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Ryoken's 89 Crew Cab Tubebed build... aka Mutt....

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78K30 said:
Dang $250 a piece!?! The lights on my service truck and my 78 (6 total) don’t even add up to that much and they’re plenty of light.

This thing is still just the coolest to sit and stare at!
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a pair... 125 each, normally $150... go big or go home build...


i just figured out a slick way to do LED lighting for the drawers when they are open at night.... obviously the big uppers will light it up, but i like the idea of not having to have those on while finding stuff in there at night...

i think I have a good plan for creating a chase/surgery at that joint.... also think I'm gonna do something similar to the chord grips i run on the K5 firewall for entry/exit from the tube...



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ryoken said:
a pair... 125 each, normally $150... go big or go home build...


i just figured out a slick way to do LED lighting for the drawers when they are open at night.... obviously the big uppers will light it up, but i like the idea of not having to have those on while finding stuff in there at night...

i think I have a good plan for creating a chase/surgery at that joint.... also think I'm gonna do something similar to the chord grips i run on the K5 firewall for entry/exit from the tube...



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Oh man! I forgot about that cold air you made...magic! :bow:
 
People will be mad about this but I don't know why anyone would spend that much on LED lights when you can get basically the same ones for 1/5 the price on Amazon or Ebay. I get that they are higher quality but you can literally replace them 4 times before hitting the cost of those Side Tracked ones.
 
^^ My thoughts, too, on the price of those lights. LEDs are filthy cheap to make. No reason they should cost that much.

You can use the string and air gun trick to run the wires up inside your rack. Drill your holes top and bottom. Get some light nylon string and feed a little in. Use the blow gun on the compressor to blow air in the same whole (easier to start at the top) and let the air pull it down and out the bottom hole. Once the string is through, you tie on your wires and fish them back up.
 
dude, i work on tuna towers, i know all about snaking wire, cables, etc... ;) it's the closed joint that it needs to pass thru that is the prob... :doah:
 
Chevy305 said:
People will be mad about this but I don't know why anyone would spend that much on LED lights when you can get basically the same ones for 1/5 the price on Amazon or Ebay. I get that they are higher quality but you can literally replace them 4 times before hitting the cost of those Side Tracked ones.
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There is a difference. I always thought the same thing but when you have good ones vs the cheap ones (I do) you can see a difference in the brightness and how far the light throws.
 
performance #'s on the cheaper ones can be substantially less.... different chips, 5050's, etc... i've spent way t0o many nights looking around at that stuff.. i know just enough to be dangerous.... i'm also looking at getting the 20" one for the front bumper.... get em all at once and be done.. :haha:


there's a lot more here that I'm considering than just adding lights.... how, where, etc everything is going, based on a future fully independent electrical system, ala the K5 had going on.. based out of that dual bat box... rear winch, relays, remote solenoids, light controller, etc, etc... and i swear, i'm gonna make it a pull-out tray for ease of service and just plain coolasfug...
:pimp:

right now i'm trying to research the 4 led strips i need for the drawer lights, rigid vs flexible, yada.... i'm also adding a single amber/clear pod facing down from under the spare to bath the deck in light..
 
DA'd out the last of the alum panels.. just need to block out 6... 12 sides, doh.... :doah:


also, for the record.... this whole light/electric brain pain has brought around to finally having to figure out what I'm doing for the dash.... this will be a sub-build to the cummins swap... when i finally go dizzle, I'll eliminate the factory fuseblock and be 100% custom....

just trying to figure out what i want to do inside the rig for a control/breaker panel.... ooooooooooooh, f*ck, i just came up with something sick... :saweet::saweet::saweet:






not this kind of cool :pimp:,




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but should be pretty neat.... i'm gonna do it under the dog's walkway/console... so correct that, won't be in till i do the kennel...
 
so... something I've been constempating about Mutt for a while now.. since last summer.... coming into this weekend, I started thinking about it again...

I'm thinking about setting up a couple flag mounts on the tubebed for certain occasions... angled back, like this....




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does anyone know a good tube clamp style one? quality, or I don't want it.. otherwise, I'm thinking I might add a short, maybe 3", 4" tube, welded into the V of that joint... that way it wouldn't be overly noticeable when not using them... than some sort of setscrew setup...

anyone have a material suggestion for the actual flag pole material? maybe some 1" alum tube of some thickness?



thinking a regular flag and maybe a red GMC one on the other side...
 
nice to be fabbing... still have some other panels to sand, and many to sharkhide, but taking advantage of a decent day and getting to the ds bellypan.... i can finish my burnishing on weeknights..









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got the front panel fitted today, tomorrow I'll start setting up the panel mounts between rain drops... ordered hardware tonight...

wanna get the welding work done so i can get to overcoating the bed with some fresh satin black... panel reinstall weekend is gonna be giggity giggity...
 
just to call myself out........ :whistle: :haha:

starting to get kinda revv'd on the rig.. :woot:

#1 - I'm getting tired of answering questions about what's going on in the back...... :haha: but more importantly,

#2 - I've got a pretty cool plan for bellys.. there will actually be 4 in the end... 2 main rectangles over the tires, behind the boxes.. than small triangular pieces behind the mudflap back to the lights... I was originally thinking I may do it as one giant panel with a new mudflap attachment added to it.... but I like the idea of a quickly removed panel in the back for wiring... tho the lights all do come out easily from outside the rig too...

I've started toiling away some weeknight hr's trying to get to the alum wetsand marathon nightmare done... the weekend fab work is getting me :saweet: :saweet: :saweet: :saweet: :saweet: enough, to get the panels done...... prolly another 20 hr's of sanding, than Sharkhiding will prolly be 20 hr's over the course of a week or so... than overcoating the tube is a weekend.. and reinstalling panels is a weekend.. I'm hoping I've got the CC's down enough by aug that i can live with myself dumping $1500 to 2 g's I figure, on the tank, pump, yada....... I desperately want to get that stock tank out and get to that ps box fab.. not to mention going 18 gal to like 65 gals..

i'm taking all day sat/sun to work on the rig, hopefully the first belly pan fab will done.... i really have massive labor to throw at the rig over the summer.. i REALLY want to have the entire ds belly setup done... ya know, proof of concept, and all... ;)

and maybe even getting to the back one on the ps too... if i'm trying to get an overcoat of black on it, i want to get as many panel tabs in as i can... that also includes to 2 addtional per side i wanted to do on the taillinght panels on original install.. stiffen that sh*t up a bit for them dar prius'ass..... :pimp:
 
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K85 Octane said:
Nice reporting in. Mutt is always an evolving work of art.
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thanks.... sometimes typing the build babble helps me sort out my convoluted plan..... ;)

I'm doing some financial restructuring and am pretty determined to make the tank happen by the end of the summer...

more sanding last night.... pics this weekend....
 
I'm all goofy now that i may actually have this project underway..... want to go over and make sure it's hopefully not a 53 block....

boy, this throws my finances/life/Mutt into a flat spin...... ;)

I know what I'll be doing next winter...... :whistle: I want a swap to take no longer than 6 months, so lot's O' planning and parts accumulation will be needed....
 
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