Re: Ok Boys and Girls it's Storytime
 

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The rig I tried to get it home from the track with. It worked for awhile.

Re: Ok Boys and Girls it's Storytime
 

Damn $hitty deal, but good thing you caught it before it completely broke.

Re: Ok Boys and Girls it's Storytime
 

Yes it sucks Monty. In the end I'm glad it happened just not the 800 mile round trip and missing a race. I was able to rearrange my schedule so we are going to start back on it at 8am this morning. Maybe we can get it finished and I can get it home I hope.

Re: Ok Boys and Girls it's Storytime
 

Glad to see you progressing. You know Tony will make it right!

Re: Ok Boys and Girls it's Storytime
 

Success?

Re: Ok Boys and Girls it's Storytime
 

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When I got there yesterday morning he was doing some welding. He found one or two small cracks and welded them up too. Then we had to determine bar placement in the back. There was only a 4 inch long area to use. I got them marked and cut some holes in the bed.

Re: Ok Boys and Girls it's Storytime
 

I left out that I worked on the bed shimming it in the back .I think the bed gap looks as good or better than it ever has. It was never perfect because the of the way I had the cab mounted before the cage was built. If I don't like it when I get it home I can still play with it some more.

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We sampled different angles of tubing bends with some templates. We decided on a 45 degree I kinda liked a 30 better but it would have been harder to weld at the bottom.

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We sampled different angles of tubing bends with some templates. We decided on a 45 degree I kinda liked a 30 better but it would have been harder to weld at the bottom. There will be some 90 degree struts where the floor is cut. Then hopefully we can get all that mess put back together.

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We got both bars bent and mocked up. Then had to call it a day.

Re: Ok Boys and Girls it's Storytime
 

oops

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This is turning out to be exactly what I wanted to do for awhile.

Re: Ok Boys and Girls it's Storytime
 

Definitely looks like those will help the effort.

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I got it home yesterday evening. He didn't have time to help me with the floor and the tubs. I'm going to have to fix that mess myself. I've already gotten the tubs pretty straight. I need to cut up the pieces of the floor I took out and fit them around the 90 degree braces. Then clean this mess up and do some bedliner and paint the bars.

Re: Ok Boys and Girls it's Storytime
 

It will be interesting to see if it reacts differently now.

Re: Ok Boys and Girls it's Storytime
 

That’s kinda the same idea behind how mine is done, sample principal anyway.

Re: Ok Boys and Girls it's Storytime
 

Looks good!

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I'm sure it will. If it picks up R/T that's not a bad thing. I hope it picks up a ton.

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Leave it to me to wait until it breaks .Lol

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Thanks Karl

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Well it looks like I have a free day today. I'm going to start on it this morning. If I do anything pic worthy I'll post up in the morning. I have a few ideas in my head.

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Well I got started yesterday morning. The old trusty beer box template. I had to do one for each side.

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I started by cutting just enough of the bracing off the pieces so it would still have some support.

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And then the point of no return. I took a hole saw and drilled both pieces.

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Then I had to make a decision on where I was cutting them. I'm going to do some of the welding from underneath but I have to weld some up top. The problem is minimum access to grind and smooth it out. I also tack welded the braces back when I made my cut.

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I was back and forth in and out of the truck taking baby steps grinding and testing. Of course my measurements were a tad off but it will be ok.

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I got both pieces just about ready to go. I had enough after six hours of eating aluminum oxide. I have a bunch of prep work to do. I need to get the truck off the ground. Pull the tires off again. Unhook all the battery cables and ignition box. Then figure out where to start welding. I may also try to adjust the bed before hand. I may have to weld the braces to the frame to get the floor to lay down so I have to be sure before I start.

Re: Ok Boys and Girls it's Storytime
 

repairs look great Regan..!!

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Friday afternoon I came up with this idea. I took some sheet metal and trimmed some pieces to help fill the gap for welding.

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I was able to form these into the hump and tack them in.

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Finished product and ready to fit. This little project took all afternoon.

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I got the pieces stitched in yesterday. It's slow going when you have to use a die grinder to smooth out the hard mig welds. Ken came out and provided a second set of eyes for tacking the tubs back in. The passenger side tub is soup bowled but I don't know if I can fix it. I have some more metal work and then I get to move on to paint and bed liner.

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I got the bed repairs looking good enough to cover with bed liner. I'm tired of working on them. Lol

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Oh the joys of masking off this mess. I think it took me two hours to do all this.

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I went ahead and sprayed the bars. I've got a few runs to deal with and then I'm spraying it again. Afterwards it dawned on me I used satin black before and this is semi gloss Dupliclolor. I hit it with some grey Scotchbright and it looked pretty good. I'll still respray it though. Then I get to try and seamseal the tubs. That's going to be a task because it's hard to access everything. After that I will attempt to spray bed liner.

Re: Ok Boys and Girls it's Storytime
 

Looks good.

Here is a tip next time when masking odd shaped items like your fuel cell vent tube or brake lines. Get some dollar store aluminum foil, just wrap it around the odd shape, tape the end for a clean line. Works for a lot of different things, I used it on suspension parts too.

Re: Ok Boys and Girls it's Storytime
 

Thanks Greg

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Thanks Karl. I may try that when I mask off the cage so I can spray the bed.

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I got some seam sealer in yesterday afternoon. I also scuffed and repainted the monkey bars.

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I don't think this shock mount has been out in over 15 years. I cleaned it up and put a few coats on it.