LMAO!  

Thanks bro, appreciate the remarks . 
12 hours, 3 Cokes, 2 bottles of water, 3 meals, and lots of grinding and welding smoke later (cough, hack), the rear control arms are bolted in place.  All that's left for the rear is finishing the wishbone and air bag mounts, and then it'll be time to fab up the front.

Side view -





LOTS of ground clearance



pic of axle mounts - airbag will sit somewhere between the three plates; we'll figure exactly where once the tires and articulation are determined.



control arm forward mount - never throw out a perfectly good bracket!



and the new 35's to take up some space  .  Its seven twin brothers are stacked up behind it...



- Max

Thanks pard'ner      I just hope my paint job comes out as nice as your TD.
I started fabricating the exhaust yesterday.  Kinda fun - never done that before.  Going to use the TIG to build it (traded in my plasma cutter for it), and to practice using the thing.  I discovered that a plasma cutter is great for cutting things apart, but not great for precision work, and I use a death wheel of my jigsaw for cutting fine stuff like sheet metal and 1/8 plate steel, so the plasma cutter became kinda useless.  I also discovered that the intense heat from the plasma actually flame hardens the edge of whatever you're cutting, so brackets and such become very hard to grind smooth after cutting with the plasma.  So, traded it in on a Lincoln Precision TIG 185, and I'm hoping to make some really nice welds, and since I do a lot of custom aluminum dash's and such the TIG will be ideal for that.  The RC's dash frame will be unmodified, but the dash will be completely custom - I have to make room for 8 Autometer gauges, plus the two panels for the airbags and AirRide controls, plus a bunch of other crap (CB, radio, lights, blahblahblah) - I have to find places to put it all - but that's half the fun right?!
Gonna be out of town till Friday - catch you fellas on the flip side.
- Max

Thanks 'Spoon  - We gotta drink some beers amigo  .
Got the rear discs in place - couple of pics.  Should have it all buttoned up later this week.  Nice kit from TSM - great service and Q&A help.  Cost was about $675 complete including the e-brake and stainless flex line kits.
Everything is just mocked up to see how it all fits.  Calipers can face any which way so long as the bleeders face up - I chose forward so the e-brake cables won't get yanked on by twigs, branches, from the front during off-roading, and the lower control arm acts as armor for rocks and big stuff.  Planning to remove the factory e-brake cables and pedals in lieu of a hand brake that I'll bolt in next to the seat - can use it as sort of a cruise control for when you're off-roading, going down hill, very very slowly, the e-brake like this can be used to control your speed by brakig the rear wheels, removing the tendancy for the front tires to slide around during braking...and it'll keep my leg from cramping up...and the speed (1-2 mph) won't make the pads hot, so you can control the rate by the hand brake.  Little tricks....







- M

Not for the brakes, at least not for the main parts.  I'm going to weld the little bracket (that holds the end of the flex hose so the brake line has a hard mounted base) to the air bag base mount, but other than that the whole rear system is a complete bolt-in.  It's pretty sweet - TSM did their homework (thumbs up)
- M

You bet (thumbs up).  I'm just glad it was a simple swap.  I've been out of the shop for nearly a month - lots of good things going on personally  , and so the projects quietly wait in the dungeon until I'm good and ready to go back in.  Last night a good bud came over and lent a hand - I needed the motorvation - helped me do the other side, and we swapped that side in about an hour.  Getting the first side figured out (location of the caliper, trouble-shooting the rotor/stud issue, ordering new axle nuts and seals) took a couple weeks, and once that was all researched the other side took an hour.  Nice when it works that way.
I also learned that this Dana 70's bearings are oiled with gear lube from the center section, not packed with grease and sealed from the center section.  Didn't know that.  Had to tip each side up to drain the lube out of the axle tube/hub in order to pull the axle.  The 8-bolt axle flange has a seal that seals the axle to the hub face, and that is the only thing that keeps the entire axle lube from leaking out.  Just an interesting side note in case anyone wants to pull axles on a '93 Dana 70.  I did pack the bearings with grease before I reinstalled the hubs because, well, I could.  I figure it couldn't hurt - kind of like break in lube.  I couldn't reinstall the hubs and clean bearings without some kind of grease - just had to have something on the bearings - force of habit.
Makes me curious tho about the effects of the lube going from one side to the other when off roading - seems the fluid would flood one side of the diff and evacuate the other, but now that I think about it, the fluid drains out of the axle tube, way out on the end of the axle, drains out the end and down, coating the lower (gravity) side of the outer bearing, and eventually working its way through the outer bearing to the inner bearing, coating it, and then I guess the oil then has no where to go except...well...it can't go anywhere so it has to stay there bathing the bearings, ya?  So it seems the only thing keeping the 80-90 from leaking out is the big honkin' inner seal just inside of the inner big bearing and the axle flange seal.  Does that all seem correct? 
I think this system is called a full-floating hub.  If this is incorrect please one of y'all set it straight  .  I like knowing why and how stuff works so if I go to work on it I know why and how to make sure it keeps working the way it should.  I don't care who's right or wrong, so long as in the end we're all smarter and wiser  , and that our gear keeps working.
- M

If you have to remove the axles to remove the drums, then it is most likely a full floater.

I hear ya Jimbo, but I did not want to fabricate or search for or trial fit or scrounge for any parts - I wanted to bolt it up and be done.  Plus I wanted the parking brake provision, new rotors, and very simple installation.  I'm sure it could have been done cheaper and that's all good, but this kit was complete and all I had to do was open boxes that were delivered to my door, and there are part numbers for all of it in case I need more in the future.  Plus I wanted the stainless flex lines and the e-brake cable kits, which were also in the total price.  The calipers alone were about $300, and they have the specific e-brake provision that I wanted.  The rest was perfectly laser cut brackets already powdercoated, new hardware, new pads, new everything, and the manufacturer is about 45 minutes away.
For me it was all about conveinence, complete kits, and no fab or searching for parts that 'should' work required.  Been to that movie and don't like it any more  .
The way I went only required a phone call and $675, and I actually think that's a pretty good deal considering what I got.  It's all about the 'little stuff' to make a conversion like this work perfectly the first time, and having all of the small stuff come brand new in clean little plastic bags is (for me) a huge benefit.
So anyways, just my thoughts.
- M

Body's all done, eh?  Looks really good.

Looking good!!!

You can't really check d/s angle until the weight is in the chassis.

On mine, I have the 6" skyjacker springs, and there is NO angle at the rear pinion, it is all at the tcase.  I haven't had any issues, and I now have a cv at the tcase, so it is done.

(Rats...)    I'm painting my whole Ramcharger in 'eggshell' sheen colors - Eggshell is a sheen that lies between flat and semi-gloss.  It's not powdery like flat, and is not semi-gloss, it's right in between, and I'm finding it's darned difficult to mix...but I'll win eventually.

Painted my RC's belly last night - turned out semi-gloss/glossy  (#!%&@$#@#!)      Well, okay, you know the saying 'the more you know the more you find out there's much more to know?', well, that's especially true with painting.  Seems that when you are painting flat or semi-flat colors there are a few tricks to the trade that make a big (read: shiny) difference. 

For instance, when properly mixed, auto paint (not primer, that's a different ball game) typically consists of the color, the reducer, and the hardener (catalyst).  Well, if you want glossy paint that's all good, but, when you want semi-flat (eggshell) you have to change the recipe a bit. 

My RC's eggshell black belly turned out semi-gloss - not what I wanted.  Went to the shop where I got the paint and explained how I mixed the paint, the temperatures, etc, and asked what had happened that made the glossy sheen?  I'm blaming no one at all - what I'm wanting/doing is not 'typical' so it's all kind of a learning curve.  But, what I found out was that the hardener can counteract the effects of the flattening agents in the paint, and there was already a LOT of flattener in the paint (premixed), which apparantly made it glossy.  Plus, the reducer can do the same thing. 
Important note - you have to use hardener or it becomes very difficult to re-topcoat later on, so you have to use hardener.

So, the shop remixed all of my colors (Chassis Black, Hemi Orange, Spinnaker White and Chrome Yellow - all with almost a 50% ratio of paint to flattener) and tonight I'm going to experiment and mix up the paint with the hardener only.  I will not use any reducer as the hardener should make the paint thin enough to shoot with my HVLP gun, and since the paint is mixed with the flattening agent in it already the hardener should make it just about right.

So, re-topcoat tonight (it's been less than 72 hours so I can retop coat, even with the hardener already mixed in the first coat), and play with the sheen.  If it's too flat, I'll add reducer, but I have to have the hardener regardless.  So, more to follow, but for you painters out there, learn from my mistakes - I'm taking lots of good notes on how this works out, and together we'll all become smarter.

- Max

You got it bro    The whole truck is going to be this sheen.

Re-shot it this afternoon.  Oh, and I'm using PPG Delstar.  Found out what the problem was - I used the standard mixing page vice the flatener mixing page (didn't actually know there was a flatener version ).  Simple mistake.  Essentially I shouldn't have used any reducer at all, and the combination of hardener and reducer totally eclipsed the flatening agent.  Plus it was hot as hell last night down here - probably around 85* in the shop, which didn't help any.  I was using 601 reducer which has a faster cure time but it still had trouble - just too hot. 

The paint shop here remixed all four colors free and set me up really nicely this morning.  The colors were remixed using almost 50% flatener (that's a lot), but when countered with hardener or reducer it comes out semi-flat (in theory).  I told them it was all good, and I'll experiment a little and see how it goes, alter the recipe a bit, and press on.  So I re-shot the black about 4 hours ago - and eureka! - it's dead on nuts for what I want!  Was a little thick without reducer so I upped the pressure to about 25-30 psi, and it worked fine and it's already hard.  You want the paint to be the consistency of 1% milk, not half-n-half, unles syou up the pressure.  Well without reducer it a little thick (half-n-half) so I upped the pressure and it worked real well.  Have to be real careful not to run it as it's putting out a lot of material for the pressure, and it's thicker than normal so you have to keep a sharp eye on the spray pattern.  I cannot overemphasize the importance of having very good lighting for this. 

The cowl came out a little thin - shot it when it was sideways and couldn't see it real well.  Have to recoat maybe tomorrow, but I still need to do some custom work to the cowl so I'll prolly just wait, light scuff and recoat when all the metal work is done, maybe a month from now.
Some pics -

Thanks dude  .  Something else I'm going to do is coat the wheel wells with Herculiner, but the critical part is you have to wait for the paint to be fully and completely cured to do it, else the bedliner resins ("methyl ethyl bad s--t") will lift the paint and presto - big mess.  ...don't ask me how I know that........scheesh that was the biggest freakin mess.  Did that to a 70 Challenger a couple years ago and it was actually easier to re-sandblast the bottom of the car than to scrape that crap off under there...ugh that sucked.  So yeah, let the paint cure for several weeks, scuff it with coarse Scotchbright, and 'liner that sucker - instant rock guard.  Use Hurculiner too - it has the real rubber in it and it doesn't have that smooth surface - great for avoiding rock rash.
- M

Crazy minds too! 

Kick butt - Body is on the frame 

Used the crane to lift the tub off the rotisserie, rotated it 180* right in its own tracks, and 'drove' it right over the frame, and set it right on its mounts.  It's within 1/2" of being square with the bolts, so it's perfect for mocking up the exhaust, suspension, etc etc.  Oh yeah man - I'm motivated now.  I'm most happy that the 'vision' I had of this truck looks the way I hoped it would in reality.  I'll be using the crane to lift the body off and stow it up in place to continue working - real easy and safe.

Coming off the rotisserie:



Rotate 180* in place:



Got clearance?  Body on frame - Hell yeah, starting to look like a truck.  I dig the stance of this beastie, though I think I'll lower it just a bit - couple inches.  Tire/suspension articulates great and fits the wells clean.  Son-of-a-gun I wanna drive this rig...

Thanks 'Spoon    - yer help was huge dude (thumbs-up!).  Was a fun day - we'll have to do more of this stuff bud.  Got that big honkin 1000 lb 6BT Cummins on the stand bubba - took all day to fabricate it but it works great...and boy howdy is that sucker heaaaaavy - can feel the weight when rolling it around. 
I posted this thread in a couple other forums, but here's some pics of the event, and the Cummins stand.

- We tore the rig apart - removed/cut off the front clip, scrapped the wrecked sheetmetal, pulled the hardware off the engine, loosed the converter, and yanked the engine.  It was tighter than I thought it would be, but it eventually popped out with a little help of a prybar getting the flexplate to clear the bellhousing.  Anyways, some pics:

Here's me and my broken rig  :{


Andy and Bob


TJ and the other Bob


Back side of a 6BT, and factory adaptor


Engine stand I made today - the engine flips verses rolls - very stable and simple


Rear mount - all plugs are accessable


D-side


P-side mount - uses the motor mounts as the main support for the weight of the engine -just like the factory

Very impressive!  Everything about this rig is impressive!  I wish I had the skills you do man

you have way too many tools and way too much free time ! you suck ! j/k ;-)

That is one mean looking bumper.  Definatly liking that design.  If I was going the tube route, that's the way I'd go with it.  Keep it up!

When you leave out the nice stands were everythings on and replace them with rocks and lumber, it looks just like my scene when i rebuild my truck.

Keep up the impressive work.

Believe it or not I actually have a small business that I started a couple years ago doing custom fabrication, and I'd be happy to make additional bumpers.  We'd have to go offline (via PM or e-mail) to work details, costs, etc.  I'll drop you a PM and maybe we can get you the first production rear bumper! 
I use my vehicles to prototype and test my own gear, and a couple of those items make it into production, and I was actually planning to do these bumpers.
- M

Good idea.  I must say, I'm inspired by all the thoughtful touches you have put into this RC.  It just adds to the overall coolness of this rig.  I'm all about it!

I finally read all three pages of your buildup, Sam.


Damn!  I've seen some really good fabricators in my time, but you're one of the best. Good solid ideas and damn fine work.

Really appreciate the words fellas.  Danny, James, thanks much amigos.  Y'all are tops (thumbs-up) and ya keep me going  . 
"Dream your builds and build your dreams." - Maxian proverb.
I think another one could be, "if at first you don't succeed, use thicker tubing..." 
- M

YOU GOT A BENDER!!!!! I might be helpin' out more than I thought!

Hey Sam...You comin up to Denver anytime soon? Let me know if you have and hour or 2. I could use your brain/knowledge/opinion. Will trade for a brew or two!

BTW...Still lookin' awesome...keep it up!

Andrew