Cody's 2002 build "The Tank"

Are you grounding to the slider and welding on the cab?

 

sure am

 

You'd get much better welds if you grounded to the cab plus you prevent the current trying to make it's way through any electronics that are in between. I had a friend doing something similar and he fried his ECU and blew his spiral cable blinker return spring thing.... whatever the hell it's called.

I often times just zap a tab onto whatever I'm welding on to mount my ground to and grind it of later.

Just my $.02

 

honestly it's not a far distance at all, though you're right. but the welds came out fine, i'm happy. if i was welding on something that i felt was more important, such as a bumper or something that needed more than tack welds then it would be another story.
that sucks for your friend though, i'd be pissed! i've personally never talked to anyone who's lost any electronics that way, always thought it was a possibility in the back of my head though.

 

Nice it is possible!

 

Noo... thinner wire for thinner material. .25 wire is thinner than .30 wire.

But who cares. lol It appears your welds are coming out just fine!

NICE!!!! Now that's a tub job! lol Any cab fires? haha

 

crap wait. seriously? i thought .25 is more thick than .30? frick i've been confused this whole time.

nope, out of cab fires though... a few small ones though now my cab smells like a machine shop.

 

haha yeah...


lol nice. I know that smell. I had a ton of out of cab fires when I dovetailed the bed... but only a few, small in cab fires when I tubbed. Those suck... This next time around, I might give my little brother $10 bucks, a spray bottle, a welding mask, and have him sit the the cab while I weld to watch for fires...

 

haha. i got lucky i guess i really didn't have any fires. i mean a flame would pop up every now and then but nothing to even be any concerned about.
except then the cut off wheel caught the insulation in the firewall and made like a fuzz ball explosion everywhere. haha i had that stuff even in my backseats

 

yeah, that's all I mean by "fires" little flames that pop up.... and fuzz exlposion... awesome.

 

seriously, i may never put the street tires back on now that i've seen it with 37's on.
and my 5th currently may as well not even exist haha.
i still have to trim the rear fenders and my bumper but that wont take long at all when i get off work tonight. also, at full lock it hits the frame not terrible and it's right at the end of my turning radius anyways.

 

Nice!

 

I believe you mean .030, not .30 for your welding wire. And .025 is smaller wire than .030.

 

Tub work looks fine, but I would seriously rethink covering it all in silicone. It will be more dificult than you think to get it right so that you keep all the moisture out. It also looks "not-so-great" IMO, but the aesthetics are up to you.

If you are not fully welding the seams of all the sheetmetal you're welding in, then I suggest hitting those seams with a good quality 3M seam sealer and the some self-etching primer followed by some DIY bedliner. Will hold up much better in the long run and look clean.

37's look big.

 

don't know how i got myself confused lol.

after the first tub and i siliconed it, i decided against it for the rest of it. i just got the seams and then threw a layer of paint over it.
i'm hitting the local auto shops trying to find the seam sealer. then i was going to use undercoating spray overtop of it.

 

yeah... my bad.

 

And yeah, I think it looks good!! How are the bottoms of your fenders attached to the body?

 

i don't want to talk about it. haha.
i haven't figured out a solution to that. i could use a self tapping screw, but that's too ghetto to keep IMO.

 

hahaha Since I've been thru it, I know exactly which questions you don't want me to ask!!

To be honest, self tapping screw is probably what I'll do. I'm using zip ties right now. lol

 

Wow those are some big rubbers