With the truck mocked up on the frame table at ride height and all our measurements taken we now were able to cut the rear half of the frame off. In this photo we have even began to box the inside of the rails.

Boxed strong and ready to build off of.

 

Here is how we piece the front to the rear. Every joint has a gusset plate welded on the inside of the rails.

With the gussets in place, plug welds and a properly prepared joint will ensure a strong long lasting joint.

With the joints all ground it is hard to tell if its factory or not.

Because we know the tire height and wheel base we are able to fixture the 12 bolt and install the four link and coil overs. The pinion angle can also be set at this point too because the housing brakets are in their correct locations.

A Welder Weries universal four link is used here to locate the differentials side movement. There are different methods of doing this and each has its pro's and con's and yet are just as effective.

With the rear suspension in place, we also mounted the Jaz 20 gallon fuel cell.

We now cut the opening out or the side of the box. Carefull attention was taken to ensure that the hole was located center on the wheels and also that there was enough clearance if the suspension is lowered or bottomed out.

Here is another view.

We like to dry fit as often as necessary. This image shows how we confirmed that the wheels fit in the wheel well and that the fenders and running boards are in the correct location.

Here you can see that there is plenty of room to move above the wheel when it is at ride height.

Carefull calculations result in predictable results.

The next few pictures will show how we build wheel tubs here at Hitman Hotrods. Again we like to build our cars to look like they were factory builds. Check out the radius we put on the tubs.

With the sheet metal stretcher we stretched the outer flange so that the wheel tub would take the arch to the radius of the wheel opening. This flange will later be used to spot weld the tub to the box side. 18Ga material is what we use.

 

The two halves come together by tacking every couple of inches.

Fully hammer welded and ground the tubs are ready to be installed. We have also put the spot weld holes in the flange every 3 inches.

Trial fit and everything looks good.

Factory but not. The 1" radius is much more appealing looking than the tipical Pitsburg Seam commonly found on most prostreet wheel tubs.

We silcon bronze weld the inner seam so that rust will never build up and blead out. Silicon bronze has a very low melting point which helps reduce warpage due to heat.

 

Next we had to lengthen the rear running board mounts to accomodate the narrower rear frame.

Here is the finished mounts welded to the frame.

Here is what the chassis looked like when it was ready to go to paint. With every part dry fitted you can be assured that there will be little to no fitting of parts once it is painted.

Back from paint and ready for assembly.

This truck will look as good on the bottom side as the top. Function and safety are number one at Hitman Hotrods Inc. while executing show quality work.