Project '53 Truck

Ged

RMS Regular
OP
Ged
Messages
1,218
Location
Richhill
Drives
sexmo VTS
Cheers everyone, feeling the strain of spreading myself a little thin with so many jobs to do on the runup to christmas and needing to gather up parts and work on the 53'

But i managed to get upto donegal on sat and pickup the rear suspension.

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Removed all the excess and began measuring everything and getting it set on

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We are quite tight to the chassis so ill probably make some relief around the U bolts when i manage to get them.

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Setting the pinion angle and checking the driveshaft angle will leave me bolting through the chassis at the front spring hanger.

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Just need to get Square m16 c-style U-bolts for the springs if anyone knows a good supplier. Going to be trying CSP and other truck places this week.

Also started work on the wheel adapters 20mm blanks cut

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Test fitting the rears
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Gouging out and welding the rear together now ready for final facing and machining.

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Started final machining on the fronts.

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Hopefully have some nice shiney adapters to show everyone at some point if i can get back to the lathe.

Cheers,
Ged
 

DavyC

RMS Regular
Messages
433
Great stuff again. Wheel adaptors look the business and the extra ring of studs and nuts will look grand when painted the same as the original hubs.

Back end looks really snug in those pics. Is that the original pan hard attached to one of the leafs? You hoping to reuse it providing it doesn't 'arc' too much and cause a spring - chassis clash?
 

AMG

RMS Regular
Messages
7,428
Location
Kilkeel
Drives
Anything
Try North Belfast Spring Works for U Bolts, they'd carry biggest variety I'd say. Supply most of the HGV springs locally.
 
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Ged

RMS Regular
OP
Ged
Messages
1,218
Location
Richhill
Drives
sexmo VTS
Great stuff again. Wheel adaptors look the business and the extra ring of studs and nuts will look grand when painted the same as the original hubs.

Back end looks really snug in those pics. Is that the original pan hard attached to one of the leafs? You hoping to reuse it providing it doesn't 'arc' too much and cause a spring - chassis clash?

Cheers, The plan is to use it, luckily the way the chassis tapers upward the only areas of the spring that will be close to the chassis are at the spring ends at ride height, the way ive it set is fully compressed so im not too worred about clashing/ twisting at that height. The rod is pretty long around 1.3m and ive 9" of bag travel so the moving arc wont be massive. probably set it fairly level at 3/4 travel compressed.

Try North Belfast Spring Works for U Bolts, they'd carry biggest variety I'd say. Supply most of the HGV springs locally.

Cheers amg ill give them a call in the morning.

Been modelling up all the parts and getting the front hangers designed tonight. Everything adds up as expected so the measuring I did with the tape to make the model must not have been the worst, people have told me I should only be allowed to use the stupid end of a tape lol..

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The hanger itself is made of 2 peices with some spacing washers to allow flex of the spring and some clearence.
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Stuck the locating holes in the chassis and lifted it to close to ride height to check everything. seems like my pinion angle and overall geometry match upto the theory which is unusual, normally it all goes to pot first time.

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Holes drilled bolts in and lifting the chassis to mimic travel while adjusting the axle angle with the jack due to lack of u-bolts lol.

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Ride height
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Lowest ideal running position
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Really Ive a very small area close to the u bolts to clearence and with the double skin chassis I may just make a small relief area with a peice of angle rather than a full chassis notch and lose the section depth or have to haunch above it.

Good to get some questions answered and keep moving foward rather than staring at it all night.

Get the hangers cut on the plasma and then just Airbag brackets, dampner brackets and some u-bolts, panhard rod bracket and the backends in :confounded:.

-Ged
 
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Ged

RMS Regular
OP
Ged
Messages
1,218
Location
Richhill
Drives
sexmo VTS
Getting there now, Made the hangers in the real world and tacced up and test fitted

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Started preping the springs and painted them with black oxide

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Got the whole thing together with new U-bolts from Belfast spring co thanks to @amg306

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Then relieved the u bolts around the chassis and checked travel

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Pretty happy with the rear end mock up ive a couple of folded peices to fill in the cuts in the chassis and make them into a little pocket
9" of bag travel to work with should be pleanty. Mounts for the bags, panhard rod and dampners to do and im onto the front end.

-Ged
 
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Ged

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Ged
Messages
1,218
Location
Richhill
Drives
sexmo VTS
Most of the rear end now wrapped up bags panhard rod and brackets all fabricated.

hooked up a quick airline and Moves up and down great, 10 psi to lift the back end pleanty of load capacity. ill leave it at that ready for final fit out blasting and painting.

Onto the front.

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I also made a bit of a slideshow recap video.



Cheers,
Ged
 

Ged

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Ged
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1,218
Location
Richhill
Drives
sexmo VTS
Nice wee video there, some change already :cool:

Funny Sven I think its all happening too slow for my liking, 2 days thinking head scratching throw 4 ideas out after trying them only to end up with a bracket that would take 4h to make in the end and wondering where my last 2 days went :confounded:

I managed a few days in the shed over the holidays finishing up on the rear end and then moving onto the front.

Belive it or not the GMC is narrower at the front by more than 300mm than any euro commercial truck with air brakes, so after much searching I found a forged mild steel axle that I can modify and weld with normal welding process. Cast steel would also have been an option but the workability of it was a little daunting.

So after alot of measuring, little chop here and there, jigging and fixturing to the table to ensure its straight to the mm, weld prep and breaking out the big welder, propane and fiberglass mats for pre and post heat treating, now have a suitable width axle to start designing up the air suspension.


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Its not jibberish hionest lol

Completed multi passed stringer weld and the removed section
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Quick coat of primer for now
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As a bonus ive ended up with a nice mini anvil fron the section removed, ad almost 1" thick everywhere its no flimsey thing.

The plan is to now add on suspesion mounts using the exsisting holes as best possible and if needed I know I can weld to the axle.

Cheers,
Ged
 
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svensktoppen

RMS Regular
Messages
32,750
Drives
FK2 CTR
Might feel like more backwards than forwards but better to spend a couple of days thinking and get it right than have to scrap a day's work!
 

svensktoppen

RMS Regular
Messages
32,750
Drives
FK2 CTR
I'm sure everyone has you down as bat crazy, lol - which is true, in the very best way :innocent: 😁 Keep it up!
 
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Ged

RMS Regular
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Ged
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1,218
Location
Richhill
Drives
sexmo VTS
I'm sure everyone has you down as bat crazy, lol - which is true, in the very best way :innocent: 😁 Keep it up!

It has been mentioned once or twice. lol

Front suspension conumdrum continued this week. How to make a proper geometry air bagged front suspension that will allow alot of travel for tilting the rear bed down.

Started where im familiar looking at defender setups then moved to the more modern D2 setup. To control the castor and postion of the axle while allowing massive travel on bags.

Sideways will be controlled with a panhard rod running inline with the steering arms. Which will need to be moved to the front for sump clearence and an integrated drag link steering bar setup.

Playing jig saw in the real world.
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The P38 steering box is a brilliant compact unit that mounts on the side of the chassis and offers alot of benifits
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Then playing jig saw in the virtual world keeping the panhard and drag link parrellel as possibe was tricky but will be doable minimising bump steer.
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The steering box to drivers side bag may be an issue that will need monitored as i dont want the drag link to run and to much of an angle.
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Have a set of these axle brackets designed and ready to plasma, the castor should be perfect but I do have options to recut or order d2 arms with +3 and+6 deg castor if req, the anti dive and roll calcs are coming in farily decent with the wheelbase so im confident it should drive well and with metalastic bushes be alot more comfortalble than rose joint or leafs.

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This will be the lowest it can go im liking it the stance and ive 16" of bag travel once i find some decent shocks to go onto it.
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Hopefully get it together next week and see what new challenges appear
 

avsd

RMS Regular
Messages
226
Location
Belfast
Drives
Mercedes/C350Est
Your skill and commitment to this project is awesome. We all enjoy reading the updates. Looking forward to the end results.
 
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FM155

RMS Regular
Messages
8,653
Drives
Alfa 155
Brilliant job as ever, loving the approach and the tools being used. Class!
 
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warninglight

RMS Regular
Messages
109
Location
SW Scotland/Down
Drives
Mostly Volvo
I hadn't seen this til it was mentioned in my Laplander thread. What a job! Love it!

Real good use of a range of bits too, can't wait to see it leaving a big 1111 up the road.
 

Ged

RMS Regular
OP
Ged
Messages
1,218
Location
Richhill
Drives
sexmo VTS
I hadn't seen this til it was mentioned in my Laplander thread. What a job! Love it!

Real good use of a range of bits too, can't wait to see it leaving a big 1111 up the road.


Cheers folks,

The laplander is awesome, cant wait to see it cometogether myself.

Quite a few ebay and amazon purchases this weekend to keep the gmc going.
 

Ged

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Ged
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1,218
Location
Richhill
Drives
sexmo VTS
Been flat out working on customer landies, fixing my own 110 and the plasma in work had been down so I wasnt able to get anything cut for the past week but I did manage to get the parts id drew over the holidays on monday and start and get everything mocked up.

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It was very apperent on fitting that not getting the axle lazer scanned was going to be a little oversight that came back to haunt me, the rake on the ends was alot sooner than id measured, us design enginers have been known to get things wrong a time or two :p, and it left no room for the bag mount so the grinder was deployed and I managed to get the rest of the mountings on.

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Apart from that the general concept and layout is good so im happy to crack on with the suspension design
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Back onto CAD to make a stepped bag mount to fix my mistakes and get the new ideas cut this week, also designed the front spring hanger and mocked in the bags and shocks

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I think im also now decided on FOX 2.0 shocks with 14" travel for the front and 10" for the rear and placed an order with granning airsprings for the bags should be enough cali lean to get anything on the back i need.

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Hoping to get back onto this over the next few weeks to get some real work done before easter,

Cheers,
Ged
 

subie_andy33

RMS Regular
Messages
149
Drives
ImprezaSTI
What a great read! Just went through the whole thread there, don't understand the half of it, but boy is it impressive!

This is the sort of thing people would have gone mad for on youtube, much like project binky! Though you'd probably not be even half as far had you tried to film it all... Seriously impressive work, looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
 

Ged

RMS Regular
OP
Ged
Messages
1,218
Location
Richhill
Drives
sexmo VTS
What a great read! Just went through the whole thread there, don't understand the half of it, but boy is it impressive!

This is the sort of thing people would have gone mad for on youtube, much like project binky! Though you'd probably not be even half as far had you tried to film it all... Seriously impressive work, looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

Cheers @subie_andy33 Id love to have the time to do youtube properly but as you say it would take an age to get it all filmed and narrated.

Ive gotton on with the front suspension now its all turned from CAD to steel and i got to work putting it together over the weekend.

Taccing and jigging up the mounts.
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One set fully welded

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Arms all bolted on and suspension fully compressed
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Wheel just sat on to see how it looks if it was down fully

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Sitting at Ride height axles are sitting at the height they would be if a wheel and tyre was fitted.
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Next job is to get the steering box panhard rod and steering arms mounted and get it onto its wheels to move it around the shed, then im going to strip the cab off and finish out the rolling chassis and drivetrain properly.

Cheers,
Ged
 
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