Slick 60's

Next Sunday (3/27) is the day the truck heads back to Tim's for the cage, and next stage of assembly, so it's time for all of my loose ends to get cleaned up, and finish everything I can before then...my wife & I are also 2 weeks away from the due date of our first child on 4/3, so it's gonna be a crazy time around here...

To continue where I left off, the front outriggers had to be tweaked a bit to hug the front body mount, and clear the cab portion adequately. They will weld to the frame portion of the body mount in lieu of a forward facing gusset like I did in the rear. The pie cut out of the top of the 4x4 tube allows the outrigger to still project 12" from the side of the frame while at the same time clear the structural floor support at the front cab mount.


As they will be oriented in the truck, and a quick shot of the finished pair of front outriggers...



Just as before, I had to cut out the floor for access where the down tubes will connect...if it makes you rust belt guys feel any better I did cut through some surface rust on the passenger side

Passenger front:


Passenger rear:


Driver's front:


Driver's rear:


Here's a shot of the outriggers tacked in place. If you look close, you can see where they will weld to the front cab mount as I mentioned earlier.

Passenger side:


Driver's side:

Here's a picture/summary of how I modified the original u-bolt girdles to sit under the springs, and add protection by adding return legs to shield the u-bolts.

Original u-bolt/bump stop ass'y. Already cut to be reconfigured.


Tacked the cut-off pieces, to create return legs to add another level of safety, just in case...(these will protect the u-bolts that are now under the axle)...(I left the pieces long for ease of handling. I cut them off after they were tacked in place.


You can see what we're trying to accomplish here.


Here's the 2nd return leg tacked in place, and how the girdle will actually be oriented in the truck.


Flip side:


Fully welded, with a bead on the inside too...just for good measure.



All cleaned up, ready for paint and installation. I think they came out pretty well. More importantly, they do the job.



Revised u-bolt girdle installed. Maybe this picture helps make sense of why the returns are imortant. With the scrub line being tight, this is purely for safety...

Also decided that now was as good as any time to fill the gas filler opening...not nearly as exciting and reminded me why I like chassis work. You never know when you going to uncover an old repair...

Pretty straightforward, just cut a patch from a piece of sheet metal & formed it to the shape of the body. I then traced the patch to give myself a cut line. I like using a sharpie, and cutting through the line with my cut-off wheel. Usually gives me the gap I want. Then just tack tack tack, and stitch stictch stitch. I much rather have a few lows, then high spots. Makes filling, blocking, and priming much easier. In this case I made the patch about an inch wider so I could cut out the majority of the old slide hammer holes from a previous repair. Nothing like the smell of old bondo turning to dust.

Not as exciting in my book, but here's a few pictures of the process.

Sweet!! What is the purpose of the outriggers?? is it structural for the cage?? Nice job on the filler hole.... It is looking great!!!

Greg D wrote:Are you filling the stake pockets also?
Do the rules allow a tonneau cover? or do you run without a tailgate or is it "vented" somehow?

If time allows, I'll fill the stake pockets. We can run with or without a ful or partial tonneau, but a tailgate is required. I believe louvers are allowed, and the Brick has a louvered tailgate if memory serves.

Anthony wrote:Sweet!! What is the purpose of the outriggers?? is it structural for the cage?? Nice job on the filler hole.... It is looking great!!!

Thanks Anthony...the outriggers are structural for the cage down tubes. Since the frame is so narrow, there are needed to create a workable driver compartment.

Greg D wrote:So would a tonneau be fabricated from aluminum sheet maybe? A vinyl one won't handle the speeds will it?

I was going to fabricate a 3 section hard tonneau from light gauge steel. However, the last 3-4 months have been an unexpected rampage of changes with work, some more changes with work, family illness, bla bla bla...so time just didn't allow for it. I honestly don't know how vinyl would cope at higher speeds, but seems to be pretty commonplace on LSR vehicles.

The tailgate issue was ran on " Mythbusters", and the findings were that it made no difference if you have the tail gate open ( to simulate no gate), or with it shut, just saying!

Alan Mclennan wrote:The tailgate issue was ran on " Mythbusters", and the findings were that it made no difference if you have the tail gate open ( to simulate no gate), or with it shut, just saying!

That was using newer trucks. Newer trucks (late 90s) have the cabs shaped to create an air bubble to reduce drag. Truck before that do not.

I ran mine down for a month and up for a month. drove only to work and back. Weather was about the same and I drove the same way.

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+2mpg with it down.

..............." And I drove the same way!"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXwV7Zx2XFg

Are you guys still looking at making it out for this years El Mirage ?

We sure hope to although I think we would have trouble making it in May. The lake may not be "dry" by then anyway.

Hopefully we get some sun cause it is more like a lake than a track right now. Its been raining for about a day and a half here.

Mctim64 wrote:Todd, if you have time maybe you could put the engine pix up, I still haven't been able to post pix on here for some reason.

I'll see what I can do...