Register now to get rid of these ads!

Projects The Official "Chop Sewage" Build Thread Start to Finish?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Salty, Dec 27, 2008.

  1. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida

    {Awhile back I started individual threads at the start of the project, I've been meaning to start a new thread with the old ones combined....a start to finish deal that will get added too as opposed to starting a new one. SO what I did was revisit the old threads, copied the original content and put em back to back....Here's the start. I have a new addition of work that I have been remiss in posting...
    Welcome to my hell.....Welcome to "Chop Sewage"}

    OK Awhile back I started a thread on your opinion on if I should section or not, after a few good dudes stepped up and photo chopped it for me I lit the green light....

    Here's what I started with, I've been driving it for 10 years, bought it from a cow pasture, put it together and chopped the top with a quickness.....drove it for a LONG while then updated the suspention two or so years ago.

    A seemingly solid looking 1950 Chevy truck, Straight and from out west where there aint no rust....A rock on must be submitted next to the retired welding glove that I was sick of catching on fire..

    Anyway, see the uglyness on the firewall cut out that I braked up many moons ago....you know, the 90 degree angles with no lines....well I wanted to sort that out and found a sweet trans access panel fron an unknown late 40's early 50's ride at a swap....that will be going in its place...
    <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
    <FIELDSET class=fieldset><LEGEND>Attached Thumbnails</LEGEND>[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    </FIELDSET>

    Welp, after measuring, taping, lain paint to follow (there is NO machinists die in J-ville, I checked...the only place that said they had it, didnt)

    BTW I forgot to mention that when I first measured it twas LATE at night....I ended up redoing it....the line was visibly uphill....couldnt see it in the dark...you sure could during the day...luckly I didnt start cutting at night.
    <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
    <FIELDSET class=fieldset><LEGEND>Attached Thumbnails</LEGEND>[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    </FIELDSET>
    the point of no return....the first peice cut....gotta document that...

    Then more cutting, shaving, shaping etc, little by little the metal kept commin out....the real point of no return.....eh screw it, its only steel right?
    <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
    <FIELDSET class=fieldset><LEGEND>Attached Thumbnails</LEGEND>[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    </FIELDSET>
    the pivital moment, droppin it down the 2.5" I cut out of it....

    I gotta say I was a bit nervous at first....then I saw the lines and knew it was the right thing for the truck....it just looked right. Yeah there is some tweekin and tuning to the fitment, bt it was the initial drop down....I gotta say, I like it.....alot

    throw in a good tribute to the retired welders glove here....shock and awe
    <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
    <FIELDSET class=fieldset><LEGEND>Attached Thumbnails</LEGEND>[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    </FIELDSET>
    Crap....I "hadda" take the thing down to bare metal....I found some rust in the cab corner....that was haphazerdly lathered with fiberglass on the inside and layered with 3/4" of plastic....sheesh....the idiots son that I got it from musta molested it at some point and I honestly didnt know that was there....set the radar off though and I went lookin for more....glad I did too. The whole goal right now is get the truck finished and in paint.....gloss paint....

    I already knew the cowl sides were toast....I didnt know about them either but the haphazard way of throwing 4 booger weld on the side vent then laying plastic over it reinforced the radar....

    oh yeah then you get to the passenger side and find the louvers bashed in with a hammer, tac welded and another 3/4" of plastic over the top of that...lovely

    all of that, is now cut out...actually both cowl sides are now not there
    <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
    <FIELDSET class=fieldset><LEGEND>Attached Thumbnails</LEGEND>[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    </FIELDSET>
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2009
  2. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida

    OK

    Enough with the complainin for now, I gotta truck to start welding back together...

    Those panel clamps rock....I dont know how you do stuff like this without em....

    As a side bar the order got a little screwy, I welded the truck back together then started cutting the cab corner out....

    Look Ma a nice peice of southwest non-rusty steel!
    <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
    <FIELDSET class=fieldset><LEGEND>Attached Thumbnails</LEGEND>[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    </FIELDSET>


    <HR style="COLOR: #e5e5e5; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #e5e5e5" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->Aight....you remember me mentioning the radar for crappy plastic?


    I have a great anouncement to make....

    YEAH! I Found More Rust!

    Passenger cowl corner was not there....fun...all four peices of metal were eaten up and covered with glass and bondo....

    Least I found it...

    SO heres where we stand, both cowl sides are off, one cab corner (both will be replaced, the passenger cab corner is not rusted through but mighty thin)

    The inner cowl to fender peices are toast and now laying on the pile as well....

    The last picture is the cowl side....I got some blasting to do...

    The good news....at least it will be all metal now as opposed to a Saturn...

    that and at least I know the roof was done right...Quite honestly, this is the first I've touched the lower regions of the truck's sheetmetal besides wet sanding for black....everything was so smooth I never put a magnet to it, no rust bubbles, nothin...

    Luckly I built the truck originally for about $250....(10 years ago without the new engine)


    More updates when I make progress....


    Turns out the cab was a perfect candidate for cutting up....I got my work cut out for me on bumpin and smoothing this heap....I been grinding out plastic for a bit....

    I woulda felt guilty for cutting up a solid southwestern truck (naw not really)

    thats it for now folks......
    <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
    <FIELDSET class=fieldset><LEGEND>Attached Thumbnails</LEGEND>[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    </FIELDSET>

    OK boys and girls, gearheads of all ages, last week we laughed, we cried (over rust) and we rejoiced (we did? no one told me that, whos writing this thing?)

    Here's what we didi last week:

    http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=271767

    This week, I took a special delivery, see I dont know if its that I'm getting old or just turning into a wuss, but I'm sick of melting in the hot friggen sun and humidity in the garage. see my garage faces west, which means my garage is in full sun for half the day....lemme tell you, that sucks. Add a little garage door insulation (which cut the temp by 15 degrees) and see what the glorious delivery guy brought!


    Yup 12000 BTU of frosty goodness, 1 hour into the cool and the garage was 75 deg...4 hours later a cool 67, outside temp, 91 with 90% humidity....gotta love it.
    <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
    <FIELDSET class=fieldset><LEGEND>Attached Thumbnails</LEGEND>[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    </FIELDSET>

    here's tha pile of crap....yes its getting bigger, no I'm not done adding to it, still got the pass side to finish adding....the driver side inner cowl to fender mount (Pic 2) was toasty, rotted, and all covered in that lovely substance....BONDO, I'd really like to kick that guys ass that A) invented it, and B) the dude that put it all on so it didnt look rotten...at least I had to hammer that side off....the pass side (Pic 3) I ripped off with gloved hands....no tools, just hands...beutiful
    <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
    <FIELDSET class=fieldset><LEGEND>Attached Thumbnails</LEGEND>[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    </FIELDSET>

    next up (pic 1) the sand blaster comes out....and reveals what I thought....hopeless, (Pic 2) is the driver side, I'm rehabbing one side at a time (cept for blasting....I mean if your gonna make a mess, do it once) all the metal came out, getting back to basics and cutting till clean metal shows up...I was gonna fab the inner cowl panel BUT found that a repop panel cost 4 bucks more than sheet and had the body lines already in it (9 bucks with shipping) so putting that section back together is on hold till I get the goods....seeing as I dont have a bead roller....I spent the extra couple bucks to get something that wont oil can on me...looks a heck-of-alot better though already.

    As a sidebar I'm normally leary of repop parts, you know, all the horror stories you hear etc...I got the cab corners, inner and outer, and the darn thing fits like it is supposed too...I was really impressed, heck even the steel thickness was correct....
    <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
    <FIELDSET class=fieldset><LEGEND>Attached Thumbnails</LEGEND>[​IMG] [​IMG]

    </FIELDSET>


    <HR style="COLOR: #e5e5e5; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #e5e5e5" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->second to last, whislt I had the cleaning wheel out I tackled the cowl to see what shoddyness awatted me seeing as I know there "was" a vent there...same tacktic as the others, a few tack welds and slathered in .....yup you guessed it, BONDO...I'll be cutting that out and doing it right...


    Pic 2 an overall view on where we stand.

    OH and pic 3, I finally got the back seam welded solid and ground down...only one spot of oil canning to deal with, not bad... that cab corner (inner and outer) is ready to be welded back in, I just ran out of energy (was 3 am when I quit)

    Its a relief to know that parts are starting to go back on instead of just come off
    <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
    <FIELDSET class=fieldset><LEGEND>Attached Thumbnails</LEGEND>[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    </FIELDSET>

    finally, A self portrait of a crazed dude set on erradication my small slice of life from the cancer we call rust...its now 4 am and I'm beat...

    Pis 2 about 2 am I sliced the hell outta my finger in the peice of mettal thats behind my california howdy...went all the way to the bone, whilst I was doing the river dance and swearing a blue streak flinging my hand aroung (that crap HURT) I realized I was getting wet...from me own blood....little super glue and wrap it up and we're back in the game....havent had one get infected yet. the joys of working with sharp sheet metal.


    Fianlly, the BEST news so far....I finally figured out what color I'm gonna sling on it and actually ordered it...so I'm now committed (in more ways than one....

    The original plan was for a Daytona blue bottowm with a heavy metal flake pearl silver top/top of bed (gonna be running a flush mount bed cover outta steel, still gotta build that) But alas, after combing through color chip after color chip, none of them popped, I found the silver, but not the blue....BUT while thumbing through, a candy orange kept poking me in the eye...so I looked for a complementing color and found a equally pleasing pearlesent tequila yellow, SO we're shooting it tequila yellow bottom, candy orange with flake top...

    I'm stoked, I've been changing my mind on color for about 10 years and finally took the plunge....

    Thats all for this week junkies and flunkies, more to follow....


    Carry on.....
    <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
    <FIELDSET class=fieldset><LEGEND>Attached Thumbnails</LEGEND>[​IMG] [​IMG]

    </FIELDSET>
     
  3. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida

    Alrighty folks, here's update one

    http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=271767

    Update Two

    http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=276267

    As a recap, here's where I left off....alot of air where there should be steel...
    [​IMG]

    As I mentioned I odered the inner cowl repop peices and they came in the day I went out to work on the truck (yesterday morning) Here it is, with all the proper beads rolled in it...
    [​IMG]

    got it pretty much cut and fit and tested the fit on the inner cowl to fender peice...I wasnt real happy with this repop peice BUT seeing as its a pretty complex peice with multiple compound curves and relief stampings I figured I'd make it work...I hadda fight with it the ehole way (more on that later) but ultimatly made it work and quite well at that.
    [​IMG]

    Here's the uncut cowl side mocked up....2.5" of difference doesent seem like alot till you put a stock peice up to the truck.
    [​IMG]

    Backing up a tad, originally there was a lip that the inner cowl mated up too which left an ugly friggen sheet metal flange on the lower part of the firewall, I didnt like that so I trimmed it to fit, reinforced the inside and butt welded the outside, smoothed it all out and made it into something I liked...yeah its just a little thing, but the little things add up.
    [​IMG]

    Here's the peice that gave me royal heck all mounted up and welded on. as a background, the night before I was bashing my head against the truck trying to get this thing to fit, see on the bottom mating surface, the original truck sandwiched three peices of steel together at the lower junction. It sandwiched the rocker, inner cowl, and the cowl to fender peice, well the inner cowl peice was not letting the cowl to fender peice sit flush...after hours of screwing with it and trying to keep it the way chevy built it, I was ready to take a sledge hammer to it....I walked away luckly and got some sleep...went out in the AM and took a fresh look at it and came to the realizetion that this was not an original truck and promptly cut the inner cowl flange off...that let everything line up as it should. Then I just welded a fillet of steel on the inside to seal up the floor. Took 45 min after I came to that realization....
    [​IMG]

    Here's the outer cowl trimmed up and the difference where the hood comes down and the section came together. Luckly my truck had some rot in it so I peeled the old cowl side off...that let me basically weld the new cowl side in without any splices...welded it right under the original body seam...worked out well. I was scratching my head for a few min while I got a plan of attack to mate those two surfaces and have it come together and look like it was supposed to be that way.
    [​IMG]

    Backtracking a little, seeing as I had a pretty severe rust issue I put two coats of substraight down, a rust inhibitor and a thick coat of chassis coating, then I sealed all the seams from the inside. I really dont want to go through this again....
    [​IMG]

    Next the cowl actually goes back on, you can see how I planned to solve the minor clarance issues caused by the section. A couple of well placed pie slices and it all started to come together with a little bumping, tapping and the proper verbage. the square hole is the peice that the hood seal screws on to, I cut it out and moved it down a tad and reshaped the sde, you'll see that in a min.
    [​IMG]

    Preliminary welding and smoothing complete.
    [​IMG]
    I still have to knock that weld down in the corner a bit more, I was loosing steam as it was/is 3am, I'll haul the burs out later....
    [​IMG]

    Not too shabby if I say so myself, a bit more shaping still to be done but better than it was! I fabbed up a cap wit a rolled edge to finish off the front of the inner cowl to fender peice that sits flush with the firewall. it doesnt look like such an afterthought like the stock peice looks like from the front....again, yeah I know its the little things and you'll not see hardly any of it with the fender on, but I know its there....
    [​IMG]


    Yup all welded together, once I finished everything else I added some more seam sealer on the outer part of the inner cowl to fender peice, the peice that rotted out the coner of the truck is now 100% sealed from water, i will of course leave the stock drain hole in the lower cowl but dont want water puddling in the sadwiched metal peices...
    [​IMG]

    One cowl side down, one to go, plus two rear cab corners and the cab is commin off so I can finish the frame and chassis....I missed my goal, I wanted to have the entire drivers side done this weekend (my weekend anyway) but all I got done was the front cowl corner...

    Hey least there's steel holding it together instead of bondo and glass...

    And in build thread fashion, my 3am self portrait while cleaning up the mess...

    [​IMG]

    I'm just glad parts are going on instead of coming off....


    This new photo deal rocks!
     
  4. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida

    ALRIGHTLY we're up to speed on whats happened so far....this is whats happened scince then....Not as much as I hoped but life tends to get in the way, in between of the holidays, a crazy work schedule, Navy drill for three weeks, family visiting for the Turkey run etc etc...

    Bottom line I didnt get a whole lot done...and I havent been taking alot of photos...

    But it finally got rolled outta the garage to see it in the daylight for my pops that was visiting (Dad we had some fun didnt we?)

    I had to get busy on sectioning the hood, I marked it out and cut the top of the hood off and realized that the hood had some old previous damage to it which screwed up the gaps and fitment in a big way...So I did what any red blooded hot rodder would do and kept cutting till things fit.

    I separated the lower peice into a left and right side, tacked some spacers onto the fenders and started wrapping the lower peice around the fenders. The result, near perfect gaps. That took forever...

    In these photos the lower part is welded to the fenders and the top is just sitting on the truck overlapping just to see what it looked like.

    Thats me pops in the lower pic....he's 6'3". I'm 6'4"
     

    Attached Files:


  5. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida

    As you can see in the pics above I had to split the two sides....there was a dual purpose to that as I had to get rid of the factory seam as well. More on that later as I'll be cutting out the original inset for the stainless molding and welding it up flat and getting rid of the riveted flange on the inside. Details details details...

    The hood was tweeked anyway so it actually helped it by cutting it up.

    As a sidebar....I'm really glad I didnt realize what a pain sectioning a hood was...the cab was easy...the rust repair, while tedious, was brainless. the hood...hmm, Its takin forever...

    This is me (top left...attachin pics seems to escape me at this point)...the truck is 56" from the ground to the roof. I still have 3.5" inches between the roof and my head.


    I got the whole hood cut and fit (no pics) as well as welded. The pics really show it good....There is two spots that will need greater attention as I was a bone head and got the metal too hot...fixable yes...it's just time at this point. This phto was the first point that convinced me that I would not have to scrap the hood and start over. The passenger side welds are ground flush. still some hammer and dolly work left but you get the idea. (Middle top pic)


    Here is a different angle....as you can see I cut the cowl vent out seeing as the dole head that worked on the truck prior to me threw some tack welds on the vent then threw some mud over that. As you can also see by the cowl that I will have to weld in a peice of filler steel about an inch wide. reason being...I wanted to keep as stock of lines as possible on the bull nose of the hood. Had I left the top part of the hood in the stock location I would have had a super sloped nose...that wasnt the look I was after so I pulled the top of the hood forward and worked my way back...(Right top pic)

    As you can see the front of the nose matches perfect. It's everything else that needed help. the four holes are from the stamped inset that the original emblem went. I'll be filling those in short order. I'll also be eliminating that body line/flange in the center of the hood. (left lower pic)

    Now I just gotta finish grinding down the driver side, cut the center of the hood out and fab the new filler strip, and fab the rear filler peice. The original hood was just raw sheet metal that had no strength. I'll be adding in break on the back of the hood that meets the cowl and rolling the edge of the steel over for asthetics and strength. (middle lower pic)



    As a bit of humor....I was gettign the boy ready for bed the other night...I walked into the head and found this picture....startin em young in the library...He keeps askin me when I'm gonna fix "his" truck so we can go "crusin with our homies" he he he...great kid
    (any explaination needed?)


    thats all for now folks...i'll be adding to this thread as progress commenses.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Dec 27, 2008
  6. Toqwik
    Joined: Feb 1, 2003
    Posts: 1,310

    Toqwik
    Member

    Nice work, comming along nicely. Quit screwing around and get it done and come over and do some welding on my A !!
     
  7. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida

    Shoot man....whatcha need welded? Drop me a line I been meanin to catch up with ya and come see your shit anyway

    Progress is slow, I have about as much time in just the hood as I did the entire section of the cab....sad really but alot more complex for an idiot such as myself...that and the hood was pretty jacked...in all honesty had I not been able to reform this hood it wouldnt have broken my heart to get a new one...(the question woulda been from where though as I was looking at all the swaps in Nov and didnt see one)
     
  8. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida

    Welp....finally an update on the clapped out peice of turd I've been calling "Chop Sewage"

    First off lemme say that my "o" quit workin on my keyboard...so if you see one that's missing I forgt to copy and paste it in (I never really realized how often an o is used till the blasted thing quit workin)

    Second, I've been remiss about posting an update due to a crazy work schedule and taking an extended vacation; 1st one in ten years...

    Work has still been prgressing but alas the one thing I really shoulda taken more pictures of the hood. I kinda got wrapped up in the job and forgot about pictures...I originally was gonna do a tech thread about it and forgot about it....

    ANYWAY back to the serious business we call hotrodding...

    I'll back up a bit to the hood, see I found a few pics in progress that I forgot I had.

    If you remember, I cut the top of the hood off then split the two sides. I set the hood gap up by welding washers on the mating surface of the fender, then welded the two lower peices of the hood to those. I then trimmed the 2.5" off the top of the hood and started seeing where it needed pie cut.

    Mind you that I wanted to keep as much of the bull nose to the truck as I could, so I pulled the hood top forward instead of taking up the difference in length in the front. That of course left me with a 1.5" gap near the cowl.

    View attachment 676894

    This is where I got to teach myself how to use the shrinker and the strecher. I measured out the distance and sheered off an appropriate peice of steel, then chucked it into the brake and put a rolled edge that will go nearest the cowl. See the original hood was just a raw flat steel edge and the hood always had a tin can feel to it. I figured this would give it a little extra strength. I then marked out (no pics unfortunatly) on the strips of steel lines in 1' incriments and numbered the lines. Namly so I could duplicate the sides. IE Whatever I did on one side I did on the other. It worked out really good and I got the hang of the strecher/shrinker really fast...I dont know what I did without one!

    Somewhere along the line I drilled out the spots that were there for the original emblem, in this photo you can see the factory body line that was there for the chrome trim. It now is not there.

    View attachment 676895


    You can kinda see what I hadda do prior to knocking the welds down...

    View attachment 676897

    once I got everything together I put the hood hinges back on the cowl. I had to heat the hinge rods up and tweek em in, then slipped the rear hood support in and clamped it into place. Mind you that the hood was still welded on the truck so I hadda jam myself in through the radiator hole to work....Welded all the support structure in (front and back) and its, pretty much done! Lemme tell ya what, the original hood had alot of movement in it, scince everything is welded together now (instead of hot rivets and bolts), there is no flex...Sure hope I never hit anything.

    After it was all said and done....I spent alot of time on this one part...but I'm damn proud of it!

    Hood finished1.jpg
    View attachment 676896


    This whole time I've been losing the battle against flash rust....it just pisses me off, finally I got all the metal work done on the cab and wanted to start working the frame....well I figured...why not knock down all the metal treatment I been putting on this thing and get it in primer? AAAnd I started chiselling the under coating off the bottom of the truck, the inside of the truck and in basically every nook and cranny on the truck...the idiot that had it before me sprayed that crap EVERYWHERE! No suprise as you can see I fixed alot of covered up damage. Wish I hadda pic of it prior to cleaning it up but it was nasty....I scraped 38lbs of undercoating off...yes I weighed it.

    knocked it down one more time with the strip disk and pushed her outside to get wiped down with some solvent prior to primer.

    View attachment 676898
    View attachment 676902


    Got the water running on the drive, mixed up the primer and let er rip.

    The aftermath....(shame you gotta put the bottm of the floor towards the road....it's yummy! )

    View attachment 676903
    View attachment 676904
    View attachment 676905
    View attachment 676899

    Seriously, I been goin out to the garage just to look at it....It's been a long road and it finally feels like I'm getting somewhere...

    And now for whats next....

    The frame.

    Look at the mount that I did 13-14 years ago (the peice of crap thats in front of the trans mount) holy crap what the hell was I thinkin? Granted I was 17ish at the time (I did the crappy trans mount too....hey least I can admit it) I certainly learned alot scince then, but now its time to fix the mistakes I made back in the day. I already picked up the steel to finish boxing the frame, as well as a bunch of tube I'm gonna bendup for the center crossmember/trans mount. Its gonna be a multi-faceted trans mount that serves not only as the mount (which is going to be bolt in so I can remove the trans if need be) but also that acts as a X-member. I havent quite put pen to paper yet to finger out a design...but it's in the works.

    View attachment 676900


    once I get that metal work done it's detail out the frame, fill holes as needed, smooth everything out and shoot it in gloss chassis black. once thats done, I can actually start putting this thing back together...that is after I finish rebuilding and detailing the engine...(just sent a bunch of stuff out to the chromers....getting giddy)

    Stay tuned...more to follow.
     
    Last edited: Jun 5, 2009
  9. choppintops
    Joined: Dec 9, 2008
    Posts: 1,460

    choppintops
    BANNED

    The attachments on the last one arent working. Truck looks great though.
     
  10. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida

    pics???
     

    Attached Files:

  11. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida

    The rest, Not sure why the preview would come up with pics but the post would only come up with one...

    Ya'll are smarter than me, near as I can tell I loaded the photos in order from top to bottom...ya'll can puzzle peice it together.
     

    Attached Files:

  12. Great work! No corners cut on this one, for sure.
    I remember photoshopping this. Doesn´t seem so long ago.
     
  13. striper
    Joined: Mar 22, 2005
    Posts: 4,498

    striper
    Member

    Looks like a bought one! I had 2 letters die on my old lap top. I had to cut and paste them in. Man, what a pain in the ass. At least with a desk top, $10 will get you a new keyboard.

    The truck is looking great. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

    Pete
     
  14. bigtumtum
    Joined: Jul 2, 2008
    Posts: 654

    bigtumtum
    Member

    Salt what typ of subframe are you using??

    [​IMG]
     
  15. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida

    I'm using a 80 Camaro front steer clip...That was the first thing "I" did t the truck (At the time 14ish years ago "I" couldnt weld...So Terry at Mild to Wild (ABQ) installed the clip for me.)

    That was a long time ago that was done...now days, I would think twice about putting a clip in and go with a weld in MII on something like this, specially if you have a straight frame (I didnt)

    James D,

    Yup, your right....I gotta pic of your photochop (actually section) hanging in the garage next to the bulliten board along with the others that liked. And your right, no corners cut, that was the deal I made with myself, no matter how long it takes, it gets done right. This truck has suffered in the past to get it back on the road instead of a 100% quality job...No more suffering for the old girl (even though it woulda been easier to get a new cab as much as I replaced/reworked)

    Thanks for the kind words guys I been needing the moral support...Seems like certain parts of the build are taking forever. I've been looking forward to working on the frame mainly cause I can make progress quickly (it aint sheet metal) AND the frame is the pivot point in the build in which crap starts to go back on (and stay on) instead of coming off
     
  16. metalman
    Joined: Dec 30, 2006
    Posts: 3,297

    metalman
    Member

    Really? I did the subframe? Sorry Cory, I remember the truck but I don't remember subframing it but then I was doing so many of them back then! I'm with you, no way would I do a Camaro clip in one now. Anyway, looking good, gotta get it done!
     
  17. greazy john
    Joined: Oct 13, 2007
    Posts: 457

    greazy john
    Member

    what kind of air conditioner did you get???? and where??? i believe i need one for my shop any info would be great it gets very humid here in tenn also
    thanks .....

    GREAZY HUBCAPZ CC
     
  18. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida

    Hey Terry....you clipped my tan 50 chevy business coupe a few months before this one....I gotta say bro, you do great work and were alot of my inspiration to teach myself alot in the fabrication Dept and keep pushing myself to get better...(dont getta big head ya filthy miscreant)

    Pops did a great job teachin me not to be skeered bout cutting shit up...he always said "it's just steel, if you screw it up....make a new one" he's right.

    A/C is from Home Depot....that thing ROCKS I use it all the time....

    Thanks for the kind words...
     
    Last edited: Jun 7, 2009
  19. metalman
    Joined: Dec 30, 2006
    Posts: 3,297

    metalman
    Member

    Yeah, I remember doing the coupe and your Dad's 57. Thanks for the complement.
     
  20. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida

    Not to wax poetic....

    But I remember going down to your shop in the valley after you parted ways with Tony, I always liked going down there just to see what kinda crazy shit you had cooking up. Yeah some of it was off topic and not my taste (or yours either but it paid your bills) but the stuff I learned was exponetial and appreciated it for what it was and the engineering and work that went into it. (remember that electric blue convert mitsu P/U lowrider with the chrome frame that you converted into a tilt cab?)

    Good times.....
     
    Last edited: Jun 7, 2009
  21. WelderSeries
    Joined: Sep 20, 2007
    Posts: 768

    WelderSeries
    Alliance Vendor

  22. Looks great. I love the firewall recess. Very clean and factory like. The over all lines of the truck are gonna slay!
     
  23. cleatus
    Joined: Mar 1, 2002
    Posts: 2,277

    cleatus
    Member
    from Sacramento

    Nice work man
     
  24. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida


    Thanks for the kind words, it's been a test of patience and longevitiy as with any frame off build.

    The firewall recess was originally bought as a mid 50's trans tunnel from a swap meet, a little more research into the peice and I found that the peice actually came from a early 80's chevy truck....oh well...good thing I didnt get it to use as a trans tunnel....I really like the flow of the recess better than I had it originally.

    And just as a plug for welders series...I was planning on doing a tech thread on the peices I ordered from them and talkin em up once I get the stuff...but lemme tell ya, DW is the shit...

    I called him up asking about some measurements on their frame mounted booster/master cyl kit...

    I told him my measurements and concerns seeing as the front frame is mighty narrow (26.5" inside to inside)...we bench raced the ideas for about 40 min and he ended up mixing and matching the peices that would work for me to narrow the pedal assembly into a streamlined version of the complete kit with a few additional peices to make my life easier...

    Did he have to do that? hell no, he coulda just sold me the kit and let me deal with the aftermath and fab work...

    customer service is second to none....

    more to follow on an update soon...
     
  25. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida

    Alrighty....seems I forgot how to break up blocks of pics and put text between em....Bottom line, It's been a long time scince I did an update...Alot has been done, frame is about to be a roller again as soon as the driveshaft and the diff gets back from the driveline shop (full locker INBOUND!!!!)

    Alrightly, working from top to bottom left to right...


    Finally pulled the engine off the stand, this is prior to rebuild...and finally pulled the trans outta the crate to bolt em together and slap em in the rails to figure out my frame issues with the manifolds I'm using....You see, I knew straight outta the box that the exhaust manifolds were not made for front steer clips with a crossmember...last short tube headers I put on I modified the header to get around the cross member....cast stainless isn't that easy so modifications to the crossmember are in order; but dang those manifolds are sweet!. As you can see I had not boxed the frame rails under the cab as of yet.

    As you can also see the manifold is literally touching the crossmember....not good....SO we got creative with a cutter and some plate. The goal was to modify the cross member and leave it in a form that does not look modified....


    In the interim, the pic after the manifold sitting on top of the cross member is of the transmission crossmember fabbed up....I was a cheapass and made my own, bottom line, I didnt want to spend the money to buy a bolt on outta the box version and didnt like the way those looked anyway.

    The best part about the cross member is that I was able to intigrate my steel toes from my last set of MILSPEC boots into the crossmember....every build I've ever done I try to integrate a set of steel toes into the build....I don't know why....I think it's cool...

    The last pic is the chunk I cut out of the frame to clearance the exhaust manifold...

    Unfortunatly the wifie was outta town for much of this stuff and I got into the zone and even if I had a camera I got "into the zone" and worked on it...

    Background, My wife went out of town for 18 days and took my son with her... I stayed for work, but when I wasnt working, I was crankin' on the project....off days equalled 20 hours a day on her, work days equalled 6 hours a day on her (I work 12 hour shifts)....

    More inna minute....hope you like the progress....
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Aug 28, 2009
  26. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida

    IMG_2265.jpg

    OK looks like I figured out the photo thing...

    Seems that I was rebuilding everything else or modifying it so I figured I may as well replace the brakes and the bags.... The brakes were outta spec anyway and the bags were at 50%....I got three years outta the bags on it and gave em to a friend that could use em'

    I never realized how much time it takes to grind EVERYTHING down to metal and repaint it all....sheesh, I got bout 40 hours into the frame grinding and smoothing not counting the boxing and such....

    The cool part about the boxing is that I preplanned everything and welded dedicated nuts in, I'm sure all you cats do the same thing but it sure makes it seamless....

    IMG_2266.jpg
    IMG_2267.jpg

    This is where alot of pics didnt get taken, I rebuilt the engine in 24 hours basically, swung by a friends machine shop, he said to bring the block, and crank and we'd do the low end together....I showed up at closing time (1700) and we started working, got done with all the machine work and reassembled the bottom end at his show with all my supplied parts, (cam lifters, pistons, rods, fasteners pumps, etc) the cost? I paid him $100 and a case of soda (pepsi....he's a fiend) and he didnt want to take that....I loaded the mill up and took it back to the house and ported and polished the heads, installed new valve springs, keepers, rockers, pushrods etc and put the heads back on, buttoned everything up, finished smoothing the block and masked it off and shot in in Olds gold....I like it, it doesnt scream at you, it's a nice subtle color...then I did something my wife is very happy about, I started bolting parts back on the truck...

    What does that mean you say? It means crap can start leaving the inside of the house and start going back to the garage...

    Seems somewhere along the line I mounted the Welders Series gear I got and moved my booter and M/C to the frame, it's the remote pedal kit that DW pretty much custom built off of phone call specs...it came out sweet...I gotta dig up the photos and do a tech on it as it's applicable to all AD owners out there...

    IMG_2268.jpg

    This above pic down the side of the engine is where you can see the finished off side of the frame cross member, looks seamless and like it was made like that...exactly what I was going for, it came out real nice.

    IMG_2269.jpg
    IMG_2270.jpg
    IMG_2271.jpg
    IMG_2272.jpg
    IMG_2273.jpg

    Misc pandimonium, you can see the peice of plastic all my finished peices was that was staged to go back on....i've never done a complete frame off.....you don't realalize how much crap there is till you gotta take it apart and paint it....

    IMG_2396.jpg
    IMG_2397.jpg

    and the new brakes and rotors....lesson if your dealing with camaro clips (I had no choice as mine was done many moons ago) There are 4 different rotors for these things, 2 10" rotors, and 2 11" rotors...the brake in the years as near as I can figure is 1971....I had hell finding the right rotor, the 71 has a small outer wheel bearing, and the 1980 has a big outer bearing, everything else is the same....it took me three weeks of research to figure this out...

    IMG_2398.jpg

    The painted air tank....pics came out wonky, the paint is perfect...not that it matters as you wont ever see the tank unless I roll it...The other thing I did differently from the original air ride install was that oppsed to running the air line out the shock mount like it was, I installed a 90 right at the bag and ran it a short ways in the frame and popped the line out at the kick in the rails....I covered the line with a strech of hose just to be on the careful side seeing as I cant see whats inside of the frame rail....felt fine by feel but you never know...all the frame rails ended up being boxed somewhere along the line as well....


    SO there you have it, Soon as I get the diff and driveline back from the shop, the chassis will be a roller, then it's time for brake lines, fuel lines, air lines, trans lines, exhaust....ahhhhh it never ends.
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2009
  27. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida

    Just was looking through pics of "how it was"

    Found this....

    Notice the ugly, 90 degree firewall relief and the even uglier booster/MC on the firewall.... Also notice what I was talking about in the earlier post about the clearance with the tube headers....big improvement in my book...For the record, the valve covers will not be staying red....I just havent done anything with them yet...

    So far....me thinks I'm on the right track....

    Also...I'm thinkin of getting a personalized plate....

    Probably gonna get HAMBERD
     

    Attached Files:

  28. 52pickup
    Joined: Aug 11, 2004
    Posts: 833

    52pickup
    Member
    from Tucson, Az

    Looks great. Makes my want to get crackin on my chopped and sectioned 52... soooo many projects, so little time.
     
  29. Salty
    Joined: Jul 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,259

    Salty
    Member
    from Florida

    Dude, get on it....... we need more chopped sectioned AD's floating around...

    Now that I'm getting shiny stuff down I find it's very refreshing to work on the truck and not turn black from the 60 years of dirt and muck....

    Am I the only one that appreciates this aspect? I mean I dont mid getting dirty, but jeez, seemed like for awhile if I even looked at the blasted thing I turned black....literally...
     
  30. Strange Agent
    Joined: Sep 29, 2008
    Posts: 2,879

    Strange Agent
    Member
    from Ponder, TX

    That's a sweet truck. Lots of good work.
     

Share This Page

Register now to get rid of these ads!

Archive

Copyright © 1995-2021 The Jalopy Journal: Steal our stuff, we'll kick your teeth in. Terms of Service. Privacy Policy.

Atomic Industry
Forum software by XenForo™ ©2010-2014 XenForo Ltd.