Before:

So here it is our next victim. Unfortunate for the owner to have to have everything redone but to many problems and fear for safety have him dropping the truck off to me. I have to say that in the past few years I have had the pleasure of redoing a few different trucks. Some because of out dated systems and some for the lack of a better word as being junk work. This we chalk up to being one of those trucks. I'll let you decide. I just got it in the shop and as I tear it apart I'll throw up a few pictures of the stuff I'm finding. The truck was originally bagged by the now defunct. Altered Image here in Minnesota. It has numerous problems some minor some serious. The plan for the truck is a complete redo. New bags, new link system, new lines, rewire, etc.... Originally I planned to try and keep the bridge work even though I don't like it. That plan got tossed after tearing the shock mount off with my hands. Personally I just don't feel safe running the setup. Keep checking the page for more of what's he going to find next. As there is more to see I just ran out of space on my camera. DAMN!
After:

It's all back together and looking good. The tank is mounted the wiring and valves are cleaned up, The nitrogen is in, the compressor wiring is all straightened out. Now all thats left is for the owner to take the keys and go roll.

First thing we find after pulling the carpet kit is that the wheel tubs were not cut large enough to clear the notch and the bridge work. Plus the compressor power wire is rubbing on the edge of the bed. Its hard to tell from the pictures but the wheel tub is actual bent towards the wheels to get around the notch.

This is what it looked like after I pulled the bed off

Welding on the top of the pumpkin is a no no. I admit that if you know what your doing it can be done properly. But from what I'm seeing as I tear into the truck it looks more to be bad news.

The tank, compressor and valve assembly's were mounted under the bed. The compressor itself wasn't relayed at all and ran straight hot to the pressure switch and to the battery. When I pulled the bed off I fired the compressor up and the 8 gauge wire that ran power to it got so hot that I burned my hand. The kid is really lucky he didn't have his truck burn to the ground.

The finger is pointing at a tab that is welded to the galvanized fittings used to tee in the valve assembly's. It is then bolted to a flat plate bracket that is then welded to the air tank. Seriously what the f#^k

This is one of my favorites. The link bars that hold the rearend from swaying in the breeze are welded to a flat plate and to the top of the frame. What gets me is that the flat plate used to weld the side of the bracket to wasn't wide enough to do both sides. So it was welded on the long side and across the top. Because of this and the amount of stress that was put on the mount it snapped the bracket itself and had to be welded back on.

Here the notch was some what boxed on the sides however the notch wasn't actually fully welded to it just tacked in a couple spots. I admit that structurally it probably doesn't hurt anything but it poses the question of why actually put the plates there if you don't plan to weld to them? Also you can see the notch sides extend a couple inches past the frame! Taking a plasma cutter or a torch or even a cut off wheel isn't that hard. The owner actually asked me if I would finish welding the notches on and cutting the excess off. You got it!

This is the lower shock mount it appears to be a piece of 3/16" plate that is welded to give it that angle. Then a piece of 1"x1" angle iron is welded to the back for support. It doesn't appear the rearend was cleaned up before they welded them on and the welds weren't doing to much good. I actually beat them off with a hammer.

This is what is welded to the back of the shock mount.

This is also another one of my favorites. The tank is broken from the mounts. It was just dangling there with a few tack welds holding the other side up.

This is a shot of the valve assembly's the power and ground wire were soldered onto two of the prongs on the valve. The rest had normal female connectors on them. Plus the wire is spliced only a couple inches from prong. Again what the f#^k.

 


It's hard to tell from the picture but the shock is rubbing on the bag and if you look close there is a tear in the bag itself.


Here's another question. What happens when you get rear ended and the only thing that is back there for support is a piece of 1x1" box tubing? The outcome probably wont be good. I plan to cut it out and replace it with 2x4 1/4" wall box tubing.

 


What you looking at here is a washer that is welded to the box tubing. A bolt then runs through the washer and holds the bag in place. Sketchy

Last but not least my favorite pic of them all. I removed the nut to get the shocks off. Gave it one good tug to get it off the bolt and ripped the mount itself completely apart. Either I have really big muscles or this was destined for failure. I figured the shock mount probably would have broken on its own. But the shock itself was blown and pretty much was just there for looks. Because of this I've decided to redo the whole damn thing.


Here's a better shot of what I was talking about six pictures up. The inside edge of the bracket is not welded to anything. This places a ton of stress on the weld across the top of the frame.

This is another one of my favorites. Instead of getting a endlink with the proper width. They just stuffed some hex nuts in as spacers. The hex nuts were larger than the bolt used and were moving around.

This is the bottom of the front lower bars mount. It was dragging on the ground and you can see that the endlink itself is ground flat.

This is a shot of the lower link bracket on the rearend. It appears that they cut the axle mount off and welded the bracket straight to the leaf spring pad. Again it doesn't look like anything was cleaned up before it was welded on.


I have already started redoing everything. The janky 1x1 box tube is gone and the 2x4 box tube is welded into place. Also the gas tank crossmember has been cut out and the tank has been raised an inch. Over the next few days I will start gutting the old 4-link and bridge work and start doing the new link setup. The rearend itself needs to move back 3/4" to get the wheels centered back up with the wheel wells.


This is the reason you don't MIG weld on the top of a cast housing. The weld just doesn't penetrate the housing. The metal is really porous and unless you pre heat it and then use some kind of nickle rod it doesn't stick. I figured I could break them off with a hammer and thats exactly what I did.

You can see that the weld rips right off of the housing and only sticks to the bracket itself.

Here's what I used to break the welds. A wooden handled hammer. That came from a $40 tool kit.

That looks a little better. The whole rear end is going to be sandblasted after I finish grinding all of the old welds smooth.

The only thing staying are the lower bag mounts and the Stepnotch. Everything else has been thrown in the dumpster.

Here we go its looking a ton better now. All of the old 4-link has been pulled and the junk tube work has been cut off. The frame is starting to be ground down to bare metal to get it ready for paint. The rearend has been moved back to center the wheels up with the wheel wells and the pinion angle has been reset to what it should be.

The link system is in place and the new tube work and upper bag mounts are starting to take shape. Shock mounts are all that are left and then its off to get sandblasted for paint.

The tube work is done and the shock mounts are in. Now the rearend gets pulled out along with the gas tank crossmember and the link bars. Those are sent to Sandcraft Sandblasting to get all cleaned up and then we will prime, paint and clearcoat the rear half.

A shot of the rear all stripped down and primed up.

The notches are cut down and finished

A little action shot.


All painted and clear coated. It just needs the rearend to come back and then I can reassemble everything. It looks a ton better than it did when it came in. Nice and clean.


Not the best picture in the world but the rearend is back. Looks better than when it rolled off of the showroom. Now its on to re-assembly. Stay tuned for the finished product.

Ahhhh there we go. Truck is finished for the most part. I have a few wires to tuck away and to clean the tank up give it a good leak test and take it for a test ride and its all done. I like it alot better than when it first came in.

Here's a shot of the truck at full height

The wheels have been centered back up. It moves slightly forward when aired all the way up. Due to the suspension design. But is perfectly centered at ride height.

Shaved the door handles and installed autolocs 35lb 8 channel remote

Put the whole truck into flat black sealer.

Filled roof seams amd replaced the slider with one piece glass