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[NorCal69]

Your plates are ending up in that tricky area that mine were which is why I'm looking at moving them up in the firewall.


-Brian

Yeah, I hear ya. I think that I can do it with a small kicker coming off the front of the a to the plate, but I might only be able to get three bolts in it then. I can always run a split plate or box the entire thing out, I guess.

I have a good couple of weeks before I'll need to make something.

 

[bp71k5]

Looking at that picture, you might already have it forward enough to clear that body mount bracket under there. At least on the part that's angling up. Maybe stare at it a bit under there. That's what I've been doing anyway.


-Brian

 

[bigblock72]

The only real practical way to tie in your A pillar mount to the frame is going to involve trimming the cab support back. I realize you probably don't want to hear it since you went to a fair amount of work to put those in and they look nice but they are just plain flat in the way. If you trim them right it'll still look good and make your life much simpler. The cage and under floor structure will more than make up for any loss of strength from cutting out part of the cab suport. I would also recommend that you trim the floor plates back to the other side of the pinch weld as their really isn't any advantage to having a large floor plate since you're mounting the cage to the frame and run little risk of pushing the floor plate through the floor. Or you could just drill new holes on the other side of the pinch weld.I like what you are doing with the dash, I would have done the same thing if I would have known how much work integrating the dash into the cage was going to be.

 

[bigblock72]

Your plates are ending up in that tricky area that mine were which is why I'm looking at moving them up in the firewall.


-Brian

Be real careful when moving the plates farther forward because you can severely compromise the stength of your A pillar tube because you will have to put a pretty sharp bend in the A pillar tube just below the dash which will buckle easily when any weight is put on it, best to do the unthinkable and cut the cab support to keep everything straight and strong.

 

[bp71k5]

you can severely compromise the stength of your A pillar tube because you will have to put a pretty sharp bend in the A pillar tube just below the dash which will buckle easily when any weight is put on it.

Yes, I think I understand what you mean. In my case, the tube wont have any bend below the dash.

Here's what I mean. Imagine the end of the tube with the blue tape continuing straight down until it hits the angled portion of the firewall up pretty high.

If I remember right, the rear most portion of his mounting plate is right above that body mount bracket. Reinforcing the back side of it might not need to involve hacking the body mount bracket entirely.




-Brian

 

[NorCal69]

The only real practical way to tie in your A pillar mount to the frame is going to involve trimming the cab support back. I realize you probably don't want to hear it since you went to a fair amount of work to put those in and they look nice but they are just plain flat in the way. If you trim them right it'll still look good and make your life much simpler. The cage and under floor structure will more than make up for any loss of strength from cutting out part of the cab suport. I would also recommend that you trim the floor plates back to the other side of the pinch weld as their really isn't any advantage to having a large floor plate since you're mounting the cage to the frame and run little risk of pushing the floor plate through the floor. Or you could just drill new holes on the other side of the pinch weld.I like what you are doing with the dash, I would have done the same thing if I would have known how much work integrating the dash into the cage was going to be.

Lol.. I had a feeling that you were going to pop in and tell me that. I seen that you had done the cut on the support also. Will it affect the four bolt area at all?

I don't have any pics, but the front two holes in that plate are on the firewall side of the pinch.

 

[bigblock72]

Lol.. I had a feeling that you were going to pop in and tell me that. I seen that you had done the cut on the support also. Will it affect the four bolt area at all?

I don't have any pics, but the front two holes in that plate are on the firewall side of the pinch.

Shouldn't affect the pillar/4bolt area if you leave a little bit of the cab support and cut it at an angle to triangulate that spot a little. I didn't worry about it much on mine since I have a piesce of 2" square tube running through the rockers (about the same length as the sliders).

I saw the bolt holes were on the firewall side of the pinch, it would easy enough to redrill them on the other side of the pinch and trim the plates later. If it were mine I would trim the plates back down to be roughly square, they will look a lot better since your feet won't be running on them so much rubbing the paint off and that area between the kick panel and the floor plate is real bad at trapping dirt.

 

[NorCal69]

Well I'll wait a week or so and think of a lot of other ways to do it, then come back and cut out the front cab support like ya told me to.

If and when I go that way, I'll definately cut back those plates. The only reason that their that big now, is I knew back then, that I didn't know what I was going to do later and wanted as many options as I could have now.

 

[NorCal69]

The front cab support has been beaten..

On with the pics..

Cut open the slider

Made some plates and welded nuts to the back.

Did the same with the B-pillar mount.

Bent up the A-pillar plate.

Cut out a sloppy mortise and tenon

Bolted everything in and tacked in the tube. I actually have direct down force load between the A and this tube. Not much, about 1/4 of the tube, but it's some.

B-pillar mount

A-pillar. I had to clean up an area of the weld so the washer would fit. One thing led to another and it all eventually got cleaned up.

B-pillar mount

 

[ashman]

so, if I'm looking at that right, the cab support ended up just getting a few inches sliced off the top so that you could slide the bottom plate underneath the top plate, then attach that in front of that cab support down to the slider. does that mean you'll be able to keep the rocker box?

looks great man, really solid work!

 

[NorCal69]

so, if I'm looking at that right, the cab support ended up just getting a few inches sliced off the top so that you could slide the bottom plate underneath the top plate, then attach that in front of that cab support down to the slider. does that mean you'll be able to keep the rocker box?

looks great man, really solid work!

Yep, I just made a small "slit" in the top of the cab support. I didn't take the very top off that is welded to the floor though. More of a mortise than a dado. Slipped in the bottom plate and started to measure where I could get direct contact between the two tubes ( A and this smaller one). I'll finish it off with a couple of small gussets on the back of the small tube, so I should get about ~5/8 to all of the the upper tube being directly over the smaller, lower tube.

I won't need the boxes any more. By the time this is all tied in, there will be four attachments between the slider and the frame. Two of them being 2x2 running from the side of the slider to plates attaches to the frame with gussets. I'll then tie in the A and B down tubes to the frame. If I have this all in my head correctly, those will need to be soft mounted to the same plates or there own, so all can be disassembled.

 

[ashman]

makes sense. not having to deal with the boxes anymore has got to be nice. looks very good too.

 

[Engineered Vintage]

Wow! Very elegant solution!

Are you worried about that A-pillar support tearing that hole bigger (or rusting out) the cab support?

 

[bp71k5]

The a-pillar portion is kinda what I'm planning as well. Interested to see the whole thing once it's in and how you tie it to the frame.


-Brian

 

[NorCal69]

Are you worried about that A-pillar support tearing that hole bigger (or rusting out) the cab support?

Not really, I left about a 1/8" gap all the way around the plate (under cab) to the cab support so I don't ever see it ever touching (no noise) or giving it any force to it. The bottom plate is about 5/8" bigger on all sides so I shouldn't have to worry about it with the can opener effect either. As far as rusting, it's a brand new cab support. The outside has POR15 on it and the inside still has the e-coating. With the way the cab support is stamped, any water that gets in there should roll down the interior of it and out the bottom by the four bolt area. Plus with having no rocker box to enclose everything to rot out, I can actually get in there and spray it out now.

In my eyes it's the best of all worlds, leaving the cab support in will help the four bolt area and floor. If I do end up in a full lid flop, and somehow the pressure on that new "small tube" and slider is to great, the down pressure from the A should push down on the cab support. I don't know if it will help, but i don't think that it will hurt having the extra support in there. Besides, if both areas fail, I probably have better things to worry about, because I'm rolling down the side of a mountain.

 

[NorCal69]

I screwed up. Kinda embarrassing, but somehow I ended up getting measurements all mixed up.

Went up to the garage last night to weld in those gussets behind the small tube. I started to look at it, and the A-pillar down tube and the small tube exactly matched up for 100% direct bearing. I don't know how I missed it on Sunday night, but I did, and even posted up about it on Monday. I was starting to think that my mind was playing tricks on me or something last night.

A friend stopped by to show me his new to him 84 blazer and I made him feel the A pillar down tube compared to the small tube under the tub. He thought it was one tube with a small kick on the bottom.

It's plain as day when you look at the bolts and how they line up from top to bottom.

I'll cut off the remaining plate off between the bolts and the pinch weld when I move the cage back.

So anyways, I was pretty excited that everything worked out better than I even thought.

Two things come to mind now though...

1) I probably should have posted up in the "I'm Drunk" thread in the lounge on Sunday night.

2) You guys ever hear the story about the blind SQUIRREL...

 

[ashman]

lol, when you mention the bolts, you're right, it is pretty obvious. /doh!
glad it worked out.

 

[Z71paramedic]

As stated earlier, looks sweet! Almost ready to make mine right?

 

[NorCal69]

As stated earlier, looks sweet! Almost ready to make mine right?

For you, any time bud...

 

[bigblock72]

Looks like a great solution for a tight spot.. Good job!!