Project: Midnight Panic

[Skipped_Link]

More strange coping, & "pig iron"

Those are the start of the inner seat mounts for both passenger & driver seats.

But before they could go in, I had to make them a little more presentable.

https://www.facebook.com/10146664133...dmin_todo_tour

This is better, & they even fit.

As for the actual mounts on the sets, had to build those too. the inside was pretty simple, since the seat will be sitting on a raised portion of the floor.

 

[Skipped_Link]

The outside mount was a little more challenging, the mount had to reach down to a lower section of the floor,
Another lucky find, I had this press-broke aluminum part I've been tripping over for nearly 20 years, & just so happened to have a Z-bend that was the correct height for what I needed,

Combine a piece of that part, & a chunk of 1/8" 6061, along with a few hucks & presto, seat mount.

What they look like bolted in place. (the grade 5 hardware is for mock up purposes only.

 

[Skipped_Link]

I believe this was about the 4 months into the project so far,

 

[Skipped_Link]

With the seat mounted I could get started on mounting pedals & steering this days off.
Typical single cab truck problem is not enough leg room with any kind of race seat, & this truck is no exception,
I have a couple different styles of Wilwood brake pedal assemblies, that I really tried to make work, but none fit very good, & the ergonomics in the seat with them was terrible,
As with almost every other complete build I’ve done I ended up building the entire brake setup, piece by piece.

With the front shock hoops extending into the cab & sitting between the drivers feet, I needed to have the pedal by my left foot, but the master cylinder on the right side of that tube,
So the pivot point of the pedal needed to be a shaft with the pedal on one side & an arm to actuate the MC on the other.
The tricky part being one of those parts (pedal or arm) needs to be removable, yet lock to the shaft, & do so with enough reliability to operate a brake system.
Scratching my head thinking what I could use it dawned on me I still had the steering column & steering wheel out of the donor cab,
After stealing the shaft out of the column, & chopping up the steering wheel for the splined hub, I went to work machining the pivot point mount, & a brass bushing for said mount

The pivot "boss" was welded into a couple gussets that will tie to a couple tubes in the chassis,

Bushing installed with a little under .001 press fit.

Test fit the shaft & make sure the bushing inner bore did not get smaller when pressed in,

Next I built the arm that will actuate the MC.

 

[Skipped_Link]

The steering shaft was cut down, & pressed into the arm, then welded to make a permanent attachment,

This was intended to be the finished part pic, but I think I may drill & dowel pin the arm to the shaft as well, either way, it'll look the same.

Next was on to the pedal, a leftover chunk of 7075 aluminum from the steering arms was cut out,

Then lots of setups in the mill & cutting,

 

[Skipped_Link]

The finished part turned out pretty decent for an old manual Bridgeport.

The pocket in the pedal houses the machined down steering wheel hub, which has a slight press fit, & the two original puller bolt holes holding the two together.

 

[Skipped_Link]

Just an interesting shot showing where how close each part really is,

With the pivot point tacked in place, it looks like everything should work, & since it’s splined I can orient the pedal & arm wherever works best when I get the master cylinder mounted.

That little project resulted in a huge mess in my machine room, I actually spent most of the next day cleaning around the shop & better than half of that was just in this little room.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Ever single piece of this truck is a freaking work of art. Makes me want to burn everything I've ever built in shame. Your attention to detail is second to none.

 

[Skipped_Link]

The remaining days off was spent fitting a couple windshield tubes,

Support tubes that tie the forward dash bar into the front of the chassis,

And an orbital mount,

Followed by several hours of welding in the new pieces that have been fit over the last couple weeks,

 

[gt1guy]

It's great to see your beast here. I always seem to learn something seeing your fabrication and how you go about solving problems.................................even if half the time all I learn is that I suck.

 

[Skipped_Link]

It was a busy week bouncing around different parts of the build,
Started off with making a pocket around the brake pedal to help with ergonomics, while also creating a place to attach some tin work later on,

Passenger side is more simple.

Then started working on the bed skin mounts, (to hold up the front half of the bed sides) which it will double as the engine cover, once it is covered, most likely with lexan or aluminum,

The though of not having any adjustment for the bed side skins (like most things that just run skins) was not really appealing, so I came up with a plan than involved poop pipe & under sink parts,

 

[Skipped_Link]

After doing some machine work to a couple threaded pipe parts, they were welded to a section of 1.5" DOM.

Then a few more tubes were setup

Being a smaller section of the rig, I thought I'd TIG this whole part,

And the plumbing parts come into play here, basically just a Pee-trap compression fitting from under the sink, which fits 1.25" tube,

At this point I had not decided what material I am going to use for the 1.25 insert yet, but it will be a sacrificial part, say like 1.25x.120 wall aluminum tube, or 1.25x.062 steel, hopefully in the case of a wreck the this part will give before doing much damage to any of the other cage parts,
Also the plan is to make a bracket where the bed skin attaches to this tube that is also easy to remove,
Long story short, when the truck gets wrecked to the point of needing a bed skin, worst case I'll have to replace a couple cheap pieces of tubing & not have to do any major reconstruction on the main tube work,

There's still plenty of bracing & tabs to install, but the main structure is complete & can be bolted to the chassis,

 

[Skipped_Link]

After a pretty long day messing with the engine cover/bed side mount, I decided to head off another direction, & play with plumbing a bit,
The 12 volt rear steer pump is going to be mounted between the seats, & basically under the tower/mount for the shifter,
This particular pump does not have the integrated solenoid valve, so I will be running an external one just like you'd see guys running with an engine driven pump.

So I started by figuring out where I wanted this mounted, & already had an idea how I wanted to do it,

A plate gusset was cut, drilled, & bent to fit in the X-tube, which is right under the pump, then welded into place,

A couple bulkhead fitting were threaded directly into the right & left ports on the valve, these fititngs were inserted into the holes in the new gusset,

Simple as that, valve is mounted, & the ports that go to the rear steer cylinder are already outside the body work,

With the valve mounted I decided to plumb it & the pump together,

On this build I will be doing as much of the plumbing as possible in stainless hard line with AN/JIC fittings & B-nuts/sleeves,

And to do that, I needed some new tools, after a little research I found a lot of people that work with stainless tubing (both hobbyist & aviation industry) recommend the Imperial 400-f flaring tool, While it does make flares that meet strict standards, it is a $400+ manual tube flaring tool!
Luck for me a found one in new condition that included the optional reamer (an added cost) on ebay for a little less than new.

And while JD2 does make a 1/2" die for my model 4 bender, that's probably a little over kill,
so I opted for the Ridgid 38048, (turns out the dies for my model 4 would have probably been cheaper)

Enough show & tell on tools, Back to plumbing,

The rear steer pump to valve was first, & even though I am not a big fan of cross drilled fittings, clearance is an issue, & the long leg of tubing from flare to the first bend required I use a couple here & there, I'm still up in the air on how much they really effect flow in most of our applications off-road,

All of the rear steer plumbing will be -6 (3/8") while the front will be -8 (1/2")

 

[ConwayMuddy]

Happy to see you made it over here with this build. Incredible fab work and being a mega truck just makes it better

 

[Skipped_Link]

Speaking of front steering, before to much stuff got in the way I figured it would be easier to get some of the steering lines done from the Orbital valve to the fire wall, where it will pass through with bulk head fittings,

The new flaring tool seems to do a respectable job.

The bender is not bed either,

Got all four tubes down turned down & beck bast the windshield wiper motor, & cutoff at the firewall, once that tin work is I'll cut & flare that end to connect to the bulk head / pass through fittings.

The next couple weeks probably will not see a lot of progress, at least not on this project, A friend is needing a set of custom headers for his drag race truck, (good practice to warm up since I'll be doing a set on this project as well) And I have to make a 1500 mile round trip to pick up the next project, (new old race trailer for when this project is done)

 

[Toreadorranger]

I believe this was about the 4 months into the project so far,

This is all you managed to get done in 4 months?

 

[Skipped_Link]

I finally got some 16ga so I got the firewall cut, fit, & welded in.

Installed the bulkhead fittings & flared the hard lines from the working ports,

I had previously cut out an 1/8" stiffening plate for around the master cylinder mounting area,
That plate & the throttle pedal assembly was cleaned up & test fit before I ran out of time for the week,

 

[Skipped_Link]

At this point I had another project coming in the shop for a couple days & needed to get some parts back on the truck & out of the way,
Back in 2016 A friend of mine swapped his drag race truck from small block to big block power, & he had me build a set of headers. Just recently he swapped again, from a tall deck 632 ci BBC to an all aluminum short deck BBC & the headers needed a little work to fit the chassis, He happened to have the ISP seat that you've seen used in this build, long story short I reworked his headers in trade for the seat, it was this weekend that I had to hold up my end of the deal,

I finished flaring the hard lines & installing bulk head fittings in the firewall,

Then the radiator got AN fittings welded on for coolant plumbing, & the fan mounted, I also whipped up a mount for the electric water pump & bolted it in place.

But really clearing shop floor area was getting the shocks, bumps, & front tires back on & out of the way,


After the header project was done & knowing for sure I was squared away on the seat, I made a couple adjustments to deal with some terrible ergonomics, up to this point I this this project was possibly the most uncomfortable thing to sit in I have ever built, (I now know why monster trucks are center seat, & they are either extended cab trucks, or the regular cabs are stretched, Leg room with race style seat gets pretty limited, as far as foot controls I've pushed them as far forward & possible, & with some make shift 2" blocks under the seat mounts I was getting close to having it comfortable to sit in, but my knees although not to high were unsupported by the seat, I didn't get much for pics of whats going on, but by adding 1.5" to the leading edge of the main seat structure, which raised the leg support plate bringing the padding up to my legs while sitting in the seat,
These small changes made all the difference, going from something borderline uncomfortable, to quite comfortable & supported in what I feel are critical areas,
This pic, even though an afterthought, show one weld holding the leading edge riser, you can also slightly see the leg support plate/panel that is being raised up.

To finish off the weekend I started roughing in the permanent 2" seat mount risers, these ended up getting a lot more machine work before they were done,

 

[Skipped_Link]

Continuing on the firewall stuff, I knew I would need a spacer for the master cylinder due to location of the pivot shaft & pedal, & this spacer gave me the opportunity for some built in adjustment, I started with running a chunk of 1.5" aluminum plate through the table saw to rough it to size,

After squaring up the edges & dialing in where I wanted the bore, I bored a 1.562" hole through it, that's the size I settled on for a nice fit with the rubber boot on the master cylinder.

Then a couple hole patterns were drilled & tapped,

 

[Skipped_Link]

The adjustable part is the bore & MC bolt pattern in the spacer are offset, notice the hole in the firewall & pedal ratio adjustment in the pivot arm. If I end up needing more braking power I can rotate the aluminum mount 180* moving the master cylinder up correcting the projection angle on the MC pushrod.

For some reason I had the urge to play around with some of the aluminum I bought for the interior tin work, So I knocked out the front floor section with a couple supports riveted to the bottom, I plan on carrying on the riveted theme throughout the interior, I like the grip & the fact they are relatively low profile both front & back, Anything that needs to be removable I'll use button head screws, (the ones in this pick are just mock up stuff)

A few weeks prior I had reached out to Julene at Summit Machine Inc. about some 7075 aluminum links, She was quick with a quote & the pricing was really reasonable, enough so it was not worth buying material & sourcing someone to thread the ends, I still don't have access to a lathe with a spindle bore big enough to do large link bars,
I placed an order & a couple weeks later they were ready to go, (about the time states started shutting everything down for the virus)
So before the COVID19 got us locked down any further, I figured I better make a trip over to Utah to pick them up, Also turns out I can buy DOM tubing in SLC for the same money ERW cost here locally, so I hooked onto the trailer & headed east for a quick day trip,
Less than 12 hours later I was back home with a stack of aluminum links, & another 80+ ft of tubing,
I didn't even unwrap a link from packaging until I was home, but when I did it was very clear their quality is top notch, really nice parts all the way around,

The whole set would not be installed for a while, but I needed a couple on the rig for mock up & plumbing purposes, & since I had both a steel mock up link & new aluminum parts in my hands I did a little comparing,
Both links being 51” long,
The steel link is 2.25”x.375 wall, with medium 1.25” joints,
It weighed 39.2 lbs
The aluminum link is 2.5” solid with 1.5” large joints & is exactly 5 lbs lighter at 34.2lbs,

Weight savings is not what I'm after with the aluminum links, I just thought it was good info to post.

 

[Skipped_Link]

I was looking at where to run some hard-lines when I realized I should have omitted one of the big holes in my I-beam cross-member in favor of a couple smaller ones for bulk head fittings, but it was to late to do anything about that, other than build a plug for the 2" cross-member hole & had a location for the bulk head fittings,
Nothing but time & chips,

One half is threaded & the fittings actually clamp the plug together around the cross-member,

Since I was already making a mess on the lathe & mill, a couple weld on hard line clamps were whipped up as well,

 

[Skipped_Link]

Then I started bending tube,

Unfortunately I run out of B-nut's & sleeves, I got the connection at the firewall done, but the other end would have to wait until next days off,

I did Have nuts & sleeve for #6, so I worked on the rear steer plumbing, until I just ran out of time,

 

[Skipped_Link]

After getting an order of tube sleeves & B-nuts, I continued with plumbing, but it was more than just bending & flaring tube to keep it interesting, I did finish all the lines I currently had ready for them, then build a couple tabs for fittings & got them tacked to the chassis, however I did not get any pics, really nothing special anyway,

The week before, I had drawn up a link clamp design, which I took along with a chunk of 3/4" aluminum plate, to the water jet shop & had some blanks cut,
Since that shop is as far out of town (the opposite direction) as mine, Allison & I could maintain our social distancing, & still get our parts,

The edges got cleaned up, then all of the parts were setup in a way the clamping bolt holes could be machined & threaded,

Once bolts could be put in the parts .050" shims were made so the bolts could be tightened without completely closing the gap on the clamps, then they were setup on the mill again, this time the link bore was machined to size,
Here is test fitting a piece of 2.5" material in the bore,

I bored the parts in pairs, once the bores were finished, both pairs went back in the mill to drill & tap for bulk head fittings, one pair is setup for #8 (front) the other pair #6 (rear)
To finish the milling work, each clamp was setup for the air locker line, these ones I had to countersink since a #3 bulkhead is not long enough to pass through 3/4" material & still attach a hose/fitting,

 

[Skipped_Link]

Before loading them up with fittings, I put the pair of clamps for the rear link bar back in the mill & drilled for a 5/32" roll pin, the control cable for my rear steer return to center should lay nicely in the saddle between the two steer lines, the roll pin will be a good spot for a couple zip ties to keep that cable in place,

All the clamps were installed on their respective link,

Before I went any further a couple gussets were cut, bent, & tacked in place for the upper 4-link tabs, rather that do it later & have plumbing in the way,

There will be more boxing & gusseting later, but that can all be done during/after final welding on the axles,

The rear got the same, with the exception of the gussets being a touch shorter with an extra band to make sure they clear the rear bump stops.

 

[Skipped_Link]

Then it was back to flaring tube, making 3 tubes exactly the right length was challenging, luckily these tubes are short enough I could put them in the lathe & machine the length to what I needed,
The steer lines are the same length, but the air line was just a touch longer & took some sneaking up on it to get the length I needed, just a touch long & the line would have a bow to it, short & it was like a banjo string & possibly not seated right, And it does not take being off by much either way.

I really doubt they need any additional support, but I may see if the water jet guy can cut polyurethane & have it turn out clean, if so I may do a small block that can go in the middle if the link bar to calm any vibration in the lines, if I can't build something that basically snaps over the 4 parts I won't worry about it.

With most of the hard line in place I was down to flex joints, I like the reusable fittings & "rag hose", I can do everything right here at the shop & have never had an issue with any of it on past projects,
After a couple hours, & lots of up/down on the rack, both front & rear systems have the working port plumbing completed,

I still have to build the small air line for the rear, I believe the 3/16 stainless line I bought is just cheap junk, & would split while flaring, I decided I'll try ordering better quality tubing before putting any more effort into those parts,

 

[Skipped_Link]

Then for some reason I decided I should look into shifter mounting, (the order some things get done on this project are kind of random, that's pretty much how the build started, & I've kind of been rolling with it throughout, rather than trying to stay focused on completion of one section or system, I could have worked on a couple more hard lines & had the front steering done with the exception of the pump/relief, resi, cooler & the hoses connecting them)

But Thursday was shifter day, before even really looking at mounting there were some changes the shifter needed first,

Like the buggy I will run the rear steer controls on the shift handle, I like the scissor lift control handle that I've been running on that rig for several years, so I ordered another one just like it, with a rocker on top for left & right, then a button easy to press with the ring finger for return to center, that controller is almost perfect, it's only shortcoming is mounting it can be pretty challenging,
The handle splits in half, & clamps around a small metal block, which is threaded, but it's a pretty small diameter thread, plus all of the wiring has to pass through whatever you thread that block onto.

After lopping the handle off, this shift lever went in the mill, just enough material was removed to fit/clear the new grip, from there it was drilled/tapped for mounting the block with that hole intersecting the existing wiring passage in the shift lever,

The grip/handle mounting block originally had a metric thread where it attaches to the scissor lift controller, but there is enough meat there to drill/tap it to 3/8", so that was done, then the threaded section of a 3/8" bolt was cut off & drilled for the wiring to pass through. with all those little parts put together the shift lever was ready for the grip

Somewhere in the middle of working on this project a friend called & we were talking about some of the features my ADU display/screen has (birthday present from my wife & dad specifically for this project)
He told me about a cool little cable operated sensor that a guy can hook to his shifter & use it to display what gear you’re in on the screen, I asked if a guy could do the same thing using a throttle position sensor & the main pivot shaft in the shifter,
He said sure, as long as you can mount it & figure out how to make the shaft operate the sensor,

I guess it was lucky we had the conversation when we did, since I was planning on putting a pivot bushing in the shifter to fix slop caused by a mass production punched hole in the frame,

Half a day+ later, my pivot bushing project turned onto a pivot bushing housing/TPS mount combo.

Basically I dialed in on the good pivot bore in the shift frame, then opened up the sloppy stamped/punched hole to .875", took a piece of 2" bar & turned one side down for a slight press fit into the shifter frame, the other side got a counter bore that fit the TPS, then bored a .750 hole, & installed a brass bushing I had turned out earlier, after pressing the bushing in I reamed it to the .562 diameter of the pivot shaft.
The housing/mount was finished off with drilling/tapping the TPS mounting pattern & cutting a little excess material off.

 

[Skipped_Link]

Next was figuring out how to use the pivot shaft to drive the sensor,
While machining the lever for the grip/handle I went ahead & drilled/tapped for a set screw so I could lock the pivot shaft & lever together ensuring the shaft was in fact rotating when the shifter was operated,

The pivot shaft was actually a hollow pin, & was to short to reach the sensor when mounted, easy solution was turn down a piece of material for a press fit into the pin, weld in place & machine a couple flats that resemble the throttle shaft that would have originally operated this type of TPS,

The shifter was then reassembled, wiring loomed up, & a plug installed along with a small metal clip/electrical plug retainer that was tacked to the side of the shifter frame for the rear steer wiring

With very little work to the grip I was even able to get the wiring cover back in place

 

[Skipped_Link]

It was a fair amount of messing around, but I think the end result was worth it,

As for adding the sensor, I don’t normally have any trouble remembering what gear I’m in, & probably don't need to have it on the display/screen, but I could see this coming in handy when data logging the truck running & being able to see what gear it’s in when different events happen.

 

[Skipped_Link]

Started out staying on task & in one direction by continuing with the shifter & building a place to mount it,

Not much to it, couple pieces of plate, some machine work, & a little welding, probably took as long to figure out exactly where I wanted the shifter than it did to build the mount,

Turns out I was able to integrate one of the harness lap belt mounts into this part as well,

Working on the shifter got me thinking about interior tin work, & I really wanted to get some aluminum chopped up to fit. Even cut & bent one peice for the passenger side floor panel, then I realized I needed door bars at least tacked in so I knew what to fit the aluminum around,

So the floor panels got put on hold again, & I drug out the laptop to play with door bar locations,

 

[Skipped_Link]

I bought Bendtech specifically to learn how to use it on this project, When I first figured out the basics it really took the wonder out of tube work for me, Kind of bummed me out, Since then I've decided I was just bitter I took so long to decide to learn it, Now it's just another tool to use,

I feel that I did a fair job not wasting tube before BT, but I'm certain it has saved me a few feet on this project so far,

Back to door bars, the way I had cut the floor out of the cab at the rockers/door sill, I had two options for door bars, move them just inside the A & B pillars, or cut more out of the floor so the cab could still be removed with the door bars tying into the A/B-pillar nodes at the floor, It was pretty obvious what i needed to do, 5 min with a zip disk & the cab got about a pound lighter,
One thing about it, it's getting easier to duplicate this cab when I have to chop up another one to replace it, as the new door sill cut follows an existing panel seam,

When I finally made a decision, the door bars went quick,

I'm not going to lie, it's a pickle sucker to get in & out of, but I'm convinced it's a technique thing, I just have to find the right one & practice it,

The original plan was to plate the entire floor with .063" aluminum, but I decided a couple little places behind the seats might be better off with rigid 16ga steel panels, So those were cut, cleaned, & bent

Then welded in,

This area behind the driver seat will likely house the air compressor & solenoids for the diff lockers, the passenger side is undecided, but at least there is a little real estate to be had later.