So after 'finishing' the resto on my '88, (plus countless parts trucks & junkyard trips) i ended up with boxes of OEM hardware.  Interior, body, frame, whatever.  I cant help but save it!  But it was super helpful when putting the 88 back together, so thats my excuse for keeping it!  It was a bit of a mess though, so i started sorting it.  This is just one of many boxes:

Bought some organizers from HF, this wasnt enough:

...so i ended up building a frame to store them:

The finished product:

Built it so that it would just roll under the workbench for storage

So im pretty happy with how this came out.  I figure next time im working on one of the trucks i can just roll this over if i need hardware.  Before you ask: Yes, every bin in every organizer has hardware in it.  Took me a week to sort it all!

So naturally, the night after i finish building this i pop into the lab at work to find out that with the expansion theyre getting rid of all their old cabinets!  Thankfully i had driven the truck in to work, because i scored big:

I got the driver corner finished:

I knew i was going to be doing some tube work, so i ordered some stuff, and took a couple days to upgrade the bender:

New base with swiveling locking castors, and a hydraulic conversion courtesy of SWAG Offroad.
Just in case i might ever want to switch back to manual for some dumb reason, i added 1/2" holes to bolt it to the floor, and the castors are bolted in place via tapped holes in the base plate.
It is soo much easier to use than by hand! Wish i did this years ago, makes bending tube so much easier to do by myself. No spring-back on the bends either, which is a huge plus over manual bending. So with that done, lets bend some tube!

Ive always wanted a sheet metal brake, but never really had the room to store such a big piece of equipment. Well, now that i have a decent workshop, and a pretty big project to work on (the bronco rebuild) i decided it was time to get one. But, didnt want a big press taking up space, so i decided to try and build a smaller compact press. So this is what i came up with:

One piece of 3" angle iron bolted to bench top, with a 2" piece of angle iron attached to that via 2 4" hinges. Both are 36" wide, which gives me 28" between the hinges. Thats got to be plenty big. The 2 ½" bolts secure it to the bench.

So this is the basic motion. Those 2 3/8" studs sticking up with springs on them, will hold another piece of 2x¼" angle iron, which serves as the jaw that clamps the sheet metal in place

​Some slight trimming of the jaw to clear the hinges. Wing nuts to clamp it down w/o needing any special tools, and the springs will lift it back up when loosened to remove the piece or put another in

​On the underside of the hinged piece of angle iron, is 2 pieces of pipe welded in place, for a pair of handles made out of ¾" bar stock

​test bend!

​Removed from bench for 'storage' (actually i was cleaning). The handles fit under the clamping jaw for storage.

Set back up, and im now ready to resume work on the bronco!

​Looks like its gonna work just fine!

The top of the stand is slotted to accept exhaust ubolts of various sizes, to clamp around the axle tubes.  They actually work really good at holding the axle in place, to the point you can roll it around freely, or even set pinion angle.