The deck on the south side of the house looks right down on the project.
I thought the high shot was cool.
Actually we did not use the Skid steer in the recent work, but it will be used today to lift the engine out.
We used it as a tug to drag the rig over and get it close to tools, air and electrical.
Looked good in the photo shoot though.
I used "Li'l Red to push the cab back on the wooden deck that had the water tank on it.
We need a little drone to capture pix of us working.
Today's update.
After getting the cab off and seeing the clear picture of what we have for room to get the 6.2 V8 diesel, TH400 tranny and a 205 T case all stuffed in ahead of the 6x6 case life took on a far more interesting direction.
Snooped up a TH400 From a mid 80's GM 4x4 and also scared up a LH drop 205 from a mid 70's Ford 4x4
The Ford case is a divorced style, but it easy enough to swap the input gear and bearing retainer and then marry it to the 400.
At present things are in a state of flux and we may mount the 205 in the frame more or less solid using the mounting pads that were used by Ford and connect the output to the input of the 6x6 case using the original 211 shorty shaft.
Possibly leave the TH400 separate and connected to the 205 with a short shaft as well.
The V8 is considerably shorter than old 302 6 cyl so we may be able to do a lot of creative things.
Once the 6 cyl is out today we can steam clean the frame and get things clean enough to get near it without getting FILTHY.
Next we can use published specs of the various components (Length etc) to calculate exactly what we can get away with.
The other big worry was the very shallow angle of the front drive shaft and how close this would get to the pan on the new tranny (Read this as "Will it hit" )
Soooo.
Looking good at present.
I suggested to Thumper yesterday that we use the two forward cab mounts from the donor rig and bolt them to the frame at the rear location of the "Quad cab" floor pan will reside and span the front and rear frame mounts with a box tube on either side.
Utilizing standard early/ mid 80's Suburban body mounts (Easy procurement ) the longitudinal tubes will bolt to the mounts and the cab can be built up from there.
My idea was to get the V8 and related gearboxes all in and situated and then add the floor pan.
A temporary bracket to mount the new steering column (91 Burb 4x4 tilt type ) can be added along with the mountings for at least one seat.
Other temporary items needed can be hooked up to get the beast so we can run the engine and move the truck around under it's own power.
Once the basic systems are proven then the cab can be finished up and built around the new engine and gear boxes.
We are (As stated early on in the thread ) adding full air brakes, so a suitable compressor needs to be added along with the needed mountings.
Once the steering column is located and the driver seat is in a comfy spot the air brake treadle can be located on the floor boards
To me it makes sense to get all the major mods done and then operate the beast with a minimal cab to check it out and then make the needed allowances in the cab assembly to be able to access the new components.
Ahhhhh.
Don't try this at home.
But.... AS I mentioned things are still in a state of flux and Thumper and I will get our heads together and figure out the plan