CTD + Crew Cab - who's doin' 'em?

[rumblefish]

ive seen another truck like that before. it has a rear door on the pass. side and no door on the driver, similar to what the old 60's suburbans had. the one i saw had a reclining seat/bed in the back.



if i cant sell my truck, im gonna rebody it as a crew short bed. i cant find a decent cab to save my life though.

 

[Shadrach]

My project is gathering dust ( or is that snow ). The truck has been sitting in the snow all winter and I hope to get back to it soon. Too many sidetracks, house renos, family stuff , trip to Florida and the Bahamas etc. I think I have nearly all the parts I will need, except some things that I can't buy until I am at that part of the truck. I hope I have all the parts I need as I am almost out of money. :-laf Shadrach

 

[Rattler]

My son and a buddy of his are currently working on two of these projects. One will be a 3/4 ton crew cab short bed, and the other will be a 1 ton crew cab long bed. Randy

 

[RSchwarzli]

Shadrach - You THINK you have all the parts you need. That is what I found out when doing mine. Every time you think you have it all, these little pidly things keep coming up.....



Rattler - Any pics of the projects?



Robert

 

[Rattler]

I will try to post pictures as they finish. They are hoping to have one of them ready for T. S. at Bowling Green next month. Randy

 

[Shadrach]

Shadrach - You THINK you have all the parts you need. ... Robert

I agree. I have the "MAJOR" parts. There are lots of little things I need yet. Somethings can't be bought ahead of time. I will need to have new drive shafts made for example. My front steering will need some parts I'm sure. I still have to buy shocks and I'm not a body man so I have to keep some ( make that lots ) of cash for paint and body work. Shadrach

 

[RSchwarzli]

Rattler - I look forward to the pics!



Shadrach - Same issues I had, especially the body. That is the ONLY thing I did not do myself on the entire project. Not good with bodywork.



Got the dash in this weekend and am about 1 hour of work away from having the motor running! Oo. Once that is doen I need to finish wiring the entire interior/engine compartment, close the front end up, install box and get some driveshafts! Sounds easy on paper but figgure another few months.



Robert

 

[Shadrach]

It always takes more time and money than originally planned. There are surprises and plans changes, sometimes from reading the TDR too much. :-laf

I knew I wanted a stick from the beginning. My 92 "parts" truck came with and auto. I traded it for a Getrag. The next truck I bought was a 97, it had the engine I wanted, and came with a NV5600. Then I bought the latest version of the G56 from Dodge. Now if I can just get to "work" on the actual conversion before I "learn" anything else :-laf Shadrach

 

[RSchwarzli]

The TDR is bad! That is where it started for me too! I knew I wanted a 2nd gen 12V, then a 5600, then a Dana 80, etc, etc, etc.



We have a problem!



Robert

 

[Flexiheep]

Wow, I leave the country for a couple days and the Crew thread gets a little new life injected..... Can't say I have done anything to mine exept drive it a couple days a week when the wife needs the car. Still need to install my GSK and the 190 injector I bought over a year ago. Anyone want to head down to Las Cruces and help a first genner out



I will agree with the comment about the project growing once you start. I am still trying to figure out where 5 or 6K went after I had finished my crew with no paint or body... ... I started with a good 93 and a complete cab minus interior from Sam. Oh then there was the $1000 bucks worth of weather stripping from the dealer, the 2 sets of steel frame reinforcements I had bent up when I realized I couldn't stretch the frame where I planned, 600 in a 2000 rad/intercooler/piping setup to make it work and the list goes on.



Rememeber to make the best plan you can and STICK TO IT if you want to win the battle of building a diesel crew!

 

[RSchwarzli]

Rememeber to make the best plan you can and STICK TO IT if you want to win the battle of building a diesel crew!

That is the key right there! Once you start there is not turning back. Yes you WILL dump way mre $$$ into it that what you could EVER sell the truck for, but you have to finish it.



Granted, I am not finished mine yet, but I am guessing it will all be worth it when it is done! :-laf



Robert

 

[Shadrach]

It's still better than spending all that money on a NEWER Dodge/Cummins :-laf
Shadrach

 

[Flexiheep]

It's still better than spending all that money on a NEWER Dodge/Cummins:-laf

Shadrach

I built mine because I needed 4 doors and wouldn't buy a short bed truck, also will not own a 6. 7 and don't believe the Hemi is a good truck motor for my tastes... I had to build my crew or buy a Ford with a V10... ...



I believe you HAVE to stick to your plan, or fail just because of all the unanticipapted problems that arrise you will have to work out #@$%!, leaves very little time to actually change the basic plan and finish on time or ever.

 

[RSchwarzli]

I cant really comment too much here! I started off just fixing the gutbag and look what happened!



I have no clue how to stick to a plan!



Robert

 

[Shadrach]

I AM sticking to my BASIC plan , that being to put a CTD in my crew cab. I just changed a few "minor" details - different trans, different body, different frame. It's a good thing I changed some ideas while I was still in the corral rather than change horses in mid stream :-laf Shadrach

 

[RSchwarzli]

Well I stuck to the original plan too! I DID fix the trans. Granted, I did change the rest of the driveline while I was at it but... .



Robert

 

[Shadrach]

Body mods?

Question for Flexiheep and others who have transfered cab parts over to a crew shell. Did you run into any problems with things like heater housing, wiper motor, brake booster, steering shaft, wiring harness connector etc? Did all these parts bolt directly to the older crew body?

I have two choice in building a crew from scratch, use a complete crew body or attach a 92 cowl to a crew shell that has a rusted floor and cowl. ( see post 227 and 256 on earlier pages in this post ) I have thought about these two choices before but and now I am seriously checking them out. Both bodies need sandblasting and painting and minor repairs. Having a newer cowl welded on obviously cost more in labor, but I have that crew shell and cowl already, whereas I would have to purchase the other complete crew cab shell. My friend who owns the complete crew cab shell is also the same guy who would be doing the body work on the other crew cab. Aside from the money part do any of you see any problems that I am not aware of?

Your thought and comments please. Shadrach

 

[RSchwarzli]

Yes, I found a few issues while converting over. Wiper motor is different and does require a new hole or the bolt can be installed at a good angle. Body wiring harness hole was different so a custom plate was made to accomodate the different shapes.



That was the bulk of it that I noticed but I did have a partially previously converted truck.....



Robert

 

[Flexiheep]

Question for Flexiheep and others who have transfered cab parts over to a crew shell. Did you run into any problems with things like heater housing, wiper motor, brake booster, steering shaft, wiring harness connector etc? Did all these parts bolt directly to the older crew body?



I Your thought and comments please. Shadrach

I remember a couple things:

Wiper motor needed 1 new hole to mount

I had to redrill a hole to mount the 93 column to the 85 firewall (It looked soooo close, but mine was just enough off it wouldn't fit)

I cut a small hole in the pass side firewall to mount the 93 heater motor resistors like they were in the 93

The front seat needs help if you don't have a crew seat frame, The crew floor is lower and flat when compared to the regular truck. (rear seat floor is same in the crew and the regular trucks.

I had to add a hole or two in the firewall for wires to go through.

Had to drill holes in the A pillar area to feed the power and stereo stuff to the the 93 doors (big holes if you use the 93 grommets like I did)

I moved the gas pedal over to the 85 holes, but I think it needs to be about 1. 5" higher to really line up with the throttle cable hole.

main wire harness connector hole had to be made a little bigger with a file(1/8"), but was the right shape on my 85 for the 93 connector.





That is all I can remember right now. Ther were a couple little suprises, but nothing that would make me want to weld 2 bodies together to get around them (mine wasn't rusy... ). Hope it helps you decide.

 

[Flexiheep]

Weight

I was looking at Max's Nacho thread on another board and I started to wonder.....



For those with running trucks, what do yours weigh? and do you have mods that would affect that (lead lined doors, 300 gallon tank, 1/2" plate bumpers, etc)?



For those building what do you expect your to weigh when your done?



Mine is a 4x4 crew longbed diesel that is mostly "stockish" no steel plate bumpers or other weight adding thing except the second 30 gallon under bed diesel tank (the camper shell is light, maybe 100 lb, I can move it alone easily). It was 7300 at the scale last ime I went, 4200 front axle 3100 rear with myself and two kids under 3 in the rear seat with full tanks (60 gallons). I found it interesting that all the extra weight from stretch job went to the rear axle, when this truck was still a clubcab it was 4200 front and 2500 rear.



If Mad Max can make a 7000 lb ramcharger I bet his megacrew will be 8500 or 9000 when done.