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  #31  
Old 01-05-2018, 09:40 PM
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Default Cowl to door jamb

Nothing too serious here, but thought I'd show how I had to change the cowl sides in order to blend nicer into the door jambs I made earlier.

I had cut a fair amount out of the cowl side earlier in order to have room to add the inner door jamb structure and skin.

In this picture you can also see the cowl end of the horizontal support bars that come from the radiator support. These bolt through the cowl and into a cross bar in the cab that some interior components were mounted on.

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New side panel fit and welded into the door jamb. The toe board also flows down the jamb edge a bit also.

If you look close you can see the I dimpled the jamb and so the nutserts that the fender edge bolts to are flush with the surface.

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This is a close up of the angled "step" on the cowl. The top of the fender has the same angle and that nests into place when bolted on. Also a slightly better view of the flush mount nutsert.

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  #32  
Old 01-05-2018, 10:23 PM
lots2learn lots2learn is offline
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Really great work. Love how you kept the many design changes subtle. Your design has a nice balance.
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  #33  
Old 01-06-2018, 12:57 AM
dave powell dave powell is offline
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Please keep posting,as someone who is getting ready to start my your project,seeing how other tackled other their projects.
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  #34  
Old 01-06-2018, 06:28 AM
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Gojeep Gojeep is offline
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I must admit but this is the first time I have liked the front of this series of Dodge! I have always found them to be too 'bullnosed' before but the grille and headlight modifications really change all that.
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  #35  
Old 01-06-2018, 09:59 AM
Sprint Relic Sprint Relic is offline
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As impressive as the quality of work is to me, I am maybe even more impressed with the creative and sanitary way you made your brackets and braces to the point each piece is it's own little work of art.
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  #36  
Old 01-06-2018, 02:53 PM
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pplace pplace is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gojeep View Post
I must admit but this is the first time I have liked the front of this series of Dodge! I have always found them to be too 'bullnosed' before but the grille and headlight modifications really change all that.
Totally agree! That was my biggest worry when I started the project. Certainly doesn’t have the natural looks of the Fords or Chevys from the era.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sprint Relic
As impressive as the quality of work is to me, I am maybe even more impressed with the creative and sanitary way you made your brackets and braces to the point each piece is it's own little work of art.
Thank you, I take that as a big compliment! I consider my style / design to be clean, simplistic yet classy. Sometimes the more simple something looks, the more time it takes to design and engineer it into reality. I hope you will like some of my ideas and build techniques on the chassis portion when I share that.
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Last edited by pplace; 01-07-2018 at 01:36 AM.
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  #37  
Old 01-07-2018, 04:56 PM
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Default Chassis

My posts will now jump back to the start of the entire project.....the chassis.

The chassis had already been changed by someone else before it came to me. Mainly they installed an aftermarket Mustang II style front crossmember with air ride. Out back, they had kicked the frame up and put a Ford 9" with a triangulated air ride setup as well.

The front was pretty good for the most part, just a few minor changes / corrections were performed to clean things up a bit. The rear was a different story all together.

The first basic task was to make the front air bag setup a bit better. Hard to see in the picture but I curved the side of the frame rail in next to the airbag as initially it was rubbing the frame rail. As you can see there is good clearance now.

Secondly, I didn't like the mis-alignment of the bag while in the "ride height" range. So I moved the bag mount out on the lower a-arm (it's mis-aligned in this picture still)

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Here is a comparison of the change in mounting hole for the air bag and also how I added to the lower mounting pad a bit.

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Now you can see how the bag is more "relaxed" and aligned while in the ride height travel range of the suspension.

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This picture shows the bag fully deflated and why I added the extra surface on the mounting pad. Previously the edge of the bag hung over the metal edge and would have been a prime location for chaffing / damaging the airbag.

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When the suspension dropped full "air out" the steering tie rods interfered with the bottom of the frame. I notched in a tube to allow good clearance.

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  #38  
Old 01-07-2018, 05:15 PM
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Default Rear frame

I leveled and squared up the chassis on the frame table. Once everything was perfect I attached it with clamps so I knew it wouldn't move while I was modifying it.

The rear kick-up that was previously installed was not visually appealing, but even if it was unfortunately it was installed out of square and not symmetrical side to side, so this was a good opportunity to make it better.

Chassis jigged up on the rack. It's at "air out" height, but the jig allowed it to be unbolted and moved to a second set of holes that set it at ride height if needed.

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View from the rear of how the chassis was to start with.

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View from the front of how the chassis was to start with.

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Took the big step and cut the rear of the frame completely off.

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With the rear end set at the proper height with some temporary "wheels" of the correct diameter cardboard was used as a simple method of coming up with a better frame rail profile.

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Rear view looking at the mock up cardboard frame rail profile.

If you look close you can see some vertical steel posts at the rear of the cardboard rail. These were installed before the original rear frame was removed, and gave me the exact position and height that I needed the new frame rail to end at eventually.

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  #39  
Old 01-07-2018, 05:46 PM
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Happy with that the mockup frame profile would work, four identical steel copies were cut to start building the new rails from.

Four new profiles cut and ready to graft into the frame.

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A view of the outer splice on an angle. Also the top and bottom cuts are offset so there is not a continual seam around the frame rail. The inner frame profile actually had the angle splice leaning the opposite direction as well.

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Lined up the passenger outer rail profile and prepared to tack it into position.

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Strips the correct width of the frame were cut and formed along the top and bottom of the side profile. These along with the inner rail side were carefully fit and positioned correctly and tacked along the edges.

Passenger side finished to that point, starting driver side in the background.

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View from the rear

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Both new frame rails are now assembled and tacked.

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Now that the rear frame rails were built, all remaining crossmembers in the frame were removed. After that the rails front to back were checked multiple times for square and accuracy.

After that, full length templates were made from the rear splice all the way up to the front suspension crossmember. With an accurate template, new steel boxing plates were cut and tacked into position. This really stiffens the chassis up, cleans it up visually and aids in installing components later in the build.

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View from the side showing the full length of the frame now boxed. Also note the front splice behind the front suspension crossmember was also done at an angle

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View looking down the length of the driver side frame rail

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  #40  
Old 01-07-2018, 08:56 PM
fred26t fred26t is offline
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Default Often I am amazed at how much thought goes into building something.

Having built 5 race cars and 7 street cars, one street bike I am amazed at how much thought it takes to do it takes. Fred26t
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