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Hacksters Crew Cab first gen Cummins

232K views 353 replies 82 participants last post by  Adamants 
#1 ·
So my tow rig for the last three years has been a 1993 w250 that has racked up 249,000 miles on it. It has been hands downt the most dependable, hadest working truck I have ever owned by a long shot....even better than the 07 cummins I bought off the lot brand new in late 06.

Truck is all turned up with timing bump, denny t fuel pin wh1c with 14 cm housing, leveling kit and 35's with 2" dom tube bumpers. Its a standard cab long bed and I love it.

Here is the dirty old girl in all her glory, doing what she usually does, towing the car trailer around with some project on the trailer.



Well, have sold off a few cool cars in the past few months in order to build the rig that I have wanted for the last few years. A crew cab short bed cummins 5 speed with some one tons under it.

So the search began for the right truck......well more like trucks right? After lots of searching I found a 1993 extra cab long bed w250 with a cummins and a 5 speed 4 wheel drive. The truck had was in an accident but I really was not interested in much of the body. Not to mention I got it for a good price. So I loaded up the trailer and headed up into the sticks to pick it up.

Two first gens...happy times.







Not much to look at but good running gear with pod's denny t fuel pin kdp fixed and a rebuit getrag.

So this will be the donor drivetrain...

I brought it home on Friday afternon and could not get the tools out fast enough.



Had a little help from a friend but we made pretty quik work, the cab was entirely stripped of everything, harness was all unplugged and removed in one piece, it was in great shape with just a little bit of hackery to clean up but nothing too bad.







Cut out a bunch of the firewall so that I would hopefully be able to weld in the right opening for the heater box and the firewall harness plug.
 
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#110 ·
Any plans to brace that bend in the outer bar that braces the main hoop? I noticed that on your Toyota bed also and to me that would be considered a flaw in the design since in a bad roll it would allow the hoop to fold backward.
 
#112 ·
Got both the fenders built and installed on both sides last night. Few little mistakes but nothing that I cannot live with.

Also got the down bars built and welded in for the down tube support.



Fenders turned out pretty good for not having a brake, weld weld weld....grind.

I am trying to figure out what I want to do behing the cab, should I go with a single downbar from the drivers side upper to passenger side lower? x behind the cab or a mix of a horizontal bar below the rear window and a diagonal from driver upper to passenger lower.

Either way I kind of need it back on the truck to figure this out as I need to make sure that it will clear the back window.

Sean
 
#113 ·
Terrible week at work so far so I was enjoying my time in the garage last night just thinking about the old dodge.

Got the x behind the cab finished up. You cannot see it in the photos but the lower tubes of the x have a 4 degree bend in them to match the profile of the side bars of the roll bar.

Also made templates for the side floor pieces. Dont know if I am going to do them out of steel or Aluminum. The aluminum would be stupid expensive but look really good on the truck in my opinion but I could not do any welding of tabs or brackets, tie downs or anything of that sort on it. Steel will be easy to work with and less costly but not so good looking even if I do some nice paint on it. After a little while I think they always look trashed from scratches and stuff.

Any ideas? No diamond plate.



Sean
 
#116 ·
Well the most common materials for bed floors are wood, aluminum and steel and all three would work in their own way. Aluminum would obviously be the better way to go since it's lighter and would look best but depending on the thickness you may have to add some crossmembers through the middle for support which may negate some of the weight savings. A wood floor would look awesome if done properly but when done up is not all that cheap and is not very durable in the long run. Steel might be cheaper but also heavier. You say no diamond plate, but honestly, you will need some sort of traction or you will easily bust your ass when the bed is wet with any smooth material. Whatever you put in the bed will also be a lot more prone to sliding around. Maybe steel with bedliner?
 
#121 ·
I almost bought that same truck when it was for sale this summer. I know the seller had the price down to $3800. What did you take it home for?

I would have done something similar, 6bt swap, but damn it's sad to see such a rare crew/long bed shortened like that. Nice project anyway ;)
 
#122 ·
Wow!! Thanks for all the good input guys.

I picked up the truck for $3500. I thought it was in better shape than it was when I bought it, the floors had a considerable amount of rust in them. It was an ok deal considering I have an entire running gear still left to play with.

I had no use for a crew cab long bed dually, so it lost a few feet. I need to be able to drive this and use it daily and that just is not too practical for me.

So this afternoon shaped up nicely.

I picked up the truck from the frame shop and it was all finished up there. Eric is a good guy, frame looks great and its all back to better than stock tolerances.

Mastercraft baja rs front seats in black showed up as well as front skyjacker springs.

I ended up going with the aluminum for the bed. Don't know if I will do anything with it right away other than brushing the grain in one direction but maybe down the road something like linex.

Got all of the bed all welded up tonight, added in a bunch of bracing to the floor and got that all welded out.

Made the templates and cut the aluminum to fit. I was trying to have as few small pieces as possible and ended up with just three.







Sean
 
#125 ·
Only got a couple hours to work on it today. Spent most of the morning at a customers building digging in mud to help fix a water leak.

Got the center piece all cut and laid in where it needed to go, squared up and everything :shaking:

Laid out all the panels and got to drilling... That was a lot of holes to drill and tap.

Removed everything and shot on a coat of paint....Did not clean it enough, so I got some fisheyes. Scuffed it and got some more and reshot it all.

Here is where I am at now.







Pretty sure that this is the idea I am going to run with. Little different but you get the idea for the spare tire.



Sean
 
#127 ·
Thanks Mike,

The plan for lights is to box in the rear of the frame with some plate to finish it off, then I will flush in some 4" round led lights in that panel. I need to figure out what to do for backup lights, license plate and license plate light still.


I have always run implement lights on the rear of my rigs but thinking about doing some cool new led light bar things for the rear backup this time.

So I need some lights, wheels and a winch and I am pretty much done buyig parts.

Sean
 
#128 ·
Had a hand for a few hours this morning so I used them to help me get the bed on and off a couple times. Had to make a couple adjustments after the frame got straightened but all seems to be ok for now. Have two tabs that I need to get back on but should be able to finish that later tonight.





So I needed to come up with some kind of filler to get the diesel in the tank. I had purchased this cool all billet filler for a toyota a couple years ago, I opened it up and the filler is pretty large so I think it will be fine for the diesel nozzle.

I wanted to try and make it not stand out and still keep the bed flat for hauling stuff so I came up with the idea of frenching it in the front corner of the bed. Had to open up a piece of 4" to 5" and build a lip for the top and a flange for the bottom.

I am pretty happy the way it turned out.



 
#130 ·
That's a good point. I love th elook and the fab but it will be a pain in the ass sooner or later. I think I'd cut a square flange, mount the housing to the underside of the bed in a more squared off hole and use a lid made out of the bed material for a nice, clean look that will also keep debris out of the filler. A hole in the lowest point of the housing would also drain any water it may collect.
 
#131 ·
There is a drain hole in there behind the aluminum filler piece.

I think I am probably going to drill another drain hole, in the black steel portion. Willing to sacrafice a little form over function for this and I dont think it will be a huge problem.

I have had the filler for my fuel cell on my buggy on the top of it totally exposed for 7 years and never really had a problem.

Sean
 
#134 ·
So I got the call yesterday that my wheels showed up!!!! It was all I could do to stay at work and finish my stuff for the day. Finally busted out of work around 3 and headed down to the cruiser shop to mount up some wheels and tires.

Wheels look better in person that any of us imagined.... Not to mention they are super easy to put together, way easier than a normal beadlock wheel. Had all four mounted up and ready to balance in about 2 hours and that was bsing a fair bit in that time.

Two balanced out amazingly at 1.5 and 2.0 oz each. The other two were at 5.0 and 5.5 oz. Not bad in my opinion for a 37 on a bolt together beadlock.





Got them loaded up and headed home with them in the back of the truck. Homeward bound, stopped in at an un named tire shop for lug nuts. They only had 4 in stock and wanted $4.00 a piece for them and wanted me to pay in advance to get them ordered in for tomorrow. That is $128.00 in lug nuts :eek: I opted to pass on that and get some from a different source.

Got them mounted up with two lugs per wheel.... and set it on the ground. Amazingly, the fronts were able to bolt on but I could not turn at all. Wheels back off the truck, Time for some front suspension work.

Pulled out the front springs and put in the new skyjackerd200s front springs with all new bushings. Easy install, just need some new longer shocks for the front of it and some crossover steering.

I will appologize for the crappy photos but its the best I could do in the dark.









Time for a front bumper, winch, tail lights, seats, well I guess there is a small laundry list of stuff to do still. :p

Sean
 
#135 ·
it's pretty amazing how well 37's fit on the gen 1 trucks with only leveling kits. Looks awesome with the beadlocks as well. Are those hotchkiss?
 
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