51 B3B build thread - after all these years

[bkahler]

46 minutes ago, ggdad1951 said:

For FEF I did the stacking method and rolled the truck under my stack and lowered it back down gradually.  You could also use an engine hoist to a similar purpose as your gantry or in combo with your gantry.

 

Stacking like you described is something I've thought about, but I keep coming back to my problem of having enough floor space on the sides for setting up 4 saw horses.  If I could come up with the room, what did you used to support the bed?  The side panels hang down lower than the bottom of the bed floor causing interference with the cross pieces sitting on the saw horses.  Did you place smaller chunks of wood under the bed to raise it up?

 

 

[JBNeal]

How'bout:

• instead of pipe, ya fed nylon ratchet strap through them bed rolls...remove the ratchet, feed the nylon strap through the roll, tape some cardboard onto the strap to prevent chafing, put the ratchet back on, now you've got 2 hooks protruding from the bedside to latch onto
• place 2x4 strategically in between bedsides so that when lifting, the strategically placed 2x4 resists the bedsides from bowing inward...suspend in place with duct tape attached to lifting strap

Is it pretty?  Naw, but it's a one-time tooling use that ya minimize costs with readily available materials that can be disposed of economically. 

 

Duct tape:  the handyman's secret weapon 🏆

[John-T-53]

EMT conduit also good for fabbing stuff out of.... comes in 10 foot sticks. 

 

[ggdad1951]

18 hours ago, bkahler said:

Stacking like you described is something I've thought about, but I keep coming back to my problem of having enough floor space on the sides for setting up 4 saw horses.  If I could come up with the room, what did you used to support the bed?  The side panels hang down lower than the bottom of the bed floor causing interference with the cross pieces sitting on the saw horses.  Did you place smaller chunks of wood under the bed to raise it up?

 

Sawhorses, 8x8 chunks and 2x4.  My fuzzy memory says I used 3 sawhorses (2 sides 1 back) and used blocking to support the fron so I wasn't on the bed sides.  Rear was just on the tail stock piece.

 

You have a hoist tho and there are good ideas out there to lift the bed with that.  Just be careful to not deform the bed side tubes with point loads.

[bkahler]

On 1/8/2025 at 3:32 PM, JBNeal said:

How'bout:

• instead of pipe, ya fed nylon ratchet strap through them bed rolls...remove the ratchet, feed the nylon strap through the roll, tape some cardboard onto the strap to prevent chafing, put the ratchet back on, now you've got 2 hooks protruding from the bedside to latch onto
• place 2x4 strategically in between bedsides so that when lifting, the strategically placed 2x4 resists the bedsides from bowing inward...suspend in place with duct tape attached to lifting strap

 

I like the strap idea!  That saves me the cost of the pipe and the longer 2" x 12' sling straps that I was going to have to buy.  The ratchet straps would also give me better adjust-ability than the sling straps would have. 

 

Not sure what you mean by "duct tape attached to lifting strap"

 

 

On 1/8/2025 at 3:32 PM, JBNeal said:

Is it pretty?  Naw, but it's a one-time tooling use that ya minimize costs with readily available materials that can be disposed of economically. 

 

Duct tape:  the handyman's secret weapon 🏆

 

I don't care if it's pretty if it gets the job done.  Heck, I ain't pretty and I always (well almost always!) get the job done....😄

 

[bkahler]

11 hours ago, ggdad1951 said:

You have a hoist tho and there are good ideas out there to lift the bed with that.  Just be careful to not deform the bed side tubes with point loads.

 

Deforming the sides is my biggest worry.  I would much prefer the hoist, assuming I can get the rigging in place properly. 

 

Possibly this weekend, we'll know for sure

 

[bkahler]

23 hours ago, John-T-53 said:

EMT conduit also good for fabbing stuff out of.... comes in 10 foot sticks. 

 

 

EMT would definitely be cheaper than pipe.  I'm going to look into JB's suggestion of straps and see what happens. 

 

Thanks!

[Los_Control]

I really got nothing .... was going to suggest using 8"x16" concrete blocks to stack and build up height .... then just back the truck under it and start lifting and removing blocks and sliding it in place ..... the blocks you can always use later.

I even had some scrap 2" pipe long enough to build 2 saw horses to assemble the bed on and then back the truck under it ....

 

In the end I just assembled the bed on the truck. .... I had all the original pieces I took off of the truck so I was able to bolt the cross members in place (loosely)  then I used plywood .... cheated and a lot easier but at this stage I was able to slide the front panel into place, then slide one side into place .... I just assembled it on the truck and it was too easy.

 

 

Now that you have your bed assembled .... how difficult would it be to take it apart and put it back together on the truck?

 

I always wonder why the pro's put it together off the truck then transfer it over.

[Young Ed]

Can you put eye bolts through 4 of the bed mounting points? That should get you most of the way there with maybe the eye bolts interfering with the last little drop.

[JBNeal]

4 hours ago, bkahler said:

Not sure what you mean by "duct tape attached to lifting strap"

Scratch that suggestion, I was thinking about something else...if ya lift the bed by the ratchet strap hooks, you can probably resist the bedsides from bowing by filling the bed with a temporary box by stacking some pallets in the bed, wedged in place with cardboard and/or carpet remnants.

[bkahler]

16 hours ago, Los_Control said:

Now that you have your bed assembled .... how difficult would it be to take it apart and put it back together on the truck?

16 hours ago, Los_Control said:

I always wonder why the pro's put it together off the truck then transfer it over.

 

To be honest, I don't even want to think about disassembling it and then reassembling it.  The risk of scratches, drops, etc is more than I want to deal with. 

 

I figure the factory assembled the beds in a separate location, trailered or moved them to the factory floor and lifted them into place.  I think it is probably a lot easier to crawl around underneath the bed during assembly on sawhorses than if it was sitting on the truck frame.  I would think lifting into place would be the most efficient for them.

 

[bkahler]

16 hours ago, Young Ed said:

Can you put eye bolts through 4 of the bed mounting points? That should get you most of the way there with maybe the eye bolts interfering with the last little drop.

 

Dang, that's a great idea!  If done properly the eye bolts wouldn't be a problem.  The eye bolts can be fastened into place as shown in the picture below.  The protruding threaded section would guide the bed into the holes in the frame as it's being lowered. 

 

I think I'll attempt this approach first.  I've got eye bolts that I can use which gives me a no cost solution

 

Thanks!

 

 

[bkahler]

 

Just wanted to add these hitch installation pictures to my main build thread. 

 

 

 

 

 

[bkahler]

Can someone explain how this particular spare tire hanger rod is supposed to be setup?

 

My assumption is the hanger assembly should hang parallel to the frame so the spare tire is squeezed evenly.  The main thing I'm confused about is the castellated nut does not engage with the cotter pin when the hanger is set for the size of tire that I have. 

 

My truck was missing the entire hanger assembly when I bought it so I picked this one up from a used parts supplier.  On the bottom side of the rod in the picture there was NOT a nut that came with it.  I have since added a nut so that the rod is clamped solidly in place, otherwise without the bottom nut the rod was free to wiggle around.   

 

As far as the cotter pin goes, should I just bend it so it won't come out?  Or should I drill another hole in the rod so it can pin can engage the nut?

 

[ggdad1951]

Did you get them from DCM?   I believe the parts I had made and sold to them had a hole for a cotter pin.  JIC so it can't drop out...no reason you can't put another hole in or drop a spacer in.

[bkahler]

15 hours ago, ggdad1951 said:

Did you get them from DCM?   I believe the parts I had made and sold to them had a hole for a cotter pin.  JIC so it can't drop out...no reason you can't put another hole in or drop a spacer in.

 

All of my parts are originals that I obtained from Larry Frank, who was a used parts suppler out of Leadville Colorado back in the late 90s.   It's possible the parts were from a larger truck although I don't know if tire hangers were similar between models.  I found this picture in my searches and it shows a nut on the bottom side of the forward cross member which is what I ended up doing to mine. 

 

I like the idea of adding a hole down lower so the castle nut can be engaged properly.  I need to replace my 25 year old brand new tires before I start driving the truck so I'll take care of that task at when I have the new tires mounted.

 

 

[JBNeal]

I remember those ads Leadville Larry ran for years in the Hemmings...kinda wondered how much inventory he actually had, don't recall him showing any pics off but had to "call for availability"

 

I went out in the arctic breeze this afternoon to eyeball that flatbed spare cuz that pic looks kinda familiar...studied the parts book too...I think that extra thread on those special bolts is to allow for larger tires and wider rims to be stowed safely.  An alternative to that cotter pin is to use a roll pin...I reckon that once that carrier is installed, it won't be removed for a long time...back in the day, them extra threads would probably be mashed in a couple spots to keep that nut from backing off.

[bkahler]

34 minutes ago, JBNeal said:

I remember those ads Leadville Larry ran for years in the Hemmings...kinda wondered how much inventory he actually had, don't recall him showing any pics off but had to "call for availability"

 

I actually drove out to Leadvile to pick up a bunch of parts from Larry and to take him the engine that was in my truck when I bought it.  He's a nice guy that had maybe a dozen trucks he was parting out.

 

He had a lot of good parts that were either missing or destroyed on my truck.  I believe he eventually moved to Mac Colorado.

 

 

34 minutes ago, JBNeal said:

I went out in the arctic breeze this afternoon to eyeball that flatbed spare cuz that pic looks kinda familiar...studied the parts book too...I think that extra thread on those special bolts is to allow for larger tires and wider rims to be stowed safely.  An alternative to that cotter pin is to use a roll pin...I reckon that once that carrier is installed, it won't be removed for a long time...back in the day, them extra threads would probably be mashed in a couple spots to keep that nut from backing off.

 

The picture was your picture 😀 

 

Larger tires makes sense considering the carrier itself has two holes on one end.

[bkahler]

Well, it was an expensive couple of weeks   I ordered the headliner kit and a bed wood kit from DCM Classics.  Both items arrived this week so I now have my work cut out for me.

 

I haven't opened the wood packages yet but I did unpack the headliner kit.  The kit included the door cards, the lower kick panels, rear window surround piece(s), headliner and a lower panel kit that was not original to these trucks.  I'll post some pictures later today showing all the pieces.  My initial reaction to the headliner kit is its quite nice.  I do have a couple of questions about it that I'll post shortly as well.

 

[bkahler]

Here are the interior kit pictures.  I've read Merle's thread on his Quiet Ride interior installation and was surprised when mine showed up with a one piece rear window panel.  I'm sure it will be a tough installation but my rear window gaskets are still supple so hopefully that will help.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks like I have some help coming on Tuesday to help install the headliner.

 

 

[bkahler]

I was a little concerned when I found that the back panel was in one piece, mainly because when I was installing the brown cardboard panels they were really tight fitting around the windows.  After comparing the two I don't think I have to much to worry about.  The ABS panel opening is definitely larger than the brown cardboard and should be a lot easier to install.

 

 

 

The stars finally aligned where I had all the bits and pieces ready for installing the fog lights, so I finally finished that task today.  Only remaining item is plugging the two lights into the wiring harness.  I just didn't feel like crawling under the truck today

 

 

This picture makes it look like the light is contacting the grille, when it reality there is about 1/2" clearance.

 

 

 

 

 

[ggdad1951]

On 1/25/2025 at 11:33 AM, bkahler said:

Here are the interior kit pictures.  I've read Merle's thread on his Quiet Ride interior installation and was surprised when mine showed up with a one piece rear window panel.  I'm sure it will be a tough installation but my rear window gaskets are still supple so hopefully that will help.

 

 

 

 

 

When I built FEF, I sent QR my back panel as a template for these.  Before they were making them in 3 pieces and weren't correct.   They aren't hard to install at all.  Just gotta get the lip started and work it around.

[bkahler]

Some of you may remember that a while back I was having trouble with fitting the planks under the shovel strips that are welded to the bed sides and the rear cross member.  After it was all said and done I ended up rabbiting the back ends of the planks about 1/16" to get them to fit under the shovel strips.  The planks I was attempting to use were pretty much spot on 3/4" in thickness. 

 

Well today I unpacked the new planks from DCM Classics and started looking into what I would need to do to get them to fit.  The DCM planks (actually sourced from Horkey's) measure out about .765", so slightly thicker than 3/4".  Obviously this exacerbates my problem with thickness issues.  By the way, I'm not complaining here, just pointing out what I'm dealing with.

 

After taking a much closer look at the new planks sitting in the bed I think I found the main problem as to why I'm having to rabbit the planks to fit.  In the two attached pictures you can see where the planks are not sitting flat on the rear cross member.  It turns out the bends in the cross member are not 90 degrees.  If you notice the gap on the trailing edge, that's how much how of square the cross member is.  The cross member is a reproduction part that wasn't made quite right.  There's nothing I can do about it now except rabbit the ends of the new planks.  I hope to complete that task tomorrow and start the staining process in the next few days.

 

 

 

[JBNeal]

Could large crescent wrenches clamped onto them flanges be used to tweak the cross members as required?

[bkahler]

I'm sure I could find a way to bend it it but that would set me back time wise even farther. 

 

I would also need to get another quart of paint mixed which is not cheap.  Add to that my painter moved to Wisconsin so I'd have deal with someone new.  

 

Rabbiting the planks is a lot easier!!