we are pretty slow at work today, so i put the legs to the roll bar in the oven and baked them for 2 hours at 700 degrees F and then put them in the blaster to clean the burnt paint off from them. now i can take them home, mock things up and weld them together.
i assembled the roll bar last night and got it square the best i could, then welded it all up. it was late by the time i finished welding, so i just went to bed. i had planned on pulling the truck into the garage and mocking up my mounting points for the bar, but i have all week to to that.
heres a quick sketch of how i plan to attach the bar to the frame. i have yet to actually take measurements and crawl under the truck to see if spring hangers and such will interfere, but this is how im guessing it will go.
you were absolutlely right TS6034, that front mount on the driverside is going to have a filler neck interference problem. i snapped a few pictures last night and took a few measurements, but i think its still do able. i think im going to be cutting card board and making templates for a few days just so i can get it all right, then ill transfer them to metal and start torching my mounts out. heres some pics of what im up against, so if you have any ideas or input feel free to post up.
i tried my idea with the c clamps and it worked out to an extent, but im seriously thinking about just getting a new bed and starting over?
thanks akoutdoors, i try to take lots of pics so that i can show other people step by step how to go from ow to wow. ill be posting the install of my new shifter bushings in my other build thread soon, and i think i did an exceptional job of going through the steps. I had the last 4 days off work, but only managed to get a few things done on my truck (we mostly worked on my gfs sport trac). i got 2 coats of POR 15 on the roll bar as well as removed the bed and smoked the corner lenses and new tail lights with VHT nite shades paint. i hope to get the top coat on the roll bar soon and then bolt that to the frame while i do the work to the bed in the garage over then next few weeks. as always, heres some pics.
getting all welded up for a second time:
Checking out the rust ahead of me and coming up with aproach ideas:
i made some more progress on the bed this week. since ive been the only one home all week, i needed to come up with a way to move the bed in and out of the garage by myself so i pulled out the engine crane again and went to work. things didnt look too bad until i touched the wire wheel to the rear passenger side of the bed, which uncovered quite a few more holes than i was expecting. ive ordered new sheet metal and am just waiting on some $$, but in the meantime i think i can start laying down some POR 15.
I also installed my skyjacker front leveling spacers (2 on each side), but i think i might want to add one more to each side before getting an alignment.
Before:
After:
Heres some pictures of the leveling install and some shots of my exhaust where i taped off and painted the joints.
had a couple of days off so i got some more work done (i rode mountain bikes the whole first day off, so i only got a few hours of work done on the second day off). i finished cleaning the paintable side off with a wire wheel on my 3/8 drill, then i vaccumed up the rust chunks and wiped it all down with wax and grease remover. i started at the bottom figuring i wouldnt get any paint on my arms if i worked my way up the bed side, but i was wrong. luckily i had just enough paint to lay down a good first coat and on my next day off i plan on laying down the second coat to reinforce the rust protection and get any spots i missed.
thanks for the input mike, im thinking theyll look good too and for $75 for the pair its not like its much of a gamble. if i dont like them i can always sell them or send them back.
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