You take valuable time away from your new career as a motorcycle racer to come here with THAT? .....
-G
-G
CK5
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'72 K5 - Greg's @MightAsWellK5 Build
- Thread starter Greg72
- Start date
This is the build description. I will improve this later. (GB)
I don't see why you can't just shoot some Great Stuff foam under those plates...
It comes in yellow, red, white.....heck, if those aren't your colors, you could always get in there with a sharpie and paint the foam.
You could probably use it around the rear ORI's too, when you cut the holes in your bed for them to go through. Water tight, badass and one off.
Just here to help.
It's funny you say this.... I was wondering why you couldn't inject some expandable foam into the cage tubes. Would help reduce some of the resonation from the road and big block.
It's funny you say this.... I was wondering why you couldn't inject some expandable foam into the cage tubes. Would help reduce some of the resonation from the road and big block.
Could also help the truck float in water crossings! Though with your ground clearance, you'd hafta be crossing a lake...
-- A
Could also help the truck float in water crossings! Though with your ground clearance, you'd hafta be crossing a lake...
-- A
Nothing floats better than air.
Shades of The Holy Grail: "What else floats on water?
A DUCK!"
Anyway, I assume you mean e.g. the rollcage would be sealed shut by the welding -- Greg's being immaculate like yours and unlike mine -- and so it would act as a flotation device?
-- A
more witches!!!bridges. Very small rocks!!!
So here's my "No Update" Update for the weekend.......
Things started out just fine on Friday. UPS dropped off 4 more 17" hoops for the white wheel & hubcap project.
...and is usually the case on the weekends, I spent my Saturday doing work around the house so that I could spend Sunday in the garage.
Unfortunately, the project was to install some uber-expensive cherry handrails to the staircase ( a project I have been dreading for a couple of years now ). So I got started by stripping out the old temporary pine handrails which were starting to feel pretty "permanent" due to my procrastination.
Most of the day was spent doing a lot of finish painting of the spindles, and the other trimwork that is basically impossible to reach with a paintbrush once all the spindles are re-installed. As the paint dried overnight, I realized that there was simply NO way I was going to get away with leaving a huge, dangerous open stairwell with a 3-year old in the house..... so instead of figuring out cool, expensive cage plates in the garage... I spent the day doing insanely tedious fitments of the handrails.
By the end of the night I had the other long angled section installed as well.... safe enough for the time being, and I can safely put off the rest of that project until next weekend.
With any luck, I'll be out in the shop tonight so that there will be a better update soon.
-G
Things started out just fine on Friday. UPS dropped off 4 more 17" hoops for the white wheel & hubcap project.
...and is usually the case on the weekends, I spent my Saturday doing work around the house so that I could spend Sunday in the garage.
Unfortunately, the project was to install some uber-expensive cherry handrails to the staircase ( a project I have been dreading for a couple of years now ). So I got started by stripping out the old temporary pine handrails which were starting to feel pretty "permanent" due to my procrastination.
Most of the day was spent doing a lot of finish painting of the spindles, and the other trimwork that is basically impossible to reach with a paintbrush once all the spindles are re-installed. As the paint dried overnight, I realized that there was simply NO way I was going to get away with leaving a huge, dangerous open stairwell with a 3-year old in the house..... so instead of figuring out cool, expensive cage plates in the garage... I spent the day doing insanely tedious fitments of the handrails.
By the end of the night I had the other long angled section installed as well.... safe enough for the time being, and I can safely put off the rest of that project until next weekend.
With any luck, I'll be out in the shop tonight so that there will be a better update soon.-G
y5mgisi
1 ton status
I sure dont like house work.
Is it just me or does that rig have one gold and one silver wheel?
You talkin' about Mater in the toybox, or the wheels in the garage?
-G
-G
Your a good man Greg see me I woulda been out to the garage and would have just gathered up pillows and spare mattresses and made sure the floor was padded.
Those handrails need more triangulation 
Those handrails need more triangulation
I was cutting angles at 41.5* all day.... Plenty of angularity, no panhard bar needed.
-G
Had to go back and look... gotta be Mater!
Yeah I was talkin' bout Mater! It looks like the wheels are different colors? Maybe that helps his perspective when he is in 4th gear in reverse!
2014.09.16 - UPDATE! - THE FLATBED 1ST-GEN CONVERSION !!!!!
I'll admit.... I was amazed at how little effort it takes to actually remove the complete bedsides from a 1st Gen.
There are 4 bolts holding the c-pillar to the rear cross sill, about 5 bolts running along the inside of the floor, and a couple more at the B-pillar area. A few small tack welds need to be cut at the seams, and THAT'S IT!!!
Here's a photo that you don't often see.... this is the rear tailgate area, just as the bedside is being pushed off the mount area and away from the cross-sill:
About 10 seconds later, the entire bedside was resting on the floor.....
.... and here's a cool 3/4-View of the area. This one really allows you to see and appreciate the rollcage landing points and how they relate to the frame and underpinnings of the truck. It makes it REALLY easy to visualize how to complete the cage and do all the tie-ins to the frame!
It also makes it a TON easier to work on the floor. No more reaching OVER the bedside or standing on a ladder. The whole thing ends up being at workbench height now, and it's a total pleasure.
I cleaned up the existing floor a bit to see where my "world's most expensive cage plates" would be located...
In a bit of serendipity, I realized that I had a profile gauge in my toolbox collecting dust... this turned out to be the perfect way to transfer the shape off the truck and onto paper! You can see that the very last convolution is a more round shape than the rest of the floor. The green tape represents where the flange from the bedside sits when it's bolted back down.
Obviously, I will need to enlarge the wheeltub areas for tire clearance as well as the upper link mounts (under articulation). I spent some time thinking about the most sensible place to make the cuts, and it turns out that there is a flanged area on two cross sills located at the exact centers of the original bolt holes that held the wheeltubs in place.....
If I cut along those lines (as marked by the outside edges of the framing squares in this photo) I will be able to support the existing floor on the cross-sill (still sitting on 1/2 of the flange area for support)..... then cut deeply toward the center of truck, probably right past the two green tape lines which represent the framerails below. This will allow me plenty of room to work on the frame in that area, and I should be able to slide the "cut" section further inboard to create a wider wheeltub effect. Any metal that I would need to add would go closer to the outside (bedrail areas) which should make the repair less noticeable too.
-G
I'll admit.... I was amazed at how little effort it takes to actually remove the complete bedsides from a 1st Gen.
There are 4 bolts holding the c-pillar to the rear cross sill, about 5 bolts running along the inside of the floor, and a couple more at the B-pillar area. A few small tack welds need to be cut at the seams, and THAT'S IT!!!
Here's a photo that you don't often see.... this is the rear tailgate area, just as the bedside is being pushed off the mount area and away from the cross-sill:
About 10 seconds later, the entire bedside was resting on the floor.....
.... and here's a cool 3/4-View of the area. This one really allows you to see and appreciate the rollcage landing points and how they relate to the frame and underpinnings of the truck. It makes it REALLY easy to visualize how to complete the cage and do all the tie-ins to the frame!
It also makes it a TON easier to work on the floor. No more reaching OVER the bedside or standing on a ladder. The whole thing ends up being at workbench height now, and it's a total pleasure.
I cleaned up the existing floor a bit to see where my "world's most expensive cage plates" would be located...
In a bit of serendipity, I realized that I had a profile gauge in my toolbox collecting dust... this turned out to be the perfect way to transfer the shape off the truck and onto paper! You can see that the very last convolution is a more round shape than the rest of the floor. The green tape represents where the flange from the bedside sits when it's bolted back down.
Obviously, I will need to enlarge the wheeltub areas for tire clearance as well as the upper link mounts (under articulation). I spent some time thinking about the most sensible place to make the cuts, and it turns out that there is a flanged area on two cross sills located at the exact centers of the original bolt holes that held the wheeltubs in place.....
If I cut along those lines (as marked by the outside edges of the framing squares in this photo) I will be able to support the existing floor on the cross-sill (still sitting on 1/2 of the flange area for support)..... then cut deeply toward the center of truck, probably right past the two green tape lines which represent the framerails below. This will allow me plenty of room to work on the frame in that area, and I should be able to slide the "cut" section further inboard to create a wider wheeltub effect. Any metal that I would need to add would go closer to the outside (bedrail areas) which should make the repair less noticeable too.
-G
Dude, that's awesome! Mine will require quite a bit more cutting (thanks PO), but I may end up going this route while doing my floor.
Greg,
I get what you're saying now on the floor plates. When I was dealing with this on my cage I just used two strips of 1/4 thk flat cold rolled stock as wide as the flat recess in the floor. I think it was 1" wide and doesn't sit in the radius of the pleet in the floor. I drilled holes in them that lined up with the holes in the floor plate. I also tied everything into the extra structure underneath the truck floor. You can kind of see the two ends of the two individule strips under the floor plate. How many are you needing? Round or rectangle or? Are the floot pleets the same from 1st gen to 2nd gen?
I get what you're saying now on the floor plates. When I was dealing with this on my cage I just used two strips of 1/4 thk flat cold rolled stock as wide as the flat recess in the floor. I think it was 1" wide and doesn't sit in the radius of the pleet in the floor. I drilled holes in them that lined up with the holes in the floor plate. I also tied everything into the extra structure underneath the truck floor. You can kind of see the two ends of the two individule strips under the floor plate. How many are you needing? Round or rectangle or? Are the floot pleets the same from 1st gen to 2nd gen?
Rob,
Here's how it looks with a few more dimensions added in....
The far left side is where the bedside flange is, so the plate needs to end there.... I moved across the high spots until I got a plate that was wide enough to be reasonable (7.25") and stopped just before the plate would start to curve downward again.... The upper and lower red lines represent total thickness of the plates. I think that 3/8" plate would be a good material to use. It's overkill already, but it will probably save on material costs, and when the "sandwich" is assembled it's 3/8"+ thick everywhere.
The valleys are EXACTLY 1/4" deep measuring with a straightedge across the floor down into those pocket areas.
I drew the line a little thicker to represent the thickness of the actual metal in the floor. I mic'ed it at 0.055" which isn't really any standard thickness I'm aware of (it's kind of 16GA but not that close).....
Keep in mind that to do this right, the underside plate has to be slightly different to account for the fact that there's metal in there. All of the transitions are slightly different (the valleys are slightly WIDER, and the peaks are slightly NARROWER).
Ultimately, knowing that the valley is a perfect 1/4" I can cut some strips of filler material for the time being and keep plugging along with the build. I'm finally getting a good head of steam on this build and logging some decent hours every week. I hate to lose that momentum!!!!!
-G
Here's how it looks with a few more dimensions added in....
The far left side is where the bedside flange is, so the plate needs to end there.... I moved across the high spots until I got a plate that was wide enough to be reasonable (7.25") and stopped just before the plate would start to curve downward again.... The upper and lower red lines represent total thickness of the plates. I think that 3/8" plate would be a good material to use. It's overkill already, but it will probably save on material costs, and when the "sandwich" is assembled it's 3/8"+ thick everywhere.
The valleys are EXACTLY 1/4" deep measuring with a straightedge across the floor down into those pocket areas.
I drew the line a little thicker to represent the thickness of the actual metal in the floor. I mic'ed it at 0.055" which isn't really any standard thickness I'm aware of (it's kind of 16GA but not that close).....
Keep in mind that to do this right, the underside plate has to be slightly different to account for the fact that there's metal in there. All of the transitions are slightly different (the valleys are slightly WIDER, and the peaks are slightly NARROWER).
Ultimately, knowing that the valley is a perfect 1/4" I can cut some strips of filler material for the time being and keep plugging along with the build. I'm finally getting a good head of steam on this build and logging some decent hours every week. I hate to lose that momentum!!!!!
-G
