Charlie's new ride (build thread)

March 20, 2010

Nice work you're doing. :handgestures-thumbupright:

November 23, 2008

Looks awesome! Keep up the good work!

August 16, 2008

Here's what I did Friday & Saturday afternoon

I like the look of a short bed standard cab. Would look good with a 1 ton chassis and diesel

MOCK UP!!!!

Took about 3 hours to blast The inside, front and bottom side of bed. Love the new sand blaster!

Welded the tail light extensions and boxed them in from the back to avoid the annoying build up of dirt and whatever material you haul. Also adds a lot of strength to the tailgate area to prevent stress cracking in the latch area

Added D rings. Need to add 2 more in the front.

Need to paint strip the outside of the bed and add a second filler access for dual tanks before I epoxy prime it.

Going to do orange between the 26-30 so I can assemble the body and interior. Then in January I'll do the outside in one piece.

Charlie

August 16, 2008

Finally getting into the part I really like on the build. FAB WORK!!! It may be annoying to have grinding grit on your face, in your mouth and plenty of other areas but the finished product is quite rewarding. Tonight, I made my front spring mount. This is similar to Jim's on Ramcharger Central but I designed it to double as the cross member and spring mount. The frame on this truck is going to be all one piece with only the rear shackles bolted on. The rest will be solid with no bolts etc. Mind you, I haven't mounted this piece so I can't continue the fabrication on the top side that will tie the rails together below the rad support. I also finished the D ring mounts to go in the front of the bed. These are just like the rear ones. TSC has D rings with the retaining hoops you can weld on for $8 each. Pretty good deal in my opinion. Besides this tonight, I started prep work on the bottom of the bed and sandblasted motor mounts, pedals and other engine/ chassis parts.

Drum roll please!

This was made out of 1/4" steel and was all done with an angle grinder, bench vice and mig welder. Every welding area was beveled to ensure a deep penetrating weld.

And, .040 pistons showed up!

June 16, 2009

Looking great Charlie! Keep the updates coming, really enjoying them!

August 16, 2008

Here's what I got done yesterday and today (Wednesday/Thursday)

Epoxy primed bottom of bed and boxed in the rear bed tie downs:

Bent these up out of 16ga to box in the front corners like I did to the back by the tailgate:

Paint stripped outside of bed. Used rustoleum "aircraft" spray stripper. This stripper is not messy like the gallon size stuff. I spray it on then lightly hit it with the wirewheel then DA sand it.

Inside of bed epoxy primed:

Welded the front top lip:

Boxed-in front areas:

Sprayed these with "Cast Aluminum look" paint:

Constantly morphing bare metal pile:

The MODEL A!

Firewall and floors started. All 16ga. Kickout for driver's pedals:

Firewall:

Floors

Trans tunnel started. Not much room for a seat at all!

Steel brake a buddy loaned me. Definitely helped these last couple days:

Going down Friday/Saturday and should get a lot more done!

Charlie

June 30, 2009

Your like the Energizer Bunny!

August 16, 2008

What 48 hours of work, eat, sleep (a little) yields!

Sandblasted the entire frame and started with shortening it 16" for the short bed conversion. Decided to make the cut behind where the front shackle will be for the 63" springs. Spent an hour with a sledge and a chisel to remove the old rear spring shackles. Kinda sore you know.....

Lots of measuring:

Everything I modified is accurate to 1/32" of an inch.

Tack welds:

Lots of strapping and clamping:

Finished weld on outside. I welded the inside too. The cut is a 65* angle. Some say the fish plate method is better ( "Z" cut to join rails) but with the shackle being welded on and a small box on the inside it should be plenty strong.

Cleaned up:

Had to modify the bed mount to clear the shackle. The long bed mount closest to the bigger cross member aligns with the front mount for the short bed so I don't have to drill any holes to mount the bed.

Shackle welded in place:

Sprayed 1 coat on the back half for the night. Really love the paint. It is Magnet brand Antique Satin black. It goes on really nice, dries in a couple hours and is tough as NAILS.

Going to the sky with the help of those handy D rings I installed last week:

Approximate ride height. May be about 4" higher not to sure yet without axles. I just measured off my W250 and it sits 56" high at the bed rail stock. With the shackle flip (+5") and chevy springs (+1-2"), I am looking at around 7" of lift. Now, tires should be between 35-37" to make it look somewhat proportionate with height so if I ran a 35" tire, that would give me 2.5" of more height over stock. This brings me to a grand total of 9.5" of height bringing the bed rail to 65.5" or with a 37" tire, 67.5". This seems pretty high to me. In the picture, I am 5'9" so that gives you an idea. I believe the bed rail in this picture is at 62".

Onward we go....

Rear shackle measured and holes marked:

Shortened area boxed in:

Knocked out the 2wd Pillow block crossmember for the drive shaft, tacked in a brace to prevent frame movement, took a front rail width measurement, knocked out old front crossmember, clamped up the new cross member and welded. Then I added some supports on the outside and cut a piece of 2x4 (1/4" thick box) steel and put that across. Still need to finish that.

Still need to weld the box steel and the bottom spring bracket together.

More paint:

Closing up and leaving. Snapped these pics of my '93. Thought the cab lights looked kinda cool with 3" of snow on them:

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Charlie

April 25, 2010

nice 66 in the corner the truck is comming along good to.

August 16, 2008

Thanks! There's 2 66 wagons in my shop. I love them. Never selling the wagon. My dad got it in 1992 and I grew up around it. The one under the loft has bad rust issues but the interior is perfect, trim perfect and all drive train is good. Has a 360 magnum, A500 lockup/overdrive trans with an 8.75 rear with 3.55 posi. Front disc brakes and bigger drums in the rear. Almost a fully optioned car from the factorywith the exception of rear wind deflectors, power rear window and map light all of which are now installed. Truly a "loaded" car. The other body is in the corner of the shop by that 1965 coronet and its rust free. You can probably guess what will take my time up between February and June..... Besides restoring that wagon this spring, I need to restore my RJ35 for the show.

Charlie

November 14, 2006

This is a very interesting thread to follow along and view. I'm always lookin forward to progress pics (I'm a Dodge truck guy myself ) Mines an "04" 2500 with a HEMI, not anywhere near as cool as what your gonna end up with tho.

Mike..........

August 16, 2008

Got some measurements off a 1989 my friend is restoring. Need to make an engine crossmember. Here's some rough measurements of a stock 4x4 setup on a 2wd frame:

Taking amateur drawing skills onto paper. The motor mounts are at 45*. Disregard the width measurements. I was not near a frame when I drew it so I guessed a number just to make some other calculations to see what it would look like.

Someone tricked me out! :alien:

Bed on again for personal accomplishment

Shackles done in the rear. Need to get Chevy leaf bushings. The front spring box is extremely tight. I hope it doesn't rub after I install bushings and they are centered on the bolt more.

Bottom looks factory fresh!

Gasser 30 gallon tank needs front strap but looks like it will clear cab OK

Installing Crossover plates:

Need to box in the frame from radiator support to front cab mount still. Then I can paint the remainder of the frame!

Charlie

August 16, 2008

Did most of the front part of the frame this past weekend and yesterday.

Boxed in from front radiator area to front cab mounts. All 1/4" steel. Then made motor mounts. This motor mount idea come from the design of a 1960s dodge truck. I will have a mounting plate on the bottom of each mount and then have a piece of 2x2 1/4" wall steel that bolts across between them. It will be held on by two grade 8 bolts on each side. This will allow me to remove the brace, drop the pan and service the bottom end without removing the engine if I ever need to drop the pan. Doing this makes me feel better about not adding fastener upgrades. If I continue to add performance parts to the motor, upgrading the bottom end will be easy! The lift this truck will have will allow me to sit upright below the truck! I also filled in about 50 holes on the frame in the front area and ground down the welds to get rid of any stress risers. I also need to cut the holes for the rear spring mounts with a hole saw.

I have midterms for school next week but this weekend, I will finish and paint the frame, finish the doors and cab body work and start on a paint booth. Next week I want to paint the cab. The idea I have for a paint booth is a 10x16 platform out of 2x4s and cover one side with plywood, add two or three inductive (non sparking) bathroom fans, run duct work out side, and have four flourescent fixtures. It will be suspended 10ft high from the ground off the raftors and have 8 mil plastic flame retardant sheet around the sides with a velcro door. Then I will have a furnace heater filter on the side and a filter on the extractor duct. I can aim my torpedo at it from 8-10 ft away and the heat will travel through the wall filter to get the temp up to 60-70*. Shouldn't be hard to build with some of my friends helping me. Probably take 2 days and I can use it year round and not gas the shop out with paint fumes. Should be able to do it for $150.

Charlie

August 16, 2008

So in school today, I started fiddling around on CAD. Learned how to use lofting so I can make different profiles on the part. Printed out some factory drawings of the rails, made it up in the computer to scale with proper dimensions. After it is done, I will run a stress test in the computer going on every thing from load placement to steel quality. Then I will add in all reference points wheel centers, spring center holes and print out a large blue print of a rail. Then I will modify the existing factory style in the computer and add in my boxing with welding beads, run another stress test, find the likely fracture spots and then design a piece to install that will distribute load lengthwise along the rails. My engineering teacher gave me some good ideas so we will test them out. Then we can apply vertical loads and rotational loads (twisting on terrain) and find a way to allow the frame to flex but spread the stress areas out so it isn't focused in one area. This may be virtual, but I can add many factors in to get it pretty close to real world scenario! Luckily, the frame wasn't pitted or damaged before I started on it so I don't have to include the rusty/dented factor (if one even exists!) I'll be working on the frame tonight and hopefully this coming week, I can finish the model, run the tests (posting a video for others to see) and then design parts, install, run another test and once satisfactory results are achieved, I can make a blueprint of the part, print it out, get a piece of steel, mark it, cut it, and weld it on! I DO NOT WANT TO BOX THE ENTIRE FRAME!!!! The nice part about the curved area is if water somehow got inside (flood water, off road or tires spinning in reverse, it would drain out the open end. This isn't easy to manage on a flat area like under the cab as debris will find its way in there and stay. Hopefully, once all is done, truck guys with similar goals of modifying their frame for use with crossover steering plates, making their own motor mounts etc won't need reference from another frame or have to test fit and guess where they need to beef up the existing structure.

The beginnings of the rail. I still need to finish the lofting/profile in the front and narrow some to widths such as the engine area and a small area in the rear which narrows a little.

Charlie

August 16, 2008

Here's what I got done Friday/Saturday.

Started construction of a paint booth:

Wall looks ghetto. Thanks to my friends.

Still need to paint the walls, paint the floor and make a front entrance door along with a fume evacuation system.

Nick got his 1930 Model A front suspension kit. Assembled it for the start of making brackets and mounts:

Mocked up truck again after adding a passenger side bed mount. Complete with a milk crate to sit on and all! Really upset, I found pictures online of people who modified the front fenders and I liked it. I decided to try it and once standing back, I HATED IT!!! Wish I had a spare fender to do this with....I guess I'll be robbing the front heel off a fender at the junkyard.

See the mod in this picture? Ugh, I hate it!

Underside looking very clean, Just need to replace the rusty crummy rubber cab mounts.

Also dug into the P7100 to repair the cracked governor housing from junkyard handling. I had to have a GIRL help me out hahahahaha. She's a good with mechanical things though. Need to pull governor flyweight assembly off and repair the housings and add 4k springs and reassemble it. Rack moved nicely and everything else checks out nicely.

Paint will be sprayed on the cab and doors this coming weekend. Need to finish the booth, finish roof repair, weld up the seams in the rockers, ruff the entire cab up with 220grit and then finish the drivers door.

Charlie

August 16, 2008

Kind of behind on this forum for the truck progress. Heres the last 3-4 weeks:

Worked a little today. Snapped some pictures of what was going on.

Got my D80 rear!

Was in the salvage yard with a 9/16 socket and ratchet ready to pull the cover off and then saw it still had the data tag! Saw something along the lines of 3.54 and L-S so I didn't even bother pulling the cover and went up to pay the $275 for it. It is missing a hub, axle shaft, both drums and one backing plate. The passenger side backing plate is bent so I basically have nothing for brake parts. Then, I brought it home and disassembled it to find this:

Couldn't turn the nut without a pipe wrench and bar for leverage. End was mushroomed over and cracked in the keyway. This axle looks to have had the outer bearing fail, seize up and then start rotating on the spindle. Friction melted the spindle end and twisted it and the weight of the vehicle warped it so it wasn't straight anymore. It has an upward curve to it.

I heated the end and used the nut to collapse the end back together so I could get the nut off.

Have decisions to make on the housing but for $275, I got a carrier and gear set, sway bar and a damaged housing which will need repair. It was out of a 1994 3500 gasser.

Video on the axle to come!

Got this today also. $300 has a loose pinion shaft (up-down,side-side). I'm guessing the pinion shims are gone inside. Needs gears but luckily I have 2 sets of 3.54 R/Ps sitting around with the shims needed.

Metric 63" prothane chevy bushing sleeves being drilled to 3/4"

What a mess!

Tube brush:

Worn diff races. The reason the pinion had slop was the front pinion bearing was shot. I could almost pull the cage off!

Cleaned up all the forging lines on the housing, knuckles and caliper brackets:

Twisted off king pin bolt:

Fixed that:

Plan to go down tomorrow (Sunday) and finish axle clean up, start a radiator support and work on rear springs. Tuesday, I'll sandblast all the axle parts and hopefully have some paint on the axles Saturday. Went to look at an NV4500 today and committed to buy it. The trans is in good shape and has 120,000 miles.

Black!

Added a little more of a weld to the pedals:

Rear springs painted, bushings installed and mounted!

Used some leftover paint on the rat cab:

Blasting pile for (hopefully) saturday

Rear rotors/hubs with a fresh cut on the rotors

Axle shafts I need to rebuild

Welds ground a little more on frame:

Cab mounts

Gutted fuel filler neck:

Rear coolant exit plate I bought. Should resolve any possibility of rear freeze plug leaks and will clean up the routing of heater hoses especially with vintage air, quite a bit!

Blasted and ground down a little for firewall clearance:

Started washing parts off:

Little stuff:

And, picked up a good VE lower half for my 93 with a shot h/r. It's been getting bad and now has to have the KSB on all the time to even fire on all 6 and won't idle at all now.

Rebuilt at work yesterday with gaskets and seals:

Cut my front rotors at work today:

August 16, 2008

Past couple weeks:

I picked up all the bearings I need to do the differentials and started on cleaning, removing old bearings and installing new ones.

Rear power lock carrier. The original clutch pack was organized as such:

This seemed really goofy to me as they should alternate to increase the area of friction and spread the force of the spring cup across multiple plates rather than only a couple areas. After I cleaned them, I separated the best/good/average plates into piles and reorganized the packs so the best plates are now contacting and the different plates now alternate. The Dana 60/70 axles are set up like this. This should make the tires bite better. These are different than the Dana 60/70 plates because they do not have friction material. All these plates have are grooves and slots that contact and grab eachother. This style is actually quite effective because with the discs set onto one spider gear, I found it very difficult to turn the spider gear and hold the tabbed friction plates at the same time.

I need to pick up new case bolts for the powerlock. 2 had rounded off heads.

I then cut the filter mount off the oil cooler plate. I plan to tig a piece of 1/4 aluminum plate over the area then install AN6 fittings for the remote filter and weld those in as well. This is after sandblasting and a quick cleaning:

Final door is finally getting body filler. This is the second SKIM application. I then use a cheese grader and take the high stuff off then long block it. Once blocked to my liking, I will give it 6 coats of high build primer then one coat of epoxy before the orange.

My new exhaust manifold and a buddies after sandblasting and one coat of 2000* cast iron grey. Need to tap an EGT probe hole, port the manifolds and give 1 more coat of grey.

Hit this 1/4 mile from my house tonight around 11PM. Some sh**brain let his backhoe footer come off and I hit this 70lb lump with my RT front tire at about 30 MPH. It was snowing so visibility was not very good. Made quite a noise. Pretty sure tire is junk and I guess the morning will tell if it still holes air or not. Great start for those new king pin bushings I installed a month ago. :cheese:

August 16, 2008

UBER PAINT CART!!!!

This was quite fun to paint. I don't have ventilation in the booth yet so wheeled it outside, gave it a coat then rolled it inside and baked it to 75*. Looks great painted but I was too exhausted to snap some black parts pics last night. Those 2 ladder bars are .25 DOM for my buddies 1989 W250 diesel. I plan to make them for mine too. They hook to a shackle in the front off the frame rail and still allow the suspension to move without wrap!

Got a helluva a lead on a cummins drive train that is the result of a cancelled ebay sale, new friendships, and good relations! 12v I think (could be a 24v) with an nv4500 and transfercase for a price I cant refuse with free shipping from AZ! 48,000 original miles out of a rolled truck. I can't accept offers like this even as a broke kid so I'll be caughing up some bennies as thanks to the guy helping me out and the shipper! Hopefully it works out.

If my hard as hell to contact friend pulls through, I'll have ventilation this weekend and may shoot for the stars and get the cab and doors done. Lots of work ahead of me!

Paint cart:

Dana 60 front has new pinion bearings and I checked gear lash set bearing pre load while. Checked out well.

Before I spun it over I marked it with house paint in several spots. Contact was wide and in the center of the gear. Right where I want it.

Sealed up and ready for paint:

P7100 finally apart so I can repair governor housing. Made my own socket to back off the governor nut. Came off easy and went really smooth. I plan to set pump timing at 0* and then apply timing tape onto balancer with a pointer. I want to eventually run a keyed adjustable timing gear so I can dial timing in with ease. All I will have to do is remove the inspection cover where oil breather is, lock pump in place, loosen gear allen screws and bar the engine to the timing mark desired.

Timing arm that the pin locks in place with is at the 9 o clock position

Removed. It was seated on a tapered shaft so I quick tap to the piece with a brass punch freed it up.

Rack mechanism:

Apart and on bench:

The problem on the governor housing:

Started final work on cab and fourth door:

Charlie

I was really planning on doing orange this weekend but decided not to rush it especially with $500/gal paint.... I spent all of Friday afternoon working on filling the roof repair welds and finished the paint booth. I left tonight with the second application of high-build primer on 3 doors (door 4 didn't need any more) and on the cab roof area. It is really looking great! I used up ALLL of my seam sealer and filler I had left. I was lucky to have enough to finish the cab and doors after I cut the cans open and wiped them clean! I spent a crap ton of time going over panel joining areas, feathering edges etc. Basically, next time I go down, I need to block the high build I sprayed tonight, mask some stuff off, blow it off, wipe it down, tack rag it, preheat the metal and then ORANGE! The exhaust fan for the booth is a trash pump/industrial factory fan. It looks basically like a leaf blower and sounds like a jet engine. So, as you may be able to conclude, it is LOUD! I also finished off the firewall work and included a picture of the grafted-in steering column mount.

Intake:

Heaters for intake:

Exhaust. Moves about 1000CFM. The area of the room along with this size is an air change every 80 seconds.

Borrowed a buddie's plasma cutter and got the front spring mount and trans cross member for the rat done. The bottom of the cab is 6" off the ground and the frame rails are 4.5" off the ground:

Motor will be assembled this week and I got these to finish the dana 80 rear housing. Maybe if I push hard, I can have the rear axle under, engine shortblock painted, cab painted and doors assembled and mounted/aligned. :alien:

Dana 60 front spring plates and spindle flanges to mount D60 front spindles to the D80 rear housing. DISC BRAKES ALL AROUND!!!

Charlie

More axle parts showed up so I took a pic of it all:

October 4, 2008

Charlie,

You are doing an awesome job for sure. The work you are doing to keep the detailed updates in this thead is a lot of time on it's own. Thanks, this is for sure a fun thread. Cannot wait to see this bad boy at the show in June.

November 14, 2006

Do you ever sleep??

Awesome project and great updates!

Mike............

August 16, 2008

As much as you may think not, I actually DO sleep! Well, on weekends (for example last weekend) I got there at 5PM Friday, worked til 3AM and then woke back up at 10AM and worked til 2AM and then woke up at noon, worked til 4PM and headed home. So last weekend, I put in 28 hours. I will begin again tonight around 5PM and hope to lay paint on the roof and doors around 10PM. Then work all day tomorrow and Saturday afternoon.

Charlie

September 6, 2008

This better be at the big show this year. Can't wait to check it out in real life!

Thanks for keeping us updated with a great thread

December 10, 2009

I don't know about the rest of you but I find this very refreshing! A young man willing to work his butt off for something he wants. The knowledge displayed in this rebuild is a statement in itself also! Excellent job Charlie! We need more young people with your attitude!

June 16, 2009

Simply AWESOME Charlie. If you had to pay someone to do the work you are doing with the high quality and the extreme attention to detail in mind (like yours) it would cost an incredible amount of money. My Boss had his 67 Power Wagon COMPLETELY restored and I'm not kidding you, it cost him 100K. There is a video of it somewhere on Youtube.

I know you'll be parking it right across from our campsite at the Big Show. Your other truck blew me away, I think I'll be speechless when I see this one. Like Steve said, the amount of time it must take just to keep us updated is mucho work on its own, I'm following closely and I really appreciate it.

August 16, 2008

The fun continues! LOL I'm DONE WITH WORKING ON IT!!! I NEED A LIFE!!! I have over 500 of my own hours in this truck and still have a bit to go. I can't wait to be done and driving it around. I got a call yesterday that the machine work on my motor is finished and I started spraying paint. I was slacking yesterday and all I accomplished was replacing tires on my driver, sanding the primer on the rest of the cab, seam sealing all of it and modifying the passenger side kick panel for a fresh air vent like the drivers side. I didn't grab a picture of it welded on but it went great and blended in without any filler. I hope to finish painting the cab and doors and paint the dash along with engine valve covers Tuesday.

Mango Tango!!! Ahahahahagagaga!!!

Did 2 coats and need one more and then high solids crystal clear!

Applied my first coat of clear. Mipa karlaack made in germany. Uber clear! It is the highest resolution clear around. Gives it a prismatic look under the lights. Tomorrow ill tape off the painted areas and do the door jambs amd door skins. Need to do some interior spots too.