My days off this week were not as productive as I had hoped for. I did manage to get the second coat of black on the frame, so other than a few spots that will need some touch-up, the frame is done. I have not yet started on the battery box. I need some more angle stock to build that mount, which I will bolt to the frame rather than weld. I did not get any new pics of the frame, since it's still black, : )
I did get the crossmember that bolts in under the rear cab mounts sand blasted, primed and painted to match the frame. It is now bolted back in where it belongs, so once I am done with flaring and splicing the rear brake line and the fuel line, I can hang the fuel tank back in the frame, since the crossmember needed to be in place to hang the tank.
One other little step completed was shortening the rear drive shaft. After taking some 11" out of the frame, the rear driveline needed a trim to be able to bolt the shaft back in place. I used string and some spray paint to keep the two yokes in phase, and my chop saw to cut the weld at the rear yoke. With a little finesse via a hammer and chisel, the yoke came off with little resistance and needed just a bit of touch up with the angle grinder.
Since I don't have the means to true and balance the drive shaft, I made my cut just a little long. When I take it to the shop for final assembly, about 1 1/4" more needs to come off to allow for suspension travel. Right now, I have about 1/4" of slack and had to slip the bearing caps off and on to get the u-joint into the yoke on the rear axle. At least I can say, "It needs to be xx long..." and let the shop handle it from there.
As you can see ^^^ the driveshaft has pretty well compressed the dust seal at the back of the transfer case. Still, I'd rather cut off a little long than leave myself too short. I won't be sending the shaft off any time soon. It was just one more little box to check off the list for now.
My next project will be patching all those holes in the firewall. I hope to start on that later this week. Once I get the firewall fixed up and painted, the motor can go back in place and the front sheet metal can go back on for the winter.
-Joe