All HREW and flux core, yet less ghetto than before

[TheMoneyPit]

Up next is rear shock mounting. Once I knock that out, the truck will finally be a roller.


Verified clearance at full droop and then started throwing together the driver's side upper shock mount. Sides/internal gusseting is 3/16" plate, while top/bottom plates will be 1/8".





With the mounts in place, rear travel is 26" metal to metal. Just need to finish gusseting/boxing, add a tube or two down to the frame for vertical strength, and then replicate on the other side.

Finished the internal gusseting and the topside plating. Hard to get a crisp line on those bent plates with nothing but a BFH, a crescent wrench, and a vise. Need to pick up one of those press brake kits for my hydraulic press.


Up next is fully welding the exterior of the mount, popping it off of the truck, welding the interior, and then plating in the bottom. Then it can get welded back on the truck for good, and tubes down to the frame can finish it off.

Finished up the passenger rear shock mount and added the cross-tube between the two. Even with templates and identical components, it took a ton of tweaking to get both sides symmetrical.


I was going to just add some taco gussets to the cross-tube, but I think I'll continue a tube like shown in yellow that matches the angle of the tire carrier structure. Then likely add some dimpled plates in the triangular void.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

The last significant decision I have to make is the cab cage to bed cage down tube layout. The first option is the way I'm leaning. It looks a bit cleaner and the tubing lines up nicely for the aluminum/lexan paneling down the road. The second option is technically the stronger one as the shock mount area has a direct line of support back to the cage. It's also kinda ugly, and likely a bit overkill for a play truck.



Ended up going with a hybrid of my plan and Barge's recommendation. Pulled out the cross bar, notched the X tubes, and chopped up the cross bar to fit in its original position. Little triangle pockets near the shock mounts will get dimpled filler plates.


Knocked out the last four cab cage to bed cage tubes. Went with bends over miters since they're a bit more period correct for a mezzanine truck.


I had planned on adding an X to the cab cage down tubes, but I think I'll leave that off and make a storage compartment in the forward area of the bed cage. It won't be particularly convenient to access, but it'll fill the hole at least.

Pulled the axle and added the lower link tab gussets. Spent the rest of the afternoon getting the axle and rear half of the chassis 100% welded.



Added the rear shock mount diagonal tubes and threw in the third member for mockup. Clearance on everything checks out at full droop. Coilover is wasting ~5/8" of its stroke however. If the u-joints have angle to spare, I might shorten the spacer in the bypass to get another ~1-1.5" of droop.



Added some heavier tacks on the tie rods, reinstalled the front shocks, and made the truck a roller for the first time in ages.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

With the back half of the truck mostly complete, I decided to start sealing up the cab. Cut windows in both a pillars to finish welding the backside of the engine cage tubes where they intersect the a pillar tubes. Welded up those holes and reinstalled the doors. (Don't mind the birdshit. I suck dick at welding thin sheet metal.)



Started welding up a few of the tube to sheet metal intersections on the rear of the cab. Most of them are tight and seem to weld pretty nicely. Two of the holes went a bit wonky when hole sawing, and are likely going to be a bitch to weld.


Tossed the portaband in the vise ghetto-style and cut out a few plates to finish boxing/gusseting the rear mezzanine arm pivots. I don't know why I waited so long to buy one of these things. It's fucking magical compared to the grinder/plasma.


Welded up the gusseting and splashed some paint on the rear pivots. A bit cold to be painting it seems. Runs galore. Luckily you can just wipe off the primer and re-try.

Started patching up the last few holes on the underside of the cab, but I ended up rage-quitting before getting much done. Every weld at max arm extension, t-shirt showered in MIG spatter, and getting more and more pissed with every burn. Bailed and hit up Amazon to overnight a welding jacket. Not sure why my dumb ass didn't buy one earlier.

New jacket fixed that and I welded up the last of the underside cab holes with zero burns. Reassembled the rear end afterward.

Sure am glad I purchased a welding jacket AFTER doing 80% of the welding on the truck.

Wire wheeled the cab, scraped off the MIG spatter, scrubbed off the grime, vacuumed thoroughly, and splashed some primer on the floor and all bare metal. Should be ready for seam sealer and paint tomorrow.


Didn't realize this tube of seam sealer from the local parts store was cracked until I started trying to use it. Ended up finger painting for most of the sealer job. Mess aside, got the top/bottom of the floor seams and the tube to engine cage holes sealed up.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

Took ~8 hours, but I finally got the dash fitted up halfway decently.





Had to hack off the upper mounts around the dash tube, so the dash was only left with the 3 bolts marked in yellow. This left it nice and floppy, so I had to fab up an extra mount for the upper passenger side of the dash. Rock solid now.


Bonus dash mount is a little ghetto fab in hindsight. Tends to happen when I know shit will never be seen. On the bright side, all vents will be fully functional. I did have to cut into the HVAC channels quite a bit, so they'll need sealed back up. Tentative plan is scrap ABS patch panels that I'll fiberglass in place over the holes.

Pulled the dash out and cleaned up the HVAC hackery. Hit all the edges with some 80 grit and fiberglassed over all of the holes. Center defrost cuts marked in red will get sealed off tomorrow once the filler pieces are solid.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

Finished sealing up the defrost ducts and mounted the seats. Seat tabs are 3/16 mild.




I had planned on using group 65 batteries (Explorer-sized), but there wasn't quite enough room between the fuel cell and the axle at bump. Cut 2" out of the battery trays and I'll use group 59 batteries (Ranger-sized) instead. Threw some primer on the trays and frame in the area where they'll be sandwiched together and inaccessible.




Had to grind one motor mount a bit to clear an oil plug boss on the driver's side, but the Ruffstuff 302 mounts fit well otherwise.


I was hoping the engine/trans combo would be easier to install/remove than the stock setup, but it's really not. I don't have enough clearance to lift the engine ~2" straight up, so I have to pull the mounts off of the block to get the engine out. Then getting the bellhousing past the welded mounts is very fun as well. If I wanted to fully embrace the snowball, I'd raise the trans tunnel for serviceability. Eh, maybe later. How often does one really pull their engine anyway?

Couldn't find any 9/16" threaded rod locally, and didn't feel like waiting for it via mail. Bought some 1/2" 22 gauge tubing, split it down the middle and gently smashed it over some 1/2" rod. Fits nice and snug in a 9/16" hole for mock-up.


Tore down the front end of the truck and tacked on some tabs to locate the threaded rod through the stock UCA mounts. Hacked off the forward mount and fabbed up some 3/16" replacement tabs. Backside of the tabs will get enclosed and each side gets a 1/4" weld washer.

I started out just making beefier UCA mounts, but now I'm thinking I might get rid of the 5 degree UCA rake to eliminate the stock anti-dive geometry.

The only question I have left is why the UCAs are also pigeon-toed. The last picture shows that the UCAs are angled outward, and the rear pivots are closer together. What is the purpose of this? I was thinking maybe caster gain? Not sure if that's something I should keep, or just ditch it all and make the UCA and LCA pivots parallel in both planes.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

Dicked around with the UCA geometry, but ultimate went with the stock angles. Mostly because I had already mounted the bump stops with the stock geometry, and the bump angles starting getting a bit weird once I altered things. Finished the UCA pivots once I made up my mind.


Plated in the backside of the UCA pivots, started scraping off the tar undercoating, and splashed some primer on afterward.



Added the LCA weld washers and deleted the passenger-side LCA cam bolt in the process. Motor mounts looked like they would fatigue crack eventually, so I added some taco gussets.


Removed the HVAC box and trimmed the frame rails back to the core support. Capped the rails and boxed in the inside/bottom of the upper shock mounts. Welded up the bits hidden by the HVAC stuff and then ran out of primer halfway through painting.


Bought a WIY 1-5/8" header kit a while back along with mufflers and tubing. The plan is headers outside of the frame with 3" exhaust tucked behind the rocker panels that ends behind the cab.


Finished the front-end primer job, massaged the LCA holes with a die grinder, and reinstalled the front suspension. Fabbed up the extended bump strike pads for the UCAs afterward from 1/4 plate. Smoothed the topside and re-cycled everything.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

Welded in the upper link pivots and boxed in the last bit of c-channel in the middle of the frame. Plates are 3/16" mild.



Fabbed up a fuel pump on a stick after that. Pickup sits ~1/16" off the bottom of the fuel cell. 3/16" base plate and 1" 1.20 wall main tube welded to the stock fuel pump bracket.


Pulled the 8.8 out of the scrap pile and stripped off the brake hardware. As expected without the aftermarket retainer spacers, there was ~.120" of end play in the axle with the 8.8 brakes installed on the 9 inch.


My first idea was to chuck up my 3/8" demo-derby retainers in the lathe, turn down one face, and leave an inner lip to take the place of the missing spacers. The mini-lathe began screaming for death the moment I powered it up, and I knew I'd destroy the headstock bearings before I even finished one side.


Fallback plan was to cut out some spacers from the "normal" .188" thick retainer plates on the bandsaw.


Pretty happy with the final product. Torqued the axle retainer nuts and the preload on the axles feels about right. Worst case I wear out some axle bearings and I toss on some Currie 8.8 spacers when I replace them.


Hit the garage at lunch and drilled one rotor out to 5x5.5. I don't have dust shields installed, but the offset seems just about perfect. Rotor sits dead center in the caliper.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

The spindles were designed for early 2000s Expedition calipers, but the caliper brackets still needed some massaging. I was able to bolt them up after trimming the inside corners, but the rotors were extremely close to the brackets. A hair's width away and guaranteed to rub.


Thought about cutting off and re-welding the spindle mounting tabs, but ultimately decided to take ~1/8" off of the caliper brackets themselves. All "machining" done with a bandsaw and disk grinder.


Still tight-ish, but the rotor is now roughly centered in the caliper slide area. If/when the screeching starts, I'll know a wheel bearing has self-destructed.


Bumped out the rear suspension and notched/welded in the missing cross tube.


Had to get a bit creative to mount the driver's side rear brake line. 3/16" wide 3/8" diameter seat surface fully captured on both ends.


Welded on the driver's side tab, drilled and tapped a couple of holes, tacked on the brake line zip-tie mounts, and bent up a couple of brake lines.


Added a couple of plates to tie in the backside of the stock frame crossmember. I'll likely just add two more rectangles to fill the holes, but part of me wants to fully box in the link pivots. That might just be adding weight for nothing though.


Welded in the battery boxes and then spent three hours wire wheeling, scraping slag, and cleaning the back half of the chassis. Flux core sucks ass. Sprayed some primer afterward.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

Welded in the lap belt eyelets+5th point tabs and splashed some paint on the cab interior.


Painted the rear cab tube junctions and masked off the rear of the cab to prep for backhalf paint.


Started welding up the links, but ran out of wire almost immediately. I guess that's where I stop for the night.


Welded up the diff skid plate and links. Lots of 9 inch skid plates floating around, but this James Way Offroad one seems like the best design by far.



Reinstalled the drivetrain and rear suspension to do some measuring.

By some miracle I ended up with ~1/8" of driveshaft plunge over 25" of travel. 5.7 degrees of total pinion angle change from bump to droop. Mock-up driveshaft measures 59" center to center. Can finally hit up the local driveshaft shop and get one made.

Threw together the front end to do some mockup. Pretty much just have to mount glass, fuse box, cruise control motor, and the coolant overflow/windshield washer tank. Then I can tear it all down and paint before final reassembly.


Chassis is getting painted with Rustoleum gray hammertone. Suspension components will get black hammertone.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

Mounted the front limit straps, capped the ends of the core support, and recreated the central grille bracket that I threw away years ago.




Still needs welding and some bolt holes drilled, but got the fender support tubes mostly figured out. 3/4" .120 wall main tube, 1" .120 wall receiver tube, and 1/8" plate.

There are two chromoly tubes on the entire truck, and they have the extremely critical job of holding the front fenders in place.

Wrapped up the front fender mounts and buzzed in the fuse box. Went with U-nuts on the fender mounts to leave some wiggle room for panel alignment.



Added a couple of 1/4" plates to reinforce the axle-side upper link mounts. Painted the axle, links, and few bits of unpainted cab after that.


Ordered harnesses with clip-in lap/shoulder belts, but bolt-in harnesses arrived two months later. Can't be fucked to deal with returns, so I'll just run wrap-around shoulder belts, grind off the lap belt eyelets, and weld on some bolt tabs. Gotta keep this shit moving forward.


Fiberglass showed up out of the blue while I was at work. Notice that it had been shipped would have been neat, but I lucked out and the tweakers left it alone. Both being McNeil, the 6" fenders fit pretty much identically to the old 3" fenders. Eyeballing the long-bed glass confirms that I'm not retarded and managed to center the axle in the wheel opening via grade-school math.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

I didn't order fenders with louvres, but they don't bug me too much. Based on the "Perry" on the order tag, I'm guessing they make fenders in batches, and I got a louvered pair out of the pile. 7' bedsides likely get made to order.


Started running battery cables and fuel lines afterward. 8AN PTFE feed, 6AN PTFE return, Chinese inline filter, and 2 gauge battery cable. Positive leads will come through the rear of the cab floor and terminate at the main battery switch. It'll get mounted to the floor for now, but I'll leave enough slack for the future center console.



Finished making and mounting all battery cables and fuel lines.



Most importantly, I made sure the battery switch would clear the factory cupholders.

Re-fitted the dash harness/defrost ducting and installed it for the "final" time. Trimmed the defrost vent cover to fit around the window tubes. There is a ~1/2" gap between the dash and the window seating surface. Not sure if this is worse than factory or not, but the black windshield border should cover it regardless.


Deleted the lap belt eyelets and fabbed/welded some 3/16" tabs in their place.


Driveshaft arrived on Friday as well. All parts required to make this thing run and drive are finally in hand.


Pulled engine/trans back out and mounted the front reservoirs.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

Always end up wasting a bunch of time on the dumbest stuff. Spent two hours staring at the truck and trying to figure out the rear reservoir placement. Coilover reservoirs will be mounted under the top rail and slightly inside, so that they will be hidden behind the eventual paneling. The Fox reservoirs are gigantic however and don't really tuck anywhere nicely. Likely just going to add some 45 degree adapters at the reservoir end of the host and mount them off the side of the bedcage for now.


Although we all know where the bypass reservoirs really belong...


Finished fabbing brake lines and tacked on the 50 mounting tabs.




Final assembly time for the rear axle and back half of the truck in general. Torqued all rear suspension bolts afterward.

Time to tear down the front end, paint it, and start final assembly on that half.
Edit: Goddamn I need to grind and re-weld a few of those early tubes on the front end. I'm a sloppy welder regardless, but the difference from the first tube to the last is gigantic.

(End of the archive puke)

 

[TheMoneyPit]

Once again spent far too long on a simple task, but the rear reservoirs are mounted.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

Painted the underside of the truck, fitted the fuel filler, fitted the fuel vent line, and ran the axle breather up the passenger upper link.




Mocked up the cab/chassis harness and luckily taillight wiring will still reach despite the extended wheelbase. Will just need to lengthen the fuel pump/sender wiring to account for the rear-mounted fuel cell.

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

can I’m just thank you for the info you’ve posted? I think there is something I can learn from each post… no homo

 

[TheMoneyPit]

can I’m just thank you for the info you’ve posted? I think there is something I can learn from each post… no homo

Big fan of the forum format for that reason. Grew up in a household that bought a new lawn mower every other year because nobody knew how to clean a carburetor. Mustang forums convinced me to supercharge my 2003 GT, trials forums convinced me to restore a 1974 Suzuki RL250, and DR/RDC convinced me to build the Ranger. I'm just here to do my part in convincing the next dude to blow $30k on their shitbox pickup.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

Tore down the front end for masking and paint.



Time for reassembly. I'll be working on little details for months, but I'm hoping to have this thing running and driving within a week. Two weeks tops.

 

[the bodj]

People who remove everything for paint (including the engine) scare me.

 

[michael_gonzalez]

He left the bushings in the arms. He's good.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

People who remove everything for paint (including the engine) scare me.

I was hesitant to pull the engine/trans early in the project, but that shit went out the window a while back. I've removed/reinstalled it six times in the past three months. Getting REALLY good at it.

Plus I've gotta get this rattle can grey on every inch of the frame. The color really highlights the bubblegum welds.