Back in December my father purchased a 1954 Chevy 3100 and I have decided to finally start our build thread. We bought the truck from a local artist who had been restoring it on and off for a few years. He decided he wasn't going to finish it and we picked it up. The day it became ours
Since my father does not have the skills to restore the car he enlisted the help of a local guy who builds some amazing hot rods in his garage. Alex Velis has been building hot rods since he bought his first 32 at age 13 and has turned out some spectacular cars in western Mass. We dropped the truck off and I took some shots of his place. His barn Our truck inside His place is full of hidden treasures! A 32 frame next to our truck Tailgate under the pile A rough cab corner This looks good Fenders on the ground The dash The seat The former owner had done some serious cleaning on the frame Firewall Cowl has some holes but otherwise clean Another dash shot Parts More parts
Doors New front and rear glass More shots of Alex's treasures Mustang on the lift Pile of 33 and 34 frames Ranchero under the mustang 34 4 door hiding behind a flathead 34 tudor on a shelf better make that 2 34 tudors 36 Ford truck Fenders galore 32 frame on the rotisserie AND THE REAL TREASURE
Me welding up a cab dolly This will do Time to take it apart Not good Took out the gas tank. We will run one under the bed Frame back in Stripping it down for a C.E. IFS and Ford 9" Drilled out the front Rear frame repair Boxed for added strength Working on the power brake setup
Time to get the powerplant in order! After selling the 235 we decided to be a little more unique and pulled this 401 Nailhead out of Alex's collection. We decided to open it up and see how it looks One cylinder needed to be sleeved since some moisture found its way in. Otherwise the motor looked great. We were very inspired by Ron Myers nailhead and want a similar look.
Starting to mock up the 9" Jump to the frame almost done 9" looking great Alex and my dad talking shop Time to mock up radiator Time to work on the tank and bed Rex the shop dog working hard Frame is almost done it just needs some brake lines and fuel lines Bed mocked up and up on the lift to make room Hanging the doors to start on the sheet metal Cutting away bad metal Not good More cut away Here was the 235 when I sold it off to a local guy for his 46 Chevy truck
Now we are almost up to speed. The new floors and in and the rest of the cab sheet metal is almost done. The motor should be out of the machine shop soon.
Some eye candy waiting for the motor Powder coated silver Sanderson Headers Tested the paint on a spare set of heads
3.70 gears in the 9" with posi and the trans we have is a GM T5 Borg Warner 5 speed with a Bendtsen's adapter and a Lokar shifter
It looks like you guys have really been thrashing on it these past few months. And it is starting to look good.
Thanks! It should be in paint sooner than later. We have to figure out a good way to straighten the top rail of one of the bed sides. It is bent in a little and will take some effort to get right.
Yesterday we moved the body back onto the frame in order check out motor clearance and make sure all our patches came our right. So far so good! We can't figure out mounting the passenger side inner fender. The driver side has this bracket but it doesn't look like the passenger has one. Any input?????
on my 49 the driver side bracket was rusted out, so i made my own mounts. on the driver side, the inner fender sits farther away from the firewall than the pass side. so on the driver side i used 3 all thread couplers(because they are longer than an average nut) and welded them to the firewall, so i can just bolt the inner fender right to the firewall through the couplers. i did the same thing on the pass side, but welded a regular nut to the firewall. because the pass side is closer to the firewall. hope this helps.