New ARE 767's fit like a glove -- maybe 1/4" to spare.

Axle back together. Steering back on. New steelies and 33's on. 302 going back where it belongs.

Did I mention the new MM hubs? No more crappy automatics for me. Plus, these suckers are so quick to put on I may keep a box of new ones for spares. AT $52 for the set they're affordable, too. Could probably swap one out in about 5-10 minutes.

Tranny and T-case back in, time to move on to the driveline and dressing the engine. The more of this junk I can get off my floor, the better.

New cab going on for the first time. This is to mock up the new crossmember ... it will have to come back off to be painted later.

Still trying to get things roughly in place. This should give a sense of scale.

New 1/4" thick washers being cut for the body mount hardware, with the rest of the hardware bits sitting by the grinder. Once the washers are cut we can weld the assemblies together.

Gives new meaning to "stubby," huh? Cab is still sitting 2" too low in the front and roughly 1" low in the back. We'll see how she sits with the hardware when it's done.

If you assemble these bits right, you get a very sturdy 2" body lift -- some high temperature assembly required, of course.

A little preview. We have the fenders and core support on because fender alignment controls the cab angle off the frame -- hence, we have to reference that to get the new crossmember the right height.

Red and grey cab, green fenders, grey core support. Once the crossmember is done and the seats are adapted in, it will all come back apart to be painted, and the christmas color scheme will (thankfully) go away.

Yeah. We have trucks.

Best. Christmas present. Ever.

Perfect example of why drill press tables swing and rotate.

The 4x6x1/4 steel angle will support the back of the cab, and will be supported in turn by 1/4" steel endplates off the frame (the longest part to fabricate when you don't have a plasma cutter).

This new crossmember, conveniently enough, is in exactly the right location to support the end shackle for an anti-wrap bar later.

New crossmember tacked and removed for finish welding.

A peek at the underside.

And a much better look after finish welding.

A much closer look. Ugly welds on the backside where they're not visible are stick -- ugly, but good penetration. Pretty welds on the outside where they'll be cleanly visible are MIG, but my little box isn't hot enough for single pass full penetration welds on 1/4" and 5/16" material like this. This thing's drastically overwelded anyway, so the outside welds here are really cosmetic.

And here it sits holding up the back of the cab. Fits like a glove, no suprise since it was tacked together while in place before being removed. It'll come back out to get cleaned and painted when the cab comes back off.