Berthas Build

[dfairchild19]

The drivetrain is finally in for good. I need to shorten the stock first gen dodge drive shafts but other than that the drive train is in there for good now. I still have to pull the kingpin cap/steering arm and tie rod and drag link to clean weld and paint for the front end to be finished.

Once those things are complete, I will pull the cab from the frame it is currently on, put some new body mounts under it and get it on the rolling chassis. Once the cab makes it's way to it's new home, the engine compartment will be pieced together with all of the accessories, the fuel system will be installed and the truck will be wired up from front to back with an American auto wire upgrade wiring harness.

I still need to order up my hydro boost lines and fittings as well as an xj steering shaft.

It's coming along really nicely and this stage was a huge mile stone that I have been looking forward to it for a long time.

These are all shots of the progress from the last couple of months since my last post:

[dfairchild19]

I replaced both front and rear main seals as well as adding wear sleeves to the scored crank surfaces. The problem with doing this was that I did not have the $200 a piece tools to press on the wear sleeves. For the rear, I found a local kenworth dealer that had this tool which is universal for both B and C series cummins. The tool pressed both the wear sleeve and the seal onto the crank with the housing installed loosely.

I got the front install tool from the dealer as well but it was specific to a C series and was about an inch too big for my little B series. I called a local shop to see if they had the tool to do it and they suggested just heating the wear sleeve(since it was separated from the sleeve unlike the rear) under a halogen lamp for a while and then sliding it on. The halogen lamp didn't quite work but I did put the wear sleeve in the oven at about 450 degrees for about 20 or 30 minutes, ran it out to the barn, and put it on the end of the crank and smacked it with a 2x4 Anne a hammer far enough to get the balancer bolts to thread over the balancer and just used the balancer to press it on until the balance bottomed out. The wear sleeve and seal kit didn't come with an installed for the seal so I had to come up with another he brew solution. I started a search in the barn for a piece of material that would match the mid diameter of the sleeve to get it started and found that a piece of inter cooler tube works perfectly.

So after about 3 weeks of trying to track down the tools to do these wear sleeves, I was able to start assembly of the rest of the drive train.

[dfairchild19]

Alright, heres the money shots from last night:

[dfairchild19]

Alright, time for another update.

I finished up my home made crossover steering and got it installed for good.

[birdistheword]

Lovin this build. Can't wait to see it finished. Keep up the awsome work.

[dfairchild19]

Took my modified core support and valve covers to the sandblaster and got them back. I had to modify the core support further for the intercooler. Once i did all the trial fitting for that i primered and painted the core support black and the valve covers chevy orange. The valve covers really stand out. They will be one of the only things on the truck that is not silver or black.

The core support is finished with its modifications. i am not too happy with the angles of the intercooler boots on the passenger side but i will run them while the engine is in stock form for now and rework the pipes when i upgrade the turbo(s) or other power mods.

Some other things that are in some of the pictures that i did not take specific pictures of are the extra cutting and welding of the frame to make about 1/8" of an inch of extra clearance for the starter as well as having the front driveshaft lengthened and the rear shortened and making about 5 trips to the driveline shop to dig up the correct ubolts and straps for the u joints.















I also installed and plumbed the airdog to the injection pump as well as to the tank. i got the holes cut and grommeted in the bed and ran the lines but have not hooked them up in case i have to take the bed off again.

One thing that i am uncertain of is a vent in the tank. it had one with a 1/4" barb fitting with a check ball in it but i replaced that with a fitting with a 1/2" barb fitting for the return for the airdog. will i need to replace this fitting or will i be ok without the vent valve?

[dfairchild19]

Here is the finished product.

One major thing that i finished up that i did not take pictures of was the brake lines. They were not hard at all but very tedious and time consuming to do them right. I used rubber protected hard line clamps to hold them in place on the frame and made some brackets to attach to the frame where the hard and soft lines meet both front and rear. I am very happy with the results of them. I will try to get some pics of them for next update.

I also cleaned up and sealed up the diff covers and put my golden fluid in the trans. i plan to top off all of my fluids very soon so that i can finally hear this monster run in this frame!!!

My next plans are to clean up the firewall and figure out my clutch master and hydroboost pushrods to pedals and the clutch master mounting. Once those are figured out, the cab will go on the frame and i will start the wiring on this beast.

One thing i am stuck on and cannot find or locate is the guts for the speedometer on my np205. if anyone can point me in any direction to locate one, i would appreciate it.

[cletis]

That is a fantastic truck!

[thirdstreettito]

Subscribed.

[mosesburb]

Kinda quite around here....... You preparing for one of your massive update/photo dumps??

[dfairchild19]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Kinda quite around here....... You preparing for one of your massive update/photo dumps??

Well, kind of.

Ill have to make the time to give an update for you guys. I got married at the end of September(see last post's date.......) and we have been getting settled in to our new house and enjoying married life since then.

She does start and run flawlessly. I believe that I did make some progress since the last time i updated. I am at a bit of a crossroads on where to take this build and have had the past 5 months to ponder the couple of directions i could take her. I have an AAW wiring harness that I will definitely be installing but there is one or two slightly major obstacles preventing me from doing so. The cab supports need replaced and there is a small rust hole in the middle of the driver floor pan that needs repaired. I am going to sooner or later(see below options) replace this sheet metal, undercoat(suggestions?) the cab and bed, heat and sound insulate the cab(suggestions?), and give her some diy paint(I have the space and equipment available so i will invest a bit of time and money here to get it straight and crisp, but this truck will be driven so i am not looking/paying for show quality, driver quality will be plenty for me). Suggestions on a diy friendly paint system would be nice. I have looked into the Summit and Duplicolor Paintshop 1 stage systems but have no experience with them. So with all of that, these are my two options:

1) Install the wiring harness(the only wiring currently in the truck is under the dash) and run the body as is. I will have to remove body down the road to undercoat, shave hvac holes in firewall, fix cab supports and floor pans, and to spray between bed and cab. If i install the wiring harness i will have to work around it when i go to disassemble to paint down the road. Pros of this option are that i am able to drive it sooner, i dont have all of the metal and body work to do, and I will be able to work out all of the bugs and be able to tweak, add, remove and change things before having the worry of scratching fresh paint. Cons are that i will have to completely disassemble the body to do all of option two in a couple of years, if i get around to it.

2) Pull cab and bed (very few things to do to be able to pull cab and bed)to replace cab supports and floor pan, undercoat, insulate, and paint. Reassemble with clean and repaired body, install wiring harness and rest of finishing touches. Pros of this option are that I will have done it right the first time and I will have a finished truck when I get it back together. Cons of this option are that it will take longer to be able to drive and enjoy this never ending money pit, which is another con, MONEY!

I think that I would regret not doing it right the first time. I have come this far in the project and would hate to cut it short after all of this work.

I am all ears to any suggestions anyone has on any of this.

[dfairchild19]

Process has been made the past year or so, just not as much as hoped......

Battery trays













Transfer case shifter bracket





After getting measurements from the mock up piece, i cut a much better looking bracket on the waterjet

Mock up:


Waterjet part


Both







Tranny tunnel







Got my buddy buckets thrown in

[dfairchild19]

Downpipe





Modified 1st gen exhaust











at xcase





after xcase and over axle


behind the tire


I loaded her up and took her to work where i will pull the cab, take it to the sandblaster, and bring it back home to the garage and repair the cab supports and possibly redo the cab corners and rockers that the previous owner put in(just not work to my standards). i need to install my cab lights, shave the firewall hvac holes and the fuel filler hole, add holes for headliner trim, primer and paint the interior, and trim the rest of the cab to put it on for the final time.

i am going to set my birthday (June 24) as my deadline to get this drivable...... well see how many obstacles jump out to try to prevent this......

ill have updates as i make more progress......

[mosesburb]

Woo-hoo!! Forward progress!! Looks good man. I really like your transfer case shifter bracket. So much better than that POS that Advance Adapters sells. Exhaust looks good too. Post a pic of whatever is behind the transfer case shifter brackets in the pic (waterjet spider??).

Glad to see you back at it.

[1985-GMC]

Very nice progress!

[dfairchild19]

That is a spider from the waterjet.......






And one with my new 1/2" welding table top that I cut out on the waterjet as well


Posted via Mobile Device

[boonedogs72]

Clean out your inbox your on overload. Pm me a price on a crossmember and the shifter brackets. Thanks and marry x mas!
Posted via Mobile Device

[boonedogs72]

I can weld them
Posted via Mobile Device

[dfairchild19]

Originally Posted by boonedogs72

Clean out your inbox your on overload. Pm me a price on a crossmember and the shifter brackets. Thanks and marry x mas!
Posted via Mobile Device

PM Sent

Merry Christmas!

[boonedogs72]

what are all the part numbers you ended up getting from cummins asfar as alt,a/c comp and brackets??? did you cut the alt bracket?

[dfairchild19]

The alternator and tensioner brackets were both cut from 1/4" steel. I'll have to look up part numbers when I get back from Canada. They shouldn't be too hard to track down.
Posted via Mobile Device

[70custom20]

I was reading through this build, I'm curious if it ever got finished, put on hold ???
Posted via Mobile Device

[Dieselwrencher]

Wow, pretty sweet build you have going on here. Very nice fab work. Hopefully he's been racking up the miles on the old girl!

[BrandonMag]

Wow, great work. Any updates?

[dfairchild19]

Well here goes the longest overdue update ever.....

Most of 2012 & into 2013 - It looks like I left off while I was living at my first house. I was working out of a 1.5 car garage. I made the progress on it that I could while I lived there, but it was tough as I could only access one side and end of the truck at a time. I'd pick away at it here and there as I could.

Early 2013 - Put running gear and drive train in storage in one of our plant buildings while I worked on the cab I thought I was going to use(I ended up parting the original body).

Summer 2013 - Then I ended up moving to a 2.5 acre property that had a 24x32 horse barn on it that was half (2)stalls, half concrete, and 24x8 of it was a tack room addition. I decided right away I was going to turn it into a shop and possibly add on to it later. I tore down the wall dividing the tack room along with the stalls and it opened it up quite a bit. Although it was much more room than I had in my first garage, it was still pretty limiting, especially with the two posts in the middle of the dirt floor. Only a little better than half of it was concrete with the back half being dirt still, there were posts left from the original structure and stall layout, and there was very limited power on a 30A sub panel with 2 breakers on it for the lights and a receptacle. I ended up running a new 100A sub panel from the house to the barn so I could run the welder and plasma.

2013-Current - Ive worked on it here and there when I can from 2013-2018 making some progress on milestones and then losing steam. RZRs consumed a fair amount of my barn time along with adding on to the barn in early 2017 until I finally made a big push at the end of 2018 which left me with very few minor things left to check off the list only to have the winter cold delay the final tasks. However, without heat at this time, I dont think she would be seeing much road time until spring anyway. Ill complete the last remaining tasks on the list over the next couple of months and take her on her first test drive after a final nut & bolt check.

Here are pics of some of the work that went on over the past 6+ years. They should be fairly organize chronologically:

Running gear heading for storage from my first house


Pulled the cab and had it blasted and primered it. This is actually how it sits today in storage


In storage


2013 - 100A Sub panel and 50A receptacles added to the barn


2014 - Then I impulsively bought this for the body and sold the running gear. I almost broke even on it and it will put off bodywork for several years.


2014 - Taking the running gear to the new to me barn to put the new cab on.


2015 - The cab needed the same modifications that I made to the previous cab and a bit more: modified the brake booster hole to fit the hydroboost mount/nut and turn it into a high hump from the low hump it was. I already had a high hump with the holes in the correct locations from the previous cab.


2015 - Cab and bed on




2015-16 - Mounted the hydroboost and got it hooked up. I recently replaced the high pressure lines with some heavy Parker crimped lines though because somehow one of the Aeroquip lines I was using developed a pinhole leak in it.


Even on the old cab, I could never get the hydroboost to bleed through the power steering pump and always had a whine. I replaced the pump with a unit from I believe a 2nd gen Cummins that has 2 return ports in the reservoir. I made a thread on that but I cant remember if it ended up being the return lines running separately that fixed it or if the pump itself was bad. I can look it up if it would help someone.