ML builds an old truck

[koko64]

Looking good fantastic

Absolutely.

[ducpainter]

Good God yes. I'd be collecting social security by the time I finish this with a TIG welder.

[ducpainter]

Just realized I misspelled fillet.

[Monsterlover]

I didn't even notice

[Monsterlover]

My scanner guy came through and cut out 8 plates on his water jet that more or less fit the frame perfectly. It saved me hours of fit up.

Rear sections tacked into place
2023-04-08_05-54-44 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-04-08_05-54-59 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

And fully welded. Let me tell you again, I hate overhead mig. It runs great until it doesn't My saving grace is that I don't weld for a living. I can take it apart like nobody's business but putting it back together is a different ball game entirely. Weld quality is my only complaint in this build.
2023-04-08_05-55-07 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

It's nice when you run out of gas after you finish your last plate vs in the middle of it
2023-04-08_05-55-17 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

Overhead view
2023-04-08_05-55-28 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

Transmission mounts were partially welded under the cab. I knew I could finish them up with the cab removed. I also tied in the box plates to the trans mounts.
2023-04-08_05-55-36 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-04-08_05-55-44 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

I'm currently working on patch triangles to tie the cross members into the box plates. Currently that's half done. I'll finish the last four pieces tomorrow.
2023-04-08_05-55-55 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-04-08_05-56-05 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

And in case you've never seen someone mig weld before here's a video of that process.
PXL_20230401_195423390.TS~2 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

[ducpainter]

 

How many inches of weld in the vid?

I want to see the bottom view.

[Monsterlover]

How many inches of weld in the vid?

I want to see the bottom view.

Maybe 8" or so if I had to guess.

If you ever see it in person feel free to crawl under it
 

[Monsterlover]

I have a ton of pics to post. Been slacking on that but got a bunch of work done on the truck. I'm happy to report the rear suspension is DONE.  Lots of hrs into that.

Starting the front probably Wednesday.

In the meantime, I need you all to cross your fingers and say a prayer to the speed gods for me. I'm sending off the paperwork tomorrow to, hopefully, get this truck a title since it didn't come with one.

If it works I'll post details how I did it.

[Popeye the Sailor]

I have a ton of pics to post.

*Ahem*

[Monsterlover]

Rear suspension time. Going with a triangulated four link.

The brackets that I welded to the frame and axle came from a friend's fancy plasma table. I designed them on cardboard and he turned them into metal. Saved me a ton of time.

The tubing is 2-in OD by 1.5 ID and the rod ends are inch and a quarter.

Complete overkill for what I'm doing. It just adds cost and weight. But it looks awesome.

2023-05-09_07-49-50 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

This is an existing cross member that I modified into a suspension arm mount. This piece is stamped from the factory with two end pieces riveted into place. The whole assembly is then riveted to the frame.

It's flanged on the front and rear side to add strength. I trimmed off the rear flange and added 2 in square tubing in its place. That got welded to my frame plates as well as to this cross member.

2023-05-09_07-50-01 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-05-09_07-50-10 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-05-09_07-50-21 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr
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2023-05-09_07-50-49 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr
2023-05-09_07-50-58 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr


2023-05-09_07-51-06 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

If it's not aparent, I built the entire rear suspension just tack welded together in case I had to move something. After I confirmed that it functioned I finish welded the whole thing.

These are factory leaf spring hangers and I thought they were really cool so I left them in place. They have a front and rear plate that sandwiches the leaf spring.

The goal was for the lower arm to be able to move up and down between those plates. That ended up working on one side but not the other. I don't know why. I didn't spend too much time investigating it and instead got out the cutoff wheel and deleted the inner plate.

2023-05-09_07-51-17 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-05-09_07-51-26 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

One of these lower arm frame mount plates needed a zigzag put into it to accommodate the width of the rod end and misalignment spacers. Don't have a break press so I substituted the C clamp and a workbench. And lots of hammering.

2023-05-09_07-51-33 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

Big.
2023-05-09_07-51-51 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr
2023-05-09_07-52-00 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-05-09_07-52-09 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-05-09_07-52-17 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-05-09_07-52-26 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

In the middle of all this rear suspension work, I had the opportunity to do a little work on what will become a front suspension radius rod. I needed to notch the end so that I could weld 2-in tube to it to create a bushing.

Don't have a tube notcher but I do have a $130,000 CNC mill that's just as good.

2023-05-09_07-52-43 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

60 seconds later we have this
2023-05-09_07-52-51 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

There will be more on this later, but this is ultimately what the front radius rods are going to look like
2023-05-09_07-52-58 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

After all the suspension arm amounts were tacked into place and I confirmed everything worked I did all the finish welding.  Along with that meant creating strength plates to tie each of the arm mount plates together as well as tie them to the frame or axle.

One of the challenges on the rear end was the upper arm tabs were in multiple different planes and a flat piece of metal would not connect them. I made a template out of card stock and cut out my piece of steel. Then took it over to my fabrication log and hammered on it until it was a shape that fit well enough to weld.

And if you're wondering, a fabrication log is simply a log that you have in your garage that gets used for multiple things. It can be used to hold things up. You can use it as a pillow for your head while you're laying on the floor welding. You can also use it to shape metal since it's curved. Sort of.

2023-05-09_07-53-07 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-05-09_07-53-13 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-05-09_07-53-19 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

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2023-05-09_07-53-51 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-05-09_07-53-57 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

Another use of cardstock. After these tabs were fully welded in the crossmember, I needed to tie it all together with a strengthening plate. I made a card stock template and then transferred it to steel. After some minor fitment I welded that all in.

2023-05-09_07-54-03 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-05-09_07-54-12 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

Excluding spring mounts, the rear is taken care of. Now on to the front. This is just things mocked up and clamped into place just to get a visual. The lowers should work fine. The upper arms definitely need to be shorter.
2023-05-09_07-54-21 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

A little background on what I'm doing with these front radius rods. I've always been aware of drilling holes in frames or tubing or whatever and slipping tube into the hole and welding it to retain strength. Well apparently as I've recently learned these are called speed holes.

I thought I could do better. Why not slots? 

I machined inserts with a 0.060 wall that are designed to slip into slots machined into the radius rods. My mill guy was off on Friday so I spent 10 hours doing that.

2023-05-14_01-21-09 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr
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2023-05-14_01-21-21 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-05-14_01-21-28 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

Here you can see one of the inserts that I have just started into the tubing and then after it's pressed into place. I was happy that they went together the first try and the arms didn't require any additional machining to clearance. Honestly I just got lucky there I think. They slid right into place with a rubber mallet.

I welded all around the perimeter of both sides and I'm still needing to grind that down to blend it all so it looks somewhat professional. I may get to that today.
2023-05-14_01-26-24 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-05-14_01-26-34 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

For now, that's all she wrote

[Popeye the Sailor]

Love it, man.

[Duck-Stew]

Sick!

[Howie]

WOW!

[ducpainter]

 

[Monsterlover]

So where did I leave off? Looks like front radius rods...

The first rod I did I used filler when I welded the slots in place.  It took quite a while to dress after welding so the second rod I tried just pulsing the pedal and not using any filler at all. Worked very well.

2023-06-10_10-47-41 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-06-10_10-47-51 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-06-10_10-48-07 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

Here it is dressed. It's not perfect looking but that's the look I was going for.

2023-06-10_10-48-24 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr
2023-06-10_10-48-37 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr
2023-06-10_10-48-47 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

Time to set the front axle in place and get more suspension points welded on. This is an area where I should have done things a little differently. In the beginning. I should have established frame center line and then anchored it to the floor at ride height before I did anything to it like cut it in half to shorten it.

I thought I had everything lined up well when I welded the two halves back together but they are off just a little bit.

I ended up establishing frame center line on the floor with some plumb bobs and a chalk line. That let me get everything squared up. And part of that process was a slight adjustment to the rear end. Ye old dial indicator to the rescue.

2023-06-10_10-49-16 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

Everything's tacked into place. Note to hold the front axle in place, in space, and at the correct caster angle I welded half inch square tubing to the frame and to the axle. That worked really well.

2023-06-10_10-49-43 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

I got the front upper arms welded together. They're getting speed slots as well but I'm waiting to do that until I have their orientation permanent. Last thing I want to do is slot them and then find out the slots sit at a strange angle compared to the radius rod under them. Got to have everything parallel.

2023-06-10_10-49-56 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-06-10_10-50-03 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

This is the basic idea.
2023-06-10_10-50-12 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

Mounting tabs are tacked into place and I was able to get the arms slotted last weekend.
2023-06-10_10-50-35 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-06-10_10-50-44 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

Last Saturday I had unlimited access to my friends CNC plasma table. So Friday and Saturday afternoon I designed brackets from cardstock and we got them turned into steel that night.
2023-06-10_10-51-10 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

The basic design of the front shock towers
2023-06-10_10-51-18 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

Axle side bracket for the track bar in the front. Two piece design.
2023-06-10_10-51-26 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

2023-06-10_10-51-37 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

Frame side track bar mount.
2023-06-10_10-51-45 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

Driver side shock tower welded into place but not plated yet.
2023-06-10_10-52-07 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr
2023-06-10_10-52-15 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

Both shock towers are fully welded and plated at this point. I borrowed a pair of shocks from my plasma table buddy for mock-up. Obviously these are way too long for what I'm going to run but it lets me design lower shock mounts that will get welded directly to the knuckle.
2023-06-10_10-52-23 by Kevin Ames, on Flickr

That's where things sit currently. Probably I'll have the rear shock mounts done and welded in tomorrow. After that I'm going to rough up and clean the entire frame and prime it and paint. Then the cab goes back on.