Made some more progress today. First order of business was assembly of all the perches:
Next was to trim the upper rails to proper length. These were too awkward to set up on the saw, so I set the saw up on them. Some C- and trigger clamps did the trick, just had to support the free end by hand as the cut finished:
Next was to see how everything lined up, including the section I channeled for the trans mount. Happily, I only measured once and only cut once:
Trans mount notch lined up perfectly
With everything on the truck, I finalized the locations for the spring perches. With the upper rail pinned at the cab end, I have a pair at 5', 9' 6", and 15'. I measured out the rails and started drilling. I clamped the perch into position and using a bushing I made on the lathe, drilled pilot holes in all the appropriate places.
Perch clamped in place with the drill rig in action:
Piloted with a 3/16" bit, opened it with a 7/16" bit, then stepped up to 5/8". Planned on going to 1" and welding in crush tubes to reinforce the rail, but something let the smoke out of the drill and it quit working. I didn't feel like going to Home Depot (just bought the drill) on Black Friday, so I just called it a day. I may get up tomorrow and go.
Despite losing the one battle with the drill, it was quite a victorious day. I've had this design in my head for a long time and had the sketches laid out on the computer for a while as well, but it's nice to see that it all seems to be coming together as desired. Getting the upper rail tied to the lower rail to effectively complete the subframe construction will be a major milestone.
One step at a time though...