Project: Recycle

[joe231]

[Tx Firefighter]

Geez , I'm not saying I am a trench coat wearing perv, I just dated a few fluffy girls over the years.

[joe231]

[fryer1979]

Wow, totally the wrong (or maybe perfect) time to open up this thread for a read. SCOTI, very nice work so far, with so much attention to detail the end result is sure to be stunning. Subscribed for the ride.

[SCOTI]

I got a little more done tonight but didn't take any pics.

I wanted to add some reinforcement plates for the R&P notches which requires some 're-work' the pass side front frame rail where the OE idler arm mounts on 67-72 frames (earlier frames don't have the dimples for the idler arm).

My plan is to sandwhich the original portion of the frame immediately surrounding the notch between 2pcs of .1875" steel. This requires the frame to be as flat as possible so those 'dimples' had to go. I removed that portion of the frame & replaced it w/some flat steel (I used a section of the scrap frame for the flat piece).

While re-working the area, I re-shaped the area on the top of the frame rail where it curved 'up' (I believe this was OE for fuel pump clearance on 292's & 396's). I flattened the top portion of the frame to be symmetrical w/the driver side. I also trimmed the rails up a little for a nice clean edge when transitioning from the upper a-arm/bag mount to the radiator core support area of the frame rails.

I got the outside portion of the rail cleaned up after the welds were cooled; still need to do the inside. I also made my templates for the plates that will sandwhich the notches. I'll get some pics up tomorrow.....

[63sbssbbw]

You guys are too funny
I've had to explain my board name once or twice
Looking great Scoti,Am I to assume that you'll be bonding the inner pinch weld or ?
T

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by 63sbssbbw

You guys are too funny
I've had to explain my board name once or twice
Looking great Scoti,Am I to assume that you'll be bonding the inner pinch weld or ?
T

Yes, that's the current plan.

[8mpg]

Hey Scoti... crazy question, but what steel/scrap yard are you using? I have always used Garland Steel, but man..last time I left with 64lbs of drop steel, I paid like $60. Alum would have probably been more.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by 8mpg

Hey Scoti... crazy question, but what steel/scrap yard are you using? I have always used Garland Steel, but man..last time I left with 64lbs of drop steel, I paid like $60. Alum would have probably been more.

Garland Steel is the closest to me so I do get most metal from them. I recycle my old scrap w/my GF's family owned company as they have a scrap container. They also supply me w/some certain parts/pieces if timing & inventory allows. They made my rear c-notches & my air-ride control panel FOC..... Well, I live w/their daughter so not exactly free .

[Tx Firefighter]

You guys need to come on over to Fort Worth. My steel yard gets 30 cents a pound for drops. Westex off North Main in Ft Worth.

[8mpg]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

You guys need to come on over to Fort Worth. My steel yard gets 30 cents a pound for drops. Westex off North Main in Ft Worth.

Thanks man...I will check them out. Much closer. Im in Southlake. Garland Steel is 35 miles from me. I think Im going to just build my notch for the frame with the last bit of steel I bought from Garland.

edit/// They are 28 miles from me...little closer. Im in NRH all the time at the woman's place.

Thanks for the reply Scoti...

[SCOTI]

Alright.... A little more progress.

Friday I got the truck loaded up & got it moved over to a friends shop. He'll be letting me utilize some shop space to do the small to big back window conversion. We'll also be painting the interior while it's there & his glass guy will pop in some fresh front/rear glass.

I still had a couple of things that needed to be finished on the frame. I needed to weld in some .500" solid rod on the rear bend of the rear c-notches. With the insight of Lakeroadster, the rear bend was determined to be the 'weak-point' of the re-worked c-notches. The solid rod will help re-inforce this possible stress point. While I had the frame flipped to do the rear, I also finished welding the bottom edge of the R&P c-notches in front.

I'm in the process of making re-inforcement plates to help strengthen the frame area adjacent to the R&P notches & will try to get those finished up in the next couple of days.

Pics of the solid rod welded to the rear bend of the rear c-notches....

[smashingchuck]

Haha know when to say when on the frame stregnthing it gets addicacting! Looks good!

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by smashingchuck

Haha know when to say when on the frame stregnthing it gets addicacting! Looks good!

The strength/stress analysis he did indicated the rear would still have a stress point @ that rear bend so the solid rod was needed.

The front notches are what 'everyone else' is installing w/their Dropmember installs. I decided I would prefer the frame around the notched area to be re-inforced. That's about it.

I meant to take a couple of pics from where I smoothed the side of the frame rail & 'removed' the curved portion on the top of the frame but forgot....

[darkhorse970]

That is certainly going to be a stout notch! I'm interested in seeing the finished product.

As for the BBW conversion, I'm still pondering mine and am anxious to see step by step progress pics on yours. Don't forget to take the pics...

[lakeroadster]

Looking good Scot! All that attention to detail that you seem to specialize in will no doubt result in a truly "well built" ride.

Keep those build photos and "how to" posts coming. We are all benefitting from your hard work!

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by darkhorse970

That is certainly going to be a stout notch! I'm interested in seeing the finished product.

As for the BBW conversion, I'm still pondering mine and am anxious to see step by step progress pics on yours. Don't forget to take the pics...

I'm hoping my buddy doesn't jump the gun on the SBW-to-BBW install to speed things up (make room in his shop). I re-arranged my work schedule to be out there every Friday from noon to 6pm to knock out as much as I can solo.

Originally Posted by Lakeroadster

Looking good Scot! All that attention to detail that you seem to specialize in will no doubt result in a truly "well built" ride.

Keep those build photos and "how to" posts coming. We are all benefitting from your hard work!

Thanks you again for your assistance. It's guys like you that make this place a better/safer community!

[SCOTI]

I got the template finished up for the reinforcement plates & transferred to some .1875" steel plate tonight. Tomorrow I'll drill pilot holes in one plate (for the bolts) & use it as my 'guide' for drilling the bolt holes in the frame rails. I took a pic but my cell doesn't really focus on the smaller stuff so I deleted it.

I did get a pic from my buddy @ the body shop that I wasn't expecting . . ....

[SCOTI]

Well, they were slow @ the shop. We planned to work on the truck on Fridays, but they're kind of diggin my project so the sheet-metal/body guy got started on the rear window conversion today.

In a very short time, he had the small window interior spot welds drilled out & removed the skin. It looks pretty decent under that inner panel (alot better than the donor big window cab was anyway).

We've had various discussions on how to positively attach the big window interior panel w/o burning the paint on the back of the cab. The solution was to cut the lowest portion of the small window panel where it makes the 90deg transition behind the gas tank. We'll bend this lip up slightly & use this portion of material as the 'flange' to attach the big window panel to near the bottom. The original spot welds (under the paint) remain untouched. We'll simply spot weld the panel where the cab wall recesses (every other recess, just like the factory did). By doing it this way, there is a .500" gap between the flange & the cab wall (because of the recesses in the rear cab wall). That gap will keep the heat away from the paint . The door opening pinch flange will get spot welded; the upper seam will get panel adhesive.

The big window skin fits very tight.... it had to be pried out when verifying possibilities. A bunch of clamps were used to make sure alignment was spot on . . .... Everything looks good so far!

[SCOTI]

That was the day shift.... now comes the night shift.

I finished up the reinforcement plates for the Dropmember R&P notches. These are pretty basic.... just some .1875" plates that mimic the frame rail & notch area. There will be one on each side of the rail 'sandwiching' the vertical portion of the frame rail.

I loosely installed the pass side plates to give an idea of what I'm doing. I'll drill the holes out tomorrow & install them w/some GRADE-8 hardware. As mentioned previously, this did require reshaping some of the vertical portion of the pass side rail so that everything was as flat as possible.

While it's still not bullet-proof, it's stronger than w/no reinforcements (whether they're necessary or not). Also, if you look closely @ the 2nd pic, you'll notice there's no longer the 'curled' portion of frame where the pass side rail transitions from vertical to horizontal @ the top of the rail....

[Jonboy]

Awesome progress. I really want to see this one.

[aggie91]

Looking Good, Scoti!!

I hope to get back to mine soon. Baseball season and school are done in 2 weeks so that means I can change my work schedule to go in earlier and get home earlier...YEAH...

I hope to get to see this one someday soon..

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by aggie91

Looking Good, Scoti!! I hope to get to see this one someday soon..

Originally Posted by darkhorse970

You are making gerat progress Scott! I can't wait to see it done and cruising the highways!!

Thanks guys. I appreciate the positive vibe!

A little more progress. My buddy questioned whether it was worth the effort to change a small window to a big window. I sent him today's pic & he said it was definitely worth the effort involved.

I picked up the hardware needed & finished up the reinforcement plate for the R&P notches....

[darkhorse970]

You are making great progress Scott! I can't wait to see it done and cruising the highways!!

[N2TRUX]

Scot I love the BBW conversion. It makes these trucks look sooo much better. (Sorry sbw lovers, just my opinion).

I gotta tell ya I'm not too keen on the bolt on version of the bracing. After all the effort put in details to the C section to clean it up, this doesn't follow suit.