2014.11.02 - UPDATE! - DOM DA-DOM....DOM DOMMMMM!!!!!
YESSSS!!!!
The 1.75" DOM finally arrived in my shop!!!
I have never been so happy to write an $818 check in my life.
The only downside (other than the fact that it was delivered in the pouring rain) is that the tubing is about 22' long, and my garage is only 24' deep!!!!
This makes for some challenges in the workspace, so even though I really wanted to just dig right in and BUILD.... what I really had to do was get this tubing wiped down with WD-40 (to keep it from immediately rusting) and then get it stored up off the floor so that it wouldn't get ruined and/or trip me every time I tried to work.
For those O.G. members of CK5 you might recognize the rack system in the following photo. This was a setup that was in my California workshop back in the early 2000's. When I left, I unbolted them from the walls and brought them with me to NH.... They've been sitting in my attic, for years and honestly I didn't think I ever make use of them. That all changed yesterday.
I had to remove a few shelves from my floor-to-ceiling storage area to get the racks installed, but it was well worth it. This time around, I also changed up the spacing a little on the far side so that I could store smaller (6 - 8 foot) pieces of tubing as well. Those smaller pieces tend to waste a lot of floorspace as well.
Honestly, I spend almost the entire day just installing the racks and getting the tubing loaded onto it....then cleaning up the shop in preparation for the "REAL" work ahead. Finally, after dinner I was able to set up the welder and burn-in the inner rockslider on the driver's side of the truck and confirm that it was 100% level all the way across the underside of the truck. Both rocksliders and the framerails are all in perfect alignment now, and someday there will be an absolutely MASSIVE skidplate running across this entire truck!
If you look carefully, you can see the inner rocksliders on both sides at the edges of the photograph....
Once that was completed, it was time to take the first fresh piece of DOM down off the racks, and start cutting it up for the OUTER rockslider fabrication. I started by cutting five 12" long sections to slide into the index holes, leaving me with a piece of tube that was still really long, but at least manageable to move around the shop.
The first of those small sections is shown here (in the rearmost position of the 5 mounting holes). In reality, it will take quite a bit of careful finessing with a flaproll on the inside of those 2" tubes to remove material and get the fitment JUST RIGHT. Not too loose, not too tight. I want to make all the adjustments on the inner rockslider receiver tubes so that I can use the existing 1.75" DOM "as is".... this will make it easier when I build the rocksliders and the adapter that allows me to install the factory outer rocker too. I don't want to hand-fit each tube for each accessory item that I build.... If I build the receivers (holes) with the correct tolerances, any piece of DOM that I use will always fit perfectly from then on!
So here's a quick shot to show the relative height of the rockslider to the truck. Remember that the truck is actually at "full bump" in this picture... the ORIs up front are completely bottomed-out. Obviously, the rockslider won't stick out this far (about 12") but I will try to make sure that it ends up sticking out far enough to be truly functional and not just a cosmetic piece.... making it generously wide also helps to insure that the rockslider will make a really nice, convenient step into the truck!...
So tonight..... a couple hours of tedious flaproll work, a little tube notching... and if I'm lucky maybe a bit of hydraulic tube bending as well....
-G
YESSSS!!!!
The 1.75" DOM finally arrived in my shop!!!
I have never been so happy to write an $818 check in my life.
The only downside (other than the fact that it was delivered in the pouring rain) is that the tubing is about 22' long, and my garage is only 24' deep!!!! This makes for some challenges in the workspace, so even though I really wanted to just dig right in and BUILD.... what I really had to do was get this tubing wiped down with WD-40 (to keep it from immediately rusting) and then get it stored up off the floor so that it wouldn't get ruined and/or trip me every time I tried to work.
For those O.G. members of CK5 you might recognize the rack system in the following photo. This was a setup that was in my California workshop back in the early 2000's. When I left, I unbolted them from the walls and brought them with me to NH.... They've been sitting in my attic, for years and honestly I didn't think I ever make use of them. That all changed yesterday.
I had to remove a few shelves from my floor-to-ceiling storage area to get the racks installed, but it was well worth it. This time around, I also changed up the spacing a little on the far side so that I could store smaller (6 - 8 foot) pieces of tubing as well. Those smaller pieces tend to waste a lot of floorspace as well.
Honestly, I spend almost the entire day just installing the racks and getting the tubing loaded onto it....then cleaning up the shop in preparation for the "REAL" work ahead. Finally, after dinner I was able to set up the welder and burn-in the inner rockslider on the driver's side of the truck and confirm that it was 100% level all the way across the underside of the truck. Both rocksliders and the framerails are all in perfect alignment now, and someday there will be an absolutely MASSIVE skidplate running across this entire truck!
If you look carefully, you can see the inner rocksliders on both sides at the edges of the photograph....
Once that was completed, it was time to take the first fresh piece of DOM down off the racks, and start cutting it up for the OUTER rockslider fabrication. I started by cutting five 12" long sections to slide into the index holes, leaving me with a piece of tube that was still really long, but at least manageable to move around the shop.
The first of those small sections is shown here (in the rearmost position of the 5 mounting holes). In reality, it will take quite a bit of careful finessing with a flaproll on the inside of those 2" tubes to remove material and get the fitment JUST RIGHT. Not too loose, not too tight. I want to make all the adjustments on the inner rockslider receiver tubes so that I can use the existing 1.75" DOM "as is".... this will make it easier when I build the rocksliders and the adapter that allows me to install the factory outer rocker too. I don't want to hand-fit each tube for each accessory item that I build.... If I build the receivers (holes) with the correct tolerances, any piece of DOM that I use will always fit perfectly from then on!
So here's a quick shot to show the relative height of the rockslider to the truck. Remember that the truck is actually at "full bump" in this picture... the ORIs up front are completely bottomed-out. Obviously, the rockslider won't stick out this far (about 12") but I will try to make sure that it ends up sticking out far enough to be truly functional and not just a cosmetic piece.... making it generously wide also helps to insure that the rockslider will make a really nice, convenient step into the truck!...
So tonight..... a couple hours of tedious flaproll work, a little tube notching... and if I'm lucky maybe a bit of hydraulic tube bending as well....
-G
But "no guts, no glory".... Image how cool it will be if I can pull this off! 
