Project Blue Bell

[Chris@VeteranWeldingCo]

Hello,

My name is Chris Reader, and I am currently working on a 1951 Ford F4 pickup truck I have named Project Bluebell.

Why did I call it Project Bluebell, I am glad you asked. As you can see on the doors this used to be an old CAA tow truck. Now, I am a retired vet and when I was overseas or if you were on work up training. If your vehicle broke down you would call for call sign BlueBell over the radio. so that's where the name comes from. I know it's not like calling it ODIN or Thor but I still think it's fitting. This project for the most part all started because I had more parts and " Too many trucks" as my wife would say, kicking around the house. One of which was a 2001 GMC Sierra.

My end goal for this build has changed more times than the Clintons have confirmed kills. Everything from a slammed rat rod, to a full-on 1ton work truck, you name it and I have considered it. However, it wasn't until about a year ago when I finally settled on the build that I am doing now with it. This will be a roadworthy trail rig, 1-ton axle swap, 37-42" tall tires, Hummer bead locks, NP 205, LS 5.3, fully caged, and a custom bed.

To achieve these goals I will need to do some fabrication. Shortening the frame, custom cab mounts, bumpers, custom box plus the floor and firewall have been hacked to bits from the previous owner. Seriously, they look like a carnivorous beaver was locked in there for days.


So let's talk timeline. I have to have this done and completed for summer, a good friend of mine and I are planning to put together a yearly weeklong offroad trail ride we have called The North West Trail Ride, Comrades, customs and crawlers. So this needs to be in Ontario no later than the 1st of June 2021. This means this needs to be done early to the middle of May so I can pre-run a few trails out here before loading it onto the trailer and heading cross country. So in order to move things along let me bring you up to speed on where we are right now.

As For the 2001 GMC Sierra that I mentioned earlier in this build, I have scrapped the body completely, and am keeping only the frame, engine, and transmission. As of the writing of this post, it has been gone for a few months now. The 51 F4 cab is sitting roughly where I want it on the chassis along with the front clip. Hummer rims have been picked up, tires I am waiting on a few quotes to come back and this weekend ( January 9-10) I am going to be shortening the frame. I will be cutting out 16 inches from under the frame and depending on the departure angle I might.... take another 6 inches out of the back of the frame. but we will see where the cookies lie after I am done this weekend.

My goal for the end of January 2021, is to have the frame shortened, the floor replaced and the body mounts welded in place.


I will also be recording this and turning the build process into content for my company's YouTube channel. ( Veteran Welding )

 

[cagcig]

Better hurry up and get going

 

[Chris@VeteranWeldingCo]

UPDATE
This past Sunday afternoon I decided to take on the job of sectioning the frame. I thought that this was going to take a lot longer than expected... but to be honest I went from being 15 inches to long to Just right...... Get your heads out of the gutter lol. A lot of the success and speed of how this went is due completely through taking my time, measuring 5-6 times getting ready to cut, measuring again, and then finally cutting.

I used the trans cross member as my point of reference for this whole task. I made sure to scrape off the years of road grime off of the locations where I was going to measure from so everything was true. I measured 12" back. Made the mark ( using a fine point sharpie ) then marked at 27" ( 15" Difference ) took a square and wrapped the lines around the frame. At this point, I grabbed a coffee walked away for a min. When I came back I retraced all of my steps to make sure I wasn't missing anything and that my maths were correct. once everything was good to go, and I was confident that I was laid out correctly, I took jack stands and supported the who frame as best as I could. Once that was done I grabbed the grinder and the zip disc and proceeded to cut.


Once everything was cut and the section was removed I went back in and did a detailed cleaning of the inside of the frame, along with all of the welding locations. This means hitting it with a wire wheel, then a grinding stone. After that, I laid out 4 plug weld locations to help secure the frame to the inner "C" channel.

Then the part that I was expecting to either be a nightmare to get them in... Sliding in the C. I can say that the guys who did the forming of that inner C's did a great job. The parts were totally within spec and they even called to apologize that the closest that they could get them was .0625 of tolerance. For what this is I was more than happy. Anyway back to the build. the parts slide in 3/4's of the way and then the remainder I had to use a small sledge to get them in.

BOOM Front half is done. Time to this point 1hr.

Noe for the back. At this point, I had moved the rear from back about 4 feet to give me some room to work. I knew doing this would take the two halfway out of square, and with only being one guy I needed some help to hold everything in place while I linged it all up. This is where I grabbed a few ratchet straps and pulled the frame together. The straps held everything in place while I lined it all up. Once everything was lined up I was rewarded with a satisfying pop from the two half coming together.

Now I was only able to go about halfway onto the new frame section before I had to break out the big sledge, but with some persuading with the sledge, and constant pressure from the ratchet straps these two, temporarily divorced individuals. Where back together stronger than ever.



As of right now, I need to finish weld everything together, grind the outer welds smooth, and then weld on the outer fish plates. Then onto the floor of the cab..... The total time to get to this point was 2.5hrs.... including the coffee at the start.