1.16.21 METAL FAB - FIREWALL, FENDER AND PANCAKE TIME. (WITH REFERENCE)

 

After meeting with my talented fabricator friend, we've established a plan. I'll be prepping and finishing all welds while my talented metalworking going to be placing welds, in this case, the hard part, well at least for me. 

FIREWALL: 

We're going to fill the firewall's unused holes, and clean up the factory welds along the top of the firewall

with All-metal filler. More prep for me. My friend is going to fill all the unused holes with welds. 

This is a reference shot of what I'd like my firewall to look. Maybe not this crazy clean, but close to it. 

INNER FENDERS:

We're going to fabricate wheel-wells using trailer fenders, per my previous post which will allow Ratiki to have more suspension travel and ride a tad lower. 

CROSS-MEMBER:

Finally, we're going to pancake the cross-member 1&3/8", which will lower the truck by that much. 

See above shots. 

SIDE #1: 

SIDE #2 Taped off to show the material removed. 

SIDE #2 (after): A reference shot of a '65 C10 crossmember after pancaking. Not mine. But same year. 

EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS.

By looking for a couple of areas where I can gain a few inches, I hope to gain the amount I want to lower my drive height. I can always do more, such as "Z'ing" the frame 2", or even getting an aftermarket drop-member. But for now, I'm perfectly happy making smaller moves in hopes of achieving my goal.

I'm optimistic that the pancake and inner fender well mods will do the trick seeing as my truck is already equipped with airbags on all four corners and sits a height I'm happy with. I just want to be able to drive it at that height. 

I'm hoping to get close to this for the actual drive height. Fingers crossed.

So that's the latest. Much prep to do. Off I go. 

Onward!

MORE PANCAKE REFERENCE:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=543729&page=7

file:///Users/cameronday/Downloads/RATIKI%20BUILD%20SELECTS/CaptKaos%20style%20Dropped%20Crossmember.pdf