Fast forward to today!
I have been struggling with the front cross brace. It just does not fit! It looks like a giant shovel, so i need to change that!
I figured the easiest way to make this thing look a little better was to cut the frame horns back even shorter. In oder to do that, I have to modify the front brace. I have to have the front brace to keep the frame from flexing with the torque the steering box will put on it.
I'm poor, so caveman technology is the winner, so I went to the local cave man parts store (home depot) and bought some solid bar stock.
I went with solid since bending tubing in a tight radius will never work.
I went through the garage looking for something solid that I can bend the bar around. The swivel pad off the tip of my floor jack was just the ticket!
I tack welded the jack pad to a welding table, then went to town bending the cherry red bar around it.
Ya know, for a por guys method, the rings turned out pretty dang nice!
Now I have a couple rings to weld into the grill shell for my frame brace to ass through.
Here's the progress.
BTW, you don't want to be the guy that has to remove this grill shell! It's a PITA, and it doesn't come with instructions!
Got one frame horn shortened. Now you can see the final (I sure hope it's final) look. Looks TONS better!!!
Just gotta make sure I dont rear end anyone! I'd hate to see all this work go to waste!
P.S. nobody will look at until they read this, but never mind the angle of the air cleaner. I changed the angle of the grill shell to match the body and bed lines, but haven't touched the air cleaner yet. Each will match the other upon completion.
P.P.S. ya know, you really gotta admire those auto designers! I know all their design is on a computer, and it takes a mere second to modify this or that body line to make it all flow together, but damn, I would NOT want to do that for a living!
This is where im at as of tonight. I stopped to come in and get this thread rolling for everyone enjoyment
Please be kind on my spelling, i just wrote out 2 years worth of pictures and posts in two hours. And i didn't spell check. My spelling will be much better on future posts, i promise