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Just a mess of spot welds Rocker coming off... Unfortunately, the new panels are only “close” to the original and I will not name the USA supplier. No amount of hoping, praying or massaging them with a sheet metal brake are going to make them right. So....I'll have to come back to them...

Time for a little body repair on this 52 year old cab while I wait on some exhaust parts Driver cab corner and rocker. Using a Blair cutter to break the spot welds loose Peeling away the cab corner Up inside the rocker. 1st glance I got scared thinking that was a petrified dirty ol'...

Starting the exhaust from the manifolds back. All mandrel bent with a crossover from dual to single. Crossover should go from passenger to driver side and then single up from there. Driver side: Driver side underneath. Short flex pipe and a small cat because I can't stand exhaust stink on...

Turns out nobody makes heavy duty stainless flanges for the 8.1 liter, at least not that we could find. So....got a chunk of 1/2” 316L stainless plate to start from scratch. The idea is running full 3" mandrel bent exhaust from the headers back. And of course, the passenger/driver sides are...

Mounting the tilt column. Flaming River stainless column and mounting components, Sparco steering wheel Support bushing at the firewall Had to notch the dash just a bit for the upper support block Installed and the DD shaft mocked up. Looks like I was lucky and I’ve got about 1/8”...

Wrapping up the steering. Billet arm from some racing application with a 1/4” drop. Was drilled for a threaded 5/8” bolt Reamed for the 1 ton TRE Installed. Draglink to panhard angle is just about identical so there shouldn’t be any weird bump steer. Hopefully

Knocked out a few small machining projects too 1.5” 7075 aluminum tie rod tapped for 1 ton TRE’s Sky Manufacturing high steer arm and a tapered TRE bushing from Ballistic. With how low this truck sits, I can’t actually run the high steer because the tie rod would nearly be in the frame and...

Added the Gen 4.0 Power-Gate battery manager and the Switch Pros distribution block Everything is tucked up above the Vintage Air heat and AC unit

Working on finding permanent dry homes for a few things. Made a template for the bulkhead connector for heater and AC hoses. Keeps the hose routing nice and clean And it's in.... ECU mount. High and dry up under the dash. Easy routing of the wiring harness from the engine

Welded nutserts in for the battery trays...these are Artec units for Odyssey 1500 batteries And fit the trays up. Plenty of space from the header do as not to cook the battery

Back to this mess, the passenger side firewall. Need to strengthen it and prepare a flat mounting surface Weld it in... Backside in the passenger footwell So full of holes it looks like it got hit with a shotgun blast. :icon_crazy: Need to seal those all up

Moving forward on the frame now.... After quite a bit of debate, decided to incorporate some steering box armor/skid into the front frame. It’ll provide a nice ramp for obstacles and I'll eventually tie it all in with the bumper It’s “Kaiser" approved ;)

Steering box stuff is just about done. I upgraded the internal sleeves to 4130 chromo then welded in both sides. Also used some 1018 round bar to make the appropriate “wedges” so the bolts are pulling straight against the box. The bolts passing through the frame need to be set at the same...

Finish the boxing.....then weld it. Which took a LONG time :sFun_hot: This was extra fun since so much of it was overhead or really hard to get to. All done though. Again, not sure if this is the way to go about this but I'll be damned if it rips off the frame or tweaks

Fish plate is on... And verified by bolting up a donor box that the sleeves and holes are correct.. Boxing around the front frame rail..... And starting to plate and box the entire factory mount so it ties into the exterior plate Just using .25” cold roll scraps to do this. I'm...

This. This is factory janky. Apparently the Kaiser Corporation wants you to fish your tiny hand AND a bolt down in this void where I’m pointing with the awl. It’s for the upper, forward bolt. I think I’ll pass on that plan since this whole area is going to get sealed up Now the tube sleeve...

Getting the holes centered and lined up correctly was a challenge. And I really wanted to get it right. Used the sleeves to assist in alignment then I marked the back side of the plate Transferred to the plate. And of course, one hole just has to be half on the plate. The whole outer frame is...

This is the factory mount. Yeah, YUCK. This is looking inwards under the frame. Rear bolt has a sleeve which isn’t centered very well, front got nothing, just a big hole to pass a socket through. Nasty splatter welds all over, looks like it was assembled on a Friday afternoon by someone who had...

Transitioning over to working on the steering. The factory steering box mount only has 3 bolt holes for a manual box. I need 4 mounting holes and the mount needs to be considerably reinforced/braced across the whole frame rail. Start with a fresh fish plate to even out the exterior frame...

The ORD twin sticks for the 205 were the worst and lots of things (465 and Magnum) are all vying for space So I thought they were going here. And I was wrong. Cut the hole then realized I didn’t have enough throw to properly engage the 205 shift shafts And...... realized I’d screwed the...