High Desert "AMMO" Build - Restarted 16 Sept 11

[andyblack]

I'll see if I can post some pics of mine after work today. It's covered with stickers and has two cupholders attached to the front of it. I lined the inside with carpet so my pistol and spare mag won't rattle around in there and make noise. I'm thinking about adding a pair of hasps to it so I can lock it with padlocks.

 

[andyblack]

ammo can pics

Some of these pics may be foggy because of the extreme humidity today. Hopefully you can tell something from these. I bolted the ammo can to the frame that I made for the bucket seats to attach to. This is in a regular cab pickup, so it may be a lot easier to do something like this in a Blazer with a flatter floor board.

 

[andyblack]

Hmmm... I see the pictures suck! I hate computers and cameras!!

I'll try again tomorrow. My memory card was full. Hopefully you get the idea though. I'm pretty sure that's a 30mm ammo can. It's the perfect height to rest my arm on and I've found that thieves can't figure out how to open it, at least in the "hood" where I live. I'm sure a red neck thief would know how to open an ammo can. I lined it with an old floor mat that I had in front of my door until I got married and the wife said it wasn't fancy enough for her.

 

[BUDDY]

Actually Andy, the more I think about it, I like your idea with the ammo can as a center console. Spruced up of course but still, an ammo can. I'll have to see what else I can fab out of ammo cans.

Anyone else have any ammo cans fabbed into thier rigs? Pics would be cool.

I used one to house my dual battery stuff.

picasa web album

Thread about the dual battery setup.

Later,

Buddy

 

[Gunny65]

Andy, The pics are a little hard to tell but it does look like 30mm can. It is a little wider than the M548 can that was used for 40mm grenades, 20mm, 7.62mm, 50cal, etc. Nice and versitile. Tough too. I was thinking about using the 20mm size along with some light welding to make sunken cup holders in the lid and expand it in the bottom back side to hold the pistol and ammo. The front portion is going to house my stereo equipment. It may not seal up as well as original but it will do the trick. The important point? It is cheap. LOL It kind of depends upon how they fit between the seats though. Trial and error then I will post pics.

I like that secondary battery idea too Buddy. Looks like you have it setup so it is close to if not water tight?

I will be posting some additional pics of my build in a bit. My tractor died on me and I have been spending the last three days replacing the wiring harness, alt, coil, etc. There are some seriously tight spots in this POS and it is just pissing me off. More to come once I am done being distracted by real WORK.

 

[BUDDY]

I like that secondary battery idea too Buddy. Looks like you have it setup so it is close to if not water tight?

I tried to make it water tight & if I did it again, it would likely come out a lot better, but I think that only the lid is really water-tight on it at this point. Will I redo it with another ammo can? Maybe, but for now it works & will allow me to move onto other projects on the blazer.

Later,
Buddy

 

[andyblack]

I thought about making some cupholders on the top of my lid, but I didn't want to move my drinks if I need to get something out it. That's why I put them in the front. I had planned to hinge the lid so it would only latch in the front and swing towards the back. I may still do this. I had also toyed with the idea of mounting a CB radio on the side of it, but I think it would be inconvinient. I also have considered mounting one of those Fobus roto holster mounts that you can pivot in several positions on the back or side of the can. I have one of those roto holsters lying around somewhere. They're no good for concealment because they stick out too far and make too much noise. I guess if I mounted it in the truck I probably wouldn't be able to hear the rattling over all the other rattles, squeaks, wind, tire and exhaust noises.

I also might mount two of them in the bed right behind the wheel wells to use as tool boxes. They sell some toolboxes that are a little bigger that are made to go there, but they cost a lot more and don't seal up as well as ammo cans. I think they would be out of the way when I want to slide something in the bed (like my kayaks) that need a lot of room. They would also be easier to reach than a regular toolbox that goes right behind the cab, especially when the truck is on unlevel ground, like on a trail ride. I thought about painting them white to match my truck's color. Just some ideas.

One of those mortar tubes would be cool to store your hi-lift jack in.

 

[Gunny65]

18 Jun 10 Update

Well, I fixed my tractor...finally. Today I moved on and finished grinding off the old bumper plates and spring perches off my rear axle. I just used my 4-1/2" grinder. It didn't take to long. Maybe and hour for each side.

 

[Gunny65]

Axle Swap Order Arrived

I got my Axle Swap kit from RuffStuff http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/catalog/14-bolt-complete-rear-axle-swap-kit-p-178.html

The contents look to be well made though it took awhile to get them. I called RuffStuff last week and they said they are waiting for the Diff Cover to arrive. I asked them to ship the Diff Cover separate since they said it wouldn't be there for another week. They said no Problem and I got the initial items two days later.

 

[Gunny65]

Rear Axle Calipers and Rotors

I went to the local salvage yard and got front brake calipers off a 1982 K2500. I didn't worry about looking for the Eldorado calipers since I plan on using a T-case emergency brake in place of the normal rear E-brake. I think I paid $35.00 for both.

The bought my rotors new. I figured by the time I pay salvage the then get them turned I would be close to even money on the deal. So, I picked up new ones at the local O'reily Auto Parts store. I think it is worth the extra few bucks.

 

[andyblack]

Gunny, what happened to this build? I was looking forward to seeing how it was going to turn out.

 

[Gunny65]

Hi there. Sorry about the delay in getting this build done. I had some health issues to deal with and this took a back seat to everything else.

I am just about getting ready to start back up..slowly. I have lots of home time now so hopefully I can get a running K5 out and about in the near future. I don't think I will go as far as I had planned but who knows.

I decided to go with rear calipers with E-brakes. The ones I bought from the junk yard were so bad it will cost to much to mess with. Guess thats why they were so cheap. Now it has been so long the yard won't take them back.

I heard there were new GM metric calipers with Ebrakes installed and ready to use. Anyone use these? I did some looking and came up with these.
http://www.southwestspeed.com/?sec=view_menu&cat=Hubs%20And%20Brakes&sub=Brake%20Calipers&ssub=!!!GM%20Metric&sssub=zSteel%20Calipers%20With%20Emergency%20Brake

Hopefully I copied that correctly. Looks long.

Do you think the above calipers will fit the RuffStuff caliper conversion kit I posted ealier in this thread?

 

[Gunny65]

Oh, I forgot. I got a running 454 and a D60 from my father-in-law. The d60 is off a dually but hey, its free so getting replacement hubs isn't to bad.

I plan on TBI'ing the 454 and dropping it in the Blazer. To cool.

I had been looking for D60s around here and I couldn't find anything below 1K. Stinking expensive. I was so glad to find out he had this 60 sitting under an old GMC dually. It has 4.10 gears but I can change those to 4:56s to match the rear 14ff. That and some Detroit Lockers should help the build come along nicely.

More to come...slowly though.

Hey, anyone in here wheel in Oregon? I am in Easthern Oregon, Hermiston area. I will want to go wheeling once I get this up and running and would like to find some people around this area.

Later all.

Gunny

 

[COCHEV]

Big Truck lives out there- or at least he did last year when i bought a 465 from him. Doesn't look like he's been on the boards much tho. Might PM him...

 

[yellowK20]

Any updates??

 

[Gunny65]

I get so wrapped up in what I am doing I forget to take pics. I am planning on doing a write-up when I am done.

It sucks typing on my phone and I usually browse here on my phone.

 

[yellowK20]

it would be neat if you came up sounds like a nicely built rig should do good up here

 

[Gunny65]

Well, I scrapped the 14 Bolt idea. I mean, I finished rebuilding it but I am not going to use it. I figured I could learn a lot by finishing the build and I already had the Ruff Stuff kit so why not. Now it is stored in the back of the garage. I plan on selling it, minus the hubs though. I swapped the SRW hubs from the 14FF to the D70HD I now have. Now the rear is almost as wide as the DRW D60.

As I hinted at previously, I decided to use the D70HD and D60 out of a '85 GMC dually. I already finished most of this build but I will try to go through it in order of what I did and add pictures when I can. I bought some H1, 12 bolt wheels from http://www.trailworthyfab.com/ . The H1s will work great with this axle combo. I didn't buy new centers for them. I want them with the orignal back spacing.

 

[Gunny65]

Here are some pictures of the 14FF progress.
On this one the hub is stripped. All bearings, races, and seals are out. The four items in the second pic are what I used to get everything out of the hub. Just be careful with the chisle. You have to stick it through the back of the inside of the hub and rest it on the edge of the back of the race. Be careful and don't nick the wall where the races seat inside the hub. The lip is not that big a deal but still, be carefull and don't over do it. It does take some good serious whacks with the hammer though.

BTW, the ring clips inside the hub are a bear to get out. I tried using the specialty tool, I will see if I can get a pic, but it didn't work. Finally I used a set of long needle nosed pliers. I shoved them down in the clip cutouts, shoved and squeezed at the same time, and they didn't budge. So, I gave them a light whack with the hammer and chisle and that moved the race up just enough to take the pressure off. Now the needle nose pliers worked great.

The seals, I just used a crowbar. Again, I tried a specialty tool but it just started ripping holes in them. Not like I was going to reuse them but still. Small crowbar and a hammer worked great.

 

[Gunny65]

Here are the replacement insides of the hub. The guy from Autozone who ordered them forgot to order the outer races. He thought they came with the bearings like the inner ones. So I had to go to NAPA and find some.

I bought a Harbor Frieght 20 ton press for $69.99. I went online and found a 20% coupon for HF, the press was on sale, so it came out to $69.99. About as much as you might spend getting a machine shop to get your bearings and so forth out and putting the new stuff back in. This is the only picture of the press I have right now. I was actually taking a picture of the legs of the stand I was building for my tube bender. The legs and angles came out pretty darn good. I tack welded some wheels to the bottom plates you see under the horizontal square tube shown in the picture. Anyway, that is another story. Oh, if you do buy one of these presses, go to ACE or someplace that sells grade 8 hardware and replace all the bolts that go to the frame. I can't say the original hardware would have been bad but I figured why find out when I have 10+ tons of pressure on an item. I feel safer with the stonger hardware.

That