The snowball effect is in full force. Even though my progress has been super slow I decided that this time around I was going to build exactly what I wanted. Once the clip was in and I spent some time staring at the stance and proportions, I decided that I wouldn't be happy leaving the truck as a longbox.
I finally have some progress to share: First I leveled the frame side to side and front to back, then I made some legs that bolted to some existing holes in the frame to keep the two pieces of the frame supported after I cut it in half.
I then used a carpenter's speed square to draw two perfect 45 degree parallel lines on the frame. I clamped a piece of flat metal to the frame to use as a guide for the plasma cutter. Once the cuts where made, I cleaned them up and beveled them for good weld penetration with an angle grinder.
I had the frame stick welded together by a professional welder with a fish plate on the inside for additional strength. The crossmember located under the cab is located further back on a longbox and mine was rusted through in a few spots. I decided to cut it out completely and build a new crossmember out of 2x4 box tubing moved forward to the shortbox location. I boxed the frame from the back crossmember up to where the legs of the camaro clip start. I painted the inside before I tacked the boxing plates in.
I still need to put a c-notch in the new crossmember for driveshaft clearance and fully weld in the boxing plates.
