More done on the 72'...

[zakt]

Started drilling the spot welds on the donor cab to change over all the rusted parts, doing the cowl first...

[zakt]

filling holes in the front fenders... have (2) sets trying to clear extra stuff out of the garage. Has undercoating all on the back side that will take longer than welding the holes to get off. At least it kept the fender from rusting on the back side but alot of work to get off

[mybros71]

Started drilling the spot welds on the donor cab to change over all the rusted parts, doing the cowl first...
[ Image ]

Those areas I see where the bit is spinning out of the cut are either caused by not center pinching deep enough or not having enough pressure on the pilot stud. There is a screw in the end of the arbor. I always crank it all the way down.

Tony

[zakt]

pretty much decided not to pull my cowl, looks like its rusted out where the inner fenders mount and is a seperate piece from the cowl. All afternoon got one fender pretty much all the undercoat off (putty knife scraping) just the top there under the upper lip left.

[zakt]

starting to cut out the body panels out of the donor cab to put on the crew.

[Ranchero50]

Wow, I wonder if that would have been a better candidate for a nose job?

Cut the cab off at the A pillar and floor, replace the cowl and mounts as one peice.

Jamie

[zakt]

Thought about that but decided I wanted to open up the area in the bottom of the A-piller where all the water from the cowl goes no mater to get that all sandblasted and coated. Taking all four pieces off together though with the rocker panel piece (rocker panel is bent one side, kick panels is rusted out also) So midas well just do the swap of pieces... although the more I look the more I see other rust, even up by that seem on the A-pillar where they connect has a rusted hole that has alot of seem sealer around it

rust one side

[zakt]

Donor cab other pieces almost cut out then just have to remove the end pieces from the spot weld... alot easier Im thinking smaller piece to deal with and see how it is attached up by the dash for the kick panel..

[flyboy71]

Wow, I wonder if that would have been a better candidate for a nose job?

Cut the cab off at the A pillar and floor, replace the cowl and mounts as one peice.

Jamie

Jamie. If you wanna come up here someday and help me do that it would be awesome. I need to do something similar but need to figure out how.

[zakt]

couple things going on...

FINALLY .....got the 78-79 front D60 axle being shipped from NY (with the stock sway bar)



new engine crossmember being made 2x4 3/16 wall. Was going to put the stock 68 F250 4x4 crossmember in but I think I will have problems with positioning the steering box... so decided to get the narrower 2x4 crossmember so no need to notch etc the OEM crossmember and believe the 2x4 one is actually stronger (1 piece). Also plan to have it rest on the bottom frame rail and will have more room between it and the engine. Have 8" plus lift so wont be a problem hitting and is the same contour as the OEM one so wont actually hang lower.

[averagef250]

Impossible to get the necessary info from your sketch to make the part, but a rough guess puts the CLR and bend-bend distance at about impossible for that size tubing in steel.

I had a friend of my dad's call me up a few weeks back after hearing I had some nice tubing benders. He wanted to know if I could bend a 24" CLR 180 in some 6" .250 wall 304 stainless tubing for the place he works for. There was a pause for a minute while I tried to figure out how to even answer that. If there is a machine that can do that I'd sure like to see it!

I don't know if I have enough experience to even be considered dangerous in metal forming, but it's one of those things that's 10,000 times more complex than you think it is at first impression.

[zakt]

I was wodering if they could make the bends, sent them the sketch and they said should work? I will ask the again to be sure, they make custom frames so?

[averagef250]

You need to be specific.

2x4X.180 wall is serious steel to bend, especially the hard way like you want to do it. If you just want it bent, then anyone with a 50 ton or so press can put some nice kinks in it for you. If you want it to look halfway decent you need a real bender with a mandrel for the exact tubing you're going to use. The mandrel fits inside the tube for the bend to keep the tube somewhat round for the operations, then pulled out.

I would make that part as a weldment from 4 pieces. My actual thought was since you have the factory crossmember cut out already just stick it right on a pattern burner and burn yourself out some perfect replacement plates. Form the top and bottom plates and weld it in/together. Or draw it up and have it waterjet/plasma/laser/oxied out.

[zakt]

he wanted better picture so did a quick Auto CAD drawing with the angles etc... he says he should be able to do it so ordering monday. Will post how it turns out

[zakt]

The 1979 High Pinion D60 is on its way from NY