Colinb17's kinda sorta build thread - now with 4-link and long travel

Me too. I stopped being regularly active in 2015.

 

Holy crap! This thread just turned into a time machine with all the missing characters arriving!

 

I go a few days off here and there but for the most part I’m still a regular on a few threads.

 

Same here....

 

This thread is back from the dead and looking like it’s going to be good. Can’t wait to see the next part of the build.

 

I miss the old days for sure Craig.

 

Good to see this old thread come back to life! I ran the same fuel cell setup on mine for years. Great stuff!

 

It's good to be back

Wes! Been a long time, friend!

 

More parts are finally starting to roll in that are allowing me to start the pre-fab, like building all of the brackets. Won't really have the time to start the teardown for another week or so.

Rod ends came in. 1.25" with 3/4" hardware. Most brackets are made for 1/2 or 9/16 hardware, so I had to drill out all of the holes before welding.

Baby for scale.


Bolt head capture washers welded up, and the bracket tacked and ready for finish welding. This is the axle end upper link bracket that will be above the differential.



I've been TIG welding everything for work the last few years, but this is a lot of welding, so I figured I should probably buy a MIG machine to speed things up. Still dialing it in a bit, but it's going to be a great tool for this build.



This is an upper shock mount with reinforcing washers TIG welded on either side.

 

Your welding skills have greatly improved, my friend.

 

If you've ever wondered what the loudest noise in the world is, it's drilling a 1/2" hole out to 3/4"



This is what the bolt head capturing weld-washers look like prior to welding. They serve a similar purpose to a standard weld washer in that they strengthen the tear-out strength of the plate and resist wollowing. But for a bolt this big that may not be accessible with an impact, it'll be nice to be able to put both hands on the nut-side wrench.

 

I like those.

 

Smart little piece of steel. Surprised you don't see them used more frequently.

https://www.tmrcustoms.com/products/deuling-design-captured-nut-plates-8-pack

 

Thiccc-ass tube came in. Truck will be vaporized by a nuke and these links will still be here.

 

Long travel links for sale. Newish. Only nuked once.

 

Busy couple of weeks between the baby and business, but I got to spend a little more time in the garage, pre-fabbing most of the brackets.

Changed up how I was welding the bolt head retainers. Wasn't crazy about the look of the full 1/4" weld and it's really not needed for that application. Took some playing around, but I was able to make some very small welds using .035 MiG wire in lou of actual tig rod.

Grain of rice for scale in the second photo.




Ultimately these became part of axle side lower link beackets.





After I finish these up, the chassis side brackets are all that's left of the pre-fab work. Everything beyond that is tube and frame work.

 

About to hit the top of the HOA's most wanted list.

 

Meh. Most aren't competent enough to understand anyway.

 

This truck will most likely fall apart on its first journey.