Dave’s follies, failures and successes in the shop.

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And here it is set down on the I beams and the steel bar is welded in with the help of the T square.I measured and got the same readings on both sides to plum bobs hanging from the rear end to the bar that I put across the I-beams located at the plum bobs on the car.

I thought it was impressive that I took my Bosch laser distance tool. With me just holding it in the air and trying to get it to read. It came within a couple 16ths of an inch.

 

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I have been chasing my tail for a bit , but finally think I made some progress. I realized that picking the car up and down that even though I tried to set it up to not move it still moved a little….. That was driving me nuts and frustrating for me. Plus I kept trying not to tack weld or weld anything up which also kept screwing me up.
I cut the old saddles off of the rear and cleaned up the rear a little to prep for welding. I stopped picking the car up and down. I made little stands that the back of the car will be held up with no suspension and the front rested on the tires on the I beams.
Once I set the car at ride height I started progressing. I centered the rear front to back , side to side and set the pinion at 4 degrees up as the engine and trans was 4 down. I tacked the rear into place so it wouldn’t move and set up the front crossmember just laying it in there. That basically set were the arms would connect to the rear and all of a sudden it just worked out.
The crossmember for the truck arm is the same distance from the rear on both sides and centered in the car. I put a few bolts in the lower frame flange so I can remove it and finish up what I need to do before I make it permanent.

The axle saddles welded to the steel tubing i split. 3” od with a 1/4” id because the truck arms brackets are for 3” tubing on the rears

axle welded so it doesn’t move

the little stands I made to keep the car level side to side and at ride height

angle Of trans and pinion . Engine almost 4 degrees down and the rear 4 degrees up.

 

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I unbolted the front crossmember for the arms today and prepped it for final installation. I welded extensions onto the crossmember because it’s not wide enough for the frame. I took my time welding about 2” at a time on opposite sides and got a little more than 1/2 done. I also put in some D.O.M tubing as an exhaust pass through because there is no room to get through the crossmember and body without them.
I was pretty happy when I decided to let it cool and it fit back in the same location and the arms attached easily.
Hopefully I get it fully welded by the end of the weekend.
I had to make some filler pieces for the driveshaft hoop first.

 

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Getting closer , but I’m still trying to figure some things out.
I’m not looking to notch the car or cut into the trunk and I am at about 3” from the frame at estimated ride height. I made a crossmember to go in above the rear ,(actually made 2. Measure twice cut once got me )but I am starting to reconsider and think maybe I can use the stock upper shock mount and run the bags off the arms and put brackets off the side of the frame.
I have everything including the front crossmember tacked in. I’m waiting on the parts for a Panhard bar and I’ll see how everything lines up.

 

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some progress , but only after a lot of time , energy ,and steel.
I was trying to figure out where to mount the bags and thought I had settled on the trailing arms.
After several hours of templates and cutting and grinding I came up with a pretty good piece. In the end I decided I didn’t like it because it cantilvevered off the side of the arm. Plus it would have to be welded to the arm and I just thought it wasn’t a good fit.
I then tried in front of the axle for the bags which I was trying to avoid because I was hoping to use the stock shock location.. the first mounts I made sat about even with the axle which I realized was too high. Another few hours of cutting and grinding gone.
My next mock up was dropped about 1/2” below the axle and in front. I liked the way the last mounts looked and decided it was the way I would mount the bags. I made the next mount and lengthened the back of the mount to attach the panhard bar.
first mount on the arms

second mounts were just too high

third times the charm.



I still have to mount the panhard to the frame and figure out shocks and shock mounts and the upper bag mounts..after that I hope to weld everything up.
Any criticism is welcome if I'm heading in the wrong direction.

 

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I have my 52 Chevy truck with a tune port motor and a T 56 six speed that I love and runs great. For some reason, I’m constantly having a problem with the fuel pump strainers. It’s a new tank with an in tank fuel pump and I guess there’s residual metal shavings inside. This is the second time I had to remove the tank and replace the strainer.
it’s a bit of a hassle so I decided to make it a little bit easier by putting in the sheet metal access. The bed is in rough shape as it’s an old three-quarter plywood wood bed that I did about 15 years ago and dressed it up a little. The truck gets used as a truck and gets left outside in the weather so the bed gets beat up.
I had to recess a portion of it, so the filler cap can fit in it. I did that with a process called flow forming that I’m not that great at.



I made some dimples for screws. I got this idea from make it kustom …Karl Fisher It’s a great YouTube channel if anybody’s interested.

 

[hbabler]

Wow,
I am impressed by your attention to detail detail. Thanks sharing. Got any pictures of your 52? I love old chevies.

 

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Wow,
I am impressed by your attention to detail detail. Thanks sharing. Got any pictures of your 52? I love old chevies.

I have had it for 20+ years. the truck has been awesome for me. S10 chassis with a 4 bar rear and air bags. I need to show it a little love soon though.

 

[hbabler]

Thanks for the pics! My first truck was a 50 1 ton. Wish I still had the thing.

Yours looks great.

 

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I have had a bit of progress on my suspension upgrade ,but happen to see a short clip of a quick way to countersink sheet metal. It was perfect timing because I had to cut my trunk a little to weld in the upper shock and bag mount bridge. I didn’t want to weld in new sheet metal just yet, but I did want to cover it up. I figured this was the perfect opportunity to try this new technique out. Hopefully the pictures speak for themselves. Maybe some know this check, but it was new to me and it was fast and worked great.

 

[no704]

Looks better. You can get undercut fh screws if the material is thin.

 

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I guess I can do a little New Year’s update. I’m trying to get the switches and air gauge sorted out inside the car. I’m not sure if I like what I did, but it’ll work for now..
I cut out small panel laid some bead rolls on it drilled some holes and now I have to do a little flow forming.

 

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I made a panel that went from the floor to the bottom of the dash. This is where I practice my flow forming. I made a wooden sandwich in the same model in previous post out of three-quarter inch plywood. The bottom portion of the wood sandwich I routed out about 1/8 of an inch to step the metal. I added some dimples to the drilled holes in the small beaded panel based off of design by Karl Fisher on make it custom YouTube. I Learn a lot from that channel

 

[larry4406]

I guess I can do a little New Year’s update. I’m trying to get the switches and air gauge sorted out inside the car. I’m not sure if I like what I did, but it’ll work for now..
I cut out small panel laid some bead rolls on it drilled some holes and now I have to do a little flow forming.

Nice Fab!

I have that same square/radius gauge from Gator Meet 5/3/14! That was a fun event. The square is quite handy with the different inside and outside radius corners.

 

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Nice Fab!

I have that same square/radius gauge from Gator Meet 5/3/14! That was a fun event. The square is quite handy with the different inside and outside radius corners.

I use that square quite a bit. when I saw the picture of yours. I thought it was somehow a picture of mine in my garage somewhere. I think mine is in the exact same shape, but I love all the different radius is on it.

I would love to make another metal shaping event like that one.

 

[larry4406]

I use that square quite a bit. when I saw the picture of yours. I thought it was somehow a picture of mine in my garage somewhere. I think mine is in the exact same shape, but I love all the different radius is on it.

I would love to make another metal shaping event like that one.

Were you at that Gator Meet? I know Robert was.

 

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Yes, I was there. Robert helped me quite a bit with a fender project of mine.
come to think of it I still haven’t finished it

 

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On a bit of a roll, I got the panel in, and I even laid some beads down on the top part part of the center console to match . Now it’s time to hunt down small leak in the air suspension.

 

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Switching gears to my AD Chevy truck . I have had this truck for close to 20 years. I did the s10 frame swap on it and drove it with a carbureted small block for a few years and decided to upgrade to a tune port injection motor with a t56 transmission.
When I put the motor in I hacked out part of the inner fender to fit the A/C compressor. Fast forward to a few weeks ago when the motor gave up. Bad compression on a few cylinders so I pulled the motor and it’s time to fix a few things including the fender.
I just needed a bit more space on the inner fender and to patch the softball size hole i cut years before.
The truck gets used quite a bit for 9 months a year and the only time it stays in the garage is when it’s getting worked on. I might have to give it a little more love.

 

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I’m still plugging away on my ‘52 truck. I ran into a problem with water getting into the fuel tank. Because of the way the tank is designed, water collects in the fuel pump and sender recesses. It seems to take about 10 years before enough water builds up to start rusting the tank from the inside.

The truck has been together for about 20 years now, and during that time I’ve gone through two new fuel tanks and four fuel pumps because rust particles kept clogging everything up.

To solve the problem, I decided to make part of the truck bed swing up like a fuel door. The idea is for it to cover the entire tank and hopefully keep water out for good.

I looked into buying scissor hinges, and there are a few companies that make them, but they cost around $400. I’m too cheap for that, so I started researching and found some dimensions online that I could work from.

I have limited experience with Autodesk software, but I do have a 3D printer. After a lot of trial and error with drawing and printing prototypes, I actually got something that worked. Then I spent several more hours figuring out how to convert my 3D print files into a format SendCutSend could use. Now I finally have a working model that I think will do the job.

 

[PugetDude]

I’m still plugging away on my ‘52 truck. I ran into a problem with water getting into the fuel tank. Because of the way the tank is designed, water collects in the fuel pump and sender recesses. It seems to take about 10 years before enough water builds up to start rusting the tank from the inside.

The truck has been together for about 20 years now, and during that time I’ve gone through two new fuel tanks and four fuel pumps because rust particles kept clogging everything up.

To solve the problem, I decided to make part of the truck bed swing up like a fuel door. The idea is for it to cover the entire tank and hopefully keep water out for good.

I looked into buying scissor hinges, and there are a few companies that make them, but they cost around $400. I’m too cheap for that, so I started researching and found some dimensions online that I could work from.

I have limited experience with Autodesk software, but I do have a 3D printer. After a lot of trial and error with drawing and printing prototypes, I actually got something that worked. Then I spent several more hours figuring out how to convert my 3D print files into a format SendCutSend could use. Now I finally have a working model that I think will do the job.

I use cardboard, Dave.
A man's got to know his limitations..

 

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I use cardboard, Dave.
A man's got to know his limitations..

I’m not sure how that would hold up to a hatch that might weigh about 15lbs