Great build and great fab work. Looking forward to seeing how you tunnel out of the back of the cab. Keep posting! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
With the grill modified and positioned we moved back up front to start tackling the hairpins. Since this truck is going to be sporting a suicide front axle we needed to devise a way to attach spring the hairpins. We played around with a number of ideas and finally settled on a custom mount.
Now half the weight, and the all the road forces that hit the front axle, are transferred through those clevises to the spring. Are they strong enough?
ditto alchemy, … thought the same thing... the wall of the tube is thinner where tapped... will it stress then crack where the clevis's trailing thread ends ? it doesn't just flex vertically it also will twist horizontally...
Here is a picture of a similar setup. The truck has quite a few miles on it with no issues. I do agree that there will be some horizontal stresses from this design.
You said earlier in this build that it would have a U.S. Mail theme. Now I am seeing your vision and, it will haul the Mail.
Hearing the theme song from " the Waltons " is a HELL of a lot better than the theme song of " deliverance " .....or " cops" .....but seriously this is going to be a SWEET TRUCK Ratspit!...looking forward to more updates! As to the concern over the load created by the spring attached to the hairpins AMERICAN made neutralized chrome molly radius rods and high tensile strength AMERICAN MADE clevises ( and bolts naturally) and it ought to work great!
Thank you gentlemen. The next step on the build was to attack the dash. The original dash was nice but what the heck, a 40 dash is even cooler right?. We had to cut and tuck the corners, shape the top, and fill a few holes.
JYD1, Yes, the plan is to use a hydro clutch so the transmission tunnel is as small as possible. We are finishing up the tunnel and more of the floor details now. I'll post a few pictures soon.
I started these threads a while back for the seats and the gas tank for the truck. Bomber seat build https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/bomber-seat-build.1147754/ Gas tank build https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/gas-tank-build.1184943/#post-13675466
The transmission tunnel has finally taken shape. It was a little bit of a challenge to keep it tight to the tranny and limit the impact on the floor space, while at the same time shooting for a traditional look.
It's gonna be right hand drive right? My wife could use it then to deliver mail! Oh wait, automatics only for our mail carriers. Dave
With the tunnel in place it was time to figure out the e-brake location. I saved the original lever from the BB when I took it apart with the idea that I would use it on the build . Since the T5 lacked a mounting point we built a frame mounted bracket.
As the old saying goes, "The devil is in the detail". And boy are there a lot of details. First on the list was to fabricate a E-brake pocket for the newly placed handle.
The rear panhard bar had been on the list of things to do for quite a while. Pretty straight forward install with a great kit from Socal for the QC.
To button up the floor we had to fabricate fillers for the 4 corners of the cab. Eventually these will be riveted in place.
You metal magicians kill me. Well I needed to make a pocket for the ebrake. Before long presto chango a real neat pocket that would have taken me a week or two make and looked half as good.
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