North Rockies Design - Project: Hummer » frame

Some actual build progress, none of that 3D nonsense

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:32:39 +0000

Almost a year later, and I finally have an update. I knew this would be slow going…what with my Masters, two jobs, and a house full of kids, time and money has been tight. But, I haven’t given up. I’ve had some steel sitting around waiting to start the Tremor build. Not enough to get through the floor pans in the Tremor plans. Last week I realized I had enough to build the rear end. (both fenders and the rear base for the truck bed). All I needed was time. Yesterday was a paid holiday for the university I work at and the other I’m attending for my Masters, so I decided to get to the shop.

After cleaning a little, and “mounting” the windshield, I got to work.

It took most of the day just to clean, but finally I got to welding. First, I cut all the pieces for the fenders and rear rail for the bed and found myself lacking one rail for an inner fender. I took that from my first welding project ever… my old welding table that was too wobbly to hold anything. Freed up some room in my shop too. That table was becoming a “catch-all” or “junk pile” and wasn’t much use anyway. It’s that mess next to the welder in the above photo.

Next, I made the rear bed rail. That was too easy. So I started on the passenger rear fender.

Just because my kids like to build with me, and my wife wanted to see, but didn’t want to come out into the single digit temps, I brought it in to show her “her fender”.

With the Passenger fender and rear bed rail done, I placed them on the frame rails for temporary placement. I placed a piece of flat stock on top and was tempted to stand on it to test out the strength, but decided it wasn’t stable enough yet. I’ll make sure to do that later. And yes, it does look like it isn’t welded to the truck bed rail…because it isn’t yet. I want to get more pieces together and make sure they’re all square before tacking together.

I like the look, but I think I need bigger tires.

Then, after dinner, I started on the driver’s side rear fender. It was slick and quick because I figured out all the issues with keeping the other square already, but then I ran out of wire for my little Lincoln welder, and it was too late to get more.

Surplus Windshield

admin — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:45:59 +0000

I’ve been making some progress on getting the build officially started. Though, it has been mostly behind the scenes type work. After getting the plans, build manuals, and build license from Rocky Mountain Coachworks, I acquired some materials from Pacific Steel & Recycling in Idaho Falls to put together the windshield from the TremorMUV plans. After building the first section, which is the header to the windshield frame,

The first two pieces of the frame header welded together.

I realized it was just a little too heavy – in steel – for my tastes. Knowing I want to try for the soft top version of a Hummer, and knowing that the real thing has a hinged windshield, I decided to go with surplus parts for the windshield. I picked up a HMMWV windshield on ebay and got it just in time for the Easter weekend. After carrying it out to my shop, I was glad I went with the surplus part…It weighed about the same as the steel header.

Three happy travelers in our pretend Hummer

In the meantime, I made a little stand for the steel I got, to keep it off the floor, because I get a nasty leak in the spring…not a moment too soon, there was a puddle on the floor right next to that wall the next day.

Of course, my helper thought it was fun to just be out in the shop.

Nothing Says I Love You like…

admin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:27:01 +0000

My sweetheart was Ok with me taking her out twice in the previous week. We danced, we dined, we left the kids at home. So when I said, “Honey, do you mind if I want to spend some time in the shop today? I know it’s Valentine’s Day.” She was totally fine with it. Nothing says I love you like spending money for a bathroom remodel and new stove for her, so I can go play when I want.

I ran into a little snag though, I’m in a tool issue again. I need to clean the frame, but it’s Idaho in February. I can wait until it gets warm enough to wash it proper

Or I can try with a brush on my drill

So I sanded it a little. I think I’ll wait to clean it. But I will go ahead with relocating the body mounts to between the frame rails. This will allow the body to sit on the outsides of the rails without raising it.