project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

well i figure, i will throw my hat into the ring and start on about my build. after seeing BIGHEAD projectand watching te TGW video's one to many times:metal: it got my blood pumping and helping a friend work on his 90's model truck (bottom of his door measures 53") this put the fire under my seat. this truck has been down this dark and gloomy road before and sadly met the demies of the "unfinished project", and was sold as a stripped down low rider. after bouncing around from owner to owner i got her back 10yrs later, my paint a little faded but as 4x4. worked out previous owner(s) quirks and have had it running great for about a year now. but it is time to make it what i want. so after gathering parts and doing the homework and selling a few other toys (sorry blazer, you were great) to provide the funds, i feel like can achieve this goal.......:uhmk:

truck----
71' chevy long bed

drivetrain----
Moded chevy 350 (for now to keep mobile)***purchased a chevy BB and am working for around 10-11 compression***

granny 4 speed ***purchased a new turbo 400***

NP205

suspension----
2.5 ton rockwells
front and rear steer
full hydraulic
pinion brakes
ballistic fab forged joints
coil overs or airbags
4 link

tires----
52" michelin (cut tread patterns)
saving for V-treads

other doo dads----
full roll cage
custom interior (doors, console)
partial bed floor using expanded metal (great idea thanks to BIGHEAD)
suicide doors
door popper kit
bottom of door will measure at 64" to the ground :devil:

:chevy:

now i work a full time job and coach a little league baseball team so give me credit on the time.... i am hoping :uhmk: to have it mobile by september for a mud rally and i know you guys are pic hungry and i will do my best to keep up on the updates.

before: 38" tires, 8" lift---

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

this week i am waiting on my pipe bender to arrive, and going to pick up pipe and should start on a rough idea of where things are going to be. i have removed all the old shackle brackets and it other pieces riveted to the frame that i don't need.

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

sweet going to be watching

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

sounds like another awesome build! I'll be watching this one.

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

this will be sharp

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

subscribed

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

well my boys won their game last night with a come from behind win and i was pumped at how great they played. so with the energy going i got a little messy last night. fired up the power washer and went to town under the rig, and gave back a couple pounds of the oklahoma red mud back to the earth. also shot my rockwells down so i can get to cleaning them up this weekend.

forgot to post some WOOOPS pic of when we were loading it up on the stands. since we have about 12" of rain in the last few weeks my yard was a "little soft" and when a 16,000 pound forklift gets a little off the pad, it makes for one of those "O SH**" moments. luckly i got parts for the build sitting around and with a little counter weight and a bump from behind with the tractor we were good to go :metal:

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

that is truck is surly jacked up haha
looked sweet before cant wait to see it finished:metal:
that fork lift sunk in pretty good :lol:

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

well the last few days have been hasty due to this "nice Oklahoma weather". (in other words for you who don't know, it is starting time for tornado season:metal:) so being that, i decided to do some minor small things that i can do indoor and build up a battery box for my new battery.

i'm putting the battery in the bed and running a few strands of wire towards the front and i will be making a new power block for everything that needs to be hot and or normaly attached to the battery, and it will also be fused.

new stuff for the job:
270 amp alternator
Kinetik HC2400
two strands of 0gauge for "+" going to power block
two strands of 0gauge for "-" going to body/frame (and new multiple body grounds)
fused distro. block
distro. block to accept multiple "+" feeds

(gotta go, Gary England is on and gotta finish my drinking game;))

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

well we finally had some awesome weather this memorial weekend, so i dove in head first and got to work. did mostly stripping and cleaning and a little bit of welding. the biggest pain i had was the plague of nats we had flying everywhere, my wife said i probably look like some drunkin guy with a bad case of ceasures' :lol: the way i was swating at the :cuss: things. guaranteed i put in a full 6hrs of swating. so anyways i tore down the ends of the rocks and got the big bulky 37lbs a piece drum brakes off, and threw a little primer on them. i would love to srtip them down like BIG HEAD and throw a nice color on but this will have to work for now. also boxed in part of the frame where the sub carrige will be welded into place, when it is all said and done the entire frame will be boxed in. got the subcarrige main sides bent and should have them tacked up and in place. my kids have a baseball tournament this weekend so i gotta get what i can get going this week. so enough blah blah blah onto the pics...........hope everyone had a great memorial weekend.....AND A BIG THANKS TO ALL YOU VETS AND THOSE SERVING TODAY!!!!! THANK YOU!!:metal:

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

more.........don't make fun of my sub frame idea MS piant is all i got here at work :lol:. i'm sure there will be mods to the craddle like where i am going to put the transfer case and other supports, but it is just a rough idea.....

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

crazy....
hahaha.. wow..

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

Awsome Build !!!
UPDATES ?

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

hey, what ya doin with your old lift springs?

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

here is your update.........

i was holding out till this weekend so i could get some good progress pics but anywho.......Got under the truck to start getting everything squared away for the sub carrage. the frame of the truck was a little tweeked from its wreck that happened to it before i got it. so i got to fixen what i could, my plans are to box the frame in a majority of the places for cross braces and to make a little bit more solid. muscled out the np205, then muscled out the SM465. then muscled the new turbo 400 in place and got mocked up. i also goofed and used the old flywheel bolts that came off the 4speed to put on the turbo 400 flywheel and the studs where to long and they hit the block, didn't notice till i got under to look at how everything lined up so two steps forward and 3steps back. so that leads me to doing the math on the divorced np205 location. after all that was done i got around to getting the sub carrage bars bent and a few braces in place. this weekend i should start to getting the rest of the sub chasis bars running to front and back of truck to place the cups for the new springs i am ordering. still have some bracing to do and as far as my picture for the sub carrage goes thats out the window :lol: looked good on paper but not working for the truck. i had the business across the road to come over and help me get the front axle on my stands for mock up, and this time he did not fall into the yard:lol:. i also ordered my springs they measure around 28" long (hopeing to get them this weekend) and i am hoping to come up with an extra $200 to get half of my hyme joints and that will allow me to get the suspension fully mocked up front then rear. then order the reset of hymes and springs when all my old stuff sells. also got the hoops for the rims coming in this weekend 20x16 and will make my centers and get tires on hopefully sometime next week or earlier:metal: so hopefully next week/weekend i'll have some good news and updates......:metal::chevy:

as far as the old springs go i am using them on another project...but i still got the axels and sm465 up for grabs.....somebody buy so i can finish build up ;):lol:

not much but here a few pics......

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

well it been awhile for me.......1st pic= our boys baseball was over 2 weeks ago and gave them a party, took them for a little ride in a truck i did an install in (F650 stretched). after some time off i am getting back to work on the truck. got my springs in :metal: they measure 28" long and about 7" in diameter and have been doing small rinky dinky things that need to be addressed, also got the basic bars of the lift tacked in place. i need to go threw and finish boxing in the frame and adding all the cross braces to the sub frame bars and the rest of the center section for the upper tab mounts for the 4 link and mounting the divorced 205. i also cut the cups for the springs, just need to cap them off and those will be done. the front bars of the sub frame hang 4" below the frame and the rear sub frame bars hang 9" below the frame. the center section hangs roughly 18" below frame (which still gives me close to 46" of ground clearance in the middle of the truck) the tubing is a little over 2" round and has a wall thickness of almost a .25 thick. some say its over kill from what everyone is telling me....BUT i don't plan on driving nicely :devil:
its not much for pics but here is what i got.

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

got a little bit more done last night....added in a few more verticle braces, and battled with the front cross brace. ALSO i forgot to mention if anyone ever wants to tackle doing round tubing work look into a part from PIPE MASTER this is a great piece and has helped me a ton (http://www.pipemastertools.com/). hoping to swing by the metal yard to get some metal to start boxing in the frame this weekend. after i get the frame boxed in i can do braces from one side to the other on the orginal frame and then do cross braces on the sub frame and then tie both frames in together in some spots. so wish i could take the bed and cab off but i know what that will lead to:lol: ...other than that it all is slowly falling into place.....

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

be careful otherwise you'll end up like ME!
hahaah simple clutch turned into a SUMMER project hehe mommas pissed but im soooo happy

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

Looking good so far. Going to bed so bad ass when you get it all done :D Keep up the good work. Can't wait to see some more pics!

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

got a 4x8 sheet of metal the other day so i will be mostly cutting out the templates and welding them into place to box the frame in. order the other two springs and all 16 hyme joints, so maybe with in the next couple weeks it will be sitting on its own..:thumbs:..got a lot of welding to do.

my hyme joints....
Forged chromoly 4130 rod ends with teflon/kevlar molded inserts, and have 64 degrees of misalignment and a 1-1/4" shank...

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

a little something i found that gets my blood pumping (my poor old 71 has no idea what its future is going to hold):lol: :metal: :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acwkj...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OE3s...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMF8O...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5H6-...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8xep...layer_embedded

i am redesigning my mud pit....if i build a hill n hole anyone going to show up......:devil:

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

damn those people are hard on their trucks

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

ahhh the trucks are fine.....its the suspension that gets its a** whipped :lol::lol:

can't wait to see how good my welds hold :uhmk: :lol:

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

Those people are nuts. I'd never do that to my truck...


Chuck

Re: project: Sofa King Big 71'
 

Thats what i want to do just on 6 to 8 in lift and 35s, the bigger they are the scarier they are.