Casper's Broken Down old Grumpy Assed Build

Truck is looking good!

 

Thanks I have plenty of time off now. Been getting a lot of house work done. Will probably have a lot more time here as well

 

Love the damn white wheels! Truck is looking extra sexy

 

Ha thanks. Just been messing arond at home here how have you been? Things getting scary in Texas yet?

 

The garage is looking really clean. What is under the moving blankets?


Im good. Our county is currently on lock down our cases doubled in 2 days. Still low numbers but going up. How bout you?

 

Giv me a minute to find a pic of what is hiding. Our sate is stupid no lockdowns. restrictions but no lockdowns. I think last posting we were up to 735 cases luckily only 2 in our county so far. I am pretty much laid off so just hide at home.

 

Her ya go, it hasn't been driven in a while like 4 years.





Everything but the rear end built right in the garage. I did all the paint work doors forward. I was planning on getting it back on the rod and enjoying it some this year and now all this happens

 

Built?

Looks stock

just kidding. Im drooling over the damn thing. Geezuz I bet it makes your cheeks hurt from smiling while you are driving it

 

LOL almost can't remember it's been a while. At one point I had it stripped down to a bare shell in the garage. Fun project but haven't messed with it much since i started with these trucks.

 

Installed the hammer hangers from @ARCHIVE Garage a couple of weeks ago and hve been super pleased with them, the product quality, and customer support Eric provides. When I got them I did not opt for the cross tube as I have the means to make it and it seemed to be a fun little project even with limitted tooling.

Just the hangers:


I started with getting under the truck and creating a cardboard template. Not entirely necessary but helps to figure some fitment issues out and how I wantd to position the tube itself. Thanks @EatSleepTacos for letting me bounce a couple of ideas off of you. Sometimes it just helps to think outloud.



I had plenty of 1/4" plate and extra grade 8 1/2" hardware so the only thing I needed to purchase was the tube itself. Next step was to transpose my measurements over to the 1/4" plate and draw out the plates and center punch for drilling. Then precutting the plates I placed it in the drill press and drilled a 3/16 pilot hole and finished with a 1/2" hole using the bits purchased from Archive for the HH installation. I then cut the plates. It was just much easier to handle the plate in one piece as compared to the smaller cut plates.



I attached the plates to the HH for a test fit then bolted the 2 together and ground all the edges and rounded all the corners as one piece to keep things uniform. Necessary? Not really but for appearance sake and uniformity to placing the tube in a uniform location it helps.



So all associated parts are together and ready for install.


So today I brought the truck back into the garage, installed the plates snuggly not completely torqued, measured and cut the tube and bevelled the edges, and tacked into place. I removed it as a unit and set on top of a couple of stands and welded all the way around. Felt good I haven't had the welder in my hand for a couple of months.






I smoothed all the edges and knocked all the nibs off, sanded the tube, etch primed, and painted


I installed it on the truck and torqued the nuts



Thanks again @ARCHIVE Garage for all your help through this

 

What is the point of the bar going across from side to side?

 

It stiffens the rear section of the frame. The hammer hangers help by removing flex from the weak stock spring hangers and by tieing them together it helps remove flex from the rear frame section. If I did any rock crawling it is also supposed to help stiffen the hangers in the instance of rock impacts. I wanted this strictly for the towing aspect. It’s also supposed to help with just daily driving. I know the hangers themselves have really tightened up the rear. It doesn’t create a more rough ride but feels more solid especially in curves and bumpy roads. I’m sure @ARCHIVE can explain better than I can if I left something out

 

That makes sense. Thank you for the explanation.

 

needs more big block, for the hrsepwrs

 

Wouldn’t make any difference sitting in the garage

 

I’ll give you $50 for it

 

Then what would hold the floor down?

 

I’ll bring @Your son back home for you. You can make him a room in that spot.

 

While I appreciate the offer NO THANKS no more kids

 

That's a beauty! I bet it is fun to drive and turns a lot of heads! Nice!