Metcalf
Expedition Leader
For sure. I am always very conservative when I quote something.
The 1st one always takes the longest....
Making money on custom work is difficult. A lot of people just don't see the real value in it.
Blender, My LX450/FZJ80 + FJ45esk + GM + Land Rover crazy concoction
- Thread starter Metcalf
- Start date
For sure. I am always very conservative when I quote something.
The 1st one always takes the longest....
Making money on custom work is difficult. A lot of people just don't see the real value in it.
Stoffregen Motorsports
Explorer
Nice.
Single piece or multi piece?
Single piece or multi piece?
Stoffregen Motorsports
Explorer
Yeah, come on Brennan. Give us something to look at.
Metcalf
Expedition Leader
I will be back at it soon. I had to stop and build some tools to facilitate a lot of upcoming parts of the project. The short version, I am building a 60" wide press brake to allow me to form larger panels in one part to help eliminate welding. This should save me a lot of work/money on stuff like the tunnel, gas tank, front fenders, rear fenders, bed panels, etc. My ever faithful Dodge also decided that the terminal life span of the front pinion bearings was just about 300Kish miles. I spend most of this weekend replacing all the bearing and seals in the front front diff.
I'll be back at it soon...
Metcalf
Expedition Leader
Ok....now back to our regularly scheduled programming....
The new thing is pretty much done.
60" wide bending capability with laminated modular tooling. It takes about 5 minutes to collapse the upper die truss. With the uppaer truss down the entire unit will fit under my large welding table for storage. It should do up to about 14 gauge at the full 60" wide with the narrow bottom die. I will be adding a wider 2" bottom die to allow doing 1/8" at the full 60" wide. It will max out at about 36" of 3/16" with the wide bottom die and the addition of some tension struts to effectively shorten the upper and lower die.
My general hope is that this will let me make a lot more parts at home. For this project alone I will be doing all the tunnel work, fuel tank, front fenders, winch mount, rear fenders, some of the bed panels, and a few other things I am probably forgetting. In the future who knows....
The new thing is pretty much done.
60" wide bending capability with laminated modular tooling. It takes about 5 minutes to collapse the upper die truss. With the uppaer truss down the entire unit will fit under my large welding table for storage. It should do up to about 14 gauge at the full 60" wide with the narrow bottom die. I will be adding a wider 2" bottom die to allow doing 1/8" at the full 60" wide. It will max out at about 36" of 3/16" with the wide bottom die and the addition of some tension struts to effectively shorten the upper and lower die.
My general hope is that this will let me make a lot more parts at home. For this project alone I will be doing all the tunnel work, fuel tank, front fenders, winch mount, rear fenders, some of the bed panels, and a few other things I am probably forgetting. In the future who knows....
RunSupertrampRun
New member
Great work as always. I think your Dodge was the first build I really followed on this site and I've enjoyed seeing the work you've done since then.
Keep it up!
Keep it up!
JCMatthews
Tour Guide
Updates?
Metcalf
Expedition Leader
How do you eat an elephant.....one bite at a time....
I was finally able to complete the mockup on the complete transmission tunnel. I have way more time in this than I want to admit, but I think it turned out pretty well. It is a little more square than I wanted at the rear of the tunnel, but that should be out of sight once the seat mounts are in place.
I don't really have any helpful shop tips on this one other than what I posted already. Having the chipboard mockup was VERY nice. I also really like my big long press brake where I can do more bending.
I still have a bit more to do on it. I will be trimming down the base flange to the minimize it a bit on the floor. I don't think I will final weld it till after I get done with mockup. I may still have to add or change things....
I was finally able to complete the mockup on the complete transmission tunnel. I have way more time in this than I want to admit, but I think it turned out pretty well. It is a little more square than I wanted at the rear of the tunnel, but that should be out of sight once the seat mounts are in place.
I don't really have any helpful shop tips on this one other than what I posted already. Having the chipboard mockup was VERY nice. I also really like my big long press brake where I can do more bending.
I still have a bit more to do on it. I will be trimming down the base flange to the minimize it a bit on the floor. I don't think I will final weld it till after I get done with mockup. I may still have to add or change things....
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Stoffregen Motorsports
Explorer
Final welding is a *****. It's all beautiful now, but after applying lots of heat, things get twisted. I have been TIG welding as much as I can on sheet metal, and that greatly reduces the warpage, but there's always that worry. I've also been trying to build individual modules that I weld together, that further minimizes twisting.
Plan your welds.
Good to see you're back on it.
Plan your welds.
Good to see you're back on it.
Metcalf
Expedition Leader
Yup, I will take my time welding it to minimize distortion. I may try tig'n it.
I tried to minimize the weld seam as much as I could, if I didn't have the new press brake it would have been WAY worse.