on the calipers?! How! anyone try this

 

Did some more this morning...First off, my dad and brother have left my work area trashed...I work 11 months out of the year in Iraq as a Contractor (Heavy Armor Battle Vehicle Mechanic for KBR) and my dad and brother have built a shed, had a carport installed and bought another shed over the last 26 months that I have been there and it has made a fairly decent work place...I had not got to see the new shed or the carport since I was home 13 months ago...Well from what you can see it was a absolute mess so me and the neighbor (Cricket) cleaned it up this morning...Finally got a fairly decent place to work and I went back to sand blasting and removing parts...We sand blasted more and removed the radiator to get more of the front frame...We removed about 2 pounds of dirt from the front crossmember from over the years of us using it on the farm (650 acre farm in ohio on mother's side), driving on the dirt roads, and from my occasional four-wheeling foray in the fields and woods...I plan on expanding the block floor to all sides of the carport and on into the floor of the shed so I don't have to deal with dirt and sand...Everything else between the house and white shed will be lined with black plastic and have crushed concrete layed on top...

My "shop"...




Mostly clean, still had to clean off the table and some other stuff...





The dirt we took out of the crossmember...


More sandblasting on the rails, crossmember and suspension...

 

Nice project. I did a similar rebuild on my 98. Drunk neighbor smacked it into a tree. I bought it off him, rebuilt the motor, trans etc. I ended up bolting the core support in with stainless steel nuts and bolts. Just as strong, and easily removable. I don't have/have access to a spot welder, so, that is the route that I picked to go. Wish I had a sandblaster when I did it.

 

Great thread, love all the pictures. Looks like your making some progress keep them coming.

 

So this afternoon we got a few things done and found out some stuff I wasn't happy with...I took my air stipler/needle scaler to my front body mounts to clean rust off them and they blew out...So I went on the hunt to find something to fix them and I found some thick steel washers that are perfect...The center hole is perfect to fit the body bushings into...I am going to cut out all of the bad steel and trim the washers down and weld them where the bad steel once was, but I can't do this until I get the new body bushings Tuesday...We aslo sand blasted everything to the front cab mounts so it could be painted...

Cricket sandblasting...


Some of the sand we used, got another inch on the ground now...


Rotted driverside mount...


Rotted passengerside mount...


Old mounts we had to cut apart after the bolt snapped...



New washers to be cut and welded in...


If the old bushings weren't blown apart they would slip through the holes in the washers...

 

Great job with the truck and all the pictures. Gonna be one nice truck when you get done!

 

A little off topic but where in Ohio was this? I remember a while back some cows were roaming west of Toledo and my buddy in a big truck just missed some. Anyways, great pics and it looks like some great progress.

 

Southcentral Ohio...Chillicothe, Hillsboro, Washington Court House area...

 

VERY common! Especially if you've ever tried to put 15" wheels on a lightning or Cobra to go to the track!

 

Love the huge coca cola bottle!

 

The A/C condenser that Genesis Auto Parts sent me...



My factory condenser...Yeah...I was not very happy with what I recieved considering the one in the picture looked identical to the one in my truck but I got the POS above...It is being returned with no cost to me...They did the same thing with the aluminum radiator that I ordered for the truck...



My cowl induction hood arrived today...Had a few problems with it and I got 100 bucks refunded off the price of the hood...



Underneath of the hood...Looked good, not cheap and flimsy...



Top of the hood...



Damage to the hood, the two circles in the center are of where the welder at the factory pushed the bracing down to hard and put two outward facing dimples in the center of the hood...You can also see the two bubbles in the paint...And also what this dosent show is that there is a slight depression between the center of the hood and the passenger side at the front of the hood...It is all very easily fixed with very little body filler but it still needs fixed so they knocked 100 off the price



You can see the beginning of the paint bubbles...



Aligning the new holes for the body mounts...



I coated the body mounts in rust stopper then ground down where we needed to weld at...



Rubber mounts installed...I had to go get new bolts at the hardware store...



Cricket tack welding the new steel onto the frame mounts...



More welding...He is a great welder...I haven't touched a welder in about 6 years...I need to start practicing more...



New steel tack welded to the old steel...



Core support with fresh paint...Alot better looking than what came from the factory...




We still have to bolt alot of stuff on the truck and align alot of stuff before we weld the core support solid into the truck...We will put on the hood and head lights and grille/light surround and adjust everything before welding it in solid...They will just tack weld it in a few spots after fitting everything then pull everything off the truck and make the final welds...

 

Awesome job so far.. love the hood.. last part i need on my truck to finish my repairs. I was doing some work in Chillicothe last year at the VA hospital... man, that is some serious remote country out there! And i grew up in eastern Hillsborough county... not too far from ya!

 

We have a 650 acre farm 30 miles west of there...If you keep heading southeast on 50 out of there you start seeing blind kids playing banjos...(I hope someone gets that joke...)

 

Thanks...Dad picked that up at a rental property he was doing some side work at...We use it as a trash can...

 

Yeah I'm not to far from there about an hour or so. My family use to race at the track till they tore it down.