"New" Daily Driver Pickup "Project"

I haven’t measured but can bounce it up and down and hit the axle tubes on the frame.

 

I think these rear springs are sagging more than some. Anyway, easy enough to put in the notch and maybe also some helper bags although I’ll probably wait on those since I still have a 1 ton for hauling a trailer.

 

@Moriarity 1-3/4” between axle tubes and frame rail.

 

I'm wondering if the Bell Tech flip and notch kit extended above the original top of the frame, and how much vertical height the notch removed from the frame at the notch?
The reason Bell Tech says not to weld the frame notch to the frame is because most of the people that buy the Bell Tech kits are just guys wanting to lower the truck. Most are not qualified welders, poor welding can indeed weaken frame. The instructions are written to reduce the companies liability for poorly quality welds created during installation. That is the same reason many truck manufacturers tell you not to weld on the frame, they don't want you to drill holes in the frames either, but the holes create less liability then welding, if the welding was poorly done.

If the rear springs are sagging that much, I believe I would be checking to see how many leafs in each spring pack are broken 9they usually break at the center bolt). You can replace just the broken leafs much cheaper then replacing the entire spring, as long as the main leaf isn't broken. If the main leaf is broken, the spring pack needs to be replaced, the main leaf is the only leaf in the pack connected on both ends.

 

This is exactly what I was thinking when Mark quoted the Bell Tech instructions!

The two things business put as their number 1 & 2 goals are lots of sales & guarding against law suits. Hence the "Bolt On Kit" so almost anybody with a little knowledge can do it & a bunch of legal warnings in the instructions. These days the warning sections of products are multiple pages long & the actual instructions are a paragraph or two.

God Bless
Bill
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ar-transport-hauling-open-or-enclosed.614419/

 

So, since I needed shocks, I almost bought some at the parts store yesterday. But, I decided to see if I needed to get a little shorter ones. Anyway, I also remembered that I had some new air shocks that came with a 66 C10 that I bought several years back. Tried those on and they seem to fit good. So, I’ll try those for a bit to see if they help with a load before I mess with helper bags.

 

From 1992 through 1994, I worked as a welder at Monroe Truck INC. Monroe Truck was probably one of the primary truck modification companies in the country at that time. To be a welder there, you had to complete the company's welding certification process, which their liability insurance company and Monroe Truck's safety people had set up. Every welder there had to p*** the welding test.

Some of the things Monroe Truck did was extending the frames on nearly every large truck (over 1 ton) that had a crew cab, an extended cab, or most long wheel base frame trucks that were not semi tractors. That included State Highway snow removal trucks, Fire trucks, Railroad repair trucks and several other specialty trucks. Any crew cab GM or Ford truck went through Monroe Truck to get the frames altered to accept the longer cabs, even a high percentage of the pickup truck crew cabs went through there. We welded frames, made extensions for extended frames, modified truck cabs and created custom truck work bodies on all brands of new trucks during that time frame. That included the the heat treated frames and all the special alloy frames. Some of the special alloy frames had a specific process to weld on them, others did not. The auto companies did not want inexperienced welders to weld on their frames, sticking those warnings on the frames solved most of those problems, but that didn't mean the frames couldn't be welded on by a qualified welder.

I worked in the Ice and snow department most of the time I worked there. Around 93, the big 3 pickup builders in the USA had made changes on their truck frames. Monroe Truck was the primary company to build the new snow plow frame brackets for the new truck frames. Probably 80% of the pickups that plowed snow with those new frames had the plow frame mounting brackets made at Monroe truck. I was one of the 5 guys that was involved with designing the snow plow bracket frame mounts on the GM 1/2 ton through 1 ton pickup or cab and ch***is truck line.
If you had one of those GM trucks with a snow plow frame bracket that worked great, I accept your thanks. If that frame mount bracket gave you problems, blame the other 4 guys...

 

Good to know and I’m glad that I have no experience with any of those snow plows.

In today’s world, going by manufacturer specs, we mount truck vacs on new Kenworth and Peterbilt cl*** 5 through 8 trucks and only require holes to be drilled in the frame rails. All welding happens on the components that we attach. However, we do have some truck vacs built in Canada by a third party where they do some welding on the frames although all past where the axles mount toward the rear. Since I am nowhere close to a certified welder that believes that I can make my frame better by welding, bolt-in parts seem appropriate since I have also seen cl*** 5 through 8 trucks extended with bolt-on sections that sandwich the frame as I plan to do.

I just need to get this done so we can move on to the next controversial modification.

 

...how can somethin so simple, become so complicated.?

 

Jeff knows what he is doing & like the vast majority of Hot Rodders/Builders will ignore the "Noise" that always comes with doing any kind of modification to anything!

God Bless
Bill
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ar-transport-hauling-open-or-enclosed.614419/

 

Just made prints and taking them to the shop to get parts. Going to make it work one way or the other.

 

Found some 15x7’s for $120 so couldn’t p*** them up. I may decide I would rather have 7’s than 8’s on the front. Or, I can at least use one as a spare. Oh, and seems kind of backwards to be hauling truck parts in the 51?!?!

 

Did just prove to myself that the 8’s can fit at least as far as clearance to the spindle where the tie rod attaches. Heck, it probably has an 1/8” clearance or so. Man, I’m gonna like the slots on this! Just need tires!

 

All parts are made as of yesterday, but I didn’t get home last night until 11:00 so didn’t mess with it. I figured I could use the main plate as the template to cut the frame prior to welding it together easier than after. Plus, I could verify the fit of everything. Now I just need to weld the notch together and cut the frame to install. You can see here what I ended up with for a backup plate to go inside the frame (as it will look ***embled on left and apart on right). Couldn’t make the backup plate any longer than what I did since I am so close to the indented area for the shock on the frame. Anyway, almost done with the back now.

 

Nice looking parts! Awesome you have access to get them made so nicely....and quickly.

 

No kidding. Sometimes it seems like "government" parts get higher priority or at least work through quicker than real work in the prototype shop.

 

And a one-off is a break from the mundane 200 piece, check for tolerances, whatzit.
There is pride in being able to do those, but we are humans.

 

By the way, just dropped off the parts to be welded with our best welder in the prototype shop. Also dropped off the exhaust manifolds since he is a pro at getting out broken studs, etc. So, I should be able to get parts painted and installed soon. I did cut the frame on one side last night. But, since even supported properly, it weakens it a lot. So, I chose to not cut the other side yet for some concern of folding things up… Hopefully this evening I can get the rear all together as well as the exhaust ****oned up.

 

The c notch hardware design looks great. Thanks to the HAMBers that provided input to this project.

 

Thanks Phil and agreed! Design review is definitely appreciated! Also, this is why I had someone else weld this for me. I likely wouldn’t have shown the welds up close if I would have done it. I can and do weld. But, I wouldn’t call myself a welder.




Also, since I am too transparent about my screw-ups…. I made a slight change to the inner plate and we are remaking parts. The first parts came out a little too tall as far as the section to fit in the frame. I made it just a tad shorter so it will be a good tight fit but will actually go in…

 

Because I would rather talk about anything besides the ****py weather coming...another perk of where I work. We can get parts painted for free...

Plus, not sure I could have painted them for a while in the shop since I have no heat in there. Wait...that was kind of like talking about the weather?!?!

 

I'm happy to see the inside/back side brace.
You did test fit it before the painting, right?

 

Lol! Good question. I did test fit the outer part on the side that I cut already and the first set of inner pieces that didn’t fit. Then, I measured the overall height of the second set of inner pieces to verify they will go before paint, if that counts?