92 isuzu pickup budget build

[GoBig,G]

Isuzu FTW!!! Can't wait to see where you take this!

[cheesefacedogbone]

Im back. Sorry about the massive amount of time being gone, but things were super busy for a while and the brutal winter here really hindered progress on the truck. Honestly though, most of the winter was spent accumulating tools to really get set up to do more at home, and not a ton on the truck.

The good news is. the bed is off!


The bad but in a cool way news, is that my frame has some serious rust issues mainly right behind the cab on the drivers side. the stock muffler was there and I guess leaked and caused some major rot. it really looked kinda unsafe to drive. I temporarily welded a peice of plate to it to at least give me some piece of mind and am know do a full back half. At this point in time, I have it all welded up, minus some of the crossmembers. I dont have any good pics currently, but will in the next couple days. I do however have this shitty pic of the rear section with the new fuel tank mocked up.



I am shooting for next weekend to get the 4 link in and finally be low. I am hoping to order coilovers tomorrow ( yes, it is going static.... for now at least). I still need a couple of crossmembers. One near the back of the cab for strength, and the suspension bridge. My buddy got a tubing bender a few weeks ago so thats gonna help a ton. And I still have to finish the fuel tank mounts and I think Im gonna add some lightening holes to the new frames rails....

The body mostly remains the same. I removed the stock grille and headlights, and fit a couple 7 inch round ones in. I have had a difficult time trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the front end, and then I saw this....



The Isuzu Bellet GT_R. I am now going to replicate this entire front end for my truck. It kinda of inspired me to give the entire truck a vintage Isuzu kinda theme. I have already got all the materials to build the grille. I will get on this like a madman when the suspension is done. A lot of stuff to fabricate though, I am gonna try and build a new hood, lower valance and bumperettes from scratch. I feel pretty confident about the valance and bumpers, but the hood will really be a challenge. But, because of this project that came into the shop at work....





I learned a shitload about aircraft and the tooling used to build them. This is a hand built kit plane the we just did the bodywork and paint for. But talking to the builder I learned about this cool tool.



The aircraft rivet gun. looks like an hammer, but the difference is in the amount of control you have. the trigger is the biggest difference. You can control the throttle with such precision. Any ways, with the nylon faced rivet tool thats in the gun, you can really do all kinds of crazy metal fabrication shit. I have never owned a tool that I love more than this one. I used it to make my new headlight trim rings. I started with a 22 inch strip of flat sheetmetal, and bent and oxy-acetylene welded it into a circle. Then I slipped it over a brake rotor I found that had the same diameter and ran the rivet gun around the edges and viola....



I have since used it to fold that edge over again to make them look cleaner, but no pics right now.

Anyways. Just saying hey, and letting everyone know this project isnt dead. Ill post more pics shortly especially when it is low

[Nick475]

this is really awesome work. keep it up!

[cheesefacedogbone]

sorry for delays in updates. I tend to drink a few beers after work and image hosting seems a a bit overwhelming when you are kinda drunk. but I toughed it out tonight.


Coilovers for the rear are ordered!!!! they shipped today so if all goes well the whole cutting my truck in half thing should occur next weekend. The new rear frame section is at my job. They have a far superior welder, so I have taken full advantage of it. i Had pics on my smartphone, but I fell out of my uniform shirt pocket a few too many times and will no longer turn on. I do, however, have this picture i took at home of the new rear fuel tank mounting bracket.



That was made out of some pre-bent tube I had accumulated. I cut, welded, and sleeved it to shape it that way. Then I made the Sheet metal insert by using knockout punches to make the holes and then hammered the flanges in with the rivet gun over a cup washer for mounting hood mirrors on semi-trucks. The way that mount works may not make sense right now, but I am gonna finish the tank mount setup tomorrow and if I remember to bring the camera it will make sense.

Also, After a ton on online research, I bought the Harbor Freight Pipe Bender. If you look at the reviews, its full of people bitching about how it wont do tubing and it kinks the hell out of it. That is somewhat true. Pipe is sized different so the dies dont fit tubing. but its a incredibly simple problem to fix. I read a lot about how the problems of it kinking tubing came from the center of the bend wanting to lift out of the die. So the common solution was to build some sort of hold down clamp for the center of the tube being bent. Another solution was to grind out the dies so that they fit the tube better, or weld up the dies that were slightly larger and grind them to fit.

I tried both and I can say from my experience the hold down clamp serves no purposes whatsoever. and grinding and welding to make the dies perfect is extremely time consuming. So after fucking up a bunch a sections of tube, i came up with a solution.

the biggest problem is for the most part the dies are too large for tubing sizes. you can maybe see the gaps on the sides of the tube in the pic.




Or not, when I look at it I cant really see it either, but trust me... lol. Think about an aluminum can. if you push the side of of it with your thumb, it will create an indention. But it does so by creating kinks and creases. Its the same principle with this bender, if you allow the tube to expand laterally, it is gonna kink. The simplest remedy for the problem with these dies is soft sheet metal. copper, aluminum whatever

heres a peice of copper I used to bend 1-1/4"tubing. it compresses and fills the voids and makes a pretty damn good bend.


Heres a peice of 7/8" diameter 1/8" wall tube with a couple of bends. this was way too small for the dies that came with the bender, But I stacked two flat peices of aluminum in there and it makes some damn nice bends, with almost no distortion at all.



I am still somewhat skeptical whether it could do a clean 90degree bend or not, but 90's arent that important when it comes to chassis work.

for a hundred bucks this thing is really a great tool as long as you know it wont work for tubing straight out of the box. But its a cheap and easy problem to solve and if you are poor like me this setup is incredible.


Also, I am drunk. so..... If i misstated, misspelled, or just didnt make any sense, thats probably why.

[milano_red]

I can't wait to see the ass end of the frame.

And a body drop...

[cheesefacedogbone]

A body drop is still up in the air... If its not low enough when the new wheels are on it, then for sure I will do it. When I put the bed back on, Im gonna build new mounts that correct the alignment issues with the cab that it seems like all these trucks had, but Im am a sheet metal guy at heart, and I am absolutly dying to get back working on the body... I never planned on doing a back half. lol. it was supposed to be relocating the fuel tank and a simple notch, but I got carried away. After doing this though. A bodydrop doesn't seem like a big undertaking at all.



The frame rails were completley built from scrap I accumulated. I still have quite a bit of grinding and smoothing out to get them cosmetically pretty. I have a lot more bracing to do as well to triangulate and strengthen things.. In the pic, I have everything just tacked in to get measurements for the rest. 1. i will probably have to remove some of the peices to weld in fish plates when i splice it in. and 2. it make more sense to get everything welded after it is fit up on the truck with the new suspension in place. im not crazy about the suspension crossmemebr at the moment. When I see it in there is sits too high. I figure if i roll the hump rearwards and rework the braces, it should look a lot better.

[MattHatCat]

I like it mate
I wish I could do this sort of stuff
Keep up the great work

Ps I love the Isuzus

[Skrilla00]

Very bad ass.I'm a big fan of old school Isuzu,building something myself right now.

[cheesefacedogbone]

AWWWWWw YEAAAAAH!


it is low. Its been a fuckload of work, but it is in. I painted the frame and fuel tank today and should be able to drive it out tomorrow. still gotta bleed the brakes and install the fuel tank.

[way2fastx3]

So much win! Looks great man!

[cheesefacedogbone]

So much win! Looks great man!

Thanks! I just checked out your thread and yours is looking damn nice as well.

[cheesefacedogbone]

Truck runs. I got it all back together, but it was running like shit. Im fairly certain I knocked a plug wire loose when hooking up the fuel lines. its running good now, but i didnt want to make its maiden voyage home in the dark. Theres a couple things I need to keep an eye on. driveshaft clearance to the body being the biggest. Im pretty impressed with the coilovers, They are a huge improvement in overall ride quality. its like driving a completely different vehicle. No pics sorry. Its has been way too long of a day.

[tohoopty]

looks really good

[cheesefacedogbone]

It is home. the first few drives after something like this are kinda nerve racking but everything works really well. The coilovers really make for a decent ride with very little suspension travel. They are 250lb Carreras mounted at 30 degrees.I have about 3 inches of ground clearance with the coilovers mounted in the middle hole so it has room to go lower if need be.





front shocks have had enough though. gotta come up with something else to put in the front. and the front ened really needs to be aligned now. the newly found camber has put the front end a bit out of wack.

Im just glad its back on the road again. Next up is getting wheels and tires

[MattHatCat]

good god man this is sweet