The old girl is wore out--time for a change.

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Time for some interior stuff. Since I want my heater mounted on the firewall I added some support tubes and will also be a mounting point for all the tin..

Got both tubes mounted, heater mount and first piece of tin cut/mounted...

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Time to start the front section of the tranny tunnel. I am slowly getting better with my sheet metal brake.

So I learned how to tig over 30 years ago and I have not done it since.

So one thing I knew I would need--is a tig for doing aluminum since I hate my spool gun I have for my mig.

So I bought a new CK unit and spent a few hours playing with it. So all the welds you will see from now on is simply me learning how to tig,lol...

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So I built up a nice stash of cardboard and I will be chewing thru allot of it thru the build...

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So like I stated earlier this is being built more for trail use--and I love having a stereo.

All my stereo goodies came in.. It will be a simplified system with my ipod and a simple volume knob.

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I got both outer floor pans cut and mounted...

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My driveshafts finally arrived. They were made by a guy named Brian in the portland area. Have a bunch of guys out here who have ran his shafts with great luck and looking them over top quality.....

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Time to play with cardboard again

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So I got both pieces cut out and as you can see they are angled upward at the center. This served 2 purposes it gave clearance for the rear t-case output so I didn't have to build the tunnel longer and actually gives the floor some rigidity.

Both pieces are welded at the back seam to form a single piece....

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Rear driveshaft fits like a glove......

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I threw the front shaft in and I gotta build the center support brackets but I will bounce back to that later..

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Started trimming down the first part of the tranny tunnel I made and playing with cardboard.

For the record I have nothing down on paper and been pretty much doing this by the seat of my pants---how I seem to roll the best....

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Started cutting alum. and make it evolve into something....

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I got the floor pan cut back to match the tunnel cover and threaded inserts installed...

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And there is the finished product. I still need to widen the holes for the t-case shifters and actually get the linkage where it needs to be--that will be for later.

Crazy just how stiff the floor gets once thats bolted into place...

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Like I said the only thing I am not happy with to this point is my tig work but at this point I only have like 5 hours using it.....

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So one thing I wanted was as much enclosure as possible since I will see allot of trail miles with this thing..
So next to do is the back wall. Here is the tool I made to hold the tabs I am using in place to weld them on. It lets me lay them on a flat plane and worked out really well.....

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I tried many different methods to enclose the back and still keep the tin as close to the tube as possible...

The only way I could pull it off was to build it in 3 pieces and weld it up.... But the fitment was nice and I tapped the tubework on the outer edges to hold the ends...

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Now the last part of the floor was the tough one. It took multiple pieces but I was able to tie it into all portions of the floor and back wall.

Interior turned out pretty decent and would have been better with nicer welds...

[clm]

Looks great! You CAD (cardboard aided design) skills are on point.

[BigSki]

Ton of work getting accomplished from basically Jan.

The shop looks great, well laid out and functional. The last car build thread I remember reading of yours, you were showing how to do a 4.3 conversion into a 'Yoter.