Front winch removal, new winch platform, fairlead brackets,...more bodywork

Back to the new winch. I had a coupon to get a 12,000 pound winch from Harbor Freight. (I know, but these Badland winches are supposed to be ok) The price was under $300, and they gave me the 2 year warranty for free. AND did I mention the front winch I have is a patched and pieced together thing I can't get working?

 So to pick up the story. The old winch and it's patchwork of taped together wiring and weird hookups was gone.

Here is the base support plate underneath. The new winch has a wider footprint, and you can see here on the left, there is a gap in the sheet metal. So I sanded, and ground down the rust, treated both sides and prepped for some fabrication.

I then took a piece of 3/8 inch plate steel, and welded it on top of that base. You can see how thick this is now, and strong with a heavy weld all the way around the base.

While I was at it, I welded up four unneeded holes, and drilled four for the new winch. Finally, I cut two brackets to mount the fairlead onto. (Note: there are often a set of rollers in front of a winch that lets the cable roll on and off of the winch drum. Those rollers are called the "fairlead" and in my case there is no way to mount that to the winch, so I needed to fabricate mounting tabs or brackets). You can see the new base fills the space better, and is wide enough for the new winch.

The brackets are ugly from recycled steel, but you won't see them when done, so yep, ugly, but it's ok.

AND while I was at it, I needed to sand the front grille area and prime it anyway, so that took some time.

The front is all disassembled and about halfway through sanding process. I did end up eating dirt taking the bumper halves off.

That front driver side piece below the fender was torn free, loose and floppy from an accident in the past.

So more bodywork.

I tack welded that piece to the bottom of the fender (it was just too much work to remove the wheel, get behind it, drill and rivet and then fix the tear in the steel). So I filled in the tear, an just tacked it to the fender (hey it's a project truck, not a concours restoration).

Then I took a fender strut from the donor truck,and beat and bent the bottom of that torn piece, drilled it and bolted the bottom to the frame. It is really solid now, and certainly doesn't look any worse than it did.

AND finally, I have the fairlead brackets welded on. I measured about 5 times and they still seemed a little off when I mocked it up. Since no one will see this, I cut a long lateral hole in the right side mounting bracket to give me some room to slide the bolt as needed.

I am still amazed at what great shape the sheet metal of this truck is in. so little rust!