Happy Michelle Weekend!

May never disappoints, spring has sprung the birds are chirping the grass is growing.......and then Michelle's birthday rolls around.

The general rule of thumb is we will have snow at somepoint on or before may long weekend....which is a fair statement...but in our house we always count on snow for Michelle's birthday.

So there was no surprises when our birthday hike for Michelle was in the snow. Luckily it was very mild.....but snow none the less. No short shorts and sun tanning! 

After celebrating the birthday girl.....and mothers day, I was let loose in the shop with the intent on making progress on the rear ladder. Specifically the inner mount supports

Thanks to the purchase of a tube notcher at my brother Shawns suggestion(insistence really) for Jeffs truck project, it was easy peasy to get a nice apposition of the two supports into one mount.

Things seemed to be going along smoothly(foreshadowing: que low level uneasy music). I was able to simply create a horizontal support running off the air chute  frame. However....in my enthusiasm....I had happy blinders on and was focused in on the cross member and how it matched up with the inner ladder mounts that I totally overlooked a key design component.

The picture on the left is the dry fit of the cross member. Just to the right of the inner ladder mount framework you can see a hinged round piece of metal. That my friends, as you can see in the right photo.....is the "D shaped" door hinges for the rear engine door. I'll give you a minute to visualize the mechanics of how that moves. To cut to the chase, it swings back when you close the door......straight back.....right into the cross member support for the inner ladder mounts.

Well.......THATS not going to work! Back to the drawing board!