Moving along.
Front axle side 4-link ends bent up, fit, welded, and tac'd to bars to hang front axle. I will have to take the ends back off to finish welding everything but I wanted to fit up the front axle before I got too far.
swung the D60 underneath.
I wanted to check a bunch of different things next. The body mounts I made, the engine/trans fitment, and the front wheelbase. So I need to get my cab off the donor and ready to go.
The donor '76. C35, true camper special with 10,000lbs title. The bed is wrecked, but I won't use it. Only using the cab and front clip, plus interior items.
I didn't touch the mechanical systems. I'm hoping to sell the frame as a roller, running.
cab getting cleaned up, vacuumed out. It's real clean. I only found 2 rust through spots, under two of the cab clearance lights. I further stripped the firewall to nothing. I won't be using the stock AC or anything.
to get the 4x4 tunnel in and effectively convert my 2wd cab to a 4x4 cab, I started by laying the weld in half in and marking around it.
then I offset the marker line with tape to make the cut line. also mapped out the front bolt in half.
cut out the rear half and cleaned the bottom of the lip. This was terrible work. I use weld thru primer on the weld in parts lip and the cab side lip to help prevent rust. I'll also seam seal everything later on.
drilled for plug welds and celco'd in the weld in half from the bottom.
welded in. I perfer to TIG the rosette welds so I can heat everything up, fill, then keep the heat on letting it all flow. Also cut front half. I didn't cut front and back out of cab at once to keep as much material in there at all times.
test fit front bolt in piece.
Then I was able to test fit the cab. It fits perfect. I'm very happy. The ride height is a little low for what it'll be final, but its close. and ofcourse the final tires will be bigger.
to get the bed ready, I needed to remove the center crossmember from the bed floor. from my research, some beds got this piece and some didn't. My bed floor had it, but it would be in the way of the gooseneck, so I removed it. Drilled the spot welds and popped it out-
since I used a small pilot hole and a 3/8" annular cutter to drill out the spot welds, I had the small pilot hole to fill in the bed floor. I drill my pilots all the way through. So I TIG'd up these little holes and smoothed top and bottom.
and that's caught up with current. I hope to test fit the bed and check rear wheelbase soon. I need to order lots of parts and figure out steering and front track bar. Also have some engine items to handle.
Update again in a few days.
