Has anyone 'tucked' the spare tire carrier?

[BuildStuff]

You must be registered for see images attach

Here is what the spare tire looks like, 195/50r15. In retrospect, I may have gone a size wider as now the rim contacts the carrier, as opposed to a wider tire making contact. So, the tire is essentially the width of the rim, what I have to do is cement a thin rubber strip to the carrier where ever the rim hits as a cushion to prevent any mystery noises from metal to metal contact and such. This isn't a big deal, just something I hadn't thought about.

You must be registered for see images attach

Here is a shot 11 feet back with the camera 24" off the ground, spare tire installed. You can see a sliver of it, but good enough for me.

You must be registered for see images attach

Muaaa… spare tire is installed in this pic.

 

[BuildStuff]

I have pretty much buttoned this project up, although I had done some work to the strikers on the tailgate to smoothen out the open/close operation, I just lost the pics for that modification, would be hard to explain. The next in line is for me to embed a small MP3 player into the dash, well nearly into it. Since my bed light doesn't work, I plan to hardwire and mount said Mp3 player into/on the panel that has the switch for the bed light on it, in the picture it would be the area outlined in Yellow. The project after that, outlined in red, is I'm thinking about putting hood vents in. The 2 led numbers seen in the picture are temperature readings, the blue one is for in the cab, where that blue poorly painting tube houses the temperature probe, the red number is the engine bay temperature reading. That probe is mounted in the engine compartment just above the passenger side header. I've lost the pics for that installment process, side note, the deal I got on those temp gauges only came in Celsius, which is a bummer, but beggars can't be choosers. I have to monitor the temps over a course of time, or I would do that modification first. The plan for the mp3 player for me is to add some functionality to the cockpit (drivers seat) while remaining reasonably stock. I could have installed a different radio, but I preferred the stock Radio in this situation. There are some 'electronics' stuff to figure out, like wiring a switch into the mp3 players to be able to select between aux for the raido, or just using the Radio on it's own, as there are still a few decent shows on the Radio. I'll update when I get the physical Mp3 player, there are some requirements I need to make sure I get, so a bit of research on that first.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[The Lowly Genteman]

I used the same bumper on my truck. Did you get the idea from my post on the 67-72 truck forum? Looks good by the way, I still have my spare in the bed.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[BuildStuff]

I searched the web for many hours looking for a smoothie for gmt400, I didn't come across your thread, not surprising since the internet really only shows hits that translated into advertising money, click bait or completely unrelated topics, but I will.certainly.take a look at it now. It looks really good btw. A roll pan behind the bumper will fill that empty space between the bottom of the tailgate and top of the bumper, it is a bit of work though, have to cut pan around the bumper brackets and such, end product looks factory though.
Edit: I think my bumper hangs a smidge lower, just below the body line, exposing it, yours looks like the top of the bumper ends in that indented part of the body line. The difference there is on mine the rounded part of the body line is visible when it turns towards the tailgate, where the roll.pan continues it across to the other side, since the roll.pan has that 'rounded' body line as well, in retrospect if I had hung it like yours I wouldn't have had to do that extra work and made only a bumper filler piece instead of roll pan and bumper filler, too late now though....
That looks like a factory Ford bumper, or is it a repro like mine?

 

[The Lowly Genteman]

Amazing that we both came up with the same bumper idea independently. I hadn't thought of trying to put a roll pan behind the bumper, that is a good one. I did hang my bumper pretty high up trying to minimize the gap. The bumper is a repop, good luck finding a clean Econoline bumper in the junkyard! I'm on my second bumper already because I got rear ended, they don't do much in an accident but it does look good.

 

[BuildStuff]

Well, there just aren't many choices to start with, without cutting/welding and a rechrome. I'm not sure why GM got rid of the sport bumper to begin with. I've personally lost a bit of faith with GM, especially with this chick in charge pushing the 'future' of giant remote control electric cars (like electric cars are a new idea) she has no idea, but I digress.
You have a link to your build? I briefly looked for it, tried to search memebers, but I didn't want to join the site.

 

[_nickjoseph]

You must be registered for see images attach

Here is what the spare tire looks like, 195/50r15. In retrospect, I may have gone a size wider as now the rim contacts the carrier, as opposed to a wider tire making contact. So, the tire is essentially the width of the rim, what I have to do is cement a thin rubber strip to the carrier where ever the rim hits as a cushion to prevent any mystery noises from metal to metal contact and such. This isn't a big deal, just something I hadn't thought about.

You must be registered for see images attach

Here is a shot 11 feet back with the camera 24" off the ground, spare tire installed. You can see a sliver of it, but good enough for me.

You must be registered for see images attach

Muaaa… spare tire is installed in this pic.

Where did you get a bumper like this?

 

[BuildStuff]

Where did you get a bumper like this?

I can't recall where I bought it, it was off the internet. I think it was just some generic replacement part website. I'm not to sure, but I think there are a handful of reproduction makers that resell to a bunch of suppliers, so it likely isn't to important who you buy it off of as it would be in similar quality, which isn't good. If you have a real nice truck, I would recommend a factory Ford bumper.

 

[delta_p]

The plan for the mp3 player for me is to add some functionality to the cockpit (drivers seat) while remaining reasonably stock. I could have installed a different radio, but I preferred the stock Radio in this situation. There are some 'electronics' stuff to figure out, like wiring a switch into the mp3 players to be able to select between aux for the raido, or just using the Radio on it's own, as there are still a few decent shows on the Radio. I'll update when I get the physical Mp3 player, there are some requirements I need to make sure I get, so a bit of research on that first.

I did something similar to that for the same reason, I like the stock radio. Except I just added a place to plug in a bluetooth receiver. Basically just an off mounted jack. The radio tuner board has a flat wire cable that feeds the amplifier board (the audio board), and I cut the (L) and (R) tuner feed and wired to the jack through a double pole double throw switch. It works good. Switch one way it is the bluetooth audio feeding audio, switch other way it is the tuner output feeding the audio board.

You must be registered for see images attach