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

[ryoken]

thanks guys...

I'm trying to bang pretty hard on it... one step at a time...

BIG things coming in over the next 2, 3 weeks...

change of fab plans too... instead of doing the boxes first, I'll be doing the alum fill plates first and the upper solid tie-down bars.....

 

[Deuling]

Looks great Paul. I havnt kept up on this one in a long time. Hadnt realized you even started the tube bed until richard and I were talking the other night.

Looks friggin sweet

 

[ryoken]

thanks Adam!






musings...


starting to think I'm gonna need/want to move the new axle forward...


not for the reason you may think... I definitely don't mind shortening the WB up some, but the main reason is that my bed design may put the "unfortunately required" mudflaps too far forward for the 37's..


when I first bent up the upper tubes that angle in to the back, I was figuring for the 33's, now looking at it, the flaps may be dragging on the 37's... I could change the angle of those tubes, but it would suck.. having to hack out that smoothed rear joint I just did, slug a new section in, etc, etc..

I'd rather move the axle forward, 3, 4" if I can... not concerned about lopping some off the driveshaft, just more where it put's the axle in relation to the frame hump for possible future bags, and the gooseneck mount/weight distribution..

we'll see, when the new meats arrive...... the axle/hangars/joy should be here by the weekend hopefully, and new meats in another week or 2.. so I'll investigate further than......

 

[Greg72]

focker took forever... f*cked up the first attempt, scrap pile.. couple hr's down the tube, pun intended...

nailed the second effort tho... poifect.. only took freakin 5 hr's..... musta reloaded it in the bender eleventy times to tweak a few more degrees here and there...

Looks great Paul.... Glad to hear I'm not the only guy with a "tuition pile" from my build.

It always hurts to think about a tube mistake in terms of its $/ft price....

-G

 

[ryoken]

thanks...

for me it's mostly about cutting into the "accounted for" pile.. I don't leave myself much extra above the job when I order.. and I certainly don't want to order another lone stick...

I'm getting down to the end of what I have kicking around in 2".. trying to keep about 7" around for the back bumper of the K5...

most f*ckup's live down the road as a "chop the bend out, use the straight for a gusset, etc" piece... but that one was ALL bends, so it was effectively a 6' f*ck up...


now I delve into the untouched 3 sticks of 1.5" on the floor....



got the engine hoist out this morn in anticipation of moving heavy stuff around in the next day or 2...

 

[ryoken]

just another sidetracked ramble about bending, f*ckups, etc..

before I started doing the tubebed, I actually took the degree ring off my 105 bender.. I never used it anyway, and it just got in the way storage-wise...

as I've mentioned in the K5 build, I do my chit oldschool, angle finder, eyeball mesh, etc... I'm comfortable with it, and get the results I'm looking for...

if I was pro? absolutely not... all that said, one of my future "Lab" projects will be to convert the bender to air/over, degree wheel, etc.. but it is pretty low on the priority list....

 

[blazinzuk]

Plenty of pros out there who do it the exact same way. They are just really good at eyeballing stuff. When I was doing lots of tube work it gets way easy to do it by eye

 

[ryoken]

good to know I'm not alone in my dinosauric approach..

honestly, the main reason I wanna go to a rolling cart/air-over setup is to get rid of bolting the bender to the floor... that, and the fun of manually bending 2" gets old after the first cage you do...


I'll be grateful to start bending the 1.5", easy peezy compared to that 2"...

 

[blazinzuk]

Yah man you will love it. Moving the bender around makes some stuff that wasn't possible before possible. Plus the fact it's way easy to just move out of the way.

Mine was bolted to the floor for a long time. I would say the hydraulic conversion was so worth it, that I would recommend to anyone just do it just get one anything you can afford.

 

[ryoken]

first load of schtuff today.......

apparently my axle and the other parts are on their way to Fiji or some such place....

 

[GWeakland620]

I gotta ask....how close to the road are you while working on that gorgeous machine?

I hope that's not a very busy road

End of hi-jack.

Nice fab work sir

 

[ryoken]

tank ya sir...

about 5'... but it's an exceptionally NON busy road..

 

[GWeakland620]

tank ya sir...

about 5'... but it's an exceptionally NON busy road..

Glad to hear. Can't have something happen to ya, and not be able to finish said master piece.

What material are you going to end up using for a "floor"?

 

[ryoken]

all the plate will be 1/4" 5052 alum plate... I'm gonna go with a burnished, front to back with a scuffpad look... polished would be a bit over the top and blinding...

bolted into panel mount tabs from Kert.. just like I did all the fiberglass console panels on my K5.. using the same SS allen countersinks idea..

1/2 the tube showing for the majority of it, the seen pieces anyway....


gonna buy 6 tires next week.. but that'll be the next purchase after them, the alum... come spring it'll be the toolboxes and fuel tank...

 

[Slapperbar]

Don't forget about galvanic corrosion with the aluminum panels bolted to the steel pipe with stainless hardware.

 

[ryoken]

you know that as a boat guy, I'm fully aware... it's a risk I'm willing to take..


I have a trick up my sleeve, the bottom of the SS will be coated with a secret, special access clearance product that I use on the boat stuff...

I'll post a link to it tomorrow, can't remember the name off the top of my head.. chit's awesome, smells like a combo of wax and ammonia...


or maybe after 4 to 11 more neers, I'll remember the name...

 

[ryoken]

huh, only took 5 neers to remember....


Lanocote... chit's awesome...

 

[Slapperbar]

You know how it goes. If you don't say it, it will back up and kill you.

 

[ryoken]

no doubt...


just ran the gooseneck thru the blast cab...


no tube work this weekend, hopefully I'll be fitting up suspension, etc...

also gotta call berg supply on Monday about 6 tires...

 

[Stomis]

Looking good now. What size tires did you go with 285s?

I think Im going to be joining you on the worktruck build ranks pretty soon btw...