Sinking Creek 4WD Association

Merry Christmas guys!

I got most of my flatbed done and thought Id start a little build thread since Ive done a few things to the truck.

Brief History: bought in summer of 2010 with 160,000 miles in Texas. Since then kept mostly stock with minor repairs: Cv's replaced, ujoints, water pump, alternator, new stereo/ speakers, wiring issues. Now has 186,xxx miles

Added some trail gear rock sliders and an aussie locker in the rear.



started the flatbed last week. I was looking to build something with a reasonable amount of space and enough clearance for tires at full bump. Came up with this:



2x2 steel for the frame with two cross members, dovetailed in the back to the width of the truck frame, held up by tubing.




Definitely the most welding Ive ever done. Some look alright, but theres allot of booger welds. The worst were the welds between the tubing and the flatbed. In the tight spaces I couldn't really see what I was doing so I just put the torch up and let er eat. Not exactly textbook, but I think they will hold haha.




Heres what it looks like now.





Im going to cut off the frame behind the leaf springs and make a new bumper and light bar for it. All in all Im pretty happy with how it turned out

Thanks again to Alec for letting me use his shop/tools for a week.

Image fail what are you supposed to put in between the Img when u hit the button?

Use the url of the picture. Right click on the pic and hit copy image link/address/url

Thats what I did. I have the pics in photo bucket and did copy image location

go to each photobucket image and either put the "direct link" url in between the [img] tags or click (it will automatically copy for you) the "IMG code" under "image links off to the right side of the screen.

I did one for you above.

OK thanks

Bed looks real good Duane, did you make it back to Texas all right?

Matt612 wrote:Bed looks real good Duane, did you make it back to Texas all right?

Had some problems actuslly. I drove all the way to dallas on Sunday. Monday morning I was two hours from home and blew a head gasket. My dad had to come pick me u with a tow dolly. So looks like I have something t do before I start work next month haha.

Damn man that sucks, at least you were close to home. And you have some time to get it fixed.

Damn, at least it was close to home compared to the rest of the trip

Check out this man for 22r/re parts. http://www.engnbldr.com/ He has everything you need in one place. Ships quick, has quality parts and will answer any question you have.

Thanks crantz. Ill look into it when I get back from my trip. And yeah its a good thing I was that close to home when I broke. Could have been alot worse

d_OOT wrote:blew a head gasket

Looks good dude. Consider adding some gusseting and more welds to the frame mounts. Frame flex could fatigue the welds quickly.

Looks good dude. Consider adding some gusseting and more welds to the frame mounts. Frame flex could fatigue the welds quickly.

Thanks I didn't think of that

Heres progress Ive made on HG repair the last couple of days









oil pan out



Im worried cause my gasket looks like this

doesn't seem to have any damage. There was definitely exhaust coming up through the radiator in big bubbles along with a bad smell. Is it possible I have a cracked block and is there any way to check for this?!

Another concern: there seems to be rust in the coolant passages


Got parts coming from engbuilder in the next couple days and a guy at my dad works with said he would check the head and have it milled for me.