New Kid On The Block

[Cow Mountain Wheeler]

Howdy yall. Just thought Id swing by and introduce myself. My friend showed me this site one night while we were discussing things to do to my latest project, a 1977 Chevy shortbed fleetside pickup.

Ive got 2 350's to choose from to put in it, one has a carb, and the other is TBI (Im deff. leaning towards the TBI). I lucked out and got a SM465 trannie, and a NP205 Tcase, along with a 14 bolt rear, and a 3/4 ton Dana 44 front (id like a 60, but that will come down the road when I have some money). I even got all the metal that I need to weld up some bitchin bumpers and box the frame.

So far, Ive got all of the above, and two trucks to work with, without spending a peny on anything. I must be well liked in these parts of the woods, either that or some of these old timers just see a dumb young kid that they can give all their junk iron to... Ha, oh well, Either way, I couldnt be having more fun with it.

I know I am going to be picking some of the more experienced brains around here, because Im almost sure Ive bit off more than I can chew on this project. Right now its sitting in my shop, just a bare frame waiting to get boxed. If anybody has any pointers on boxing frames, please fill me it, cause right now it just looks like a headache.

Hope to talk to yall soon,
Evan

 

[MTBLAZER89]

Welcome to the site! It seems like you have a good starting point thought out so far. What size tires are you planning on running? The D44 is fine up front to about a 37" if you drive it right.

I don't have much input on boxing the frame besides what I have read here. I believe the general idea is you should do the entire thing to prevent stress risers in certain areas. Not sure what you are going to use the truck for, but IMO it isn't real necessary and a good cage tied in to the frame properly will remove most all of the frame flex. That combined with a soft suspension helps even more. Not a lot of guys here with boxed frames that I know of.

 

[Cow Mountain Wheeler]

This truck is going to be mosty an extreme camping rig, but I would like to be able to keep up with some of my buddies' rigs when they do their rock hopping and mud bogging. Im sick of being limitied with my 95 Chevy with a 2 inch lift and 33"x12.50"s. So, i figgure its time to go big, and when I go big, I mean business. I am notorious for overbuilding things. I wasnt planning on throwing anything larger than 37"s on the 77, and Im going to baby it till I get a 60 and some lockers in the front and rear. I know I dont really need to box the frame, but, like I said, I dont know words like overkill or overbuilding... They just arent in my vocabulary.

 

[George_Pimpdaddy]

Well if your gonna do it stencle out the peices on cardboard and have at err.. now your gonna have to rethink some of the stuff by doing this like fuel lines, brake lines, and crossmember mounts. The steering box would be benifiting from this as they like to crack the frame.

 

[K5dreamer]

well there are two was to go about it.

1. an extreme camping rig that you rock hop and mud bog.

2. a rock hopping mud bogger that you also use for camping.

sounds to me like youre more in the mindset of option #2. In that case, id sell the spare engine, D44 front axle, and some of that other "junk iron" you have laying around, and put it towards a D60 right off the bat. Id without question use the TBI engine, its just vastly superior to a carb for offroading.

as to boxing the frame, i plead the fifth, and have no idea.