78 K30 4BD2T Frame Off Build

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Also going to have to do some clearencing on the oil pan but I knew that already. Just gonna buy that little bump out at a 45° and we should be all set

 

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Ended up picking up this absolute unit of a winch bumper and all the hydraulics for it for 200$, couldn't possibly say no

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Winch is a hydraulic driven unit, and it came with a muncie belt driven clutched pump, which I now had to find a place for

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Started out by cutting a drilling a base place for it

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then added a slotted bracket for a belt tensioner and a support down to a boss on the block, the leg just isn't drilled yet in this picture

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Thereaded a piece of roundstock which I will make a threaded rod to fit for, and that completes a rudimentary tensioner

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Didn't get a pic of the pump mounted on the finished and painted bracket but the final result looked a lot like this.

 

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With the pump mounted I figured it's tkme to finally stuff the nose on this truck, where I ran into yet another issue. The frame is bent right behind the cab, so the driver side absolutely would not go together. I unfortunately didn't get a pic of the initial attempt, but it was bad. So I threw together a solution

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A little sketchy but with this and a porta power inside the frame directly above the jack to push out the wrinkle on the upper flange while the bottle jack pushed the bend out it went pretty well, or about as well as it could

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It made the gap a lot better, it was originally about twice this width. With some body shims and some real forcing the bolts in I got it all together and the gap tightened up even more than this, good enough for the trucks intended look and purpose

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The whole thing went back together pretty straight once there rail was straightened out, took a whole afternoon to do though

 

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Next up was mounting the bumper now that I held front end was together and could be used for reference

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Got it up on the stands to work, didn't get a ton of pictures of the process sadly but I started with cutting those arms off where it used to mount

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Also cut the angle iron off and flipped out around then moved it ahead several inches. That way it would sit on top on the frame horns as well as bolt to the upper bumper mounting holes on the top flanges

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Fit over them perfectly, and with a tab on the bottom that got me secured to both the upper and lower flanges, now I just had to bracket to the holes in the web

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(Yes the welds are ugly, I didn't feel like grinding the galv and rust off everything, just cracked up the amps on the SA250 and burned thru it all, and couldn't be bothered to chip the slag after)

For that some 4x4 angle worked perfectly. Welded that to the big angle iron as well as the main rails on the bumper, pretty much boxing the mount completely on each side. Also threw a 5/8 bolt into the spring hanger, since this is gonna stiffen the front end so much I figure a direct mount to the suspension will help take some load of the hanger mounting bolts when the frame flexes. This mounting setup gives me a total of 8 1/2" bolts and 2 5/8" bolts holding the bumper on, I don't think that things gonna rip off the truck no matter how bad I abuse it

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With it all mounted up she sure is ugly, just the way I like it . Next up is going to be either the transfer case or the pedals. Need to find a 10 spline 205 and a set of hyd clutch pedals so I can get the driveline together and get the steering column and interior together