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

[shady]

I was wondering why you really need the cold saw..? its a LOT of money for a sorta un-needed tool for this job. the ends of almost all your tube will be notched so a perfect straight cut isn't necessary. and the few that really do need to be straight for looks can be cut within a few thousandths of perfect with a portaband in like 10 seconds. when their capped nobody without a square will be able to tell if their dead nuts.

just a question of curiosity

 

[ryoken]

oh, I live by a chop saw for tube work.. I don't own a portaband... built the whole K5 cage with a $175 rigid carbide spark show..

most tubes are rough cut straight reasonably close to the proper length.. than bent, notched, etc..

your not gonna take a 20' stick, make a bend 4' in, than chop the notch, etc.. your making straight cuts ALL the time..

throw in, I do the majority of my fishmouth work with the chopsaw... I don't use a holesaw notcher really.. too slow and need a carbide burr fine tune all the time anyway.. most nodes are VERY odd, custom angles.. very odd...

notchers are much better at simple 90's, 45's and such... that said, I am kinda looking to replace my POS notcher for something a bit better too...


the real question is wet, or dry at 1/2 the price... your paying double to cut 1/3 the noise and stop metal shavings... I'm tired of screaming banshee stuff and metal shavings in my sneaks..... any chance I can get to quiet/clean the shop I'm gonna do...

I could try to nut up and do all my cuts with a sawzall, plasma and such.. but the beds gonna be enough work, I need all the tool help I can get...

 

[shady]

if you don't have a portaband yet you need to get one best, most versatile tool ive ever bought. not loud, no sparks, minimal shavings that don't fly everywhere, and you could do the entire job with the one tool. and you can use it wherever you want instead of taking the tube too the saw. just a suggestion plus an AWESOME one is a 1/3rd the price of the cold saw. mine is an $80 HF one and is still the best tool ive bought

 

[NorCal69]

Bring on the Spark Show...

 

[SUPER'BURB]

$900 for a coldsaw...

Man, I must be hungry. I read that 3 times before I realized it didn't say coleslaw.

Loving the direction you are going with this build .

 

[ryoken]

thanks..

should be a pretty stout looking tow/service rig, tubed on 37's...

it'll be screaming for phase 2 at that point, 6BT/NV4500...

which will be another 5 or 6 g's....

it may be a bit before I can do phase 2....

 

[AJMBLAZER]

I thought it was already on 37's?

 

[ryoken]

nah, the KM2's don't even measure out at 33... basically 33's on a 4".... it'll be 6" on 37's now... I'll get the BFG Baja's...

Kerts, for reference..

on a side note... a conservative estimate of the fuel tank for the tube bed is about 60, 65 gallons....

now designing it for gas and eventually dizzle, that's the challenge....

 

[ryoken]

been gearing up for this bed project..

had a bit of a good revelation today about the project while going thru my steel supply.. I've been sweating the back x-member/winch mount...

it's basically a flat piece of 3/8 plate (actually u-channel) across the back, with tow plate/attachment points running up the rails kinda like the front of my K5 has.....

I plan to chop the rails right behind the shackle flip, than the 2 tow points/mounts can be bolted to the same bolts as the shackle flip uses on the inside of the rails...

been kinda sweating it cuz of eventually going to the inboarded flip that the holes may be a bit off on that custom flip and I wont wanna redrill the thick backing/mount plates....

but I realized yesterday that I can actually build 97% of the tube bed without doing the rear x-member.. so I can push that off till later in the yr when I get the new flip..

I hope to be bending tube for this by april 1...

 

[ryoken]

ok, quick question.... save me some trial/error work here..

doing a bit of preliminary figuring for the tube bed... there will be some standard tube bending, but it will also have a fair amount of "welded joints" too...




most being 90's, like this...

but there are a few that will be odd angles such as this...

am I correct in assuming that it works the same as the above 90 with 2 45's.... as long as both angles are the same, it will butt up flush? take the total angle, divide by 2 and cut each at that?

 

[shady]

yep

 

[ryoken]

thanks, I just didn't want to have to cut a bunch of scraps to confirm.... I was having a geometry/algebra, circular brainfart....

 

[THE TURD]

like both of the trucks great ideas

 

[ryoken]

soooo.. fine tuning some of the tubebed details in prep for the tube order...




glad I started looking in detail at my tube tailgate idea now.. my initial drawing is incorrect.. if you look back at it, with the gate opened, hanging down, it would have been up 2" above the "floor".. not allowing for easy loading of schtuff...

so I had to change that.. the 2" tube lower frame, or the "coffin", as I call it needed to be shorter, with the gate behind it...






here's a quickie cr@p paint to show how I had to change it so the gate would be level...

anyway, figured out how to do the hinges.. gonna use 1.75 dom, with 1.5 turning inside it... and have it windowed and flatsided, like a pickup tailgate is.. so the gate can be removable....

I also just came up with the latches for it.. which took a bit of thought too... I wanted the "removable" aspect of the gate to actually be in the forward position, like closed too far.. as opposed to hanging down, where it'll be used as a step, etc......






here's the latch style I'm gonna run, a springloaded bolt style on each side..

 

[TheBeast_88K5]

Thats gonna be classy.

 

[ryoken]

thanks... should work well, just goes to show sometimes it's good to doublecheck idea's for potential issues...


with the tubegate, I'm going more for "stoutly cute"

 

[TheBeast_88K5]

with the tubegate, I'm going more for "stoutly cute"

CK5 phrases..... "Stoutly Cute."

 

[ryoken]

well, this project just got a bit easier logistically... can pretty much not drive Mutt for the next 4 or 5 months while I build the tubebed...

picked up a 91 GMC 1500 2wd pickup for $400 today.. so I can drive that around instead... just a 4.3 with a 4 spd.. but it's actually got an amazingly straight, rust free body on it... I'll do a thread on that rig tomorrow...

so now I don't have to worry about running Mutt around with a hokey mudflap bar, etc...

 

[Chevy305]

 

[ryoken]

yeah, yeah, yeah, tomorrow night, didn't have my camera.....