Have a treasured old truck. I’m old. Dually with broken plastic fenders. Mom and I have retired to the farm. Son lives close by. Truck is 2001 Chevy duramax dually … can’t possibly afford to replace it. Don’t even want to risk welding on it with electrical disconnected. Would rather set my son up with a garage floor flat set of tools so we (mainly he and granddaughter who wants to learn to weld) can build a flat bed with headache rack by using a good mag drill and tabs to “tack” the subframe together, then mark everything up on the sorta flat garage floor. I know that heat warp will be a problem. Can you refer me to videos about using the 3 point system on a floor and give me a list of tools you would recommend for this project? That would be a big help. It’s hot here now, but with a good list and some saving, maybe by fall we can take this thing on…thanks. love your videos. Watch every one…
I’d start with a fab 8” square package and 8 large 11” mantis grip pliers. That should get you going.
Thanks. I’ll start by looking at that.
If you do not need the bed on the truck I would remove it and set up the main frame of the bed using the stock mounts. Then move the frame to sawhorses to finish weld the frame and add the deck and headache rack. I did this kink of word for over 20 years. Also the frame of the truck is no longer flat or square from normal use.
That’s the plan. The old bed will come off and the frame will be accessable. Tabs will be fabricated and used to support the first elements of the new frame. The tabs and new elements will be bolted together using a magdrill so that no welding will be done on the truck. The tabs and new work will be unbolted from the truck and placed on a support structure for welding. Jason suggested a triangle and clamp set up that we will use. Will also need a chop saw (low speed) and probably Milwaukee metal cutting circular saw. Does that sound reasonable. I appreciate your comments.
You will also need one or more angle grinders, about 5 inch works well. they will be used to remove sharp edges and mill scale. As I stated did this kind of work for over 20 years and did not have any problems when welding on the trucks.
Thanks. We have some angle grinders. Thanks again for all the good advice.
That set of squares was my first purchase from Fireball. They’re absolutely the best.
I think this is the video you’re looking for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PQLbdILaSU
Good luck! Post some images when you get underway.