Woo Hoo It's Started!

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by motorscot

woo hoo!!! Looks good. Haven't busted your attachments lately and I won't do it now. Keep making progress.

(and before you ask, house is in slow-motion, truck still runs, and I'm knee deep in a '92 YJ rehab project that should turn out pretty sweet)

Thanks Scott! It seems all things these days are knee deep and in slow motion!

Originally Posted by waynieZ

Nice work chad.

Thanks Wayne! Hope all is well with you buddy!

[ccracin]

Here is a question for everyone, do you like seeing all the detail pics? It seems like we work for days and days making progress but the end result is hard to see sometimes in pics. That's one of the reasons I try to show alot of the detail pics. Also, I hope it will give others that may be looking that don't always post some ideas. I'm not saying they are all the best ideas , but ideas never the less!

I have some pics of how we decided to mount the bed so you don't see the mounting bolts, but it's not exciting stuff! Oh well, I'll get them loaded up and posted. No point in stopping now!

[HBRod]

Personally I really like the detail pictures. The old adage of "a picture is worth a thousand words" certainly comes to mind. I look at them and study as much detail as I can gather/infer from it. Yes, it's difficult to explain how much work goes into the fabrication process until each of us tries something simple and how much time it took us to get the part where we would accept it. That why I enjoy looking at the work of those who truly have the skill and knowledge on how to make really nice fab work.

I don't pretend to have your level of talent but I can vicariously enjoy viewing the hard work you put into the cars you build. IMHO

Rod

[HWY Nova]

Originally Posted by ccracin

Do you like seeing all the detail pics?

But of course!


--Eric

[waynieZ]

I'm with Rod and Eric post away!

[intocarss]

You post the pics and we'll look at them!

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by HBRod

Personally I really like the detail pictures. The old adage of "a picture is worth a thousand words" certainly comes to mind. I look at them and study as much detail as I can gather/infer from it. Yes, it's difficult to explain how much work goes into the fabrication process until each of us tries something simple and how much time it took us to get the part where we would accept it. That why I enjoy looking at the work of those who truly have the skill and knowledge on how to make really nice fab work.

I don't pretend to have your level of talent but I can vicariously enjoy viewing the hard work you put into the cars you build. IMHO

Rod

Thanks for the kind words Rod. This is like anything else research, practice, make mistakes, and fix them. I don't claim to be as skilled as many on this site, but i'm trying hard and really like the feedback from folks in the community. Sometimes when you look at and focus on something or one area for so long, you start to not see things! In my Engineering group we have a policy of having at least a second set of eyes check all drawings and designs before they are released. I suppose some of this is me getting all of you to check my work and make sure I didn't do something really dumb! Thanks for looking!

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by waynieZ

I'm with Rod and Eric post away!

Originally Posted by intocarss

You post the pics and we'll look at them!

Alright guys, you asked for it!

[ccracin]

Continuing on the goal of getting the bed wrapped up, it's time to get it mounted permanently. Because I have some special plans for the bed wood, I needed a way of mounting the bed without seeing the hardware. Like some many things on this truck, since I built a new chassis most of the stock solutions will not work. One of the stock items we did use are the supports for the bed floor although modified! My plan was to use captured nut plates welded into the bottom of the factory support and then bolt up through the chassis brackets and viola! Mounted! That simple plan required alot of work!

Because its' never a good idea to bolt through tube steel due to crushing, I added sleeves to the tubing created a proper bolted joint.



The photo I forgot to take was the 3/4" OD 1/8" wall tube slug I used as the sleeve.



Here are the steps in building and attaching the captured bolt plates.









Next time, I'll see if the holes line up! Thanks for looking!

[grendel]

I've built a few of these trucks. Always nice to see a nice one come together.

Keep up the good work.

Maybe we can come together and show these care guys what a good truck can do... then again, one of my current projects is a 2nd gen Camaro.