The Fordubishi

[Fordubishi]

OMG Camoit I see what you mean about some things taking a crap load of time....... Figured I would try and repair my DS side door hinge and 6+ hrs later guess what.......IT WORKED !!!!!!!!

door arm.jpg
Original, Template, Rough Cut with Plasma

Hinge repaired.jpg
Repaired after grinding to final shape.

[camoit]

ha ha ha ha ha......Dude I'm telling you. You need to go get a time clock. So you can punch in and out. I wish I did. The next time I'll have one. I hate body work.
Was it the first try? The next one will seem easer but it will take just as much time. That must have been a crap load of die-grinding, but now when you point it out to someone they will look at it and realize there is no way in hell they can do it. If it does not stay open the way you want it to then just put a weld bead on the back side.

I just finished up the window nets for the truck. The first one took about 12 hours of looking at it, and messing with it to get it mounted correctly. The second was a 8 hour day. Easer yes, but thats because I already figured out the problems on the first one.

Ya know, we have a lot of real talented guys on this board. It just sucks we are spread across the globe.

[Fordubishi]

Yeah I did it in one shot but it was grinding, test, disasemble, grind, test,........... GOT IT......... Weld the stud in place. also had to weld the bearing then grind it smooth then drill out the center to get the weld bleed through out so it would spin on the pin.

Body work GURRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr............ got the hood all shot in E-coat and after it dried I could see all the bracing structure through the top of the hood. Stripped the top down again and filling the small valleys where the hood dips into the under structure. I didn't see the dips when I stripped it the first time as the hood was covered in house paint and after it was stripped it looked good. WTB a FACTORY hood some damn aftermarket stuff is GARBAGE.

[Fordubishi]

Woot no more prop rod.
Hinge Closed.jpg Hinge open.jpg
12.5" rams and used 96-2003 F-150 ball studs.

[camoit]

Now thats a hell of an idea.

[pennyman1]

need more pics of that mod - was going to do that, just never got around to it. Measurements too...

[Fordubishi]

It semi worked, the struts are to weak and the angle is wrong so I'll try a heavier strut that's slightly longer. Tried the ones off My 02 F-150 and would hold up the hood but not solidly in place.

[Fordubishi]

Ok got it working, had to go with a 17" strut.

Hood Strut.jpg Hood Open.jpg
Strut attached and the hood open.

Body Pin.jpg Hinge Pin.jpg
the front pin is 1 1/4" back from the middle fender bolt. The hinge pin is 2 1/4" from the front of the hinge.

[Acuta73]

Oh, hey, nice mod! I like that idea! Beat the crap out of the support rod for convenience.

How much of a pain was it to get the bolt into the fender wall?

[Fordubishi]

well as I have no inner plastic wheel well it was easy and the fact the fenders were only on with 3 bolts for fit up.So just drilled a 3/16" hold through the inner fender and installed the Ball stud with a nut .

The ball studs are real easy to get they were on the top for the fenders from a 96-03 F-150. went out to Pick and pull found some F-150's with no hoods and took the ball studs. Got to love Pocket your parts.

[pennyman1]

great - now I have to get 2 sets of struts and bsll studs to do both of mine. Wonder if the struts I have from a starquest rear hatch will work...

[camoit]

Fordbushi.
You want a set of louvers for the truck. I'm getting a set made for my truck. They come from a Camaro I think. There not to big or to small. I don't know if Jeff is going to make them from just fiberglass or carbon fiber yet. But I'm in the process of cleaning up the plug so he will be making a new set of molds. Now that you have the cowl induction these would go nicely out on the sides over the wheels. They won't be to much cost wise I would guess. I'll know more later.

DSCN3961.jpg 02-29-12_2155.jpg

[Fordubishi]

Nice. but I will not have a chevy part anywhere near my truck. One of the custom plates I was looking at getting was "NO EKG" (joke on chev's old saying "heartbeat of America" ) I have gone out of my way to find parts from anything BUT chevy. I have parts from Ford,VW,Toyota,Mits,Nissan,Dodge,and some others misc parts.I hate Chev's,as I'm always working on them and never had one that would last more then 6 months. I spent 6 months building a 85 Camaro with a built to the nuts 355 in it, damn thing would never break out of the 14's in the 1/4 and a Friends STOCK 88 5.0L Mustang LX notch would beat it.

[camoit]

By them self you can never tell that they came form a 79 firebird or Z28. They just look cool. All thats known for sure is they are a 1979 ????

[Finnie3d]

Holy Crehhp man! Guys are really going hard for Max/D50 on the board... I love it. Great work! Keep it going.

[Fordubishi]

just a small update..... been busy as as hell in the shop so haven't had time to do anything on the D-50 for the last 3 weeks till today and started to get the doors painted on the inside for final mounting.

[Acuta73]

What was the weight rating on those struts? Found 45lb 17" struts x2 for $25 USD.

http://www.amazon.com/SUSPA%C2%AE-Sp...sim_sbs_auto_2

Can get ball brackets for $9 USD for a full set, too.

[Fordubishi]

Not sure as I got them from a surplus parts store. I tried different pressures till I found ones that worked.

[camoit]

Not sure as I got them from a surplus parts store. I tried different pressures till I found ones that worked.

You got any part numbers on them you can share?

[Fordubishi]

Strut is a Master-Lift ML 36-70 so it should be a 70lbs lift according to all the sites I have checked. Master-Lift is no longer made,they went to a different name and part number so not sure the cross number for it.

[Acuta73]

With a target of 70lbs I have something to work with and can dig more. Good enough and thank you!

[Fordubishi]

slowly getting the sheet metal into Epoxy primer. Few more pieces to go.

Fender.jpg
Drivers Side Fender

Hood and Door.jpg
Hood and Drivers door (thanks Camoit)

[parrell456]

the muffler will be fine either way as long as the exhaust dumps outside the body not under the a floor. My first build I just dumped the exhaust after the muffler and at 60-70mph in OD the thing droned like a Mo-Fo under the bed so bad I had to take it out of OD after 10 minutes of driving.My current build the exhaust will dump out the sides of the box just in front of the rear wheels.The mufflers are under the cab floor and are Dynomax Ultra flows and all I hear is the exhaust at the tips.

Attachment 2685 Attachment 2686

Fordubishi, I was thinking about chopping my exhaust after the diff because I don't like seeing it; I want as little mechanical parts showing as possible. Even with the exit so far back, do you think the noise in the cab could be that bad? In your opinion, is there another way to get what I want, or will I be fine by just cutting a bit off the end to hide the exhaust?

-RHP

[Fordubishi]

Best thing to probably do is cut off the tail pipe after the axle and make a replacement that faces the road at a slight angle facing out from under the bed,flush or a little above the roll pan.It wasn't loud just droned real bad,where my dumps were it would hit the road,bounce around under the bed and resonate in all the open areas.Now granted the engine in OD was only turning 1500-1700rpm and had a very low tone adding to the drone so I would have to put it into D and bring the rpm up to around 2200-2400rpm that would change the tone of the exhaust stopping the resonating.

[Fordubishi]

Had some time today and got some more painting done.

Caliper painted.jpg
Caliper in paint

Caliper rebuilt.jpg
put in a rebuild kit and reassembled

P Door mid paint.jpg
Door edge sitting in body color, doing the interior gray next.