New Twist on a 1947 Ford COE: It's Been Three Years

Wow where does the time go. Can't believe three years have gone by since I've posted anything on the blog. The whole Co-vid thing had taken a lot of our time at the restaurant. Actually had to be put back on the schedule and that hasn't happen in awhile. We basically had to reinvent the way we ran our business to adapt to the new circumstances. We are very fortunate that we have a great community that supported us though that time. It's been nice that we have been able to get back to a little normalcy or the new normal should I say in the last few months.

It wasn't all just work I still was able to carve out some time in the last three years to work on truck. It's been so long I'm not sure where I left off last in the blog. Oh I remember we where going to SEMA 2019 and we had some set backs and didn't make it. Chris and I still made the trip and had a great time even though we were a little bummed that the truck didn't accompany us.

I'll try and cover what has happen since we got back form SEMA 2019 to get the truck ready for SEMA 2021. Oh ya we made it never give up on your dreams. The problem is all the work we did wasn't documented very well, but I will try my best to get everyone caught up.

First on the list was to redesign the suspension .

After dismantling the failed suspension we came up with a new and better design. We went with bigger airbags that will carry twice the amount of weight then the old ones. We redesigned the rear arms, the upper plate, and moved the bags over for better clearance. Chris welding up the new lower arms. We used half inch material for the arms. That should hold!!

The finish arms or could they be the Imperial Star Destroyers. Well they probably weigh the same.

This is the mockup of the upper plate that bolts to frame. It also houses the new hydric bump stop that we designed. (I will explain more later in the post.) The mockup helped us out to make sure everything was going to fit in the new space

Top plates in metal and ready to be installed. These parts might seem confusing to look at, but I assure you they all have a part in the new and improved suspension. At some point I will try and take some photos of the complete suspension installed.

When we lost the air in the airbags the truck went to the ground. Chris and I looked at each other and said okay how do we move this thing now? (Well we maybe said some other thing not suitable for print.) Luckily we had incorporated a hitch in truck that was used to jack up the truck enough to get jacks under the frame. After we got the truck back in the shop we though what if that happen when we were on the road. At that point we decided that we needed a adjustable bump stop. One that would be extended when driving and would release when we wanted to lay frame. Does someone make something like that? (NOPE) Not till now. So we started brain storming and came up with that it should be hydraulic somehow. First we needed to find a hydraulic cylinder that could hold the weight and have the right extension and be small enough to fit in the limited space that we had. After scouring the internet we found what we needed. Now it was time to fabricate the parts to make it all work.

The holder for the hydraulic ram

Ram installed. We ended up on encasing the hole ram for better strength.

The start of the bracket that will hold the ram.

The ram and bracket will be bolted to the upper cross member.

A lot of time getting this at the right angle and making sure it didn't hit any of the steering components.

Here is a look at the total in cased ram.

Fabricating the lower bracket.

This is the last picture that I have of the hydraulic system. I will try and explain how the system works. Instead of a hydraulic pump we used a accusump oil accumulator. Basically it a cylinder that has two compartments one with the oil and the other compressed air. The oil side has a electric valve which I can control inside the cab. The air pushes the oil out making the ram extend and at this point the valve is in the closed position so that the oil is locked in that position. When the valve is open the weight of the truck pushes the oil back into the cylinder and lets the truck lay frame. Both the front and back suspension have the same setup. We now can kept the truck up three inch without any airbags, enough to get us off the road safely if needed.

The new upgrades to the suspension have been working great. We have been able to put on a few miles around town with great success.

For some more safety we installed air sensors for each of the airbags and air tanks. Chris made a box that the display sits in that is stored in a drawer under the seat when not in use and can be pull out when driving.

If co-vid wasn't enough we had the fire evacuation of 2020. We lost a beautiful town of Detroit to the fire which is about a hour from our home in Silverton. The fire was still out of control and was heading towards us which put us in a mandatory evacuation. The truck was at Chris's shop which was out of the evacuation zone, so we thought till little fires start popping up all around his area. They jump to a level two evacuation with little notice. Chris called and said we need to move the truck to a safer place. This happen of course around 8 o'clock at night and without the rear suspension not being fix yet. I jumped in my truck and hooked up the trailer and headed to Chris. Luckily good friends showed up to give us a hand in getting the truck loaded and moved to a

safer spot. By the time we were all done it was 3am.

The truck in a a safe spot till things calmed down. Special big Thank You to Dave Hoppert of One up Offroad for helping us out when we needed it most. In the end everyone made it though the ordeal without any loses except sleep.

Somewhere and somehow we misplaced the stock inter fender wells. (Most likely they would have not work anyway). Chris fabricated a pair of new beauties'.

Painted and Installed.

Some of the small stuff that we didn't have done before SEMA 2019 and now had time to finish up.

New cover for the Accuair air lines

Had the logo cut out of clear acrylic and then backlite it with Led lighting.

The old.

The new.

Had to take the fenders off for some adjustments that needed to be made for better clearance.

While we had them off we resprayed them to match the new inter fenders that Chris made.

Always wanted side mirrors for the truck but never found any that we liked, When Eric Black was kind enough to make us a rendition of the truck for SEMA we didn't have any side mirrors at that time. He ask if he could add them to the drawing and we said most definitely and that's what we modeled them from.

To start with we used 1948 truck mirrors. We only used the part that connects the mirror to the hinge of the door. Chris made many change to make the mount work and look like it was made for the truck.

Having fun with a little 3-D modeling.

I was able to give Chris a little inspiration.

As always Chris never disappoints. The finished hinge brackets.

It's a little hard to see from here but we started out with octagon stock. Our good friend Paul machined some unique shapes into the octagon stock to get Chris a good started on the arms.

Chris bent and hand sanded till he was happy with the shape.

Chris made the bars long and then cut off what wasn't needed. He then welded on the bullet on the end that the mirror attaches to.

Here you can see what the octagon bar looked like before and after all the work was done. Chris also machined the bullet parts to except the round mirrors.

We ordered about a dozen mirrors before deciding on the right one, Last test fit before going off to paint.

Machined door stop for the back doors.

We finally found a gas shock that would hold the ten foot service door open. For extra safety we custom made a prop that pins in three different positions to lock the door in the up position. We made it to look like the gas shock that we used, we also machined all the brackets.