hey all,
Alex Hale from Boston
Have not been in the firstgen game in a long time, but I'm getting back in it.
A while back I picked up an 84 W350 SRW CCSB frame and cab, no engine, no axles, kind of a title. I've had a 93 single cab W250 for about three years, but ever since I bought it it was in need of a frame swap, so its the donor for this swap. The goal of this build is a pretty simple build of a crew cab, Kept mostly stock besides a lift (~5 inch with 35's), and a bit more power (nothing out of normal VE with injectors and a turbo). I plan to tow a tow behind camper, and whatever else for normal truck duties with a flatbed car trailer.
The crew cab needed a full floor, and I was given a donor floor from a single cab, so I cut it in half and filled in the blank, New inner rockers were bent up, and the floor welded in. Other than the floor some work was needed on the door sills, and thats mostly done. The rest of the cab is in decent shape, thankfully the roof sill is perfect, but there is a decent dent in the roof that will need to be pushed out. Other than that a few dings in the rockers and on the back of the cab are all that plagues it.
The frame was in great shape, then I chopped it in half. I wanted a crew cab long bed, I had a clean long bed to do so, So I added 16 inches and boxed the frame the full length. I still need to fab the extra 8 inches at the end of the frame, I plan to integrate that into a big towing plate. I accomplished a ~4.5 inch lift by fabricating new spring eye points, I wanted to avoid lift springs. The front and rear both uses a shackle flip, and drop hangars. Everything bolts into the frame with welded 1/2-13 nuts everywhere, there are about 100 nuts welded in every hole that was in the frame. About half of the crossmembers that were previously riveted in to the frame are welded on, but the trans and centerbearing crossmembers are modified to be bolt in.
Ive got the cab and bed dropped on the frame just for eye candy for now, Ive got a decent list of things to do before they can be dropped on permanently. Looks like the whole thing will need a 1/2inch body lift to keep my custom made center floor from rubbing on the frame.
main to-do's in the next few months:
-extend rear of frame, and finalize all bed support and mount locations
-Mount fuel tank, begin to plumb lines for fuel and brakes
-Finalize spring setups, will need to decide what amount of block the rear gets once the engine is in the chassis.
-Remove donor engine and trans, clean, re-seal, install
-Paint all Jam's of doors, fenders, core support, floor.
-Buy a donor truck for a loaded red interior
my donor truck: this is actually a truck I bought from the first owner, A guy I used to work with at a feed and grain store at about age 10, its the first vehicle I ever remember being interested in to the point of wanting one, when he decided it was too far gone, I bought it and drove it for about a year. You can see how bad the frame is around the hangars. The cab and everything else is rotted in every way.
new inner rockers were the first building block
front floor, with removable tunnel
new floor rails
where the frame was extended, I took a 16X7 inch section out of the under cab portion of a single cab 92 frame.
boxing... most is 1/8 inch, but some sections are 3/16 near cross members
the rear hangars
and front...
front boxed
primer!
as she sits now