Hot Rods It begins... Rebuilding a 1934 Chevy.

So I thought I might start a little thread on this truck I am doing for a client. The rolling chassis is done and I have not seen it yet, but will have it soon to fit the body once I am done doing to it what I am doing. I will be completing all of the body fab, straightening and paint in house here at my lowly shop, so I encourage anybody interested to follow along as I go.

I have already assembled the new bed from Mar-K, and what a nice piece it is. Sadly I did not snap any pictures of the all to easy process while it was up on the fixture table.

 

Next, I threw the cab onto the fixture table to get a good look at what I am up against. You see, the client wants to have all of the wooden substructures replaced in steel. Rather than go the square tubing route, we have decided to replicate the wooden shapes in formed sheet metal.

Here is the victim being assessed. My oh my, what an amount of wood makes up these old Chevrolets!

 

After and during about five hours of teardown, I took the following pictures. Disassembling this cab is more like removing the upholstery from an old chair than taking apart a vehicle. The outside steel panels are fastened to the wood with a zillion tack nails and a few dozen screws and a dozen or so bolts. Of course these were the days when GMs were still Bodies by Fisher. More coachbuilt...

So I took her clothes of, and boy did she give me wood!

 

As of now, that is where I am at. I am gingerly removing each piece of wood, one at a time, to preserve their shape for subsequent patterns to transfer the shapes to 18 gauge steel sheet.

 

We use to call the old Chevy's termite boxes,I help a friend back in the 70's replace every single piece of wood in a 1932 Chevy sedan,,the car wasn't exactly bought cheap and the wood cost 4 times what he paid for the project.

He finished the car and swore he would never own another Chevrolet again,,he stuck to his word,he went on to built a 38 Lincoln Zephyr Coupe! HRP

 

I went through the same process for my 33 Chevy Cabriolet. The end result was worth the effort. Good luck with the truck. I’m looking forward to watching your progress.

Tom

 

The disassembly continues...

 

ok, I'm in

 

nice project!
how many guys do you have working? i see a lot of bare metal projects.

 

Your lucky you have as much wood as you do for patterns. Usually it's all gone. That thing must have been stored indoors all its life. That's a really nice cab.

 

I'm into this. Should be help full to watch.
That cab is a great start.

 

Subscribed.

 

I'm in ,I can relate

 

A very familiar sounding story. A few years back I started a 34 Chevy Standard sedan for a customer. He bought a custom chassis from a local Company who's specialty is 33/34 Chevy's. We got a very costly lesson in reproduction and after market. Hope you made a better chassis choice than we did.
The Wizzard

 

<<<<<<<----------I feel your pain...

 

Holy smokes that's a lotta' wood ! I've heard, but never seen. Thank Gawd it's just a truck cab. I'd imagine the roadster version or anything else would be a wittle adventure too.

 

Great idea with sheet steel. I replaced only the bad wood in my 31 sedan and was tuff to do. But you will have a better truck and will not squeak.

 

Looking forward to seeing this. I have a 30 Chev cab. Good wood but needs some love. Also a 29 GMC cab without wood and all in pieces.

 

At the moment I work alone in the shop and the wife runs the front. I work in a 4000 sq. Ft. Building with an 1800-ish ft. Fab room (pictured), a 1200-ish ft. Body shop, 23'X15' spray room, and a 22'X15' room I use for paint stripping and disassembly. I will hopefully have another guy joining me after the holidays as my workload is very substantial. I have a nice collection of metalworking machinery and hand tools that REALLY helps out working alone. Still, nothing Nike some of the guys on this board though but I am always looking and adding as I go.

The original chassis was retained but boxed, X-membered and fitted with IFS, LS/4L60E power among other modifications.

 

All of you that are working on similar projects, please feel free to share here and let us inspire each other.

 

Here it is torn all the way down to the bare cowl.

 

Next, I took the cowl down from the table and patterned a jig to the framerail width and taper then bolted and clamped it to the table. I set the cowl on the jig, squared it XYZ, and clamped it in place. I then removed any wood that I wouldn't need for measuring the sub rails, then squared the subrail assembly and clamped it to the framerail jig and cowl. I then jigged the subrail assembly and pulled a bunch of measurements.

 

Here is the 34 back in Feb. It went on the back burner till Race season was over. It's back in first place again for a while.
The Wizzard View attachment 2789512

 

Photo didn't follow. Another try.

 

i always felt replacing the wood in an old car with steel, is like taking away someones accent.
easier to understand, but loses the charm.

 

How charming do you think it is when on a left hand turn the door fly's open dumping your Girl Friend out in an intersection? Suddenly an accent isn't all that charming.

 

I'm watching.

 

Doesn't feel ilke I got an awful lot done today, but I did. I cut, bent, shaped and punched all the parts to build the subrails. That took a bit of time in itself, plus adjusting all 17 fingers in my brake for nice, tight bends and eveness. I made most of the cuts in the shear, but still had to do some with hand tools.

Here is the right side subrail tacked together and fitted. I still have to finish the bottom, continue the flange where there are gaps and then sand all the welds.

 

For the tool hounds, here is my brake and shear. Brake is an old Dreis & Krump 6 footer, probably pre 1970. Shear is a 5 HP, 52" Pexto that I assume is 40+ years old but has been overhauled and sharpened.

 

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