so a friend of mine wanted to build a truck. (Mini truck tony) 1)i have never worked on a chevy truck 2) never bagged anything 3) never worked on a 230 six or related items so the price on this build is knowledge for me. and he is going to build me a deck this truck is ROUGH. its bad and i really don't think i am hurting the c10 population on hacking into this thing.(actually a c20) I took on this build for knowledge. I wanted to do it to reafirm all the things that i have learned from building the other cars. the hot rods, my real love. This thing isnt a ford......this thing isnt a hot rod..... but i had to measure, cut, weld, drill and grind to make it happen..... all i can say is i am not afraid of much anymore. so its not totally done. i still need to finish the rear bag mounts. build a panhard bar and brackets and put the engine back in. built to his spec not mine repeat his truck his idea of cool it rolls, it steers,the front goes up and down the crossmember and trans hits the ground...so that is as low as it goes here it is when it came to the shop here it is today the blocks are in ther so i can roll it in and out of the garage.
I don't want to bust your balls,But I think you should grind those welds out and practice some vertical up beads and then re-weld those c-notch's. They look very cold from here.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=299587&highlight=welds Look this thread over to check out some very nice welds. I agree with the other poster that it would be best for both you, your current customer, and future customers to do some more practicing. Keep working at it and you'll get it down pretty good. At least you are out there trying.
used a miller 210 with .045 wire and i did a few test welds on the same material to check penitration. it is a ledge that i was welding, not butt welds...if that makes a difference tk
that thing is gross and i don't see what it has to do with traditional hot rods, no matter if it's his idea of cool or yours.
how did you check penetration? bevel the edges, turn heat up, do the beads from bottem to top(vertical up) move in a upside down v....
beveled the edge of the plate played with heat and wire feed welded the samples played with the settings again welded the truck in about 3 inch sections top to bottom tk
So you did downhill beads?? Like I said before your welds look cold and the toes are not tied in well, you need to weld vertical up, upside down v, pause in the toe..the root and the other toe... and watch the edges melt and fuse together. The bead should have a nice smooth sort of a braided look.
ok glad its only metal, and that i posted this i will grind them out and redo thanks for the advice. just trying to get better you know tk
All of mine are just to see if I can. Ya know I am not big on bags but I really like that truck. I would probably make sure that the oil pan doesn't hang below the cross member. I know it doesn't drive that way but it is still real hard on 'em to rest on the pan.
Cool man, I dig it. I've taken on projects before that I did just to see if I could do them. Actually, the biggest of which for me was a 67 C/10 (long bed, fleetside, big back window) that I bought off a friend of mine from college. It had come from lower Delaware and was a farm truck. He daily drove it with a tired 305/TH350 combo. One day we dropped a huge 900 lb tent in the bed, and the frame cracked at the spring mounts and folded the truck into an upside down V. We jumped in the bed to straighten it back out and welded a couple mending plates on to hold it. That week, my buddy got a great job offer and sizable signing bonus. He put the money down on a brand new Mustang GT and offered me the truck for $200. I learned a lot with that project. I installed new trailing arms, and fabbed the whole back half of the frame in my garage. I also built a nice 355 SBC, since I had never built an engine unsupervised before. The truck turned out to be a real good runner and I put thousands of miles on it before selling it to raise money for my '57 project. FWIW, those welds do look a bit on the cold side, but they don't look completely unsafe. I've certainly seen much worse. But take these guys advice and practice a little more, especially with the uphill stuff. It's tricky. I welded my whole frame with a 110 MIG with flux-core wire, and that frame was able to handle heavy loads in the bed and towing. Don't be afraid of heat with metal that thick. Good job getting it back together though, that's a huge accomplishment in itself! And don't mind the haters about the bags. If it was a shoebox, not many would complain Here, I included a few pics from the build, and how it was when I sold it. I miss that old truck!
you can section that crossmember 2 inches and it will lay out lower in the front, add some tubular a-arms and gain some more clearance. also ive never heard of the trans hitting like that id look into that more. I have a few chevy trucks of my own so i know some of this stuff. many options to do in the rear also, check out these two places to get more information. http://www.porterbuiltfabrication.com/forum.php Nate at porterbuilt builds custom stuff for these trucks bolt on body drops, custom hood hinges, and his dropmember http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/forumdisplay.php?f=25 you will find lots of stuff on here also
i have talked to nate a few times and he is a good guy. I notched the front crossmember 1 1/4 inches so i could keep the steering in the stock location. the rear crossmember is hitting also so i think that it is as low as i am willing to let it go now. i need to move the center carrier bearing up a bit to gain some room. the trans is hitting hard. its a granny 4 speed, so it may be bigger that the rest tk
yea im going to run front and rear drop members on my 73. he has some good stuff. yea i noticed that it is a 4 speed after i posted what if you raise the engine and trans up a bit and just redo the trans tunnel in the cab. i dont think thats good for it to be hitting at all wouldn't be happy with that.
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