1st Gen. Ram - All Topics Discussion for all Dodge Rams prior to 1994. This includes engine, drivetrain and non-drivetrain discussions. Anything prior to 1994 should go in here.

tilt front end sheet metal.

Old Jan 1, 2007 | 12:49 PM
  #16  
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Just make sure you take your time squaring everything up, and weld everything. I've seen it done with spot welds and then bondo over the bodylines...looks good for a while but starts to crack shortly thereafter. Buy stock in welding wire, cause there are a lot of gaps to fill!
Good luck and keep us posted with some pics!
Originally Posted by farmer0_1
some cool stuff but i was going to weld the sheet metal. fiberglass that is strong enough for day to day is not going to gain me any advantage for me thats a big chunk of my budget. i have repaired my share of busted fiberglass. and built a glass 23t bucket . i supposed if one fell into my lap i would use it. i was thinking sheet metal. thanks for the web site gives me some thing to consider.
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Old Jan 1, 2007 | 10:07 PM
  #17  
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From: cornelius oregon
i figured a light metal subframe and i would leave the seperations in the body i think it needs to flex somewhere. so far this is just on the drawing board.
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Old Jan 2, 2007 | 05:48 AM
  #18  
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Originally Posted by farmer0_1
i figured a light metal subframe and i would leave the seperations in the body i think it needs to flex somewhere. so far this is just on the drawing board.
I agree. The whole truck need to have flexability. I think a better way might be floating the front hinge point in about 2" of rubber mounting and resting the rear onto the cab with about 1" of rubber. Then whenever you drive the truck over uneven surfaces the built in twisting of the frame will have somewhere to release its energy rather than transferring it into twisting & untwisting the body.
Also it may be possible to eliminate trimming the cowl by fastening the rear fender to the cowl in its original location and cutting the fender at an angle behind the wheel opening, sort of in a "Corvette" style.
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Old Jan 2, 2007 | 03:10 PM
  #19  
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From: cornelius oregon
i drove kw rock truck and the nose of that thing was all over flexing when on extreme rough terrain. i agree with the rubber mounts. only way i see to not cut bottom of fender or cowling is to have front end slide six inches ahead before opening.
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Old Jan 2, 2007 | 04:50 PM
  #20  
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From: SW Pennsylvania - Greene County
farmer0_1
Here is a link to a truck in the auto trader that has a tilt front end. It looks like the fender separates at the side moulding at the rear of the fender.
http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.js...=&cardist=1236
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Old Jan 2, 2007 | 06:41 PM
  #21  
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From: cornelius oregon
right up my alley. i emailed the owner to see if he would share his info on how he did it and if he was happy with it. that is one clean pickup thanks for the heads up.
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Old Jan 2, 2007 | 06:48 PM
  #22  
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I used my stck sheet metal made a suport fram in place of the rad. suport pivots offthat and frame.took me 2days to make all the parts.took me a lot longer to to get the guts to cut the fenders don,t like body work I,m a fabricater.I have air rams to raise and lower the clip.
dale
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Old Jan 2, 2007 | 11:46 PM
  #23  
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From: halltown mo
Originally Posted by farmer0_1
thanks for the web site swampthing that gives me some where to start. i won't have a winch . still would like to see how his fenders clear with out the slide forward hinges.


well on his truck he had to cut the air box to clear the outer fenders you will see it in his buoild up and he is not running inner fenders just some custom splash guards i am going to keep mine as stock as i can as far as inner fenders and such on my old truck the inners cleared but i had to cut off the back part of them where they curve back down under the cab


jason
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Old Jan 3, 2007 | 06:14 AM
  #24  
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From: SW Pennsylvania - Greene County
Originally Posted by perkins
I used my stck sheet metal made a suport fram in place of the rad. suport pivots offthat and frame.took me 2days to make all the parts.took me a lot longer to to get the guts to cut the fenders don,t like body work I,m a fabricater.I have air rams to raise and lower the clip.
dale
Nice job Dale. Looks like your method eliminates the cowl interference problem.
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Old Jan 3, 2007 | 09:33 AM
  #25  
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From: cornelius oregon
i saw that interference problem on the ramcharger and the cure that he used. i would not want to do that to a everyday driver. don't mind cutting the innerfender panels way back would use some truck style splash gaurds . but the auto trader guy doesn't show enough in the pics. looks like his outer fenders are still all there. like i said i emailed him to see if he would give out what he used to accomplish his job. it sure is nice to see some different ways to go about doing the same thing. on some of my past street rod stuff it took a case of brew and alot of just looking at it. finally you just built it for better or worse.
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