First Steps on the Box

Worked up some scale drawing using Google Sketch for the box layout. It has been very helpful in laying out the project. It took awhile to learn the ins and outs of the program, but after that it went pretty fast.

Also did one with the sheet metal on the frame work. The program is a 3D model that lets you look at it at different angles which is very handy.

These will be the body mounts for the box. We will also have some mounts that will be using the frame for the mounting.

One of the mounts ready to be tac welded to the frame

All in place and ready for the final welds.

We needed to do some frame work to accommodate the back steps for the door.

The new addition to the frame rail.

Adding a hitch to the new addition.

All put together and welded in.

Not sure what to call these. They will be used for safety rails and be bolted to the frame. I guess the best way to explain them would be giant skid plates to protect the box from damage. Will place them at the rear and center part of the frame.

These are the rails at the back end and are the lowest point of the truck when parked and ready to serve up some pizza. It is a 1/2" off the ground and the box will be 1.5". The projected ride height will be between 4 to 6" and another 6"of travel for those problem driveways that we may encounter.

The side rails installed.

Needed to pull out the rear axle to weld up the new brackets for the air bags. Cleaned it up and ready for some new paint

New coat of Eastwood 2K ceramic chassis gloss black. I really like how this stuff laid out for a rattle can. I also prime it first with Eastwood's 2K primer.

We have the final pieces of the grill back from the machinist and now its time to do our part of putting it all together. Lots of work to be done. Will be hand sanding the bull-nose on all 33 teeth and then they will need to be polished and ready for chrome before we put it together.

Here we have all 33 teeth numbered and ready to go. Each tooth is a different size and needed to be number. We used 3/8" material for the teeth to give it a big truck size grill. The sanding starts Monday wish us luck :)