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

[ryoken]

Is there a reason to cut out the front half? Rear totally makes sense with the kennel. Just curious.

Truck looks great!

good question....


there really isn't a very good way to tie in the kennel floor area to the factory front stuff... a critical part of the whole floor will be that I'm gonna be doing a whole new x-member at the B post, where the mid mounts are... out of 2 x 4 x 1/8.. almost identical to what I did on the K5..

basically the kennel will be built off that, to the rear.. and the seat mount area, etc will go forward... being I'm going with aftermarket seats, there isn't any advantage to keep all that humpy front seat stuff in front of it.

I'm gonna see about saving the flat footwell area in front of the seats.. and possibly some of the trans tunnel, but we'll see how that goes...

 

[ryoken]

oh, gonna order new uro body mounts Monday I think... now's the time to do it...



edit - ordered....

 

[ashman]

there isn't any advantage to keep all that humpy front seat stuff in front of it.

Isn't some of the reason for the bumpy floor structural rigidity? Wouldn't you have to build that back in?

I'm a noob, so just askin'.

 

[Chevy305]

The big bumps on the floor on either side is for saddle tank clearance. I guess when they made crew cabs they left the front part in place and then added a mirrored section for the rear instead of using a suburban floor pan.

 

[ryoken]

Isn't some of the reason for the bumpy floor structural rigidity? Wouldn't you have to build that back in?

I'm a noob, so just askin'.

outstanding question.....

as Glen pointed out, the rear humps are for saddle tank clearance.. but they are also actually needed to clear the frame as it angles up quite a bit there on the CC.. later pics will show this... it's also the main reason my kennel floor will be so high in the back... in order to have a compartment under the floor, for the ramp to be stowed in, it's needed to clear the frame...

it'll be good for the pooches visibility, etc.. the only downfall to it is it makes the 64" long ramp that much steeper going into the rig for the dog to run up... I am thinking about making the ramp telescope to a longer length, to negate that affect tho....

the front seat hump really serves no purpose for "fitting" issues... nothing really under there per se... obviously curves are added to all floors for unibody strength... tho they could have achieved this under the front seats with smaller bends, like you see used on other floors like the K5... not exactly sure why it's there.... my guess is that B-pillar to pedal section is the same as a pickup truck, and thus used from that, with the rear section added to it..


how do I make up for that with a flat floor? thicker floor material and substructure... the K5 floor was 11 gauge, going with 10 for this project.... than that center 2 x 4 x 1/8 cross member will be tied in with a combo of 2 x 2 and 2" angle to make it stout.....

 

[cyclic]

So, a hatch between the seats for the kennel, and use the space under the front seats to place the ramp. Dog come across passenger seat and down ramp. That would allow a larger spot without frame clearance issues for the ramp.

 

[ryoken]

So, a hatch between the seats for the kennel, and use the space under the front seats to place the ramp. Dog come across passenger seat and down ramp. That would allow a larger spot without frame clearance issues for the ramp.

it's all good, not an issue... the compartment is only 2"... it kinda falls in line with the flat spot all the way in the back, above the rear mounts anyway... where I wanted it...


here's a quick paint of it.. the green is the kennel floor... the blue is the compartment.. the orange the ramp...

 

[ryoken]

got it figured out.. pretty much ready to cut......




here you can see the kennel floor height as the bottom edge of the tape...

the seat mount area height is notated by the heavy marker scribble in the jam...

that will eventually allow for a 5" deep console box to bring the between seat area up to the kennel door level... that mark, is also the height of the trans tunnel here.....

so basically the seat mount steel area will be a big flat piece that runs into the tunnel flush where that marker line is... when I eventually build the alum console, I'll have it taper into the tunnel.. and run up to the dash bottom behind the shifter... but it will remain flat all the way past the t-case shifter so Kai will have an easy runway to the front passenger floor area...

I wont build the console till I do the 6BT and get a final shifter position...

so, I'll be keeping the trans tunnel and footwell area... at least until I do the dizzle swap.. here's where i'll be cutting, and tying in the new stuff...

the new front wall in front of the seat will be vertical.... but the side ones, where the door opens up, will be angled in toward the seat mounts... this will get rid the sharp 90 degree corner it would have had by the door and allow for easier access, for Kai and myself....


when Kai needs to jump into the rig, I will have him jump into the pass side front floor area.. than he can walk between the seats into the kennel if need be... it'll be much less of a jump for him than jumping directly into the kennel...



this design also means the seats will be sitting up a bit off that floor section a decent bit.. enough where I can stow some things under the seats, mount an amp, etc... originally I was gonna have that floor section be up pretty high.. where I could basically use a piece of angle iron for the seat mounts.. now the mount frames will be a bit more involved, but it allows me that 5" deep console area... that doesn't sound like much, but I'm figuring it'll be about 26" long x 15" or so wide x 5" deep... couple cup holders up forward by the shifters... room under the dash for a cb, golden...



so... if the steel price is decent and I can pick it up after my cardio apt tomorrow, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna whack out the floor tues weather permitting...

 

[mrk5]

Whew! I admire your gumption. I'd be too chicken to tackle a project like that!

 

[ryoken]

Whew! I admire your gumption. I'd be too chicken to tackle a project like that!

thanks bud....

it's the basis of everything else.. the ramp, wall/gate, window screens and door panels are all pretty gravy, smaller projects once the floor is done...

it took 4 or 5 hr's sitting around with a cocktail and tape mesh to figure it all out... but,


I have a brain pic now...



the front 2 x 2, under seat, bracing isn't 100% figured out yet (cocktail overload!) .. but as long as I know the X-member config at the B-pillar, and back stuff, I'm good.. just trying to make sure I don't screw myself when it comes to a 6BT/NV4500 package down the road...


the mid mount x member will actually be an 18" piece of 2 x 4 x 1/8 for the actual mounts on each side.. that will be welded into a piece of 4 x 3 x 3/16 full width tube from pillar to pillar on top of them.. that's the first job.. that was the most important thing to figure out... once that's in, nothing will move and the panels will come pretty easy... hopefully...



stoked... fab FOR Malakai, is intoxicating!!!!!!!!

 

[campfire]

Lookin' good. But I'm missing something. If your new floor and the ramp area are both going to be above the level of the existing floor, why bother chopping it out at all? Seems like you could just punch holes as needed and leave the rest alone.

Or is there interference that I missed?

 

[ryoken]

Lookin' good. But I'm missing something. If your new floor and the ramp area are both going to be above the level of the existing floor, why bother chopping it out at all? Seems like you could just punch holes as needed and leave the rest alone.

Or is there interference that I missed?

it's not so much an interference issue, tho there is some of that, it's a construction issue... can't exactly do any of the welding needed to the underside when it's got another floor an inch below it...

 

[ryoken]

well, can't afford it right now.. just didn't allocate for it.... I'll be cutting into my pup stuff fund... oh well, at least I know exactly what I'll be doing when I get to it.... sorry for the tease...

 

[campfire]

The big bumps on the floor on either side is for saddle tank clearance. I guess when they made crew cabs they left the front part in place and then added a mirrored section for the rear instead of using a suburban floor pan.

How is this different from what the Suburban has? Looking at mine, I appear to have a standard truck cab in front (with the saddle tank bumps), and the rear section looks like just another truck cab attached to the front one. I haven't yanked the carpet out to look at the bare metal, but it looks like a pretty close match to what he has.

 

[campfire]

it's not so much an interference issue, tho there is some of that, it's a construction issue... can't exactly do any of the welding needed to the underside when it's got another floor an inch below it...

Fair enough.

 

[campfire]

well, can't afford it right now.. just didn't allocate for it.... I'll be cutting into my pup stuff fund... oh well, at least I know exactly what I'll be doing when I get to it.... sorry for the tease...

We will hate you forever for dashing our hopes.







Well, at least until the next round of pictures gets posted.

 

[ryoken]

How is this different from what the Suburban has? Looking at mine, I appear to have a standard truck cab in front (with the saddle tank bumps), and the rear section looks like just another truck cab attached to the front one. I haven't yanked the carpet out to look at the bare metal, but it looks like a pretty close match to what he has.

hmmm, you just answered why the front has the humps in mine... pickups had saddle tanks... it can't have anything other than what it has in the back due to the frame..

here, let me go get a pic for ya to show how the frame wont allow for a burb style floor me thinks......





tick tock tick to......

seat is back in and Mutt is ready for winter snow duty (other than not having a front driveshaft! )







.

 

[ryoken]

oh, and I will be doing a bit of work later in the week if the weather holds.. I should have all new poly body bushings tomorrow or weds from Summit..... might as well get them done now...

 

[Chevy305]

How is this different from what the Suburban has? Looking at mine, I appear to have a standard truck cab in front (with the saddle tank bumps), and the rear section looks like just another truck cab attached to the front one. I haven't yanked the carpet out to look at the bare metal, but it looks like a pretty close match to what he has.

Oh I guess suburbans are set up just like the crew cabs then. It's only K5s that have the flat floor. I guess from a manufacturing perspective that makes sense. Only 1 set of tooling for front floor pans on all standard cab, crew cab, and suburbans. They all run the same bench seats too. So I guess this is why suburban seats fit in pickups but K5 buckets seats don't. Meanwhile, K5s need a flat floor and sliding buckets for the ease of passengers to get in and out of the back seat. It's all so clear to me now

 

[cyclic]

I have given some pretty serious thought to running K5 floor pans in my suburban just to make it easy to mount my 2004 seats. Still haven't totally decided yea or nay.