Wow! Some people put lot's of money into the details, some people put lot's of themselves into the details! Love it!
A bit of advice for all you gearheads out there. I traded an old jet ski years ago for a parts washer and a STEAM CLEANER and that thing has been one of the best things I've ever scored! I was using it tonight and that thing kicks ass! I also did some wheeling and dealing for a cabinet sand blaster (full of aluminum oxide) and those 2 things are the best investment I ever made for working on cars and trucks! Just a thought...
looks good. i have a 50 chev 3 window that i will be heading down that same road with. keep the pics coming
This is a great build,, lots of detail,, good ideas,, but you're killing me with the suspense of the wiper deal.
Frame is sandblasted and painted! All the little pieces were blasted and painted and A-arms have new bushings and ball joints. It's starting to look like a frame again! Still not spending a bunch of money (about $175 in paint and metal etch primer. And around $250 for all new front bushing and ball joints) just taking my time and doing it right! I'm a HUGE believer in RED Locktite on any suspension or frame piece, blue on everything else. It's a little dusty, but you can see that the semi-gloss black works good on all the underside stuff.
hey HOTROD49...sweet little 49, and 5 window to boot. well i can see you do good work for sure. my son had a 56 chevy.p/u, and chose to stay with streight axel. there a pro. and cons. to this issue. 1 thing i do know, you will have a fine little ride. please keep us posted on ur progress...POP.
I was going through some pics of the truck and was laughing at how old the paint really is! With the striping rubbed through in spots, it really does look old.
WIPERS!!!!!! Finally, for those of you who have patiently waited I'm finally going to give you what you asked for! I'll try to install it this weekend and show you what I did. Here's a basic S-10 Blazer rear window wiper motor. Here's the basic, bare metal bracket. It's .125" cold rolled flat stock that's been laser cut and bent. Here it is put together . I need to finish fabbing the linkage piece that mounts to the motor. I'm still not sure what the trick is to making the high and low speed work on this thing either.
Here's the pivot bracket and it welded to the locking collar I tacked the bracket onto the collar with my MIG welder. On the ones that go out, they will be TIG'd. Here it is on the motor.
Your attention to detail is impeccable! I admire the fact that you are doing it on the cheap but correct and safe.
Wow, what a frustrating day! When I first started working on the wiper design back in April, I figured the twist in my design was too thin of steel on my bracket. When I had my friend cut it out for me, I had him make it the way I originally designed and make it without the side reliefs to bolt a possible brace to. Well I had to go with the latter! I bolted up the one in the upper pics and it put just enough twist (those little motors are really torquey!) that I realized that heavier bracket wasn't going to work either. Thank goodness I'd had him make the other bracket too. So I bolted it up and used an existing hole in the cowl vent lever brace with a piece of 1/2" steel. Here it is bolted up. Don't laugh at the bolt length on the pivot link, I had to figure out how to get the pass. side to not hit cowl vent (notice hinge in background)! I'm so frustrated with how much slack/movement is in the original system and how tough it is to make them be perfect! You could just bolt it on and make it close, but I don't want close I want dead nut! I need to measure the bolt length and make that right and double check everything again! Sheesh
After fighting the passenger side wiper, I realized there was way to much flex in the factory bar/rod that runs from the motor to the wiper itself. With all the extra movement, I couldn't get it to be as stable as the drivers side. I'm now making a non-flex set of rods for BOTH sides to try and get this setup to work correctly!
I didn't give up on the wiper deal, I just decided to keep moving so can drive this thing this summer. I finished plumbing the brakes and took a quick phone pic. I just need to finish up taping the pipe fittings, blowing everything clean and bleeding them! I'll take some better pics, but figured I'd at least show what's going on.
I need to take pics of my fuel and brake line routing. I think they both came out pretty cool! I wanted to throw new outer axle bearings and seals in and was going to just put a chrome cover on the back. Instead I took the cheap-ass route and blasted the stock one down to bare metal, painted it brown with a rattle can to somewhat match the truck and threw some striping on it. I think it looks cool! The weird round indentation in the cover is where the factory magnet is...
Lets see. You can draw, paint, pinstripe, fabricate parts, and build a bitchin chevy truck. Is there anything you can't do? Super nice build.
Hey Brad , that truck is lookin pretty cool. I did'nt know you did some fab work also , nice stuff ! Drive it by sometime , I'd like to see it .
Brake stuff! I love wrecking yards and being able to do the "junkyard crawl"! It's amazing what you can find when you walk around with a game plan and just look for stuff. I needed to move my rear brake housing mount over after the way I did the exhaust put it in the way. I looked under different trucks trying to find a frame mount for the rear line that was a bolt on bracket and grabbed one from a late 90's Ford f250 ( I know, I'm ashamed!) Perfect! On the rearend itself, I took the factory bracket that bolts to the rear cover, chopped off the bottom 2" and welded it to an "L" bracket I made out of some 1/8" steel. I used the u-bolt to hold it in place. I used a 2002 S-10 Blazer rear brake flexible line to go from the frame to the rearend. The fuel line I bent out of 3 pieces of 60"x3/8" tubing I got at NAPA, took my time and bent it up to make it as clean as I could. Anybody with a cheap $10 bender and a little patience can do this, plus it looks nice when it's finished.
Man- I love this build! I didn't see it until yesterday, but I had to come back and see it again today. You have absolutely nailed the stance and general vibe of what I would like my girlfriends '55 first series to become. Lots of good ideas for that when I can get to it soon. Thanks
Man, I wish the paint wasn't part of my focal point because I really wanted to punch a bunch of louvers in the hood! Thanks for the compliment!
Man, too bad! I have a killer pattern that I do on A.D. trucks! JERRY from here in Phoenix ran one of my hoods on his fifty forever until his last big accident, and it was one of my favorites.I haven't got around to punching another one for him, but I'm sure I will soon.
Finished all the brake and fuel line plumbing! Mounted the rear shocks and brackets (shocks might be a bit too short that came with the kit, will have to wait 'till it's put together). The original E-brake stuff all works with the S-10 stuff, so that's pretty cool! I finally decided to throw the wheels on just so I could get a feel for it again and I'm waay happy!
Back in '81, Hot Rod Magazine did an article on a truck built by a guy named Greg Fleury. This truck was my reason for falling for the AD style trucks! What I really liked about the truck was it's 5" chop and all around stance. My friend Bob has been bugging me for the last couple of months to let him chop my truck, but I've been resisting. A couple nights ago I decide to do a 10 minute Photoshop top chop on my truck just to see what I thought and I about flipped! It's going over to Bob's in about 2 weeks for me to leave him alone and cut away! I'll mix up some brown metallic enamel with a ton of flattening agent so it (the top) somewhat matches the rest of the truck and keep moving forward. I just wanted to see what everyone else thinks of how these things look chopped.
5 inches is a hard chop on these trucks man. If ya do try and keep the windshield post straight. That means a heck of a streach in the center of the roof. Looks killer I love all the work so far.
Before you chop it, put the seat back in and sit inside it. Sit up straight and measure space to the top of the cab (& pretend it has a headliner.) See what you are happy with. Next, put a spacer on the seat, something 5 inches high (a 2x4 is only 3.5 inches, so a quickie box with 3/4 scrap plywood between 2x4 on edge would work). Sit on this spacer and check out your vision through the windows. Can you still see the road, traffic lights, other (often idiot) drivers? I know that the chopped look is cool but if this is to be driven a lot, make sure it is practical too!
The Jalopy Journal
