Frame rails and gussets are now fully welded: Still new to AL welding so i did some practice beforehand to dial my settings in which i think paid off; im pretty happy with how my welding is going thus far: I had 9' leftover from my 25' stick, so i made 2 crossmembers First one is getting fit up at the front, to tie the frame rails to the headache rack ...and all done I dont know the location of the second one yet. I want to put that one where the hinges will bolt to the bed, but i need to take measurements since this is a 9' bed. So i think the best way to do this will be to just pull the F250 into the driveway and yank the original bed off so i can mock this one up properly. So this week's plan will be to get the stock bed off, and get this one sitting on my frame so i can figure out where the hinges will bolt up. From there i can get it welded in place, and start working on building a beefy crossmember for the scissor to connect to. Got my assistant helping me: ...and in the garage! Going over: The header is sitting on a set of wheel dollys while the back end is on a pair of 55 gallon drums. Whatever works, right? Tin box for the ramps, its just riveted to the underside of the bed So the plan is to remove the ramp box as it will interfere with the hydraulic scissor. From there i need to start on the frame rails- the bed is for a C&C and they measure ~34.25" wide, whereas my truck is a standard frame, which measures more like 37.375" wide. So the plan is to remove the original frame rails from the bed and put new ones one at the correct width. Ive got new channel in the garage ready to go to make new ones, so the weekends plan is to try and get both rails off the bed so i can start mocking up the new ones. Remember this? Mounting hardware removed: filler neck disconnected: dissecting the wiring: these things have a galvanized tray underneath for ramps that will need to go: ...and coming up! The donor truck went back to its parking spot in the stones for now. Eventually my red bed will get cobbled onto it and then a buddy is buying the truck from me. Today im going to clean the bed and get it ready to go into the garage for some modifications. I need to make it fit my 96 F250, which is not a C&C truck, so its going to take some work to fit on my frame. So the dump bed works pretty awesome! You cant really tell, but theres a yard of stone in the bed. I didnt shoot any vid of it dumping, didnt think of it at time, was more concered with watching it, since a yard of stone is ~2600lbs. ive used it a couple times now, it is super awesome. The green tailgate presented a problem though. It was a necessity as my original tailgate got smashed, but its bowed pretty badly, and i was losing stone on the way home. So, i dug out a shell ive had kicking around, and decided to see what i could do with it. This one was also green, so i sanded it and then rattled it with some red primer, then sanded again Starting to lay color. Again, all rattle can as i dont own a spray gun, and wasnt going to buy one, just to spray a tailgate Couple coats of clear later, starting to look better Some more wet sanding and some wax, and this i what i ended up with: Not too bad for rattle can, if i do say so myself!! Hardware from my gate going in: ...and the finished product! Considering its all rattle can, i think the end result ended up pretty good, even tho its slightly off-color. its still way better than green, and this gate is actually straight! So from here i moved on to two other projects. #1, front brakes! Power Stop carbon-ceramic pads, and their rotors as well. Havent driven it yet, we'll see tomorrow if they work any better than the crap Autozone brakes that were on there before. #2, bumper mods. I really couldnt bring myself to drill 4 holes in my shiny new tailgate, so i had to find a different place to put the license plate. So here we go! Take this: and fit it here: Being inset, it clears the hitch with plenty of room! then i drilled some holes ...and reinstalled the OEM plate lamps, after i painted them to match the bumper: Hopefully this is the last of the work to this thing for the year, as my other projects are piling up!
Made some progress on the water/meth injection. My wiring harness uses 7 wires, so rather than build an extension, i bought 7 wire trailer harness: More OEM wedgelok pins being put to use Original harness on the frame: ...and the new extension plugged in and looking OEM The harness runs up the bed here. Next to it is a hydraulic hose connected to some 3/8 stainless tube via some swagelok fittings for the water. The route up the bed: Another OEM connector, where my extension harness ends in the toolbox. In the top left you can see where the tubing enters the box. 100% stainless tube from the bed hinge to the toolbox. The original toolbox harness modified with a mating wedgelok connector installed: ...and the whole water/meth system is now reinstalled and done! I turned the system on to check for errors and didnt find any, so i removed/cleaned the injector and then purged the system. Holy shit i think were done!!! I still need to find a place to relocate my CB antenna to, but aside from that she's 100% done! After sitting for 7 weeks under a black walnut tree the truck needs to go to the carwash pretty badly, so i guess thatll be my test drive to see how badly the bed rattles around. The kit comes with these guides to keep the front of the bed aligned with the cab, but i never installed them because my hinges are so much more sturdy than the ones that came with the kit, and the bed doesnt flop around like it woudve with their hinges. So we'll see after the test drive (hopefully tomorrow) if i need to put them on or not. Bought a piece of unequal angle (3x4) from the scrap steel yard to begin mockup for a bumper bumper brackets So heres the rough idea: Seems awfully small, but with the bed tilted, you can see its a tight fit No room for a license plate on the bumper Trimming the corners Adding a piece of 2" plate to the bottom Now its starting to look like something: All done and ground For lack of a better place, i put rivnuts in the tailgate, to hang the plate off it. This gate is beat up anyway, so not too upset about drilling holes in it All done & painted! While i was waiting for it to dry, i fixed my trailer wiring. Turns out Clips & Fasteners sells replacement pins for Ford Wedgelock connectors. Male + female, and both the large and small pins. They get crimped on using the same tool as weatherpaks do, which i already have. Since i had broken wires i cut all of them back to fresh copper and repinned all of them So all thats left is to bolt it on, and its done! Its a tight fit against the hitch: Look closely, youll see the bumper brackets all but touch the hitch, and there is actually a vertical groove in the bumper to clear the hitch. Its tight! The bumper is a little smaller than id prefer, but as big as i can make it. Overall i think its looks pretty good on there though. So thats two more items off the list! So next week i need to tackle the water/meth injection, move my CB antenna and then i think im done! Ok, so weve got 4 main projects left to finish this thing. Gotta solve the bumper problem, fix trailer plug wiring, rewire/plumb the water/meth injection, and relocate the CB antenna. Well, ive got 2/4 done now. All this work on the bed; so i decided to work on the bumper. Since its got to pivot with the bed, i started building brackets to attach to the hinges: One bracket done, shown attached to the bed-side half of one of the hinges. It attaches to the 5/8 hinge pin, plus 2 bolts up thru the hinge and into the bed. Should be sufficient. Both brackets done, + hinges finally in paint! Now to design a bumper.
Ok, filler necks! Well, they bolt to the bed. But they cant since the bed moves. So Pierce Arrow wants you to build a brace and aim them both into the wheel wells to fill the tanks. Lame! So i came up with an (arguably) better solution. Starting on the rear neck: Built this, which didnt work. The fender strut hit it. Modified version: Had to cut the hole for the filler wide open, but you cant see it with the filler door closed anyway This actually works; the bed can go up and it holds the neck in place; when the bed comes down it guides the neck right into place. The front was much more challenging. The bed full on collides with the neck and pushes it down: So this is what i came up with It holds the neck right where it needs to be. But, because the bed hits the neck on the way down, you have to hold the neck up and tuck it behind the fender as it comes down. Then the bracket guides the neck into place: No way around that one, w/o cutting a notch in the bottom of the fender to clear the neck, which i think would look dumb. Ok so then i got to looking at the bumper. Well, no chance in hell of the stock bumper going back on. The bumper has to tilt with the bed, and there is just no room with the trailer hitch there. Mockup with a peice of 2*4 to simulate a bumper: Im going to have to build my own rear bumper, and its going to have to be small, so it clears everything. I also still need to re-do the water/meth injection & move my CB antenna, but i think that might be it! Holy crap, finally an update. This weather is nuts, it has rained every single day except i think sunday; took me all day to mow the jungle that was my yard! So i have updates. I was waiting until i was done to post, since ive basically been running outside in breaks between rainstorms to get stuff done. So for heavy use they recommend adding a brace, from the xmember the hydraulics bolt to, to the xmember under the cab to stiffen it up. Next up is wireless control. I bought this from Harbor Freight the case comes apart; its got a nice rubber seal in there The guts: Its a standard 5-pin winch connector on the end. Only uses 4 pins. Power in, ground, and 2 power out. Well, thats eay enough to wire up! Cut the end off, hardwired it to the winch solenoids, and mounted the box on the frame The range is impressive; its like 60-70'! More than ill ever need. And since the system has a kill switch on the main power, theres no concern from a rogue signal making the bed move on its own :toothless Speaking of wiring; ive finished all of it. The winch relay has the same kill switch on the dash it always had, and i put the supplied toggle switch next to it, for a backup in case the wireless remote quits. Also, as it would turn out, the exhaust fits! Barely, but it fits. |
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