41-46 s10 swap pictures

[joedoh]

yeah loss is funny, not funny "ha ha" but funny like sometimes you pick up the phone to share a picture and then remember, then you dont do anything for a day or three.


i decided to be "efficient" (lazy) and just pull the cab to do finish welding on all the brackets, leaving the front clip and running boards installed. why undo many bolts when few bolts do trick?

when I was scooting the a frame into postion i felt a stitch in my calf muscle, like you get from not stretching. it wasnt the calf muscle cramp though, it was a wasp nest in the a frame. they were pretty upset i was dragging their home around. some wasp killer and some spray foam and no more prob.




pulled cab, welded everything up. shot some chassis paint




secured the column top and bottom, no shake at all, very sturdy. I dont like a wobbly steering column, this one is like a rock in the dash.



reset the bottom bracket and tacked it on. worked great.




today I am mounting the bed and bumpers (well bumper mounts, since he doesnt have any bumpers except that one destroyed one. maybe i can mount it

[joedoh]

happiness is putting the cab on for the last time. check out that alignment!




bed kit works perfectly! wood will lay right on top of the rectangle tube and the framerail above the axle.



tiny garage, cant show alignment but its really good.




front clip had a big twist in it, i tack welded a length of tube to the core support and used the torque to move things around till they fit.



drill and tap all the old stuck bolts. previously both trucks (the one ton clip and the original 1/2 ton clip) were farmer welded in place. you can see the remnants of brazing on both the half ton support rod and the one ton core support



bullnose on, alignment on this side good! pass fender still need a lot of tug.



getting very close to empty! still gas on the little gauge even though that needle is bottomed out on the big gauge.



just need front bumper mounts installed. I was getting really tired and bent up the mounts and realized I made two rights. bent another and it was a right again. time to quit for the day haha. (cooling the welds in front of the fan)





delivery day is thursday, making instruction for the kit this week and then its on to the 55. kit should work well!

[DozerII]

WOW as usual you make it all look easy.

[Burgerman]

Delivery soon, then on to the 55. Look'n good. 👍

[kenny c]

Nice work.

[Torchie]

Very nice!!!!
Torchie.

[earthman]

What a great service to provide these kits Joe. Do you get feedback from customers? Sorry about your friend.

[joedoh]

thanks guys!


i do get feedback. every order I make iterative design changes based on the feedback. I could just order what I ordered before and have it next day instead of making design changes and waiting 3 weeks to get them programmed and nested. I also offer the updated parts to guys that havent installed their kits yet. however, I have offered tiers of rebates from $50 to a full refund for youtube videos of the install. no one has taken me up on that yet.

with new design stuff I offer a full rebate +20% to the guy with the first article, in the form of payments on each kit sold. so if a kit is $600 (this kit will be $600 shipped) the first article guy gets 10% every kit sold till 10 kits are sold, then $120. since nick is a good friend and we have done work together before, I refunded him up front and really he is only paying for the extra stuff, like the pedals and column, and the labor to install. works for him, works for me. although he didnt plan for wheels and his current plan is borrow my set up wheels.

as far as time goes, I have about two weeks of 4-5 hour weekdays in this. it helps I have done two before and really helped to have larrys here to measure from. (he bought a cab kit years ago of the old design). my wife got to see the design process on the front clip parts, she was amazed how fast it went from brain to 3D to cut to iterative change to cut and done, like 5 hours. mounting the bed took maybe an hour. when you let the parts do the work its great.

I will start the 55 today, my plan is to make my 47-55.1 kit 100% bolt on, that is the #1 request I get. then I will do a 53 to final proof it, and order the laser parts.

[05snopro440]

Originally Posted by joedoh

absolutely nothing. which is to say I planned it very carefully that the running boards just barely clear the frame, are level with the bottom of the frame, and there was no cutting of the frame needed at all. pretty neat eh?

If you're providing these kits to customers, I hope they don't have running board to frame clearance problems. Looks like your running boards meet the fender farther forward than they should. Maybe because you're using bigger truck fenders with the bigger wheel opening? Or when you shortened the wheelbase, were the running boards left regular length? The running board should also be tucked under the rocker and isn't, so I'm wondering how it would all line up. I haven't known anyone that has done a 41-46 on an S-10 without some type of work there to fix the clearance issue, so its curious that yours just fits. I hope it works out well if you've figured something new out.


Image of another 46 for what the regular alignment looks like for comparison.

[05snopro440]

That fan motor protruding through the firewall is interesting. I love seeing the ingenuity of repairs and modifications made over the years on these old pickups!