2017.03.13 - UPDATE! 37LB WEIGHT LOSS....!!!
It's definitely getting old.... this winter and snow thing.
The tease of 60-degree weather a few days back is probably what makes it worse. We had some bitter cold weather over the weekend, and a couple inches of fresh snow over what WAS completely clear roads and grassy lawns. Tomorrow we are supposed to get clobbered with another 16 inches and at least another week of cold temps. Hopefully, that will be the final batch of cold weather around here and the temps will slowly begin to climb and melt away winter and make way for rolled-up garage doors and springtime build threads!!!
In the meantime, work continues in a rather slow slogging pace. But anything that gets accomplished NOW is one less thing to deal with when the weather improves.... so onward, and upward!!
These days, it's all about getting the convoluted cage plates into position and all the through-holes drilled properly. As of last night 6 of the 12-positions are completely bolted down, with 4 more marked and ready for drilling and bolts.
It's getting closer and closer.
The amount of weight being added to this floor is not trivial and it's been bugging me for a while. After a few quick calcs, the answer was more obvious... the total weight of 12 pairs of 1/2" thick steel (6" x 6") plates is 92 Lbs!!!
It's also becoming obvious that there really isn't any value is making the convoluted plate WAY larger than the (4" x 4.25") cage foot itself. It's just adding a lot of extra weight and making everything look more "clunky" than I was hoping for... so it was decided that the plates will be trimmed down to more reasonable dimensions at each of the 12 mounting positions which will cut the weight from about 7.5Lbs (per plate pair) to 4.5Lbs.... for a total weight reduction of 37Lbs....!!! The end-result will look nicer, and the reduction of unnecessary weight will be a welcome fix also.
For now, the plates are all going in at full-size for simplicity.... and once they are all figured out and precisely installed, they will get marked, removed, cut and edge-finished.... then dropped back into place for final welding.
It's going to be nice to have this floor fully-prepped, and ready to go.... I can already imagine how tempting it's going to feel to get the bedfloor dropped into place on the truck once the sun is shining.... and once the bedfloor goes on.... the rear quarterpanels can be rehung, and the whole truck starts to look a whole lot like a "truck" again. And THAT will really start to fire up the motivation heading into the spring and summer months!!!
-G