79 Trailduster + First gen CTD

[Matt S]

now we have to figure out how to re plumb the intercooler b/c i am determined to make the 2000 or 2001 parts work on the old truck

What about making the intake horn face the front of the truck and making the custom pipe from there? I've seen a 4bta with a horn out the front on ebay.

 

[Mopar_Tim]

i think i might be able to get a 45 on the horn and then cut the tube and spin it and make it work ... ... if thats not going to work i might just try and fab a new horn that sits at a 45 towards the front


reason i want to go out the side instead of towards the front is b/c i dont want to have to take the tubes apart if i need to get into the pump

 

[Mopar_Tim]

i just realized i did not have a pic posted on here with some of the sheet metal on ... .

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and a side shot, still have to cut the front fenders



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[Mopar_Tim]

well here are a few pics .....





this is from last week taking apart heater boxes



this is the 79 box and the 92 box

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the old evap. coil



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the new coil ... . another row of tube, should work nicely



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and the cut in the box so the lines come through



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[Mopar_Tim]

thats all i have got for the box right now, waiting on the last of the gaskets to show up (next week sometime) so i can put it all together and bolt it in to see if will actually fit, but it should







now the solution for the above post about the intercooler plumbing, it think there is enough clearance if not then i will make whats called a bell crank and swing the hydroboost over towards the fender at like a 45 degree angle

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ok now diesel gurus ... . is that goig to work ? i mean how much is the engine going to twist on its mounts? i dont want the tubing to migrate into the mc



and with the pipe cut, i tried doing the rest of the cuts by myself but the band saw was not liking the pipe, i think it needs a new blade, so i tried to cut with my portaband, that did not work so well either i need 3 hands to hold the pipe and use the saw .....



but you get the idea





i cleaned the pipe too ..... its going to make the rest of the engine jealous

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[Mopar_Tim]

... ... ... ... .....

 

[VanOverbeke]

shake

I ran with the hood off my conversion for a while so I could see exactly what was happening for the first few trips. I was surprised at how little the engine moved compared to the stationary objects not bolted to the motor. I had some pretty close items i was concerned about, but it moved a lot less than I had expected. I guess my whole truck shakes just a bit and it is not just the motor doing it. The cab goes back and forth just a bit. You have to look for it, but it is there.

 

[Mopar_Tim]

got a little bit of work done on the seat install this weekend did not take any pics of the second gen seat as a whole thing ..... we all know what they look like .....





any way we took it all the way apart and tried to figure out a way to cut and chop the stock brackets from the 98 seat to fit the 79 floor, and we just could not figure out a way to make it work and still look decent and sit level ... .....



so we took those off and started with a 24 foot long piece of 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 x 1/8 wall tube



this pic shows the passenger side seat base the the front rail fabbed and bolted in, and the rear rail fabbed







for those considering a swap like this the front rail is just a 58ish inch long piece that runs along the front of the individual rails they actually sit at the same place all the way across





the rear rail we took and bought new 5/8 bolts and nuts, took the welded the nuts into a piece of the tube and made like a giant turn buckle, we did this to accomplish 2 things the first is to locate the 2 outer rear rails at the exact same place they were in the 98 ... . and the second is the keep the rear mount as low as possible b/c the cab is shorter in the old truck then the new ones

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you can see in the last pic that the rail in the rear is sitting at about a 140* angle to the floor, this was done to be able to use the 79 factory seat belt bolts to help locate the new seat







because of this we had to fabricate legs and feet that would attach to the rear rail for this your going to need a lot of patients and a very very good sawzall, chop saw, or in our case a porta band saw



take your time ..... steel is expensive to re cut a bunch of times ... .



you can also see the bolts going into the old seat belt holes, for those wondering they are 7/16 fine thread and you need bolts about 2 1/2 inchs long



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close up of the leg



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this is the finished frame with the compound miter cuts to angle the 2 inside rails in and avoid the front mounts ..... not 100% necessary but it was a challenge and i think it turned out good, you can also see the tabs for the inside rear mounts 1/8 inch plate 2 inchs tall and 3 inchs wide





once it is all bolts down (Cool points 4 more then the stock seat it actually strengthens the whole floor up alot it does not flex anymore and the pops that i used to get have stopped



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from the side



you can also see the 2 outer legs were made to go over top of the 79 brackets where that bench seat bolted down



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with the 98 seat bases bolted in place



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side shot of the passenger side, driver side has got too much junk over there to even see whats going on



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with the seat bases bolted down, the backs are not on b/c ..... we forgot and they have to go on before the bottoms, and all we really needed to figure out how to mount the center console was the bottoms







my ugly mug standing in the back too



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up skirt shot



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more when we get the center console is mounted (its sitting on 2x4's) and the seat backs are on









i will say if you cant weld and are not the thinking out logical problems kind ... ... dont try this

 

[pepecat]

what ever happened to this build

 

[steved]

I believe Tim has been a little short on time for this project... he still has it...



We are sort of seeing who will get their project done first... him with his RC or myself with my M37... neither one is moving too fast... :-laf