Custom Staircase

A buddy's Dad wanted a new steel staircase to replace the ailing wooden one down to his beach. He said he wanted it big and burly, we discussed some basic dimensions and he told me to come up with a design.

I used CAD to design the staircase so that I could see how it would look. I wanted to get a sense of how the angles and handrail would all look when built to scale. This way for example I could see how the spacing on the stanchions looks and if it should be tighter or more open to look right.

I had all the steel delivered last week and I'm in the middle of it now. The 12" channel is gonna look super stout and the rough cut Cedar should be really cool as well. The owner wants a naturally rusted look, I'll rust it with natural chemicals (vinegar and hydrogen peroxide) so that it rusts evenly and not blotchy.

Custom receiver for Erik's bike rack

A good friend recently picked up a Suzuki Swift to run from Seattle to Bellingham for the next year and needed to carry some bikes with him. He'll still be able to get his rides in after work and will be getting great mileage in this little car.

Last night after work we went through the brakes and found the front pads we're almost gone so we changed those. The rear pads still have some life left and the fluid looked good so that was an easy brake job.

Then we got to work on a custom 2" receiver for this little car. We set the receiver up with quite a bit of angle to compensate for the suspension sag and to improve ground clearance.

The car is all uni-body so I came up with a large fish plate behind the trunk area and tied into the rear a-arm mounts. The receiver is very stout and will probably stiffen this little pop-can thing up some too in the corners.

Next I plan to swap in a smallblock V-8 with a four-link 9" rear-end. Not really. Well, probably...

Front-mount Pannier Rack

I wanted to switch the panniers up to the front wheel after my Laos/Thailand Trip. The weight seems to ride better on the front wheel. Makes since with most of my body weight over the rear wheel already. During my trip I ended up moving all the weight I could to the front end and resulted in less pinch flats in the rear and the bike even felt more stable on the rough twisty roads.

 I used 1/2" x 1/2" angle for the main supports and 3/16" rod for all the rest. The rack turned out pretty light and it has very little flex. I left the design versitile so that I could use it on my 80mm corrected Surley fork also. Otherwise, I would have tightened the design up even further and really fit the mounts tight to this fork to clean up the lines. Still, it looks way nicer than anything I could have bought in a store and its lighter and stronger too.

1 1/4" receiver on Amber's Passat

We opted to take Amber's new whip to the Enduro race in BC this weekend so I installed this Curt 1 1/4" receiver onto her car so we could haul the bikes up with her cargo box on the roof. With the tinted windows, this car is now the ULTIMATE poach camping rig and will see a lot of use I'm sure for road trips and bike weekends!!

I'll post the instruction sheet soon, 2 of the 4 bolts were nice and simple however, the other 2 bolts required using a supplied fish-wire (waaaaay too short) and fishing the bolts through the box tube bumper and down into the holes. It actually worked, but wow! Soooo hard!!

B.C. Enduro Racin'

Come up and support Benham Custom Fabrication in lovely Vancouver, British Columbia this weekend May 10th at the first round of the Cascadia Cup Enduro Series mountain bike race!!

The event will criss-cross some of the trails on Mt. Seymour. I'll be racing the open-hardtail category on Benham Custom bike #4 and Amber will be on a super fun AM build in the women's category!!

http://www.pinkbike.com/u/bcenduroseries/blog/nth-vancouver-enduro-bces-amp-cdc.html

http://www.cascadiadirtcup.org/#!northshore/clnj

https://www.facebook.com/cascadiadirtcup

Lawnmower Repair

I fixed up an old lawnmower deck for a very nice local guy. These old John Deere mowers with hydrostatic drive were built super tough and they're around 30 years later, but the mower decks are rotting out. We used one at Olympic View Marine to town all the boats around in and out of the yard into the shop.

 I hammered in a new piece of steel to fit the inside of the deck. The guy brought me this steel to use because he had it on hand already and it worked great! The crack was about 12 inches long, I pushed it all back together and welded it up, then fit theses fish plates on the inside and outside. 

I made the plates made of 10 gauge and 3/16 carbon steel. The plate on the right I was able to fish into the wheel mount/brace for added support. All in all I had him out of here in an hour and a half and he was more than pleased with the work.

1967 F100 first drive, hood

My uncle and dad came up this weekend and gave he a hand setting the hood onto the 67 F100. The hood is heavy and awkward and has just been in the way throughout this entire project. I've stored the hood in the bed, on the roof and then back in the bed again and its tough to move.

I wanted to get rid of the 1967 hinges and come up with my own design. The  fenders have bad cancered-out rust around the hinge mounts also that I need to repair still. I like the simplicity of the door hinges mounted flush against the firewall with gas struts for support. This allows the hood to open wider with much more access under the hood.

After we got the hood tacked on, we had to move it outside to get a couple pictures and listen to it run. It has a nice low tone with the glass pack mufflers. Couldn't take it around the block quite yet but it wont be long.

Steering Column Before and After

Here are a couple of pictures looking inside the cab thru the passenger's side showing the stock steering column and the new steering column I built.

The stock steering column is on a steeper angle and mounts lower under the dash.

This is the new steering column I fabricated. I shortened it 6 inches, installed a better bearing in the end of the column, and added an additional u-joint. I raised the mount under the dash to help with leg room. Because I lowered the whole cab 5 inches, the steering column angle flattened out too. Often times people install a tilt column to help with leg room because of this. I wanted to keep the factory look in the cab and keep costs super low by using and making everything myself in my shop with parts from the donor vehicles. So the steering wheel ended up in a nice, comfortable position while driving but its a little tight getting in and out of the seat. I can live with that.

Video from chassis swap

I took this video right after I got the 1997 Ford Explorer chassis rolled under the 1967 body and bed inside my shop. It was raining and dark. It got pretty muddy out in my back yard crawling around doing this, but to make it easier I removed most of what I could inside the shop first before I put the bodies both up on blocks.  Before I started this project I tried to explain my plan to my girlfriend Amber, kinda one of those things you have to see. She was a great sport helping me push these 2 chassis around the alley in the rain. We had to use her Jeep to finally push the Explorer chassis into the shop because it was a little uphill and we couldn't do it by hand!

New floor

I finally got the truck running this last weekend after more than a week of scratching my head. It ran perfectly in closed-loop when I pulled the chassis out from under the hotrod. When I wired the computer, fuel and ignition into the 1967 F100 wiring harness, I did a great job with the grounds, not cutting anything and spreading them out all over the firewall, engine and frame. But I combined too many of the 12 volt sources and it wouldn't even start. The computer requires its own, separate voltage source from its own switch and relay. I had jumped off of the key on power that also supplied the old '67 ignition coil, and this pissed it off!

So the wiring is complete and now I'm finishing the remaining welding. I'm making a new floor and making a custom length steering column. I'll be flat blacking the whole truck also.

This is the driver's side floor pan I cut out of the 1967. After pulling up the floor mat there were holes completely through. Channeling the cab made a bit more sense seeing just how bad the cancer was on the floor of this old truck.

Here's a couple pics of the skeleton structure that I finished last night that will support the floor pan. I've already made the cab mounts and the cab, bed and front clip are all bolted to the frame and ready to go.

A shot of the structure and support bracing for the sheet metal floor. The 4) cab mounts are all 1/4" steel plates, the and are fish plated into the rocker panels and A-pillars. You can see the driver's front cab mount in the upper left of the picture.

A view looking into the cab on the passenger's side with half the sheet metal fit and tacked to the steel bracing.

A closer view of the passenger side sheet metal tack welded to the steel bracing

I formed the sheet metal to match the ribs and contours of what was left of the existing cab. The existing cab had a couple steps in the floor and the hole thing slopes down to the rocker panel at the door.

Thru-bed exhaust tips

The dual exhaust is routed under the cab and exits thru the bed, ahead of the rear tires on each side. I cut out the bed and put a little flange around the cut out to dress it up.

Flange along bottom edge of the bed, just ahead of the rear tire on the driver's side.

This is the pipe I fabricated that attached to the exhaust manifold. I had to fit it down between the engine block and the frame rail, then it had to go under the frame rail between the torsion bar and the frame to exit to the rear.

This is the exahust pipe mounted and the rough cut out into the bed prior to putting the flange around the cut out.

Exhaust tip is tucked back a little, inside the flange and cut out of the bed.

Looking down on the flange the exhaust tip is just visible. I turned the tips down just a little too so it blows dry dirt around on the ground.

Chassis swap

This is a picture from early in the day, begining by jacking the bed and cab high enough to get a nice big beam under it. I had to get the bed supported on 4) posts quite high before I could slide a 4x6 beam under the bed, above the frame and chassis.

Lifting the hotrod body off of its chassis. The Ford Explorer chassis is still under the hotrod body. The whole thing is about ready to fall over actually, I 'm adding a 2x4 between the post and beam because I was jacking it up using a floor jack and it was out of level and started to shift over and fall. The whole back yard was soft and squishy and the yard itself isn't level so it was kinda weird trying to do this on this surface. I worked as quickly as I could and nothing fell.

This is a shot of the 1967 chassis rolling out from under the truck body and bed.

1967 F100 engine bay

The Ford Explorer's 5.0l fits nicely into the 67s engine bay

1967 F100

First project in my very own shop!! The neighbors keep stopping by to check this thing out, definitely liking the town of Sedro Woolley and having my own space to make rad rigs!!

I am taking the '97 Ford Explorer chassis out from under the Hotrod and rolling it under this '67 F100. The Hotrod is going to get the '67 chassis for now and I'll continue to work on it.