You are right, Rico, the floor is 16ga. The "rockers" are somewhere between 18-19ga. Wish I could get along with the speed you are.
Yo 50, would putting the 3/16" flat bar underneath the cab do the trick? Want to make sure about support and don't want to have problems later since this will be my daily drive. Thanks
Rico, I would probably use some sort of "C" channel. Flat stock would not stiffen up the 16ga. enough IMO. The bolts that attach the "shackle type" rear cab mounts go through the mount itself, the floor support, the floor sheet, the missing C channel (rear seat riser), and finally a thick threaded flat nut plate. You could possibly make a inverted "hat" shaped channel span from existing rear floor support to floor support. Anything additional on the top side would help, to tie the latch pillars together. Also, I would plug weld some angle steel across the underside of the cab to match the forward mounting points of the seats. Any movement of the seat or cab at these points will eventually result in fatigue cracks. Seat belts are really serious, because the weight of a human occupant multiplies many times in the event of an accident. G-forces can multiply 15-20 times in really severe collisions. The modern auto manufacturers use large heavy washers or nut plates placed behind door pillars or doublers in the floor sheet to anchor seat belts. The "C" channel or angle you use does not have to be real heavy, it could be formed 16ga. like the floor and plug-welded in from the top.
I like to run a thick flat stock under the floor and bolt all seatbelts through that with grade 8 bolts, big washers and nylock nuts.
Wow As always , much detail and forward thinking going on here , I love reading these buildups . The little I know of support leads me to think the round cross support will be strongest .
Just finished capping off the back of the bed and filling the post holes, Also since I'm raising the bed floor I didn't want to have some piece of wood holding the bed up so I built these little risers to make up the difference for the square wood blocks and the 3/4" wood floor.
Rico, You ever thought about moving the roll pan forward and making it tie across the rear fenders? I did that on my '65... just curious if you'd considered it? John
Bed Modifications Wow ~ That bed is going to look smooth as a baby's bottom when you're done ! . I look at it and wonder : ' yabbutt , where do you tie the ropes & hook the tie down ratchets ? ' . I hope to never had a truck I don't want to work out of no matter how nice and clean it is . Keep up the GREAT works Rico ! .
Thank you Nate, what my plan is to put tie downs in 6 different places in the bed so I can still haul stuff if need be
Roadster, my plan is to install a tow hitch right behind the license plate so I need all the room for,that so I have to keep the roll pan where it is.
I was going to build another box on top of that one in 1" x 1" and put cross bars in that one because that's the one I will have as the tilt bed so do you still think I'll need those cross bars on the first one?
I really am enjoying following this thread Rico, Thanks for up dating so often. Glad to see the owners able to do there own work.
