It has been a while since I updated the blog but we moved the frame over to my garage while Scott was working on the 6 speed lightning.

I have about 8 hours into the frame and have only grinded with 40 grid. I hope to have the majority of the 40 grid done in the next few weeks. Then it is onto 80 and 120.

Here is a before pic of what it looked like on the passenger side of the frame. Let me sum it up by saying it in one word "UGLY"Here is what it looks like on the passenger side after a 40 grid grinding. Much better, can't wait for the powdercoating.
Here is the cross member reinforced because Mopacrap didn't know what they were doing and took out some structural support. We just reinforced it.

We got the valves all mounted up on the frame now. Before I had brackets to keep them mounted which did the job but since we are going for a clean look this fits the task. I am still debating whether to polish or powdercoat the big red valves, either way it will look better than the current color of pink.The four holes in the bar is to fit the hard lines through to fit into the back valves. We should have some hard lines in place in the next few weeks.
Here is a picture of the rear to show you the access through the rear bar.Here is a before picture of what the air bag would look like with the stock mounts. As you can see it really covers up a lot of the bag. I am going to get polished air bags so we want to show off the polished airbags. As I found out later on the shop that intially put these bags in put them in upside down, with many other shady things they did......Laser cut 3/8" steel odd to hold that in place, we got a local shop to cut these up since ART mounts wouldn't hold the proper amount of weight. It is clean and simple.Here is the how it will sit with the new mounts on. You can see the bag so much better now.

We reinforced the frame with angle iron, because of the weight issue that could arrise down the road. We haven't figured out yet were the valves will be placed because we are going to hard line the whole setup.


Had to remove the front mounts because we want to expose the airbag more and also have a better relocation places for the valves and hard lines.

Drivers side C notch done up.

All level

Here is the rear bag mounts Scott designed. Very simple and clean, we may have to shave the end a tad just to make room for the panhard bar.

Here we are testing to see if the battery fits in place and that the weight isn't an issue. We should have enough clearance for the battery and compressor. The poles are an 1" high and the compressor is 2". The clearance we are dealing with is 2 1/2" so it should all clear.C notch before, on the drivers side.Took the notch out of the supplied ART bolt on part. We want to smooth the frame as much as possible and have as much hardware in the frame.Making sure that it is all level and that there has been no distortion in the frame. C notch being filled in with all the holes too.

Renforcement steel has been put in the frame for the extra support need to support the back end of the truck.

On a side note I picked up the seats today after it had been at the upholstry shop for a good 4-5 months. I can understand why the timing went the way it did. He does the upholstry for the city transit and he had 4 other projects ahead of mine. The reason why I got these now was because I wanted to do a six speed conversion in the first place but insted decided to do all the project at once. I will get him to do the rest of my interior come summer time.

Rear coming together

The Oasis compressor mount has been tacked into place and it all seems to fit snug in place. First battery trey is in place. I picked up these pre fabed ones from Sumit Racing.Both battery treys in place. Everything so far seems to fit really tight but that is the effect we are going for tight and clean.Going to have to get a new Sir Michaels roll pan to fit the extra inch and a half. I will let the body shop handle the drop plate idea.The Swag Loks will recess a bit further back into the tank giving the extra few millimeters need for space.
The back of the bed should cover all of this up. The factory spare tire sat in the same space and droped just as much, we should see nothing unless you get under the truck. Here are a few more pictures from different angles.On my previous setup the pressure switch was an industrial one which basically was overkill. We will mount that switch on the tank that way this is all that will stick about the frame. As you can see the C notch bracket from ART sticks up just as high.

This week I want to get most of all the suspension stuff on order. I will post up all the stuff we will be getting.