What 48 hours of work, eat, sleep (a little) yields!
Sandblasted the entire frame and started with shortening it 16" for the short bed conversion. Decided to make the cut behind where the front shackle will be for the 63" springs. Spent an hour with a sledge and a chisel to remove the old rear spring shackles. Kinda sore you know.....
Lots of measuring:
Everything I modified is accurate to 1/32" of an inch.
Tack welds:
Lots of strapping and clamping:
Finished weld on outside. I welded the inside too. The cut is a 65* angle. Some say the fish plate method is better ( "Z" cut to join rails) but with the shackle being welded on and a small box on the inside it should be plenty strong.
Cleaned up:
Had to modify the bed mount to clear the shackle. The long bed mount closest to the bigger cross member aligns with the front mount for the short bed so I don't have to drill any holes to mount the bed.
Shackle welded in place:
Sprayed 1 coat on the back half for the night. Really love the paint. It is Magnet brand Antique Satin black. It goes on really nice, dries in a couple hours and is tough as NAILS.
Going to the sky with the help of those handy D rings I installed last week:
Approximate ride height. May be about 4" higher not to sure yet without axles. I just measured off my W250 and it sits 56" high at the bed rail stock. With the shackle flip (+5") and chevy springs (+1-2"), I am looking at around 7" of lift. Now, tires should be between 35-37" to make it look somewhat proportionate with height so if I ran a 35" tire, that would give me 2.5" of more height over stock. This brings me to a grand total of 9.5" of height bringing the bed rail to 65.5" or with a 37" tire, 67.5". This seems pretty high to me. In the picture, I am 5'9" so that gives you an idea. I believe the bed rail in this picture is at 62".
Onward we go....
Rear shackle measured and holes marked:
Shortened area boxed in:
Knocked out the 2wd Pillow block crossmember for the drive shaft, tacked in a brace to prevent frame movement, took a front rail width measurement, knocked out old front crossmember, clamped up the new cross member and welded. Then I added some supports on the outside and cut a piece of 2x4 (1/4" thick box) steel and put that across. Still need to finish that.
Still need to weld the box steel and the bottom spring bracket together.
More paint:
Closing up and leaving. Snapped these pics of my '93. Thought the cab lights looked kinda cool with 3" of snow on them:
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Charlie