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

ah, so you're running the ceramic cup against the template, not the brass nozzle itself?

 

I have one of the standoff guides that ride against. Dont have any drag tips yet.

 

these little deals? i have a handful of them, but have never used them. most of my cuts are straight, so i just run the brass tip against a steel straightedge

 

Yep theres aslo a different wire type too but I like the one pictured better

 

i feel like the wire type ones would cause a lot of drag? these ones look like they'd also let you rock the torch as needed at the beginning or end of a cut, or even make a bevel cut, which is great for weld penetration on thicker stuff..

 

The wire ones are really annoying to use. If you get a small amount of slag buildup they catch. I dont use a hand plasma a whole lot so I dont have that much practice with it. I have a friend with a table that cuts my parts mostly.

I use the 3d printed templates when something doesnt go as I intended usually

 

how thick are you generally printing these templates? i would imagine you wouldn't need much more than 2-3 mm

 

I go around 3mm I think. We have a bambu p1s so its super fast and pla is cheap. Ive been better at working the design recently so I havent done this in like 6 mo

 

This 3D printer has been a treat and very powerful tool for solving small, but unique challenges. I've had different rear facing camera locations throughout my trucks life, but it turns out they've always been mounted below something (unintentionally). last camera was below the spare tire on the bed rack. With the new rear-end to the truck, my camera is not underneath anything and gets covered in dew every night. Rain-x doesn't change anything and even if you wipe the camera down, it re-fogs the outside of the lens for the first 5-10 minutes of driving. So I designed a shroud that should solve the issue.
It did not rain last night, it is just humid and dewy here. Probably 9 mornings out of 10 are like this, year round. so it's a constant problem that I'm glad to have a solution to.

Just need to sand that front edge a bit before prime and paint, and it'll be ready to mount.

 

Holding pattern on the seats and associated cage components. the custom PRP seats came in a few days ago. they're gorgeous, and super comfortable, however, PRP embroidered my company logo upside down and without the company name so fedex just picked them back up this morning so PRP can remake and install the upholstery.

for the few days they sat in my office though, Lia approved

 

It’s really coming along! Haven’t checked on ya in a few months

 

Thanks Josh! Just sitting around waiting for some parts at the moment, but I've enjoyed being able to drive it the last few months to become reacquainted with what's all essentially a new vehicle from a driving characteristics standpoint.
Happy holidays man!

 

Finally back from the holiday traveling. Big road trip with a 1 year old was less than easy, but the memories were made, so mission accomplished.

Still waiting on the seats to be remade. Should be about two more weeks.

Ordered a other 160 feet of tubing. Should be plenty to complete the cab and engine cages.

Ordered front bump stops that I keep forgetting about.

Going to get started on the rear fenders/storage despite the cold snap were getting into.

 

It's gotta be better welding when it's 30 than when it's 100 haha

 

You've done it now! All the northerners are gonna make fun of us for calling an overnight low of 30 degrees a cold snap


Plusses and minuses to both extremes though.

 

I was just going to..... I've welded when its anywhere from 110 in the shop to 10. I think 10 is worse somehow

 

Had some pretty shitty weather when I used to work on powerplants. I wasn't actually welding, but I was running welding and fitting crews. Heat is uncomfortable, cold hurts. "You can always put more clothes on but you can only take so many off" has less meaning when your feeding filler rod with a lightly gloved hand. Heat from the weld doesn't keep your hands as warm when it's zero degrees.

 

Doubt I'm the first person to do this, but I can't say I've seen it done before either.

Preface:
Between buying new OEM CVs and extended axleshafts from total chaos, a spare set of long travel CV assemblies to carry on trips is in the $1,500 arena. I may go that route in the future, but with a lot left to do on the truck, that 1.5k is going elsewhere for the time being.

Until I decide to buy/build a spare set of axles, I made a way to easily keep driving if I blow one or both CVs.

Using my old, worn out CVs that I used to carry for mid travel spares, I cut the inner and outer joint housings off close the the seals. These are now super small and relatively lightweight, especially compared to an entire axle assembly. The inner one will keep fluid in the diff, and the outer will keep the wheel bearing together.
I drove around with these in for the last two days and they worked great. So now I'm going to cut down the housings from the other old CV so I have two sets for myself, or the ability to use one for me and loan the other set out if me and a buddy both get stupid on the same trip.

 

Front pogo-sticks came in. Smaller flavor than the rears.

 

Like how much you shaved them down. I keep some in my truck for the same reason but I didn’t think to shave them down, saving weight and ultimately space is always a good thing.

drove around like this for a while when my front diff was being rebuilt. Works