Plus Sized Grandpa

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phatphuck

plus sized grandpa
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So the crew cab long beds have 5/16" thick frames, I'm curious how thick your frame is. An ECLB has a 1/4" thick frame.

Was doing some prep so just grabbed a caliper. Looks to be 5/16" as well. 8.128mm or 0.320"

Weird however I thought these frames were fully boxed

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phatphuck

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Hi guys, First off I want to say "right" this resource is great!
Next, I would like to say trhat your truck is becoming somewhat of gem 'phat' . I am slowly grinding away at my own 98 GMC 1500 xc 4x and I recently installed a set of black 4" iconic straight Nerf bars. Well, halfway anyhow, till I can remove a rusted body mount bolt and finish installing the passenger side bar. (SMH) Again, a beautiful truck and inspiration on the interior re-carpeting undertaking as well!

A little heat and an impact go a long way with rusty bolts. Best of luck there! Thanks for checking into the thread and the input.

One of the main reasons I like forums, which is true of most of us probably, is so I can see what other people are doing and have multiple little imaginary "mini-builds" of various cars going in my head at once and often see them in application on other people's rides even if I cant materialize all of them. For instance part of the reason this thread is moving so quick is because this pickup was all but built already in my head before I even got it.

I cant afford too many cars or new cars but cant quit the wrenching addiction so live vicariously thru other people's work as well. So I'm glad you and others can appreciate this work too.
 

Supercharged111

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The GMT800 frame was boxed back to the beginning of the bed in the HD. It wasn't until 2012 that the frames were fully boxed on an HD. The 1500s got hydroformed frames starting in 2007. Thanks for measuring, I've long wondered what the trigger was for the thicker frame.
 

phatphuck

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The GMT800 frame was boxed back to the beginning of the bed in the HD. It wasn't until 2012 that the frames were fully boxed on an HD. The 1500s got hydroformed frames starting in 2007. Thanks for measuring, I've long wondered what the trigger was for the thicker frame.


Interesting info thanks. I just assumed they were.
 

phatphuck

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Disappointing amount of work occurred today.

Barely got the running boards mounted and that's about it. Donor column did not show up yesterday/today so still rocking the stock steering wheel.

Anyhow the boards are a very simple set up. Brand is EAG. They are marketed as "chrome" but are more of a brushed aluminum. Finish is 7/10 but they do feel like they're built really beefy. Machined aluminum. 84"x6" and sold with brackets for $119 (so, very cheap by any measure) shipped and offered me the simple rectangular full cab board I wanted. I often like to "work" from the running board to access the cab roof, upper windshield, or even stuff in the bed and prefer the board to standing on the door sills.

They are sold for a gmt900 with brackets but I had already purchased the Lund kit specifically for the gmt400. These utilize a strange bracket and hanger system that I was not in love with. Strange set up but I believe this is a factory configuration? Someone correct me. They do not mount to the body mounts whatsoever just the pinch weld on the cab and lower cab corners via self tapping screws (I modified this somewhat. Read on).

I'm going to do a little write up on this because I did not see anything else online. Maybe it will help someone one of these days decide whether or not to use these.
 

phatphuck

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So the Lund instructions pdf can be found easily enough online so I'll keep my dialogue to a minimum and just show some pics.

First this is the mock up.

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Also this is all of the hardware the Lund brackets were shipped with!! Maybe they just do that to cover multiple applications but damn. I only used 6 long bolts, 6 short bolts 18 small washers and the body clip nuts. The rest was excess. So I just added it all to my hardware selection but wow.

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Next was loose assembly of the bracket "system".

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phatphuck

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So you can see the upper brackets just simply "bind" along the pinch weld outboard of the frame on the cab body and the "hangers" are called to be screwed in with self tapping screws per the instructions on the lower body corners.

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However this is where I deviated from the instructions. Which is fairly common for me.

Instead of just drilling two self tapping screws into the lower body and relying on their thread to take the routine task of taking the stresses of the board moving on both planes relative to the screw I actually used the body clip nuts.

Did this by removing the rubber plugs on the lowers and drilling one single 5/16" hole to slip the nuts over to and brought that mounting bolt through the cab body and into a secure nut on the back side. Which I see as a far stronger fastener so I was more than satisfied with the mounting and did not see the need to even screw in the top mounting hole on the hanger.

Trim the rubber plugs a lil and replace.

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phatphuck

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Yeah so finished product below. However, the Lund brackets brought the board mounting outboard way too far in my opinion so I ended up clipping off about 1.5" from the end of the brackets to bring the board in closer to the body.

I still think it would be ideal if I could ultimately bring the boards UP to the body between 0.5 and 1" which would be a simple spacing deal but I was satisfied with just bringing them inboard a little ways for now.

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So yeah in the end I'm actually pretty happy with these boards cost vs. Quality and looks. The installation was stupid slow for a running board but there was a somewhat modified element to this I suppose.

If it were staying stock height I would absolutely not be mounting a running board. Especially ones this "big". But I'm confident once the truck gets some elevation they will look great. The wider tires and possible tow mirrors in the future will help them not look so wide and I'll have a very usable set of boards.
 
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