Good evening,
A bit ago I posted an introduction and it was suggested I start a build thread. I didn't have much to post between now and then. We've only have been putting in a few hours over the weekends. That's getting ready to change.
We have a pretty ambitious set of plans for the truck, so I'll lay them out here.
First order of business was to deal with the roof, without the armored doors the roof hung way out over the sides and the front. We cut 4 3/4" out of each side of the roof, and a couple inches off the front. We took material out of the flat part, and will re weld the curved sides back on. During the process, we found the roof was badly warped. So we cut it in half in order to flatten it back out. The turret ring lip was also pretty badly rusted, so we cut that out and will be replacing it too. We just had the underside of the roof mediablasted to get rid of all the insulation. The roof is now ready to be welded back together. I'll post photos when that's done.
(Note for anyone who might try this, the roof is hardened steel and will ruin any carbide tooth sawblade you throw at it. We ended up making all the cuts with a plasma cutter)
In addition to the roof itself, there was no understructure. No b pillars or turret supports. We fabbed and mounted a new turret support. Once the roof is all welded together we will make b pillars to connect to the turret support, then gusset everything for rigidity.
We will try to finish the roof before the next phase, and get photos up. It should look much cleaner when done.
The next phase is starting now, the engine swap. Our 1114 in Iraq had constant problems, and I don't want to deal with them. So the motor, trans, and transfer case are coming out. They will be replaced with a 7.3 liter powerstroke. We just got the donor truck today. Decided on a donor truck because we need so much from it that it didn't make sense to try to piece it together from junkyard parts. I know there are things I'm missing, but at the least I need the power train, all attachments including ac. Also need the intercooler and ac parts, the wire harness, computer, fuel system, throttle peddle and all the things I don't know I need yet.
I'm sure there will be unforseen problems in fitment, but the biggest one I'm anticipating is the 7.3s oil cooler is integrated into the side of the block, so I'm guessing that's going to cause some interference issues. I also know I'll need custom driveshafts and probably plenty of other things. Real loose measurements put the 7.3 within an inch in height and width from the 6.5, so I don't anticipate any major fitment issues. And if there are, I have a plasma cutter.
To mount the motor and trans we are anticipating fabbing all new mounts and crossmembers. It's possible we will have to raise the body, if that's the case we'll make new body mounts too.
We have a good deal more plans for the truck, but we'll get to those later since this post turned out so long. Really the roof and the motor are the biggest parts of the build, everything else is minor compared to the amount of work that will go into those.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to share any thoughts or comments, especially the ones about how it should be a cummins or duramax swap!
-Ben
A bit ago I posted an introduction and it was suggested I start a build thread. I didn't have much to post between now and then. We've only have been putting in a few hours over the weekends. That's getting ready to change.
We have a pretty ambitious set of plans for the truck, so I'll lay them out here.
First order of business was to deal with the roof, without the armored doors the roof hung way out over the sides and the front. We cut 4 3/4" out of each side of the roof, and a couple inches off the front. We took material out of the flat part, and will re weld the curved sides back on. During the process, we found the roof was badly warped. So we cut it in half in order to flatten it back out. The turret ring lip was also pretty badly rusted, so we cut that out and will be replacing it too. We just had the underside of the roof mediablasted to get rid of all the insulation. The roof is now ready to be welded back together. I'll post photos when that's done.
(Note for anyone who might try this, the roof is hardened steel and will ruin any carbide tooth sawblade you throw at it. We ended up making all the cuts with a plasma cutter)
In addition to the roof itself, there was no understructure. No b pillars or turret supports. We fabbed and mounted a new turret support. Once the roof is all welded together we will make b pillars to connect to the turret support, then gusset everything for rigidity.
We will try to finish the roof before the next phase, and get photos up. It should look much cleaner when done.
The next phase is starting now, the engine swap. Our 1114 in Iraq had constant problems, and I don't want to deal with them. So the motor, trans, and transfer case are coming out. They will be replaced with a 7.3 liter powerstroke. We just got the donor truck today. Decided on a donor truck because we need so much from it that it didn't make sense to try to piece it together from junkyard parts. I know there are things I'm missing, but at the least I need the power train, all attachments including ac. Also need the intercooler and ac parts, the wire harness, computer, fuel system, throttle peddle and all the things I don't know I need yet.
I'm sure there will be unforseen problems in fitment, but the biggest one I'm anticipating is the 7.3s oil cooler is integrated into the side of the block, so I'm guessing that's going to cause some interference issues. I also know I'll need custom driveshafts and probably plenty of other things. Real loose measurements put the 7.3 within an inch in height and width from the 6.5, so I don't anticipate any major fitment issues. And if there are, I have a plasma cutter.
To mount the motor and trans we are anticipating fabbing all new mounts and crossmembers. It's possible we will have to raise the body, if that's the case we'll make new body mounts too.
We have a good deal more plans for the truck, but we'll get to those later since this post turned out so long. Really the roof and the motor are the biggest parts of the build, everything else is minor compared to the amount of work that will go into those.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to share any thoughts or comments, especially the ones about how it should be a cummins or duramax swap!
-Ben
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