Well WTF, do I post my 3500HD project here or not

damn shes coming along nicely.... any word onthose harnesses?

Sneak peek from pos phone camera:




Richard

Powder coated or just painted ?

Painted with single stage that's the same black the guys down at the wrecker shop paint all the wrecker units, beds, etc. with. Should be pretty tough. This was quicker and cheaper than sending them out for powdercoat. I dropped the raw wheels off yesterday and he's already prepped and painted them. I'm in kind of a hurry because really the HD is my daily right now, except at the moment it's sitting up on stands like in the pic. Still gonna have to wait a bit for the paint to cure before I let the tire guys start trying to slang tires onto them...

Richard

I've had the wheels back for a few days and have been trying to be very patient, letting the paint cure some before I head to the tire shop.


So today I began the teardown to get the wrecker unit off the '98 crew cab. Bed was ruined (all braces broken, holes punched in floor, sides cracked, dents, etc.) and thanks to the bad wrecker install and home-made body lift - a bunch of the bolts were harder to get to than normal. So I figured what the hell, just cut the bed off!


Yes, I used a sawzall and cutoff wheel, why? Because I don't have a torch...and I have a bad attitude.


Here's a view of the wrecker unit from above. The plates between it and the frame are part of the home-made mess I have to cut out; that's to bridge the gap to the wider pickup frame vs. the 34" cab-and-chassis frame.


Richard

You should fill the bags till they fail.

THAT'D be a video.

I don't wanna crank up the cutoff on my compressor until the lines in the shop blow, ya know?

What, it don't joomp enough to impress you?

I'm surprised the bastards held air at all, that truck has been slamming around on them completely flat for over 2 or 3 years. The compressor wiring was all burnt up and the line leading from the tank was smashed when I bought the truck and I never bothered to check out the system since it looked like such a hack job. When I pulled the tank/compressor rack out yesterday so I could ditch the bed, I tried each compressor and they both work; then I tried the bags like you see me doing in the video. After seeing them pump up, I grabbed a length of plastic line I had that's got the schrader valve built in, pushed it into the Tee, and aired 'em up to about 60. They've held up overnight though I'm sure it's got some minor leaks, to say the least I'm impressed they're not ruined.

They're Firestone Airmount bags, couldn't really read a part # on them but in a very small stamping area it looks like they say 260.

Richard

Another sneak peek; truck is filthy from driving around in bad weather before I put it up on stands to get the wheels painted. Just had the tires mounted today, after I installed brand new TR501 metal valves that I picked up at NAPA (unbelievable how long it took to find that valve locally; should have just called NAPA in the first place.)

I may need to flip sides on the temporary mudflap brackets I made to allow clearance for the slightly taller tires, but I think they're going to be OK until I can get the bed installed.





Richard

looks good man i like it

It's coming out nice can't wait to see it finished !