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

[ryoken]

back to the steel thing.. try moses b glick.. in fleetwood pa.. prolly a little haul for you but thats where i tend to go to get all my sheet steel and squarestock.. $.50 a pound.. plus all types of awesome stuff to pick through.. every time i go i end up staying to closing browsing around

I've actually heard of them.. tho that's way outside of my area....

I think you'll be surprised that aluminum really isnt THAT hard to weld. I tig'd aluminum the other day for the first time. It has some quirks but its not that difficult. For instance I like to start away from an edge and back peddle to the edge with the puddle to stop from blowing away the edge, but thats really more of a tig thing. With a spool gun the fill is there from the start. Just remember, aluminum has no indicators when its over heating. Get it too hot from welding multiple intersecting joints and all of the sudden it just melts away.

for now I just need for some heavy tacks... securing the door hinges, and tacking together the doghouse/gas fill project... but I'll keep practicing with it to gain some consistency... certainly have enough scraps kicking around now..

batteries lasted longer in your elite helmet then in mine. I do like the elite helmet just batteries are not laying around it here in common places .

I was very surprised they lasted as long as they did.. very...

You mean like its a specialty battery?

Ive had GREAT luck ordering specialty button batteries online from ebay for CHEAP. Like, 50 for the price of one at the store cheap. Who cares if they only last 1/2 as long.

it's the largest of the round watch-type batteries... a pair of 2450's I think they where... about the size of a quarter... they where like $3, 4 a piece down at Rite-Aid...

 

[dhcomp]

it's the largest of the round watch-type batteries... a pair of 2450's I think they where... about the size of a quarter... they where like $3, 4 a piece down at Rite-Aid...

This what i've started doing to keep a stock of them:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/25X-PACKAGE...947?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item234b513a7b

 

[ryoken]

Mutt materials...

primer and Ryoken red...

 

[ashman]

woot!

 

[Stomis]

Lovely day to paint the cab Paul, lol

 

[ryoken]

hopefully next weekend, ....





just came up from working on the side door/latch framing...

setting up the 1/2" x 1/8" strip steel... goes up the sides, and across the top for the latches to catch.. and for the alum doors to close up against...

this is obviously upside down currently...

this is one of the 2, special weapon, homemade tools I've been using to make sure all the alum panels and such end up exactly 1/2 way in on the tubes... a piece of 1" rect welded to some angle iron, clamped in where needed..

you can notice at the top, a piece of 1/4" alum clamped between it and the tube... that is cuz the one tube is 2", and the other 1.5", so it spaces it off to get a perfect center...




the plan is to get all the frames done this weekend... and possibly get the bed flipped back over for the last time....



but I HAVE to sneak in full brakes on the 91 DD'er.. rotors, bearings, calipers and pads... so that will probably eat a 1/2 day on sunday....



next weekend hopefully the weather is good and I can get the cab wall in Ryoken red, and possibly get the tubebed in a preliminary coat of satin black....




the plan is remount the bed in 2 WEEKS

 

[ryoken]

oh, and for the record....

I don't regret my efforts, at the time, it seemed like a good idea, but.... I never should have put the initial tan primer on the tubebed, and left it in RG...

I've added SO many tab's and tubes, I've actually created MORE work getting it all feathered in and ready for future spot-in RG and tan 2K...

no big in the scheme of things, or end quality, just like to point out my faux pas's for future generations/fabber's...



slutty pic updates to come thru the weekend...

 

[y5mgisi]

You know what I think I like about your level of over the top? Is that it's not too over the top. This truck is going to obviously be over the top. But not in a freak show kind of way. It will just be in a way that you can tell a guy had a vision and saw it through. Keep up the GREAT work!

 

[ryoken]

thanks...

for as crazy/circus-y as it all is, I try to have the end results have some classic styling cues and such... and the amount of hr's i'll spend to build it the way I think it envisioned/should be built is stoooooooopid..

sure, if I painted the tubebed, brackets and such, Ryoken red it would stand out more and be flashy, but I'm not about showing it off, just that the whole package has a good look to it in the end... something my dated 80's hotroddin arse thinks looks good.. and has the functions I'm looking for..

 

[Chief Brody]

the plan is remount the bed in 2 WEEKS

Wow! getting close now. How much do you enjoy the "process"? I mean I liked and still like working on my Blazer but I was cussing the whole time (mainly because I hurt all over)...are you ready to get it done or do you enjoy the process and will miss it when you are done?

 

[ryoken]

than it's on to the next project, got the K5 waiting patiently in the background....


but Mutt is FAR from done just cuz the beds going back on... that's just me chomping at the bit to start driving it again... burnout

I still have the lower boxes to build, the fuel tank, install the drawers, the dual bats, get the winch hooked up, fab the lower receiver stuff, etc, etc...

throw in the dog kennel next year and a Cummins swap in 3 to eleventy yr's..


as one would imagine, I very much enjoy the process.. the design/engineering/fabbing is fun.... but certainly not 100% of the time, some times your just plodding thru what needs to be done...... mainly due to the amount of time in.. you're gonna be hating at some times in a 600 hr project... mostly just cuz ya wanna see it finished...

 

[ryoken]

frames are done.....

the sides are down (up) a 1/2" so I can run the hinges full length on the doors....



tomorrow I'm gonna fab up the mudflap hangars.... I ordered flaps weds, so they should be here early this week...

and see about flipping the bed back over *coughcrushmyselfcough*

 

[Chief Brody]

CLEAN up that LAB! It's dusty....

 

[ryoken]

not dust, 40 lb's of sand!



eh, tomorrow...

 

[ryoken]

a preliminary mesh shows that I'll be running a 24" wide x about 27" long mudflap... that should get me about an inch below 1/2way down the tire...

so I ordered 24" x 36" flaps to allow me to shorten as needed.... a set of these...



http://www.zoro.com/i/G1783686/?utm...u7iX3oJRje8DcJ7lHdy5zEdwMJNAjnyX84aAkJi8P8HAQ



worked out the flaps will be about 5" behind the tires... so I'll definitely be doing some sort of stiffener/frame to keep them out of the tires...



pics later...

 

[max 02]

Everyone just chains the flaps... stiffener things are ok...until you back over something or in the mud and they bend.

I ripped off a bunch of them on our silage truck, now I just chain them out of the way when I`m in the fields.

 

[ryoken]

not sure if that's something I could do in this situation...

 

[Slapperbar]

I've seen a length of chain bolted from the inner most to the outer most hangar bolt. Shaped like a "U", sorta. It really keeps the flap from flapping in the wind at highway speeds.

 

[ryoken]

Welcome to







SKETCHY SUNDAY!!

teeter mode.......







righteous side up again....

1" x 1" x 1/8" angle for the mudflap mounts....

and here's a shot of the frames the right way.....

didn't get my brakes done on the DD.. sent me the wrong bearings... hopefully I can sneak that in during the week and leave next weekend open for Mutt..



just a bit of grinding and feathering up top and I can prime and paint the bed next weekend.. hopefully I can get the cab wall done too...

the following weekend I'll get it out of the LAB™ and back on Mutt.. I still need to final weld the 4 corner bent panel area mounts.. don't want to do that till I bend up the pieces... but I need to get it out of the LAB™... I can finish that stuff up outside..

 

[ryoken]

re-Ryoken greened...