A New 68 Build Thread

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by 69CST-V

Very nice fab work. Looks great.

Thanks very much!

[ccracin]

It's about time for the look of the pile of parts to change. I told Dad we need a motivator, let's put a bumper on this thing. We ordered the bumper from Brothers Trucks. So what's the first thing you do with a nice shiny new part, YEP cut it up! After the first test fit, the "V" shape of the bumper didn't match the shape of the front of the truck. So, a slice here a slice there, some accurately placed force and some welds and shazam!











But, Eeeeewww look at the ends of that bumper flapping out there!

[ccracin]

This will never do!







Time for a little nip and tuck.











Much Better!







Mission Accomplished! It's actually looking like a truck again. A little more welding, grinding, filing and sanding and you will never know it was cut!

Thanks for looking, as always comments welcome!

[knomadd]

Nice bumper mods!

[sduckworth13]

Nice job Chad on the bumper, that does look much better. Trucks coming along nice.

[jtp67-72]

just what it needed...........I'll file that mod away!!...........jim

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by jtp67-72

just what it needed...........I'll file that mod away!!...........jim

Thanks Jim! Make sure you let me know how the cowl mod goes with Scott's. I'm really looking to save some time!

[jtp67-72]

Originally Posted by ccracin

Thanks Jim! Make sure you let me know how the cowl mod goes with Scott's. I'm really looking to save some time!

Says it will be back on the brown truck next monday....not cheap but if u look at it from a time and TOOL mindset ...its worth it.....u have more access and talent with metal workin tools than me.....will show pics when returned...told justin i would like to buy a cab out there and have it shipped to him for roof mods...his response was "hell give me a week and i'll have one here for you" !!

Gotta love the guys that SEE the money to be made and WILLING to deliver the product!....Wish your President could get that in his head!!!...........jim

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by jtp67-72

Says it will be back on the brown truck next monday....not cheap but if u look at it from a time and TOOL mindset ...its worth it.....u have more access and talent with metal workin tools than me.....will show pics when returned...told justin i would like to buy a cab out there and have it shipped to him for roof mods...his response was "hell give me a week and i'll have one here for you" !!

Gotta love the guys that SEE the money to be made and WILLING to deliver the product!....Wish your President could get that in his head!!!...........jim

I know what you mean. I don't know about more talent, you are doing some cool stuff! The tools is actually what you just said. In some cases we buy the tool rather than pay to have the part made. We figure once we have the tool we'll always have it. The question is, will I be able to use the tool? Lol. The reason I asked about this is, we don't have an English wheel or planishing hammer. (Yet). I think that's what you need to make the filler pieces correctly. What's the cost?

Justin really seems to have the drive and makes it his priority to satisfy his customers. I think you'll be happy! Message me your number, we should stay in touch!

[ccracin]

They say it's a good sign when the parts you are working on get smaller. Who knows, but we are getting things under the hood fixed up. We sent the inner fenders and panels off to a friend to weld so that we can continue fabricating. These are some pics of pulling the A/C system together. Had to mount the drier.









Then we started mocking up the hard lines for the condenser. Now it's off to the local shop to have them made.



Not much, but progress.

We were finally able to connect the front to the back with this little delivery!







3.5" Aluminum with 1350 U-Joint. The pics don't do it justice. Denny's does a nice job and it fit like a glove!

[ccracin]

We decided now that we should try to button up the bed so that we can dismantle it for final welding and have access to the chassis easier. We need to start mounting coolers and battery. Because we raised the bed floor 4 1/2" or so, we had to finish off the rear sill. It's all a little harder since we wanted to make sure this thing will still come apart rather than just welding it all together. I like it, more important than that Dad likes it!











Thanks for checking in!

[ccracin]

Here we go, back at it. After a very successful anniversary party for my parents and stint as a softball coach for my daughters 10U team, we are back at it. Details are the name of the game now. We have some A/C hard lines being made up currently. Once we have them, we will be able to make the rest of the A/C and heater lines under the hood. We decided to do it now so we weren't cutting finished panels to make them work. Pictures after we get those back.

We are also trying to get most of the fab work done on the bed so that we can take it apart and do the final welding. While it's apart we will get the oil and trans coolers mounted. Some pages ago I posted work we had done to the wheel tubs and bed sides. We like having the rear wheels and tires out as close to the fender lip as possible. As with everything else this required lots of work. Now we are down to the final details. One of which is the transition between the wheel tub lip and the bed side bolt flange for the bed wood. These tubs are bolt in on stock sides. But, because of our modifications they are now welded in. so here is the plan.

This tub will be welded in.



This is the interface of the 2 bolt flanges now. (Sorry, horrible picture)



A nice radius will look better.









Much better. Now repeat 3 more times.

MAN it is good to be able to post an update, however small!

[67ctener]

Beautiful driveline. I like the bumper mods, you should start mass producing those

[ccracin]

Thanks Scott. Everyone seems to like the bumper. Problem is, most people don't want to pay for that type of small stuff. Between fitting and mods bet there is 6 or 7 hours in it without the adjuster brackets. Never know though. I just happen to be starting a company designing and building hot rod parts.

[PCHRODS]

Our 69 is 54/46 with a big block with the motor in the stock location. We run into an understeer situation alot with that truck. Hence the reason I have been known to use the throttle applied rear steer option our truck has. I'm really diggin this truck chad. It is going to be super cool. You are definetly going in the right direction with it.

Originally Posted by ccracin

Dan is exactly correct. For best handling, you would like to have either a 50/50 weight bias Rear/Front or even 52/48 Rear/Front. This is so that under braking in a corner when the weight transfers to the front, you end up with a well balanced vehicle. This allows softer springs for better ride and handling. Well since we all like Pick-ups here, that is almost impossible to do and be practical for the street. Then when you add a Big Block it hurts even more. So the rule I go by is get the engine back as much as is practical for your situation. But, be warned when you start sliding it back it will snowball quickly as to what all is affected. Be ready to modify everything. Hope this helps. And thanks all for the kind words.

Later,

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by PCHRODS

Our 69 is 54/46 with a big block with the motor in the stock location. We run into an understeer situation alot with that truck. Hence the reason I have been known to use the throttle applied rear steer option our truck has. I'm really diggin this truck chad. It is going to be super cool. You are definetly going in the right direction with it.

Thanks Rob. I'm sure we will be talking more. I'm also developing some new parts for it. I send you some peaks as I get them. Our rendering was done by Ben as well. Ours is going to be less track than yours, but same vibe.. He did the rendering 5 years ago and I have never posted it because we are so slow! LOL I didn't want anyone else to build it!

[BossHogg69]

I don't know how I missed this build, but I'm definitely subscribing to this so I don't miss anything else!! You're a metal working BEAST! Love that you're using a big block too! The only thing I didn't like is that I had to go out in my garage and burn my project to the ground after seeing your work!

[ajgriffin]

Originally Posted by ccracin

Great way to finish a tough week!

No big block for this one...still super cool though.

[BossHogg69]

I guess that's what I get for reading the first page then skipping to the end.

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by BossHogg69

I don't know how I missed this build, but I'm definitely subscribing to this so I don't miss anything else!! You're a metal working BEAST! Love that you're using a big block too! The only thing I didn't like is that I had to go out in my garage and burn my project to the ground after seeing your work!

Originally Posted by ajgriffin

No big block for this one...still super cool though.

Originally Posted by BossHogg69

I guess that's what I get for reading the first page then skipping to the end.

Thanks for the compliments Boss! Sorry to disappoint about the Big Block. We got more power and less weight with the aluminum 415 inch LS. This is the first project I've done this kind of sheet metal work on. You just gotta dive in. It's only metal. Don't like it, cut it out and do it again.

Thanks for the correction AJ !

[ccracin]

Here are some of the details I've been working on to try and wrap the bed up. I'll let the pics talk. Just small stuff.

Bed pocket fill:












Next........

[ccracin]

Now onto the tail gate. We are running a latch flip kit, but we can't leave well enough alone. It's a nice universal kit, but needs some refinement.







More.......

[ccracin]

To be continued!

[ccracin]

As promised, here is the close to finished results. I still have one more addition, but that will require a custom part.

The original piece.






Much Much better in my opinion!


Thanks for looking!

[ccracin]

Continuing on the goal of getting the bed wrapped up, it's time to get it mounted permanently. Because I have some special plans for the bed wood, I needed a way of mounting the bed without seeing the hardware. Like some many things on this truck, since I built a new chassis most of the stock solutions will not work. One of the stock items we did use are the supports for the bed floor although modified! My plan was to use captured nut plates welded into the bottom of the factory support and then bolt up through the chassis brackets and viola! Mounted! That simple plan required alot of work!

Because its' never a good idea to bolt through tube steel due to crushing, I added sleeves to the tubing created a proper bolted joint.



The photo I forgot to take was the 3/4" OD 1/8" wall tube slug I used as the sleeve.



Here are the steps in building and attaching the captured bolt plates.









Next time, I'll see if the holes line up! Thanks for looking!