"Big Darla" Build Thread

[kris97ranger]

i was subscribed... but apparently it got removed somehow. so looks good. i alwasy wondered how a double bobbed bed would look

 

[Kage]

How'd I miss this little gem? Sub'd

...Though I'm a little jelous of your locatoin....

 

[XionicWaste]

yeah central wisconsin on a lake is great, yes it gets hot but the view is amazing.

 

[XionicWaste]

So yesterday I got a little bit of work done. Earlier in the week I layed a bunch of bondo down and I was a bit inexperienced whilst doing it and didnt prep my area good enough and a bit peeled up. Well instead of salvage it and risk having it come up again and look like shit later I decided to scrap all the bondo and start over. This time however Im stripping all the paint on the bed.
before the paint remover:

After 20 mins of waiting:

Today Im getting more paint remover the stuff in the gallon can and also working on the rear bumper and probably cutting the frame!

 

[XionicWaste]

So I didnt get exactly what I wanted done today. I actually got the paint stripper and found some paint that I thought I would like alot.
So I finished stripping the paint and buffed it:

Now a storm was moving in and I didnt want my newly prepped surface to get rust:

Now my I stripped all my bondo off because I wanted to do it right this time. Again I was anxious and I wanted to know how the color I picked looked so I broke it out and rolled on a bit of the paint:

I am glad I put the paint on now because I really dont think I like the color. Its a neat color ( dark metallic emerald) but I was looking for something a bit brighter. The label on the can was perfect but it just didnt turn out that way. Maybe in the sun it will change my mind about it. Putting the color on really showed me where to put the bondo on too.

 

[XionicWaste]

so I woke up this morning and checked out the paint and still I dont like it. Im sure with a few coats and some sanding it would be better but I decided that Im just going to spray on some gloss black and conquer a new paint job later. I have lots of errands to run today so I probably wont get much done.

 

[trailbikerider]

Very cool project!

 

[XionicWaste]

Hey thanks!

I got a decent amount of work done and alot of logistics figured out tonight. I just got done working (11:50pm) I started bondoing, again... and one side is almost finished, it looks a hell of alot better than the above pics. Its not going to be perfect but who cares especially after the first time I lay it over into the canyon wall or something.
I got ahold of my buddy who has a machine shop and hes going to water jet me some shackle hangers tomorrow. I think Ill cut that big bumper, frame, shackle hanger post and receiver hitch mounting plate.
Things will go fast now there FINALLY all worked out in my brain. Ill have pics in the morning.

 

[Josh40601]

its morning....


Did you get the body line somewhat straightened out? That is the only thing i see that looks like shit (IMO) Everything else looks kick ass my friend

 

[XionicWaste]

Ha youre right it is morning, pics later lol. I did get the line figured out some, its hard to see the parts that need fixing because the bondo is such a flat color that the defects wont show.

 

[XionicWaste]

So this report is a few days overdue...

First off I cut my frame:

Then I kept bondoing till I got P-O'd:

When I was sick of bondoing I decided to chop up the bumper:

I used a cross member from the bumper for a cross member on my frame:

then I decided to chop the bumper in half:

BUT, I hated the way it looked so I scrapped it! Later that day I picked up the hangers my buddy made:

After scrapping the old bumper I just threw on a huge chunk of angle iron:

After welding on a bit of the angle iron I realized my shackle angles were for shit and I needed to deal with it:

SO bust out the torch again and off with more of the frame!
Now my angles are much better:

Now that I was happy how the shackle angles were I could continue with my plan:

While listening to the radio yesterday the DJ asked a question for some prizes. The question was "which bone is the broken the most often" well I knew the answer and called the station and won!... the answer is clavicle aka collar bone, and I won 2 tickets to the mini putt in mall of america and also 2 all day passes to the theme park inside! Seeing as mall of america is only 2 hours away it wont be too hard to use them.

Next was to cut a hole for the receiver hitch:

Done:

There it is with the pintle hitch:

Now I just need to move the truck so I can weld it more securely with the 220 welder.
Now that the bumper was kinda done I was forced to go back to bondoing... bleh... One side done enough for me and a coat of paint on it:

So I wanted to drive the truck around instead of push it so I decided to cut my drive shaft myself.

Now the inner diameter of the drive shaft was 2.5 inches so I drove into town to get some tubing of that diameter and go figure they didnt have it... well I said screw it and welded it up with out a sleeve... I will get a drive shaft from the junk yard and have that professionally done and aligned so dont yell at me yet... The one I welded today I will put a sleeve in or re-tube the thing myself and use it for off roading because the last one I dented.

Next I chopped the exhaust off and I would like to do a side dump.

Well back into town for fuel line line extenders. I put the tank on the frame for today just so I could move the truck and clean:

And then more paint and that was it for the past few days

Heres the issue im running into. I extended the gas lines and now it leaks a bit. The stock lines are plastic tubing with a rubber sheath. I got some brass fittings and ground the ribs down a bit so it would fit properly however it leaks... How do you splice the plastic gas lines? Should I get steel lines and try splicing with those? tomorrow I will have to see how the factory spliced them.

 

[Kage]

I feel your pain with your body work woes, thankfully, I had a good friend do my bed work, otherwise I'd be rocking a tube bed now .

I do dig the over all package though.

....
Heres the issue im running into. I extended the gas lines and now it leaks a bit. The stock lines are plastic tubing with a rubber sheath. I got some brass fittings and ground the ribs down a bit so it would fit properly however it leaks... How do you splice the plastic gas lines? Should I get steel lines and try splicing with those? tomorrow I will have to see how the factory spliced them.

When I extended my fuel lines, I went to the junk yard and pulled some lines off another ranger (The extended cab rangers have nice long straight sections). I used the 5/16" nylon hose barbs to join them together (With hose clamps for piece of mind).

Link to the hose barbs LINKY

I had also tried to use new sections of the nylon hose (Those little 'repair' kits they sell), I never manged to get the damn hose barb inside of them. Even doing all the usual tricks of the trade to get them to fit on there.

HTH

 

[XionicWaste]

thanks for your input kage,
I will deal with the lines today sense its pouring here today.

 

[1freaky1]

build is looking good so far keep it up!

 

[Josh40601]

i went to Napa and bought 10FT of Nylon fuel line and the same barbs as Kage. just heat the nylon lines and put some elbow grease and they will go on. once they cool down, you ain't getting them off.