Thanks guys! Sure wish I was welding like you two. Nice, nice stuff outta your shops. Me -->
Got the H-pipe done. Can't say enough about that little jigsaw. I bet I could do five of these on one blade (Milwaukee). It's like a laser! I wire-wheeled my joints on the outside to get the coating off but it's still nasty stuff to weld. Splatters like crazy and it's really smokey. My little Hobart only has 1,2,3,4 and analog wire speed. Loaded with pretty big wire too but I think it turned out well. It'd run continuous but trying to lay 1" beads end to end while I repositioned looked like hell, plus I was blowing holes here and there, so I switched to zap, zap, zap.
So, I've got some hangers to fab, try that expander dealio and build some offsets to my "
muffs". More hangers then.... I'd sure love to go over but I think I'll turn down (take the low road), splayed out a tad. In the next photo I still lack the 1" block for pinion angle tuning that'll yield the "traditional" 4.5/6" drop. There's zero load on the springs except the frame. I'm sure I'll need a C-notch. Bed wood contacts the frame rail there, so about 5" to work with. 2-1/2" pipe with 1" wood clearance only yields about a 1" notch with some wiggle room. Aside from mashing a larger tube down to a 1-1/2" thick oval and trying to blend that into 2-1/2" round, I just don't think it's happnin.
I've got that killer No Limit panhard rod that mounts at the axle centerline. That side will need a longer notch. I've also got his rear shock mounts that put the uppers behind where the notch will be. Makes it even harder to get the tailpipes where I want them and it's gonna have to be a stout notch to take the shock load.
Whew...