Four seater now!

[KidJethro]

Well sorta...
Been getting alot done latley...











Mounted the stock rear seat in almost the factory position. The piece I welded in to bridge the frame and build the mounts for the seat is 1/4 plate. The actual mounts for the seat is 3/8 and 1/2 plate.

The battery relocated to between the front seats. Cables are welding cable from the Airgas dealer.

Also finally got brakes at all 4 wheels. Built my own little power bleeder thing out of a 1 gallon sprayer from True Value. Had the rears bled in less than 2 minutes.

Later today, I think I'm gonna build a truss for the 14b and do a home fabbed shackle flip to finally ditch the gay blocks. Runnin out of stuff to do without having a bender fr the cage. And gears for the diffs. All it takes is money..............

[blacksheep10]

A '74?

[K2Orion]

Why did you put the seat bracket crossmember on the sliders??
Do you hope the bracket will keep the sliders from getting bent up?
Whats gonna happen to the seats, and their occupants, when you drop onto something and the sliders take a BIG hit?

BTW, your welds look awesome, but you're a pro welder right?

[SlamChops]

looks pretty pimp dude. my question is the same as above. why mount to the sliders? that 1/4" plate is going to stiffen it up a LOT. so does it run now?

[Groundwork]

You got skillz with a MIG

[KidJethro]

It's a '76. If it were a '74, there wouldn't be a roof.

I guess I shoulda mentioned that these are just progress pics. As for the seat mount thing, I still have alot of tube work to do. Everything will be tied into the frame and body at various points. Not worried about strength at all. I totally rebuilt the rockers out of 1/8's plate, 2x2 .120 square and 2x2x.250 angle. Picture-

Diamond plate cause I had alot of it. I can jack up the truck a good 2-3' off the ground on one leg of the sliders. It's hell for stout now, will be even more so when finished.

The 1/4" plate will stiffen it alot. But thats good, cause I had to remove the crossmember thats right behind the gas tank when I relocated it. I needed to add a new crossmember in there. KIlled two birds with one stone this way.

Thanks for the compliments on the welds. Hehe, but I confess, I am a "professional" welder. 10 hours a day.

And yes it runs now. Got a motor on loan from a club member till I can get the big block finished up. Wierd to drive it around for the first time in a year and a half or so. Specially since that last time I drove it, it was still a conventional K5.

[rcurrier44]

The truck looks like it is comming along well. 3 things though.

Put that battery in a box or get a sealed optima type battery that won't leak acid on you. You can already see something on top of it...it would sick to get splached with acid when you flop the truck.

I assume you are going to tie belts to the cage and not using those stock belts in the now weaker stock location.

Why the dimond plate under the rockers....you want that area to slide when they rub over rocks. You realy don't want traction plate there, I would cut them off and flip them over to the smooth side.

[KidJethro]

Originally Posted by rcurrier44

The truck looks like it is comming along well. 3 things though.

Put that battery in a box or get a sealed optima type battery that won't leak acid on you. You can already see something on top of it...it would sick to get splached with acid when you flop the truck.

I assume you are going to tie belts to the cage and not using those stock belts in the now weaker stock location.

Why the dimond plate under the rockers....you want that area to slide when they rub over rocks. You realy don't want traction plate there, I would cut them off and flip them over to the smooth side.

Plans are for a Optima battery mounted in an ammo can or similar, bolted to the floor. I bought that battery cause it was cheaper and I needed a battery on a Sunday night and the only place open at the time that had batterys was Longs Drugs. Oh, and the shit on top of the battery is spilled Pepsi.

Yeah, seat belts to cage and seat mounts.

As for the diamond plate, like I Said, cause it's what I had. I thought about using the other side, but not till it was already welded on. Not to worried about it. If it becomes an issue, I'll fix it.

[SandmanII]

Yeah, but how heavy is it?

Looks nice though. I've enjoyed the progress pics.

[KidJethro]

How heavy is what? The truck itself? Lighter than yours. lol

Thanks for the good words.

[rcurrier44]

Well I bet when you are done it will probubly be heavier then SandmanII's rig if you keep the same build style. 1/4 plate for a floor pan??? It looks cool but it is alot heavier than sheet metal. I think I read that you are using it to replace a cross member...but you can get more streingth with less weight if you were to make a tube crossmember and sheetmetal floor.

How thick is that gas tank? 1/4"?

Lots of steel in those rockers too...

Not that weight is always a bad thing but most people build light for a reason.

[SandmanII]

It'l be fun to see. He has some weight in metal but its not very high up (like a roof). I'm at 5,120 pounds loaded for the trail right now.

[rcurrier44]

Thats about ware I figured you would be. Last I weighed mine I was at 4600 or so - loaded for the trail (with doors on). But I am running a striped out Toy cab and not near the amount of added steel that most guys build in.

[KidJethro]

There's hardly enough plate there to call it a "floorpan". It's a 2'x2' piece. And again, I used it cause it's what I had already. I haven't paid for any of the steel I use for the truck. I'm a welder for a living and have been for awhile, so I usually grab all the old scrap and stuff from various shops I've worked at. I've accumulated quite a steel collection this way. I unfortuneatley didn't have piece of steel that would work for a crossmember. So the plate got used.

The tank lid is made from material less than 1/8", dunno what gauge. 12-14g I suppose.

And the bulk of the steel in the roockers is the 1/8" diamond plate that you see. Not "that" much.

Anyways, no all that concerned about weight anyways. Within limits of course. If I were worried about weight, I wouldn't be using a fullsize K5 to build from. I'd have a pile of tube and a bender.

[BOWTIE]

maybe i missed it, but what are you doing for rear fenders? or are you going to leave it open like that?

nice work so far.

[KidJethro]

Nope, you didn't miss it. Haven't figured that out yet. lol

I'll put some more thought into once I get a cage around it. Might just leave it that way. Incentive to stay out of the mud- With it open like that, mud will obviously get everywhere. And that measn ALOT more cleanup.

[cj7jeep]

I agree with groundwork, your welds are sweet. How about a few pointers, like what kind of motion do you use, I was told to make small circles. Your weld look alot better than my my buddies.

[KidJethro]

There's a gillion different weaves you can use. Back and forth, circles, U shaped, zig zag, etc. Basically whatever works for you and is the most comfortable. Mostly I use a sort of backwards lazy J style weave. Also kinda depends on how you can postion yourself and how comfy you are. For longer welds like the ones in the pictures, it's hard to stay with the same weave for the entire length of the weld, so alot of times I just adjust as I go to keep the weld looking the same. If I tried to stick with the same weave on those welds the whole way through, they'd look all wacked towards the ends. Basically try not to concentrate on the actual weave motion. Look at the back half of the puddle, not the arc itself- what decides the final apperance of the weld happens behind the arc. Manipulate the gun accordingly.

[SandmanII]

Originally Posted by rcurrier44

Thats about ware I figured you would be. Last I weighed mine I was at 4600 or so - loaded for the trail (with doors on). But I am running a striped out Toy cab and not near the amount of added steel that most guys build in.

Thats looks alot like a setup I saw in Billings once a few years ago. I was up there moving some tires around and the guy had it in a shop there fixing the front axle.

[onebad4x4]

my little 12 year old brother makes cleaner welds than them!!!



























yah right, those have got to be some of the nicest welds ive seen

[rcurrier44]

Well I don't think I have ever had this truck over to Billings....I live in Bozeman and usualy wheel around Bozeman - Bute - Helena. But I have been known to fix a front axle or two.

You woulden't happen to be a guy who came up to pick up some tires from a buddy of mine would you. He is living in Billings and drove over here to meet a buyer part ways to sell him some tires. He was driving a white 1 ton on 38's at the time. The met at my shop in Bozeman...and I think I was fixing a broken front passenger shaft/u-joint in the toy at the time.

EDIT: Maybe he was buying and not selling them; 35's I'm thinking...I don't recall exactly. But I do remember fixing that axle when he was over here at that time.

[SandmanII]

I just looked it up on the map and your right! It was Bozeman not Billings. I'm the guy who came up from Idaho and sold the 39.5's to the dudes in the white truck. I then turned around and went to SLC the same day.

I remember you talking about running the sand in St. Anthony. If you ever do, go here and let us know. We can get quite a few more poeple to show up. Its been many years since I've been up there and I've been looking for an excuse to go.

[SlamChops]

KidJethro, are you running hi-steer on there? Any problems with the tie-rod/draglink clearence?

[KidJethro]

No hi-steer cause of the 52" springs relocating the axle forward. As soon as a club member get's his hi-steer installed, I'm getting his ORD x-over arm. Just gonna run conventional crossover untill someone figures out a way to make hi-steer work. Although, I got an email back from the guy at Sky saying he had an arm that would work. I think just in the interest of getting it wheelable, just gonna run the conventional x-over for now.

[gpnjuice]

Originally Posted by KidJethro

There's a gillion different weaves you can use. Back and forth, circles, U shaped, zig zag, etc. Basically whatever works for you and is the most comfortable. Mostly I use a sort of backwards lazy J style weave. Also kinda depends on how you can postion yourself and how comfy you are. For longer welds like the ones in the pictures, it's hard to stay with the same weave for the entire length of the weld, so alot of times I just adjust as I go to keep the weld looking the same. If I tried to stick with the same weave on those welds the whole way through, they'd look all wacked towards the ends. Basically try not to concentrate on the actual weave motion. Look at the back half of the puddle, not the arc itself- what decides the final apperance of the weld happens behind the arc. Manipulate the gun accordingly.

If it was only that easy.. Nice Damn Welds YO!!!!