I have been able to get some work done on the sliders this weekend. Not as much as I would've liked, but waddaya gonna do?
I spent some time deciding exactly how to mount the sliders, brush guards and roll cage. Decided to go with my original plan and use the tapered rectangular tubes to mount the sliders. I will also terminate the front brush guards at the front slider mount. The cage will mount through bushings to custom cab mounts.
Here is a shot down the cab showing the slider. It is tack welded to the frame until the cab comes off and then I'll match drill the holes and it will eventually be bolted on. For the bolts I will drill an oversized hole through and through the frame and slip in a solid piece of round bar that is drilled and tapped, then welded to both sides of the frame. That will tie the box section frame together, prevent "squashing" the frame, leave the inside of the frame clean and make the removal of the sliders an easy thing. Also in this shot you can see the tread material I will be using. It is just held on by gravity until I figure where to put it. There will be a few connectors between the 1.5 and 2" tube as well.
In this shot you can see the basic structure of the slider. On this third mount I had to actually cut off a part of the bed mount bracket so that the slider mount would sit flat. The frame narrows from the rear to the front so the slider mounts get progressively longer as you move forward. At this rear mount the frame is actually parallel to the long axis of the truck. The same is true of the front mount, so they come straight off, perpendicular, to the frame. The middle of the three mounts is at a spot where the frame is tapered and so I angled it to match the other two. Sorry for the confusing explanation. Basically I mean to say that if you were to take off the cab you would see the slider mounts make a straight line across the frame even where it is tapered. The wood you see through the wheel well is just a piece of plywood between the cab and bed to protect the cab when lifting the bed off.
