Bertha

[Neverdone]

Never, how about spindle to spindle......just curious how you
tied it all together after narrowing the cross member?
sectioning the center link?
Thanks...

CORRECT!!!

Still running the stock pitman and idler from the truck. Measured center to center on the idler and pitman at the exit of the gear box and the base of the idler. Cut a section from the center link so the holes on the center link will match the measurements. Ground down the link at the cuts to put a healthy bevel on it. Cut a sleeve to fit tight on the center link. In the center of the sleeve drilled a hole all the way through. Put everything together with the holes in the sleeve at the seam on the link. Through the hole tacked the two pieces together. Slid the sleeve all the way to one end, and welded the seam solid. Slid the sleeve back to center and welded each end of it as well as plugged it in the holes that were used earlier.

I will try and get ya a pic of it. Hopefully my description makes sense to ya.

 

[Neverdone]

Best part of that is, that is the only part to the steering that is changed. Everything else will still use stock half ton truck parts. Easy to find and cheap tie rods, ball joints, etc....

 

[forbigpicture]

YAY!!!!! I win I guessed right......haha
yeah thanks Never I figured that's what you did,
would still like to see the pic's when you get a chance.

 

[Neverdone]

Finally finished the steering shaft on this last night. Havent had a whole lot of motivation to work on this lately. Not sure why. OH WELL..... Need to get a clutch and flywheel so I can sit the motor and trans in. Sadly I am currently out of fun tickets so it will have to wait for a bit.....

A pic as promised a few weeks ago. I still need to work on the cross member a bit, but honestly I am not that concerned. The oil pan clears it by like 4 inches so no big deal.

 

[Neverdone]

Finally pushed this outside (needed to clean the shop). But I can see what it looks like on the ground now.

Still has blocks in the back so the back is a little high.

 

[Torchie]

Nice ! [cl [cl
Torchie

 

[soltz]

They look so good in the out of doors [cl
Coming along nicely [P

 

[Neverdone]

They look so good in the out of doors [cl
Coming along nicely [P

Just wish I had more done. Haven't really touched this thing in a month other than to push it out of the way.

 

[Torchie]

Don't beat yourself up over it ND. As I recall, you and your wife have some other things brewing as well.
It's looking great. Still thinking about a chop???????
Torchie

 

[Neverdone]

Still thinking about a chop???????
Torchie

I think I have voted the chop down. Just going to do some other fun custom stuff. I saw a chopped 54 at Autorama, thought that it looked a bit off. Roof looked too long. Besides I want to keep actual glass and that would be hard to do with a chop.

 

[Neverdone]

worked on the front tin for this a bit. Nice to try and get something done even if it is just tryin to dolly out some dents.

 

[Torchie]

worked on the front tin for this a bit. Nice to try and get something done even if it is just tryin to dolly out some dents.

You bet it is neverdone.
My goal has been to get at least an hour of time in everyday on the project. It might just be something small like cleaning off a part or whatever. Plus I find that once I am actually out in the shop it turns into much more than an hour. v
I understand about the chop. It can be done so that the roof doesn't look long, but any way you do it you are adding a s@#% ton of work to the project.
Keep at it....[P [P [P
Torchie

 

[Neverdone]

Farted around with it a bit more Thursday night. Turns out a lot of truck parts will fit in a car if you cut them down enough.....

Did some cutting and hacking on the core support. It is going to sit a little farther forward than stock location, but still fits behind the grill. The lower gravel pan in the front will take some heavy modifying to sit in correctly and now will bolt to the core support. Plan is to bolt everything to that and put that on stockish rubber mounts from the truck. Still sticking with the theme of half ton truck parts, radiator should work out in fine fashion.

 

[earthman]

..........

 

[Neverdone]

So the core support is now a bolt in model instead of welded. and I started trying to put the lower chin/gravel pan piece in. No way was it fitting around that core support. I cut a big portion of it out to accommodate. I think it was a dumb move, but I don't think I have any other option. Think I am going to try and curve a piece around to fill in that gap and maybe it won't be as noticeable.

 

[Neverdone]

Started on some fun stuff. Decided to move on to something besides the front. I really want this rig to have some skirts. Problem is some one cut up the rear fenders. Not sure if it was to accommodate some larger tires, rust REMOVAL, or whatever. Decided rather than rebuild the rear fenders I would modify the skirts to fit the fenders. This will help me out a bit since it is a lowered ride and I will already have issues with changing tires. Made a template of the difference piece and cut out a slab of sheet metal to fit.

Cut open the old skirt and started to tack this piece to it. Then am going to move the piece cut off the top to the top of the new filler piece so that these will end up as stock as possible.

 

[MercuryMac]

[[Lowered SLEDS need fender skirts. [cl[cl

 

[soltz]

[cl very nice [ [cl

 

[Neverdone]

quick update...... Not much happened but cool to me.

1st.... I got my first ride in the car. Don't care if it was just across the yard being pulled by a skidsteer. It still counts!!! LOL

2cnd.... it was towed to my neighbors shop Bad Habitz Fab to finish the four link. That is all done, and bag mounts installed in the back. Now I can throw in the bags and some air line and see how well it lifts!

New stance with it sitting bottomed out.

 

[soltz]

Love the look [cl great stance [cl