Re: Christine is off the road indefinitely.

From: Terrible Tom (silvereightynine@aol.com)
Date: Sat Aug 01 2009 - 16:41:02 EDT


jon@dakota-truck.net wrote:

> Sorry to hear that Tom!! :-( On the plus side, the engine looks
> nice. :-) Do the GenI and GenII use the same frame?

Pretty much the same. Close enough that I can make it work. The engine mmount brackets are
beefier on Gen II's - which isn't a problem. I would just use Gen II engine mounts.

> If you can find
> a rollover somewhere, that might be perfect. (Granted, an 8' bed
> frame will be basically as old as yours so condition might not be much
> better, but who knows...)

Thats the problem. The newest frame that I can just bolt on, is now 13 years old. Subtract
major wrecks, junk yard crushers, rust issues, and the rare 124 long bed option, and its slim
pickings out there. Most salvage yards don't hang on to frames because they are either damaged
from wrecks. Add to that, I don't think there are many idiots out there like me who are willing
to frame off rebuild a truck. So demand had gotta be low.

You'd probably have better luck finding a
> nice frame if you could use a GenII club cab, but it looks like they
> are 131" vs the long bed's 124". I suppose you could use a club cab
> frame (if you didn't mind the longer wheelbase) and build a 7" wide
> toolbox running the width of the truck to fit in the gap between the
> bed and the cab. (And/or run a set of exhaust stacks up through that
> area?) :-) Another idea might be a custom roll bar which would tie
> into the frame right there, the legs for the hoop could come right up
> between the bed and cab, then the rear legs could bolt into the bed.
> You might need to adjust the cab mounts and would probably need a
> longer driveshaft (or grab the club cab's 2 piece) but it might be
> doable?
>
> I notice that the GenIII long bed is also 124". Any chance the
> GenII body can be shoehorned onto the GenIII frame?
>

-- 
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"Man is the only kind of varmint [who] sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it"
-John Steinbeck
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