77 CC squarebody sfbd build thread..it rolls and runs

hell yea man !! progress. always a good feeling. so i have a question for ya.. you mentioned you werent sure if you wanted to cut the top or bottom off the frame when you were stock flooring it... can you explain that to me please ive seen it mentioned several times and im familiar with stock floors , as my noma has one lol, i just wanted to know little more of the pros and cons and explained a bit better. thanks man

my original frame was 8 inches tall. by cutting the 4 inches off the bottom let me keep all my factory body mounts right were they are. my bed still bolts up like factory.

the downfall doing it this way is..
c-notch is going to be very very tall. 4 inches more than normal...lol
z'ing the frame up to get the control arms to not drag the ground takes more than normal. 4-3/4 inches to be exact..

the pros are:
my engine doesn't hit the hood. no cowl hoods= yay!
my headers don't drag the ground. . they are very close though...


if i were to cut the top 4 inches off the frame..

all 6 body mounts would have to be moved down.
the bed floor would have to be unbolted , moved up and welded back in place. (body dropping the bed)
z'ing the frame would have only taken only 3/4 inches to get the control arms off the ground.
c-notch would have been normal off the shelf.

its really trying to choose which way is going to be easier to do . i figured, if i could get away with not messing with how the body/bed mounts to the frame. nothing could be " off ". i could deal with the massively huge notch .

to do the body drop either way , i was still going to have to-
z the frame
move the front frame horns down ,
raise the trans tunnel,
build a c-notch
make a new trans and carrier bearing mounts
cup a-arms, airbags etc..etc..

ooo ok i gotcha now man. seriously, i really appreciate you going through all that explaining it for me. i was familiar with cutting the top off,but not the bottom. so,heres another question for ya, when you make your trans tunnel , is that going to be raised the approx same amount no matter which way you would have cut it top or bottom or would that vary? and i assume you have to do driveshaft tunnel too ? or no ? if you do, will that affect the back seats at all ? i believe there would still be clearance under a bench seat. . and lastly, you have to make new carrier bearing crossmember , or is that by choice.? i know in my noma, the trans xmember was changed, i didnt remember tweaking the carrier bearing. hmm.. haha anyway, now that i wrote a freaking novel ill stop here. thanks again man for the reply to my questions. and keep up that progress

no problem

im not sure if the trans tunnel would have had to be raised the same if i cut the top off of the frame or not...??. ive never seen a truck that had the top cut off before. i would think it would be the same.

either way. the trans/driveshaft tunnel will have to be raised up. mine was raised 4 inches (front to back of the cab).
the bench seat in the back may still fit. but the front bench seat will not. the hump wont let the rear brackets touch the floor. i think im going to do a little cutting on the steel structure of the seat to make it fit again..

i went ahead and made my trans and carrier bearing mounts because the stock trans mount was bolted to the bottom of the frame originally.(i cut that off) .after i stuffed 2x4 steel inside the top of the frame, i had no room, or a place to bolt the stock carrier bearing mount to.

awesome man !! again thank you. lots of little details.

no problem big bear.

i shaved the firewall today..
ive got a few small screw holes to fill. but the major holes are shaved..
a good coat of filler and it will be smoothed out...



this is my trusty harbor freight 220v mig welder. its a cheapo, but it has got the job done so far without any problems. i think i paid 200 bucks for it refurbished..
i don't have a bottle. i'm using flux core wire. it seems to work very well for sheet metal..

firewall looks real nice and smooth. my buddy runs that same welder working on his projects, he has no complaints. people give him hell bout it, but at end of day there drooling as well haha

the firewall is smooth. i need to pick up some spray on bedliner and give the whole firewall a good coat...

you know you could probably take those battiers to a scrapper and get enough money to buy some jack stands to set your body on. then you'd have a lot less chance of an acid problem when they brake.

just saying other wise its looking good keep up the good work

o come on, whats a little acid spill gonna hurt lol