So, the only reason to have a plan is to deviate from it right? Or is it that if you don't have a plan you can't deviate from it?
Either way, instead of working on the main beam, I went for the mid bed support. Running low on sand so when I set up to blast I was only able to get the area behind the mid bed support, and the support itself before I ran out. Since the main beam wasn't blasted I figured I might as well get the mid bed done.
Mid bed area blasted, drilled for welds and etch primed:
Had to come up with a way of being able to push the bed and support together tightly for the plug welds. Here is what I came up with!
So, the two lengths of angle are vice-clamped to the heat shield brackets. Next the pry bar is put under the top angle, and the C-clamp pulls the tension to the second angle. This has a double effect of pulling the floor towards the mid bed support, while at the same time pushing the mid bed support towards the floor. A few spots I used a small block of wood to actually push on the flange, instead of the base of the bed support. Worked great!
All the welds are made from the bed side. Much easier to burn plug welds into the flange of the support, and just melt the edges of the bed, than try to burn into the bed, where the thickness can vary due to its age!
Plug welds finished and mostly ground down, along with nice square cuts of the rotted out areas where the jump seat bases were:
Here it is all done, you can see the heat rise from the plug welds on the other side:
Next on the list for the box;
- Main beam body mount points
- Jump seat point repair patches
- Rear wheel well support repairs
- Rear outer corners of bed repair
- Main beam blast/paint & installation
I THOUGHT the list was getting shorter, but it doesn't seem to be!
Finally ordered that M11x 1.25 die for re-threading (de-galvanizing!) the shock mounts. Should see that in about a month.
--> whoops.... Skip down a few posts if you were about to order that...
New shocks and steering stabilizer are here, along with the bikini top windshield channel - so now I can drive without the doors/rear sides/roof/rear doors - hope I'm done before it's too cold for that!!!!!