Realistic budget of a 2wd -4wd and goodies build

spent all day measuring and cutting the C channel to follow the old rails exactly. for the most part its ok but for the life of me i just coudlnt get the three straigthr sections to sit straight without messing all the otehr angles up (by 3 straight sections, its wehre the new style 3 cab mounts attch). then at the end of the day i reaqlized. why dont i jsut continue the straigth bar from the front cab mount and that will tie in the mid mount without having to do a funky drop, and will give the whole thing way more bending support!
you can see from my mock up with scrap peices. hard to tell kind abut tomorrow ill have both sides done and a pic of it mocked up on the new chassis.
Im finally here for a weekend so im expecting to get some good progress done!

tomorrow i expect to have at leasa 2 or 3 cross braces done, and that means i can start welding it up to the outer rocker rails and have an over all package semi ready. Definitly trickiest part will be attachign this strudy piece of art to the tinny cab..i know if the cab rusts out from the top down...at least ill still be bolted to the floor!

This is true layout and width of the cab floor, sheet metal channel is new passenger rocker.


got most of the frame work done. Tomorrow will getnit done fully, and weld on the outer rocker channel rail, and some more fore aft bracing.

Ny trans tunnel will be a tad narrower than stock, but this will give more leg room, and the cab sits about 1.5" higher than stock the way i built it so im not concerned with heat ir clearance

thats a HUGE project you got there!
its lookin pretty good!
personally i would have braced the cab a bit more, but as long as you get your marks on spot youll be ok.
lookin alot like my hotrod build i did damn near 10 years ago!



your floor bracing is a bit of overkill, but it will be strong as hell.
why are yo making custom engine mounts?
i would urdge you to try to use the stock style mounts.
easier and cheaper to replace.

my lack of patience has kept me away from this thread, 13 pages? but i finally got through it all.
but i dont think youre gonna make your deadline. keep on truckin!
do you plan on welding the entire floor or hard tach'n it and seam sealing it?
whenever i do heavy metal work like this, i slap some fiberbond over the seam.
its just waterproof bondo. keeps all the moisture out. but it has to be on bare metal.
my hats off to you tho. dont loose faith!

I'm beginning to think It would have been easier for me to go this way. Looks good man.

nothing left really to brace tothe old floor, passenger a b c pillars all rotted. it would just ne patching and patching. and new chassis has 4 didferen can mounts/
Time line..yeahhh..maybe if i didnt work then i could get it all done, but as long as cab is all painted before it gets cold.
It will get done soon enough.
Cab mounts-new frame has different cross member, wont accept idi mounts

plan on tacking some and yes seam sealer

i would get the cab back in place before you put the engine in.

i just went out and looked at my PSD's i wouldnt be supprised if the PSD upper mount would bolt up to the IDI.
same 3 bolt design. may be easier to mod one o these if it dont bolt exactly?
whats the 06 crossmember like?

Nah im putting the drivetrain in first, then I can set the cab ontop and not have to mess with crawling underneath or anything.

I can modify the floor easily to accept any odd shapes from downpipe or whatnot that I was not expecting before.

Everythign should clear, but..im expecting some further mods to be done.

PS what is the size of the IDI head stud nut? Need to order a 12pt socket for it

got the outer rails mocked up, front trans hump, lowered the cross members to be within the C channels so sheet will have a compeltel seal along all the frame. Got all the cab mounts tacked into place, middle one needs to drop a 1/4 inch, for some reason those mounts are 1/4 shorter, no big deal. made 8/12 peices to tie the outer rail into the cab mount, (2 12" channels per cab mount).
Frame is nice and square when measureing diagonally, 88" long, and exactly 64" wide at both ends. Those big flatbed channels i will be making the flatbed out sure cam ein handy.
If i dont get rained out, hoping to have the floor tacked in by end of tuesday, then wednesday lay in all the sheetmetal, put in the seatbelt and seat plates, and fab the rear wall, and tie in the front A pillars..somehow.

Definitly trickiest part is lining up the front firewall area and makin the rear cab corners. I say the toughest parts are almost done! Again, might be raining this week, so well see. All my work is being done outside..might just buy a poncho when im doing the headstuds and turbo piping.

measured from ground to cab floor...were looking at a minimum of 32" right now. But this is before the chassis is weighed down.

Cool on the floor height. I love working under my trucks. grab the creeper and do what you need. No reason to jack them up.

Looking good. Your going about the floor on one of these more along the lines of what I see the hotrod and custom guys do. Looks like it's going to be really strong and best of all no ROT!!

my medium grit masonry sand didnt flow worth CRAp thru the siphon feed blaster, going to pick up soem coal slag from TSC tomorrow. If i can sandblast the inside rockers of the cab frame tomorrow then I can probably get the floor frame tacked in as well. If that still wont blast, well ill just grab a few more flap discs and go to town. Its almost reayd just got a few spots to grind down and clean off the rust and undercoating.

I LOVE AMAZON.

found all my spicer numbers thru the spicer catalogue, punched the PN into amazon, they got all the good stuff for prime shipping too. and for the best price ive seen anywhere period.
only peice i gotta order elsewhere is the front 1350 CV flange bolt on output for the NP205 front.

just gotta figure out the wall thickness of my 3" driveshafts. Kind of want to stick with 3" because the slip yoke spline on the rear shaft is for a 3" and i cant find the male splined end..female wil lhave to get changed to match the 1410 joint sim using on rear shaft.


today i sat the subframe onto the frame, and prepped the cab some more to accept it. The inner rocker rails have been smoothed out decently so it should just pop right on as it measures 64" across and so does my subframe. Miht have to bend the sheetmetal rockers a touch to get it to sit in the nicely..and i hope everyhting ends up being square..i know most of wed will be spent measuring 600 times in all ways to make sure im as square as can be.

got my siphone feed blaster working too. That will come in handy soon when i blast aorudn rear windows and the roof drip rails.

I'm with you man. I love amazon too. They weren't the cheapest on everything spicer for my D60 but pretty close. It was usually within a buck or two if they were more. There is an eBay seller that had a lot of the stuff too for comparable prices on most things. Sounds like you are rolling along. I thought I'd be painting my truck like today. Yeah, not so much. It's a ton of work to eradicate the rot even at just a best effort kind of level.

haha yep, last thursday i was saying ohh buddy by monday morning this thing iwll be ready for paintl...NOT! but im getting really damn close.

got my yokes ordered for the NP205. 1350 input yoke, 1410 output yoke, 1350 CV flange front output.

Reaosn im using 1410 on the rear is the 10.5" uses 1410 companion lfanges, and my current DS is a wittle 1330 joint, so im just going 1410 out back. That and can put double the torque down in 2w low on dry pavement to move heavey loads.

Ordered up a cusotm built intermediate shaft, 12" joint to joint, slip splines, with u joints, for 150 plus shipping, built to order from Phoenix.

My ZF already has a 1350 output, so just need a new 1410 splip spline on the driveshaft, and a 1410 weld yoke for the rear. Just gotta check the wall thickness of my 3" driveshaft. Im not pushing ridiculous torque so i think the stock 3" should be fine...right?

then need front shaft lengthened, the forward part of the rear shaft shortened, and retube the rear shaft to accomodate the new 1410 slip yoke and weld yoke.

Was budgeting about 500 for driveshafts, but thats before I realized hte np205 has 1310 yokes on it. So ill probably be in for 700 with all new driveline parts. Spicer greasable joints throughout.

so i bacially have all the components to make this thing go, minus rear brake lights, and front and rear turn signals. Ill get the wood for the flatbed once its built and bolted on (whiiile), and all the relays and fuses for the wiring. my 15 amp switches are in the mail. got 15 metal toggle switches.

ill take a couple pic sof some other goodies I got. smoked LED cab marker lights, head studs, hella rectangular sealed beam conversion headlights, uhh...man i dont even knwo what else, i got shelves just pull of parts ready to gon this thing!