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Oooooh duramax, even nicer than I thought. Very nice ride
Thanks, I appreciate it.
The minute they released the new body style duramax denali I knew I had to have one. GMC was way overdue for an interior redesign and this truck has all the bells and whistles. Theres a couple small items I wish it had, but not a deal breaker. Wish the tail gate locked with the door locks and it would be nice if it had a proximity key with push button start, otherwise I have no complaints... (aside from all the emissions bs )
The front frame stiffeners are getting burnt in this weekend, going to get more work done on the axle, will probably get the C-gussets welded on as well.
Need to wait until I get my OTA track bar bracket before I weld the truss in so I can design around it. Its on its way now, hoping it will show up tomorrow.
Got the c-gussets and artec LCA mounts fit up and partially burned in tonight. These things are BEEFY compared to the stock LCA mounts. The JCR c-gussets and artec mounts fit perfectly together, going to fully weld them out tomorrow. Have to let go slow and weld small sections at a time to keep from warping anything.
The cast steel on the axle C's welded pretty well, "stacking tacks" really hot worked out better than trying to run a constant bead. Im definitely not worried about lack of penetration or fusion. I turned the welder up a little hotter than i would for normal 1/4 inch stock and put most the heat in the axle C before tying the puddle in to the C gusset.
Bottom side
All fitted up and partially burnt in.
You can tell where I "stacked tacks" vs trying to run a bead. Honestly once its painted I'm the only one who will tell the difference.
Got the right front side HD OffRoad stiffener burnt in. Going to grind the rosettes flush and hit the whole thing with primer and undercoating tomorrow.
Add these to the list of things that don't suck from harbor freight. They make removing the paint/zinc coating on the unibody and prepping for welding very quick and easy.
Nice work. Same stiffeners here. I have the mids done, but still need to get the front and rear burned on.
The fronts are so much easier than the mids. Less rosettes, easier to clean the unibody rails because theres no undercoating, and very little overhead welding.
After I cut my LCA brackets off the unibody Im going to use some 1/8" flat stock to box in the underside of the unibody rails and tie them in to the stiffeners. Probably not necessary but couldn't hurt.
nice, im hoping to burn mine in this week, im trying to take next week off work so i can get mine back on the road
C-clamps are your friend.
Also, pick up some of those polycarbide (paint remover) discs that I just posted. Worked great and dont have to worry about removing too much metal as you would with a flap disc.
If you have any questions let me know, pretty straightforward but messy, tedious and kind of a pain in the ***.
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