Project: Ground Up

[RockRodHooligan]

Ok, here are a few updates. First, the new job didn't work out, not exactly happy about being let go because they didn't have time to properly train me(openly admitted to me, and apologized for), with underlieing tones that I was muscled out by a former employee that was pissed that they hired me instead of offering him his old job back.

 

In the end it was like getting dumped by the super crazy chick that was great in bed, and would bring girlfriends with her from time to time. Yeah you will miss the sex, but in the end, she was still bat-sh*t crazy.On the plus side, I've got a hook up on parts now, I hate that I have to deal with 4WP to get it though.

 

Now on to the updates on the Jeep:

 

The engine work has finally started. I'm building the motor as a class project, allowing me to have all of my machine work done for free.

 

Back from thermo blasting:

 

Some of the head port work

[RockRodHooligan]

I bought all of my fiberglass from Hannemann finally and got the time to go up to my Dads this weekend and start test fitting everything. I've decided to change my plans now. I had originally planed on using a short bed and bobbing 12" out of the back of it. With the rear flairs that wasn't going to happen, the most I would be able to cut would be about 6". I decided that that was too much work for only a 6" gain. Also, I have been very conflicted about cutting up a bed thats was in such great shape, so I've decided to cut up the long bed:

To make my life a little easier, I decided to do things a little differently, starting with drilling out all of the pinch welds for the bed sides.

Both sides are off. This will allow me to make my welds thoroughly in and outside of the bed when it's going back together, as well as take care of the little bit of rust thats in there.

12.5" section to come out of the front

18" section out of the rear

For the bedsides I'm only going to make one cut, about a 26.5" section out of the middle(thats an estimate, not going to cut the bedsides until after the bed had been cut down, and remeasure). I'll cut the section out, then tac weld the two back together, cut my new wheel well opening, then finish the weld.

This is all that will be visible of the factory bed sides once I get the flairs on

I think the whole corner is going to come together nicely

The tail light box will be getting deleted, and the 70's style Ford truck tail lights will be going in their place(without the chrome)

 

The end result will be about a 61" bed(5'1"), and about a 107" wheelbase before any front stretch, probably 109" in the end.

[COFFMAN]

Nice build Rockrodhooligan, like your work i'll be watching with interest :thumbsup:

[RockRodHooligan]

Remember that short bed I picked up? I've been toying around with the idea of making a "matching" trailer out of it, but leaving it full length. I know I would want to do the prerunner bed flares, but still don't feel right about cutting it up considering how good of condition it is in. So here is what I am thinking/proposing: Somebody out there is looking for complete SWB bed side replacements, not just patch panels. I can go through and cut out all of the spot welds on this like I did on my long bed, removing the bed sides as one whole piece, and I'll even include most of the outer part of the wheel well(not the entire panel since that pinch weld ties the inner and outer wheel well, into the inner bed side), leaving me a clean spot to use the full fiberglass bedside from Hannemann, with out feeling bad about "cutting up" a perfectly good bed.

 

So for full SWB bed side replacements(I'll even go though and try and remove any dents and dings for the buyer), I would like to try and get close to cover half the cost of the new fiberglass bed sides.... $500 plus shipping for the fiberglass, say $100 each?

[RockRodHooligan]

Got a little time with the truck earlier this week, not nearly as much as I wanted to, but I think I got a good amount of work done.

 

No turning back

 

Going back together

 

Flipped it over for the front sectioning, and to weld the underside of the bed floor.

I had to cut the flange off of the backside of the forward most crossmember to make the cut where I wanted to, I'm not thrilled about that, but I'm going to go back with a 1x1 angle and plug weld the hell out of it to the back side of the forward crossmember and the front flange of the second.

I also ended up cutting a crossmember out when I sectioned the rear, I will go back and cut part of that floor section up with the crossmember as part of it, and weld it overlapping the rear seam, allowing me to double up the sheet metal there, as well as adding a crossmember under it for added strength. You can see I have done a similar thing to the bed sides also.

 

Flipped over for a better view of the finished product

 

Shortened a total of 28" exactly, but don't ask where I cut the extra 1/2" from, it wasn't planed that way lol

 

I'm thinking about some 1x1" 1/8" angle to weld to the back side of the lip that the bedsides attach to across the bedrail. Then capping the bedrail with a piece of 3/16" plate bent to cover the inside edge(sandwiching the factory seam between it and the 1/8" plate). The 1/8" piece will give me something solid to weld to since I completely drilled out the original spot welds, as well as add a little more rigidity to the bed side, the 3/16" plate will add a lot more rigidity to it, as well as armor up the bed rail for when I end up rubbing up against a tree or rock.

 

 

Block is at the machinist this week, should have it back Thurs in time for class. I also ordered the new cam and lifters, decided to go with the Comp Cams 68-239-4 (Duration 262/270, Lift .493/.512). It might be a little on the radical side, but with the port work I've done, larger valves, and lighter rotating assembly(pistons,valves) we'll see how I like it, I know I love the way it sounds:

If nothing else a new milder cam is an easy enough swap.

[Exxon Valdez Jeep]

Its amazing how deceptive a stroker sounds without a mufffler

[RockRodHooligan]

Snapped a couple of pics yesterday when I had to run up to my Dads to pick up some stuff, just a couple of pics for comparison of a kind of before/after:

And a little bit of a mock up(as much as I could do without someone to hold the flare) of things to come.

 

I have the 25-27th off work, so I'm going to head back up for another run at it. I hope to get the patch work and overlapping patches welded up, as well as a couple more passes of tack welds done on the inside of the bed, and ground down. Then cut the bed sides down and tack them back together for test fit. I'm going to wait to weld them back on the bed, till I can take the section I cut out to my buddy and have him use it as a templet to bend up the bedside re-enforcements.

[RockRodHooligan]

A few small updates nothing big right now, but I'll be trying something I'm not sure a lot of you guys know much, if anything about.

 

Spent a couple days working on the truck again, making progress on the back seam but it's not going together the way I want it to. I am really trying to avoid using body filler on the bed floor unless I absolutely have to, but using weld is proving difficult with the thin sheet metal. Grinding the spot welds smooth is making the sheet metal too thin for comfort, and ends up blowing through if I even point a welder in its direction.

Here is were things were still ok, I should have stopped and looked at the options I was thinking about at the time and been great, but I didn't. I just took long enough of a break to double up the bottom with the section I had cut out originally, placing the original cross member directly under the seam. Then I got froggy and figured with the metal doubled up, it would be a good time to clean up the seem. Not a good idea at 8 o'clock at night after working on it all day, it went down hill from there.

I got way too happy with the welder, ignored everything I know about welding thin metal, and got crazy with the heat. I finally called it quits and started researching lead.

 

Ever hear the term "Lead Sled" when somebody was talking about an old chopped top 'Merc? Yeah that comes from them using lead before plastic body fillers like Bondo existed. This stuff is almost a lost art anymore, and it will suit my needs perfectly. The biggest advantage to Lead over Bondo is lead will actually move with the metal around it if it gets dented, as opposed to Bondo that will crack. Bondo has it's place, and there is a lot of places I will end up using it, but the floor of the bed, right at the back where it will see the most use, isn't really a place I feel comfortable using it. Yeah I plan on using a spray in bedliner, but I'm expecting right there to see a lot of use, and it's one of those places that I can see the floor getting dented, and body filler cracking, then causing nightmares with the bed liner.

 

Here is everything I got with the leading kit I got from Eastwood:

Contents left to right:

Body file half round

Body file flat

2 Flat paddles(bottom)

1 Half-round paddle(top)

1-lb Tinning butter

Acid brushes

10- 1/4lb sticks of lead solder

1-lb. Tallow

There is also an instructional DVD not pictured

[camjeep3]

props on trying the lead. I always thought that was cool. But honestly if you are going to bedline it I wouldnt bother with the lead. I'm sure the liner would cover up alot of the imperfections? :dunno:

[RockRodHooligan]

props on trying the lead. I always thought that was cool. But honestly if you are going to bedline it I wouldnt bother with the lead. I'm sure the liner would cover up alot of the imperfections? :dunno:

 

Yeah but why? Why not go the extra step and actually finish it?

[xj92]

Any updates on this? I'm planning to start my bed shortening project soon. I probably won't remove the bedsides or use fancy bulging bedsides, but I'm going to take around 15" behind the wheel and probably 10-12" before the wheel, depending on fuel filler and gas tank limitations, open up the wheel wells for 37s, shorten the frame to match, cut the driveshaft for the shorter wheelbase, etc. I'd love to see more if you've made any progress on it.

[RockRodHooligan]

Any updates on this? I'm planning to start my bed shortening project soon. I probably won't remove the bedsides or use fancy bulging bedsides, but I'm going to take around 15" behind the wheel and probably 10-12" before the wheel, depending on fuel filler and gas tank limitations, open up the wheel wells for 37s, shorten the frame to match, cut the driveshaft for the shorter wheelbase, etc. I'd love to see more if you've made any progress on it.

 

Sadly no progress has been made on the truck since March, I've been super busy with work opening a new store. Don't quite have the same free time I used to any more, side effect of a promotion. Been spending a little bit of time helping a couple of buddies working on their TJs too, one of them is stretching 12", 0* approach and departure angels, JK Rubicon 44's 3 link/4 link, LOTs of aluminum armor.... Kinda pimp.

 

Good news is, I'm going up this weekend to work on it again. Get off work 3PM Sunday and don't have to be back till noon Wednesday. Aside from cleaning up the GFs car on Sunday, the rest of the time will be working on the truck. Depending on how I do with the lead work, I want to work with it one day, and start pulling the front clip off the truck, and get it ready to pull the engine/transmission as soon as I can get a cherry picker.

[ExTrEmEmJ86]

Hurry up I have been patiently waiting :fs1:

[RockRodHooligan]

Alright finally got pics of the relocated crossmember and doubled up floor pan.

Here is what it started at

Spent some time grinding down the welds from last time, now that I wasn't feeling so impatent it didn't go so bad.

A mid-leading pic

This is about as close as I'm going to try to get it with lead, I might finish it with some body filler or even a high built primer, and then bed line the whole thing. It is a lot harder than it looks, especially without someone to tell you what you are doing wrong.

Where I left off

And this is a big reason why I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted done, my Dads 61 Chevy Impala. It had recently been rebuilt with a flat tappet cam. My dad isn't the most mechanically attentive person, and managed to wipe out 12 of the 16 cam lobes. With all that metal floating around in the oil, it nearly seized all the wrist pins, broke a piston skirt, trashed all the bearings, and scared the crank..... Moral of the story is, if you have a flat tappet cam, use oil with zinc in it! So after a fresh rebuild with a roller cam, and an Edlebrock Performer RPM intake manifold, the engine went back in yesterday.

[ExTrEmEmJ86]

nice car! :thumbsup: