Well this has been a eventful day to say the least.
First I got my custom made visor from Brian (Brian in PA) today. He did a perfect job. It turned out exactly like I wanted.
It came in the mail and like a flash I was all over installing it. I had already taken the truck apart AGAIN...(Boy if I had a buck for every time I took this thing apart and put it back together, I'd just about be able to pay for it...
Well that's when the crap started...
I made a king size DUMB *** mistake today. I went to move the axles forward and cut the frame as discussed earlier. Well I did not mark my reference point for where to move the axles up to BEFORE I took the truck apart. I did mark it, just after I had it was stripped. Well long story
SHORT I marked the wrong place. Did not even notice it till I was almost done putting it back together, when I noticed that the axles were quite close to the rear sleeper Mounts... Well to say the least I think I got just about every cuss word known to man out at least twice.
Well I thought about leaving it like this, after all it is REAL 1:1 accurate now. But I just could not deal with it. I have a specific look I want for this truck and have already shortened it once, I was not going to try to live with it.
So I ordered another set of frame rails from Freddy.
Well I got a big box of much needed stuff from Tower today. In it I have a crap load or tubing for the shocks, I have some big tube that I use in the making of my stacks, I got the styrene I am going to use for my diamond tuck interior, I got some long .080" styrene so that I can complete the running boards in one piece, I got some much needed taps, and last but not least I got most of the stuff I need to build my drive lines. What I mean by most is some of the parts were to small so I have to send them back and get more of the other ones...(another lesson learned)
I also got the brass I needed to make my fender mounts for the fenders that I got from John (Stylin-N-Profilin). Then I got my visor from Brian of course, and I also got a small package from Bob at Scale Hardware... Yup, I went against what I first had planned and ALL BECAUSE OF BRIAN
I had to get some rivets. I got the 1mm heads though my personal opinion is they are closer to stock size, and of course they are smaller which equals harder to handle..
Oh well not like I haven't drilled a million holes on this thing already what is a few extra. Ya know the bad part is with my OCD. No matter how much I tell myself not to, I can pretty much guarantee that come Monday at work I will be going over to one of the Pete's in the trucking company's yard next door and be counting the rivets on the hood....
Ok on to the fender mounts.
I used 1/8" square brass tube for these. along with a little angle and some 1/2" flat.
I built these almost exactly like the real 1:1 hangers are built.
Now the good thing about the frame screw up is I am just that much ahead on my next truck... It looks like it will have a 329 wheel base... Anyway I figured that the truck that gets these frames will have these fenders on them as well so I went ahead and partially mounted them.
My initial intent was to NOT have the bolts go all the way through. I took some 1/4 x .080 styrene strips and epoxied them on the inside of the fender knowing that the CA glue would not stick to the material they are made out of... Well neither does the epoxy.. So in interest of having a good strong connection I had to go through the fender. This is actually done on the real ones, they usually have a SS strip kinda like a top weight for mud flaps and then some SS carriage bolts.
Then I made a home made fifth wheel mount, These large sleeper truck's usually have fixed fifth wheels because they have more than enough weight on the steers and there is no need to add more.
I know that the stock set up for these have a bolt that goes all the way through from one side to the other on the 5th wheel. I did not want that so I used two separate bolts. Now if you just bolt the platform to the 5th wheel then you either get a tight 5th wheel or you get loose bolts. I took a piece of copper tube and cut it long enough to go through the mounting holes on the 5ht wheel and the platform that I made. This allows me to tighten the bolts while keeping completely free movement of the 5th wheel..
Well that's all the fun for today, so here is some pictures of the truck put back together in it's short version that WILL NOT be staying.
~Mike~