Thanks; and I do love it when a plan comes together.
Barnfind, dadoing would work well. I didn't have a dado blade on hand so I just used a router. Means extra time and effort, but a 3/16" router bit for the channel works well; and then go up a couple sizes to make the shallower outer cut. I made some test passes on scrap first and mic'd everything to make sure the profile was right, but it didn't take long to set up. I ripped all the boards according to the dimensions I found online and they were bang on.
Assemble everything dry first and make sure there's no clearance issues. I couldn't believe mine all fit the first time.
Work across (from one side to the other) and square up the first couple of boards, after that everything should continue to stay lined up by virtue of the carriage bolts. Only finger tighten everything until you get them all in place, then crawl under and tighten everything. I tightened from center-out and did the box mounts last.
I put a 1/8" flat bar at the front of the box to maintain a consistent gap, keep in mind you gotta remove it after.
THAT THIRD CROSSMEMBER I'm glad you mentioned that, I was wondering the same thing. I was also going to shim mine, haven't gotten around to it yet. I have a hard time believing it wouldn't flex under load. I thought I was maybe missing a support there, but maybe that's the way they are? Hopefully somebody else knows that answer.
I was also thinking of black paint, it would look good, original and easy to touch up.
Last edited by NorthCoast3800; 06/12/2020 3:08 PM.
