
I don't understand why you had to fabricate a new upper bag mounting plate for this side but not the other side.

Hey Brian, I just happened to pull the upper plate from this side first. I'm sure I'll need to do the same thing on the other side. I made sure I bought enough material to do just that, in fact. So you aren't missing anything but the untold part of the story.

[Xeen]

Lol ok now it makes sense.