I haven't got a crew......

[one wing angel]

Hello Aussie, your project is certainly moving along. I can,t wait to see more of the roof fabrication . Please .LOTS... of pictures. I like the use of turnbuckles in the braceing for fine tuning the fit; great idea!
Thanks for posting...... John

[Red Foreman]

G'day Trent, now I'm subscribed to your thread!!! And I thought I had my hands full with my 56 GMC project. I like your work, hopefully I'll see it finished at one the Vic shows sooner than later!
Cheers!
George.

[AUSSIE54]

Thankyou all. Yes Dinos63, I am very lucky to have the opportunity to make use of the workshop. I'd be able to do it at home too, but the lack of the forklift and overhead crane would make a drastic difference.

Onewing: I certainly will post more shots as everything progresses. Sometimes it's too easy to get caught up in the moment and forget to take the progress shots! I must remember to take in my proper camera. That will make for much clearer photo's rather than off my phone. The turn buckles are a great trick. Excellent for pulling or pushing things it to shape when you need that bit of fine tuning!

G'day Red, thanks for subscribing. Progress will be a bit here and there as I have a bit going on but hopefully I'll get at least one solid night in every fortnight. All of my projects have always seemed to blow and not get finished for one reason or another but this time I have a huge amount of support and commitment from my lovely little lady which will make all the difference. She told me that I wasn't allowed to start unless I was going to finish it and in a short amount of time too, i.e: not to be counted in years, so how lucky am I !!! Mate I love the look of that Jimmy you've got! Don't see too many of them 'round these parts!

[1985-GMC]

Cool build! It looks good so far.

[Maxxd07]

this thingis gonna be a super nice driver!

[AUSSIE54]

Tony and Les,

Praise equates to extra inspiration and enthusiasm, so Thank you!

Have got a night lined up for this coming friday, so more updates soon.

Trently.
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[duwem]

Any updates on the Crew???

[propanemudtruck]

Sure is fun venturing into various parts of the board and seeing all the awesomeness on here! This is a sweet looking project. And howdy, from Michigan, USA

[AUSSIE54]

Thankyou propanemudtruck.

It didn't feel as though much got done last Friday fortnight. I pressure washed the front end and then set up the chassis up on the welding bed at ride height. Dropped a spare front half of a cab on it and the dummy front clip and then wriggled the front end into the desired position with regard to front wheel placement in the fender fore and aft. Lots of looking thinking, and measuring. Placement is good but ride height is not. The jag front end isn't going to be as easy as I had hoped. I still needed to sink the front end up into the chassis by 4" to achieve the ride height I'm chasing. For some crazy reason I'm dead set keen on leaving the actual jag front unmolested so ive compromised by decicing to c-notch the chassis by two inches and then install two inch lowering springs into the front end. That was about the end of my night.

Troy came over and did a heap more fine tuning on the roof sections. With a lot more banging and crashing, grinding and filing, he is at last happy with the shape and then we scribed the sections and cut them to size. Was getting late by then and so we managed to tack together a couple of areas of the roof where pie cuts had been taken to get the roof into shape.

I'd love to post a couple of pics, but can't get them to load from off my phone. Anyone out there know how or if this can be done?

Regards,

Trently.
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[xpickup]

Hi Trently, sometimes the best work is the figuring. It will save a boat load of time if it is not done. That is what I have learned. I can not wait to see the roof pictures. As for the picture loading, I send them to my home computer and up load them from there because i could not figure out how to do it from my phone too. Have a good one.

Shannon

[coralhead]

Subscribing to thread.

[AUSSIE54]

G'day All,

It has been a little while since updating, but had a pretty good run on the crew last friday night.

Continuing on with my desire to install the Jaguar IFS as a complete bolt in unit, I waited until I had advice on the size material that the authorizing engineer wanted me to use for the c-notch in the front of the chassis. That info came through on thursday. so come friday afternoon I broke out the template and crayons and embarked on slicing up some 1/4 plate for the notch.
Here's the concept:







The engineer wanted some overlapping and plug welds so I have also partially boxed the frame with the same plate so a I cut and shaped some plate for thet as well. I intend to completely box the whole frame but will reduce the material down to 1/8th plate for the majority of it.

[AUSSIE54]

[AUSSIE54]

So after a good long night, I managed to get a far way into the beginning of the notch. Next stint will be capping the side plates off on top, then removing the excess material from the original frame and then capping the lower section. throwing in the front end to check for fitment and then zapping it all together.

No updates on the cabin yet, but hope to have more on that soon.

Just on a side note, I scored a sweet little corvette thats outfitted with a hill cheating powerglide, twin racks, tuck and roll upholstery, chrome steering column, massive drum brake (gonna have to watch for fade on that one) and patina'd fenders. Should be on its way over here soon. Check it out! I reckon it make a good parts chaser while the crew is under construction. Ha Ha!!

[xpickup]

Hi Trently,

Looks good. That should get the IFS up in to the frame. What is the ride height going to be?

Shannon

[AUSSIE54]

G'day Shannon,

Thanks mate. The ride height at the front with two inch lowered springs should make for about 4" off the deck. That will just keep it somewhere in the realms of being legal over here.

Regards,

Trently.

[xpickup]

Hi Trently,

That will look great. That is about what my panel is, right around 4-5 inches off the ground. Hopefully your roads are better than ours. Keep up the great work and the pictures. Have a good one.

Shannon

[duallyjams]

Looks like a cool thread to tag a long on.

[AUSSIE54]

G'day All,

Had a bit more progress last night with some more work done on the c-notch for the front end and also this week on the cabin. I capped off the top of the notch with some 1/4" plate and welded and dressed it back and then rolled the frame over and blew out the unwanted portion of frame ready for capping of that side.

Meanwhile, at stage left, the two metal magicians, aka Troy and Grant were massaging the roof skin into place. My duties on the frame were cut short so that I could tack the roof into postion for them with the tig using 1.6mm wire at about 25 - 30 amps.

We used the rear section from one of the cabs to make the section for the roof panel. It's all about recycling these days! Nice to keep as much of my old trucks in the build as possible.

Here are few shots of progress on the notch.

[AUSSIE54]

And now some of the roof!! Yay!!!!

[AUSSIE54]

Last few.

[DollaBill_TX]

Awesome project!! Can't wait to see what else you have in store.

[VA72C10]

Looking GREAT!!!

[AUSSIE54]

Thanks Duallyjams and DollaBill, I'm sure there'll be lots, lots, lots, lots more to come yet!

And thankyou too, VA72C10.

[xpickup]

AUSSIE54, Very nice work on the frame and the cab. You guys did a great job on the roof. Can not wait to see the cab with doors on it. Keep up the great work.

Shannon