Progress, however slow... but isn't it about the JOURNEY?

[Zig]

Indeed~

And I'll be driving it some more today.
This time my goal is to make it to my mom and dad's and alllllll the way back, without incident.

I agree that you can't be any further away from being finished, Mike, so now you are heading in the right direction!
We are here to help you along, and thanks for the update! I look forward to what that frame will look like, put back togethre and painted up!

 

[vwnate1]

Progress

Mike ;

As long as you can occasionally take a baby step with it , it should remain fun and get done sooner than you think .

I always have a yard full of derelicts or half finished projects , once in a while I lay me down some simple thing to do and discover hours later I have finished a much larger portion of work than I'd planned for that day .

This occurred last night on my Russian Motocycle .

Baby steps really do work .

 

[50 Chevy LS3]

Wow, Mike, you ARE serious about weight-loss! Boxing will be necessary at this point. The "web" portion of a frame can take a lot of holes or material removal. The "flange" portion cannot. On heat-treated big truck frames, they say to never drill or weld on the flange.
You know we will need to see pictures of boxing and paint.

 

[52wasp]

Steve,

YES, I am taking the weight thing seriously! The frame should be around the same weight when done, but MUCH stiffer.

Truck CURB weight goal: 2,999 lbs

No mods to top and bottom of frame, just the sides... Got a dozen hours in on frame stuff Thurs/Fri. Most of the way thru cutting and fitting boxing plates, pics of the progress when I work on it again Tuesday. Mounds of boxes on the doorstep of late, strictly suspension stuff. I like YOUR avatar of a rolling frame... looking to be able to show something similar soon.

When I make myself a DETAILED list (just frame/suspension in this case), it helps me to not FORGET an important step (I did the list in chronological order of the tasks at hand). So I am methodically whittling away at my JUST-CHASSIS list.

 

[52wasp]

while I didn't see George Foreman....

I have been boxing! Most of the boxing plates are fabbed, and here is one tacked in.

More pictures tomorrow!

 

[Wolf]

Great work Mike! Keep it up. So glad you are enjoying this process and now have that "fire" lit under you to keep working on it. Fun stage of the process for sure.

 

[e015475]

Will be boxing my frame this fall - more pictures of yours would be very helpful - looks like a first class job

 

[Zig]

Question

I've always wondered about "boxing". I know it is a way to make a frame stronger, but how do you treat the inside of the boxed frame to keep it from rusting? Especially when it has holes in it and you drive it when the streets are wet?
Solid boxing would be impossible to seal I would think.

 

[50 Chevy LS3]

I've always wondered about "boxing". I know it is a way to make a frame stronger, but how do you treat the inside of the boxed frame to keep it from rusting? Especially when it has holes in it and you drive it when the streets are wet?
Solid boxing would be impossible to seal I would think.

That is a good question, Zig. I painted the inside of mine. Speaking for myself, my truck might get caught out in a summer rain, but, will never see a gravel or dirt road. No more Indiana road salt.
As far as rust preventatives, aircraft builders use "tube oil" inside steel tube fuselage type airplanes. Ag-planes and salt water exposed float planes also use rust preventative spray coatings.

 

[52wasp]

so many questions...

Hello all,

Wolf: I have to say, it is coming out EXACTLY how I envisioned it.

E015475: More pics coming (I swear!) of the boxing, I have only 2 left to fab. Zig will probably PM me a reminder.

Zig: The frame will be painted where possible (all those holes make it easier to get paint in), and the inside will be rustproofed after. Solid boxing would only guarantee water couldn't get OUT, because it will always find it's way IN. Penny WILL see rain, and likely a dirt road too. No salt though.

Progress: Lots of little bits blasted primed and painted (control arms, springs, leafs, hardware, etc), 20 more hours of boxing (my welding has improved from "ugly" to "okay"). Boxing is SLOW work. By the end of the day, I am QUITE dirty, and according to Elaine, I "smell like metal". I was going to weld nuts into the frame where needed to fasten things like the S10 conversion bracketry, but with all those convenient holes in the frame rails, it'll be easy to reach in with a nut and wrench. I re-did both motor-mount pedestals, the pass. side in particular was VERY close to the control arm (due to the engine being biased to the right for a straight-shot at the steering. The lightening of the frame is inspired in part by certain 1961 Catalina's which had their frames "swiss-cheesed" for racing. I always thought that was cool (although I have never seen one of the aforementioned Pontiac's).

Up next: During the week, I'll start pressing in new (poly) bushings into control arms, leafs and end links.

I'll add pics into this post later in the week.

Thanks for your support, everyone!

 

[52wasp]

pics...

For some reason, I couldn't add pics to my previous post. Here they are:

Drivers side motor mount (revised)

Passenger side motor mount (revised more)

Pass side mount used to look like this

Drivers side Trans X-member mount (revised), had to move it up a little.
More pics next post.

 

[52wasp]

more pics

Here we go

Driver's side frame

Drivers side Inside boxing 1

Drivers side Inside boxing 2

Drivers side Inside boxing 3

Passenger side of frame

 

[52wasp]

RH frame rail, outside view

Clearance in crossmember for oil pan, using the blue-tipped wrench.

Spring perches from donor S10 rear welded to Colorado rear end.

Sway bar brackets welded to Colorado rear end. The U-bolts from the S10 rear didn't fit the larger axle tube diameter of the Colorado rear, so I modified the brackets to fit, and welded them. The bare metal has been metal-prepped (hence the odd color).

A view from the back of the frame to show the motor pushed to the right. This allows a direct shot for the steering. No Borgeson joints required.

The boxing was time-consuming. As of Wednesday, all of the boxing has been completely welded in. I'm hoping the frame will see some Rustoleum by the end of the week. We'll see!

Enjoy the pics.

 

[Grimtas]

Thanks for the pics, just curious did you by chance weigh your cutouts? I'd be interested to see just how much weight you actually shaved off the frame after adding the boxing.

Or better yet do you have:
Actual frame weight prior to boxing
Boxing material weight post cut/fit
Cutout weight

 

[vwnate1]

Wow ;

I see so much hard works here .

I wish I had the skills , I rather like to chug away at little niggly things , cleaning , replacing , adjusting and so on , it not only makes the end product drive better and last longer , safer etc. , it simply pleases me to know " I did it ". .

 

[Zig]

Holy Truck Frame, Batman!

Lord have mercy that's a bunch -o- holes!!!

I'm sure you did the math and made in depth research as to the structural integrity that the frame still has, but that just looks scary to me.

Slick idea for the motor mounts!

 

[52wasp]

Grimtas,
While I had delusions of weighing every last nugget, before/after etc. etc... it just didn't happen. BUT, I can tell you the frame is .157 thick (nominal). I boxed with .125 stock. For every square inch of .157 I removed, I had weight budget to add 1.25 square inches of .125 stock. I reduced the weight of what I added by cutting similar holes. Where does the math end up? I don't know (lame, I know), but I can tell you it is STIFF.

Nate,
It HAS been hard work, quite time consuming in fact. I can assure you that I possess no MORE skills than you, only different ones. I have stepped well outside my comfort zone, and there are booger-welds to show for it (my brother offered "I should have showed you how to weld correctly EARLIER!") I am driven by the EXACT same thing as you... to be able to say "I did it".

Zig,
Who is the crazy one here (you who drives a truck with no bed)? So as far as all those holes... I made sure to leave 1" of web top and bottom, and only remove material from the neutral axis (think of an I-joist in a newer home), and I boxed too. And the motor mounts removed redundant metal.

Lakeroadster,
I would be remiss if I did not thank you for the inset-boxing plate tip. A little more time-consuming to cut and fit, but NICE to weld.

 

[Grimtas]

52,
I completely understand missing the weights, as on gets into the heat of a project, little things like logging stats fall behind, I do it all the time, I have good intentions to document but in the end always forget a few steps that lead to the futility of it in the end.

While I'm not a structural engineer at first look I had the same concerns Zig expressed as it looked to my untrained eyes like alot of holes , I'm sure you did the math to ensure it's safety. My next impression was asked and answered as to the weight gains but that's a mute point.

Thanks for your response.

 

[vwnate1]

Me Likey !

Well Mike ;

As I so often say : anyone can fix things and usually do a better job if/because they care .

I've seen to much bad / dangerous repairs to ever trust anyone else 100 % , I'm too old to learn how to weld though .

Keep on the good works and sharing pix as many here are watching closely and learning .

-Nate
(goofing off instead of chasing parts & working this nice Saturday)

 

[52wasp]

BLACK is the new silver

As promised:

Here she is in primer (Rustoleum, thinned).