Nice work Chad.:thumbsup:

Update
 

I just realized this is the first update for 2011! Happy New Year! :P Progress is being made although it is not exactly photo worthy. A lot of welding, grinding, hammering etc. I have also been putting a lot of time into designing the fuel tank for the truck. GarageDog and I were putting a lot of time into researching factory pumps and specs. After discussing it we were looking at late model Vette pumps. Then I thought what about the new Camaro. As I uncovered some specs, (Not Easy)I pretty much decided that for GarageDog and I the 2010 SS Camaro pump would work well for the power levels we were going to have. Just when I started to look into it more, Rick's announced the Vaporworx tank using this same pump. So, I started researching Vaporworx without finding much. After some internet stalking LOL, It turns out that Vaporworx is our very own Carl Casenova! He has put a huge amount of time and effort into applying this fuel pump module to our hobby. Since I have brain damage and want to do as much myself as possible, I contacted him. On a side note, If you do not posses the skills and equipment to fabricate a quality tank then by all means contact Rick's or one of their dealers and get one of the Vaporworx tanks. They are by far in my humble opinion the most advanced application of factory technology for fuel systems in our hobby. OK, back to our regularly scheduled program. Carl and I corresponded for a few weeks and I have to say that he has been very very helpful. He has gone out of his way to educate me on some of the aspects of this project I hadn't thought of yet. He absolutely did not have to go as far as he has. I believe I would have made it to my goal but it would have been a much bumpier road. My hats off to Carl and what he has been willing to share. You can check out much more detail on his system over at Pro-Touring.com. Look in the new products section and read. He has it all laid out in the thread. I didn't post a link as I am not sure if that is frowned upon. If Scott reads this and is OK with it I'll link it. I have a whole slew of parts and am modeling components in solidworks for my application. I have attached a picture of what I have modeled so far. When GagrageDog is ready we will reconfigure it for his application to show how it can be applied in various ways. Stay tuned as I move down this road. Again a big thanks to Carl! :hail: :cheers: Let me know what you guys think! If you check out the Vaporworx tank, you will obviously see where this came from. Definitely Carl's influence! Enjoy!


http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...asTankRev3.jpg

If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for your solidworks lisence? I have a student version from college that is out of date, and I would love to have it back up and running for my project.

Couple other questions regarding your truck. Please don't take any of this as criticism, they are all honest questions, and the only way for me to learn is to ask. So, with that said,

It seems to me that your engine is angled down in the rear quite a bit more than I am used to seeing. Is it just the pictures messing with me, or do you have a reason for that?

Also, when I have seen people weld (granted, it was TIG) they strongly stressed that the metal cannot have paint on it, you have to scotchbrite it, and then clean it with acetone. It appears that you tacked directly onto your painted frame. Is a MIG different?

Nice welder you snatched up there! I went to Lincoln's website and poked around. I would love to start out with a TIG, but I think your's might be a hair rich for my current financial situation :) Do you think the ~$1500 square wave (non precision model line) would work alright for automotive fabrication like what you are doing? Any advice for picking one up for cheaper than the list price on their site? Maybe I should look for a used one instead?

Thanks for any help you can give!

We use Solidworks at work. So at this point, that is what I use. Depending on the version you get ie. bells and whistles, you should be around 5-6K.

I welcome all comments good and bad. No matter how long anyone has been doing this, we are all still learning.

The engine is angled to the rear 4.5 degrees to level. The chassis is raked to the front 1 degree. While all engines should be angled so that the front is higher, I am probably at the max you should go. This all came about based on several things. One is oil pan to rack clearance. The other was the placement of the output shaft of the tranny inside the frame rails. One thing always affects another.

In most cases I have only cleaned the primer off the chassis in the area of the welds and not much more. Mostly just to keep rust from having too much area to attack. Our intent is that when most all the tacking is done, we are going to get those areas blasted before the finish welding. I agree with your statement although I'm not sure how many people clean with acetone before welding unless the base metal was oily or greasy. In that case I would use the acetone before sanding or scotch brite so you don't drive the oil into the metal.

Thanks, I'm really liking it so far. Although, I am still learning. We made our decision after the Columbus Goodguys show in July. Both Miller and Lincoln had trucks with welders being demonstrated on site. After going back and forth we decided on the lincoln. It seemed the best bang for our buck. I really don't want to mislead you, I am definitely not an expert. If you look in the equipment section of the forum there are some good discussions. I would definitely say from my point of view though if I only had one welder, it would be a MIG. For me being a novice it is more flexible. I would not even try crawling under the truck and weld something out of position with the TIG right now. The MIG, no problem. With your budget, you could get set up with a nice MIG. I would recommend a nice 220volt machine. Miller has a nice one that will run both 110 and 220. Not sure of the model number. You can almost always get better deals on new ones at shows. That is how we got ours. They had a special going on for the Goodguys event. I honestly haven't found any great deals used in my area. People seem to think used welders should cost as much as new around here.

I hope some of this helped. Thanks for taking the time to check our project out! :cheers: :lateral:

Worked on Today!
 

Here is what I was working on the last couple days. These trucks have big ugly door latches. Since we are shaving the door handles and putting remote door releases we decided to use bear claw latches. We are going to put the latches in the jamb and the pins on the door. So I started fabbing them in. I decided to try my hand at hammer forming. Man I should have tried my first shot on something thinner than 16 ga. :( Man I am a glutten for punishment. Anyway, here some photos of what I have so far.

The stock jamb.
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/IMG_4794.jpg

Cut out.
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/IMG_4793.jpg

Hammer Forming.
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/IMG_4797.jpg

Fitting.
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/IMG_4792.jpg

That's it for now. Thanks for looking.

All of it was very helpful, and thank you for taking the time to answer my questions!

I've always just kinda dove in head first and got my hands dirty with my cars, but that was usually reversable modifications. Once I get into cutting up my firewall and welding in sheetmetal or re-doing the frame, I want to ask the guys that have been there and done that before I make a mistake. I'm sure I will be posting tons of questions in the future too.

Junk ......

:lol:

You are still out there! :cheers:

Door Jamb Progress
 

I got some more done on the bear claw latch install. Moving along. Check it out.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/IMG_4799.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/IMG_4802.jpg

What do you guys think?

I love this build. Its looking great!!