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Black Betty, Rock Crawlin Trail Truck Build !!!FOR SALE!!

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3/16 x 6" flat bar will box the middle section of a mid 80s K5 frame nicely. Fits perfectly between the rails, just set it up in there, make a couple short weld passes top and bottom and just keep working your way back, keeping the plate tight to the frame with a couple 8" C-Clamps. Working with smaller 24" pieces makes it easier to manage. The frame has a nice bow in it in the middle but its easy to keep that radius just doing the whole weld/bend/weld/bend/weld... thing going. Going wait on doing the front half of the frame until I have a good reason to have the motor out.

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Nice, I'm kind of dreading setting up my cable shifters on my doubler but I need to do it this week. Hope it turns out that clean. :)
 
Avery4jc said:
Nice, I'm kind of dreading setting up my cable shifters on my doubler but I need to do it this week. Hope it turns out that clean. :)
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its really not all that bad. Just a good bit of thinking and planning before you jump into it. Ive done a LOT of tweaking to take slop out of them and really make everything work well. I'm a little concerned I have the detents too soft, but it sure shifts nice.

I dont have the 203 shifter hooked up yet. having to heavily modify the mounting bracket a lot to clear the governor on the TH400. I'm sure NWF has a different bracket, because this one isn't even close.


Heres a pic of what I did to make it work.

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rained last night so couldn't work on the frame boxing. Started on the crossmember/subframe. This piece is supporting the NWF doubler plate and had to clearence it a bit to keep the flat betty goal.

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Got some of the other frame rail boxed last night and first crossmember tacked in. Here are some pics to see how tight of clearances I'm working with to have a flat belly. Would have been easier with 1.5" tubing or smaller but the whole truck is 1.75 and it's what I had.

I hope I'm not flirting with disaster having the skid and crossmembers so close to the bottom of the case, but im more worried about front frame twist breaking the TH400 case.

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Man you're going to have the baddest Blazer in the state. Hey thanks for posting all that detailed info about the TH400 rebuild. That's really going to help me when I go to rebiuld the one I got of the junkyard the other day and try to make it as reliable as possible.
 
andyblack said:
Man you're going to have the baddest Blazer in the state. Hey thanks for posting all that detailed info about the TH400 rebuild. That's really going to help me when I go to rebiuld the one I got of the junkyard the other day and try to make it as reliable as possible.
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Thank you. There are a lot of things id do differently if I could start over, but she does pretty good for a fullsize on leafs.
 
Gotta redo the exhaust. Gonna run these cheap ebay block hugger headers. Used duplicolors flame proof paint and cured it with three heat cycles on the BGE.

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I wish I knew you need block huggers, I have a set of Hooker Super Comps that I can't seem to give away :doah:
 
After taking this in and out 20 times I hope its in there for a while now!! Still need to make some exhaust, new spring perches on the rear axle, retube the front shaft and shorten the rear, build a skid plate, add fluids..

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Man that looks slick. Real flat too. I could see ORD or DIY4X copying your design and selling it. Lots of guys will be doing something similar after they see yours anyway. Once the skidplate gets on there, that will be awesome. :bow: I'm sure it's going to work out good for you on the trail.
 
Thanks. You really could mass produce this setup and let the customer trim down the mounting tabs to fit his frame. Problem is youd really have to cut a huge hole in the floor if you wern't running a body lift to have a flat belly. I'm kinda pushing it with driveline angles now with as much flex as I have, but we'll see how that goes.
 
That looks great. I'm in the process of setting up my doubler and the rest of my drivetrain and crossmembers and I can appreciate how much effort went into having a flat belly. :waytogo:
 
Got some new exhaust in and finished up a mile long list of little things. It sure looks good. Its hard to see in the pic put the passanger side pipe is in front of the oil pan sump. Pic makes it look like it hangs down real far. UHMW skid in the works.

Dana 30 Stub shaft didn't make it through the bunny trails the first time out. If anyone wants to donate 35 spline outer shafts/hubs/driveflanges or even some stock 30spline hubs, now would be the time to do so :)

Got some fancy one off prototype pics of a new product coming soon...

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Sorry to hear it, but I'm glad I am not the only one destroying 30 spline outers.

Martin
 
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