Projects Project 37 Chevy Truck

I'm lovin this thread! Great fab work, and funny too! How did you cut out the motor mount pieces? Water jet? Looks awesome!

 

No water jet. Band saw and a hand file. Drill press for the holes.

Andy from STL

 

Well that's just great,
another Chevy truck build I have to watch now!!!
Just found this thread, glad you're back on it.

 

Dayum! Very impressive work.

 

Its about time a progress report has been made.

 

Nice work on your truck. Keep it up, you will get it done. I like the engine and trans choice. The cab is tight on these, I saved some room and made mine a bunch more comfortable by raising the front of the bench bottom about 2 inches and taking some spring out of the top of the back. Both let me lean back a bit more and have more comfort inside. The original seat put all the pressure on your butt and was too upright position.

I still miss my old 37 Chevy truck. It was my daily driver for a couple years until I sold it. Just a stock Must II front susp with 350/350 and a 57 Chevy car rearend on the stock leafs with some blocks. I took the truck to Bonneville about 6 years ago, used to take it to junkyard trips all the time, hauled all kinds of junk in the bed, and drove as my daily driver. Here are a couple pics for motivation for you, with the most of time radial tires and the www bias plys for two different looks:

 

I dig the whites, really neat.

Andy from STL

 

Looks nice! good to see your using a six.

 

Been wanting to add some stuff the rest of the day so I raced home and took these pics. Wish I had more of when I put it together. I really wanted something more like the original recess in the firewall. I had originally made a wire-frame buck and spent about 6-8 weeks shaping the tunnel. Like most metal shaping by hand one little mistake and you can make a lot of scrap in a hurry. I got discouraged and really wanted to get moving forward so I changed direction and made things a little one dimensional.








I retained the original firewall legs and flanges where the toe board mounts, which was a ton of work to make all this come together. More or less with a flat front with some bead work and the tunnel joined together. Looks pretty fair but I had made some real nice motorcycle tanks in the past and wanted a real trick firewall.

Like I mentioned before...normally, for me, I have to learn how NOT to make it before I get it right. I spent most of the fall making it the wrong way and I wanted to move forward. Call me a quitter I guess but the shapes on that recess where wicked. More or less had to make about a dozen pringle chips out of 18 guage steel. I don't have a pullmax or power hammer but I have a right forearm that is dissproportionate for all the tuck shrinking.

Here's a couple shots of the last tank I made. I know this site is for hot rods and not "choppers" so forgive me.



Foam and bondo buck.





Thanks again!

Andy from STL

 

Once the motor got sat in place and the firewall was more or less sorted out I needed to find out where the trans crossmember was gonna live. I got to work sorting out mess that was the rear end. I had cut out all the bull shit that was installed wrong. Nice parts just put in wrong. I needed to cut down the panhard bar and reweld it to the proper length and get to mounting the parallel four bar. I took some inspiration from TCI and some other folks here on the HAMB. I took this oportunity to strengthen the chassis making a sort of K member in the middle. Shit got out of control and the next thing I know I've invented a "whatchamacallit" member. Looks like Arabic or something.














Here is the said "Arabic" Member. I figure once I'm done massaging that 292 there should be plenty of torque to twist some shit. Hopefully not anymore. Later I finished the drive shaft loop. You won't see it here but I looped some more 2x1 rectangular tubing to finished where it's joined together.

I used some parts from Welder Series to join the 4-link together. Those guys make some nice stuff, great on the phone and quick shipping. They're Alliance Members so next time you need anything like this. Call 'em...you'll be glad you did. At the point in these pictures everything was just tacked together. I wanted to get the rest of the "Arabic" member tacked up so I could take everything apart and set the welder HOT and put it together.

Thanks again!

Andy from STL

 

Some pics after my buddy Travis got through shooting some epoxy on it.






I added some more cross members on the "Arabic" member and built the trans cross member. Needed to get it put back together so I could get started on the toe board and floar board. Which by the way has taken more time that building the Great Wall of China.





I sure hope that guy from Midwest City was telling me the truth because this photo was taken roughly two years after I brought it home. When I bought it I thought I was at this stage...with a small block.

It get's cold here in St. Louis and I was in a hurry to get this sprayed before the real cold shit got here. Turns out Old Man Winter gave us a loud fart instead of the cold shit. Got it sprayed and me and Travis took off for a little break...this is when the camera broke. Don't ask.





This journalism thing is a lot more work than I thought. I'm thirtsy so I put Cash on guard to keep an eye on your suckers. He's got that look in eye so I wouldn't go moving to fast if I was you. Those white Adidas he's wearing says he's from the North Side and I wouldn't go F'ing with those guys.




Andy from STL

 

Social D! Sweeet!

 

I had some time this morning so I wanted to show some of the build for the toe board and floor board. I got the cab back on with the motor mounted and basically the rolling chassis sitting on the ground. I started with the toe board. It was going to be made from 5 pieces to be joined together to make one piece.



I used cardboard to make the templates and kind of mock it all together. Here you can see the pieces that I had flanged and used clecos to hold it together.




These are not necessarily in order but you can get an idea of where I was going. You'll see the beginings of the floor board frame in place as well.




I like to wait till the last possible minute to join stuff together so it's easier or less of a pain in the ass to fix mistakes or make changes. Here you'll see how I'm putting the floor frame together as I wasn't 100% sure how I was going to get the tunnel made and strengthen the frame.




More fab shots. The material is 1 x 1/2 rectangle tube 1/16 wall.




I beaded the sides for strength and moved ahead on the floor. There are curved sections of rectangle tube under the tunnel that joined the two sides.




I made this piece to fasten toe board and floor board while adding a little bit more clearance for the bellhousing. It's an old Ansen NHRA approved bell housing and the strengthening ribs on the bellhousing protrude so far as to call for a little extra room.



All on piece with tipped flanges.




I rolled a receiving flange for the tunnel piece on both the tunnel and toe board so it will have a nice fit.











Rusty finger prints. My shop is brick so with the St. Louis summer it's like working in a pizza oven. With the temps we've had it'll take a month to cool this garage off. Fighting the sweat is a whole differnt effort.




Waiting on my bridge nuts to be able to fasten it all up. I made recessed flanges in the toe board so the floor will fit up nice and flat too. More bead work in the floor for additional strength too.




Working on getting the pedals hung now. I have the steering column to get in it's final resting place. I'm waiting on a 60's Moon column drop before I can wrap that up.




It's got glass rear fenders from Superior (2" wider than stock) and those are glass running boards from them too. However, I'm going to make my own boards. I'd like to hourglass them slightly and those boards fit like shit. No disrespect to Superior those parts came with the truck and those boards look like they sat outside in the sun for a week. No telling what turmoil they went through before I got them. They're twisted real bad and I don't work with glass so no idea how to fix that. It'd be quicker for me to make them out of steel. The rears aren't bad but one day I'd like to copy them in steel but I'll save that for Tech Week...ha.

That's all for today. I'm heading out to the Brickyard 400 tomorrow and the week after I'm going to the Street Rod Nats with my Pop. Won't get much done in the next couple of weeks but I'm getting pedal pads from 60's era "Ludwig Speed King" bass drum pedals. I was a little dissapointed to see that "Fenderless Coupe" in Street Rodder...the Walden Speed Shop built one. Bitchin' coupe but damn...those guys got a Ludwig bass drum pedal for a gas pedal! Well Sumbitch! At least mine are different, less rare I guess. Here's a teaser be on the lookout.





I'll use one for a gas pedal and cut the inside "oval" section out for brake and clutch.



Thanks,

Andy from STL

 

very nice workmanship, that will be a nice ride when you get done.

 

First time at the Street Rod Nationals with my Dad, Larry. It was his 15th

 

VERY NICE WORK!! Keep us posted! Todd

 

Thanks for taking us along on your build. Real nice work.

 

It's been several weeks since my last post. Made a trip to the Brickyard 400 then on to the Street Rod Nats with my Dad so there was some weekend time away from the shop. This new position with my company has me traveling somewhat but I've made a little progress with the foot controls and a new column drop. Here goes the updates.

I'm using some old Ludwig bass drum pedals for my foot controls. I took the heel plates off two of them and needed to fab some mounting brackets to make them work with the Kugel swing pedals. Originally I was going to replace the Kugel levers with some custom stainless pieces. I figured in the interest of driving this damn thing, I can save that for a winter time upgrade in the future.




First was to removed the excess material from the back of the heel plate.




I then machined a square pocket to accept the new bracket I was going to make. The bracket would then be pinned to the heel plate using a panel bonding adhesive.




New brackets ready for installation




Panel bond...don't panic. I pinned the works together at the same time.





All cleaned up and ready to install.





I like 'em, very pleased. The panel bond needs to sit overnight before You can file away any excess. Like anything else. The cleaner you can put it on the easier finishing it will be easy. Panel bond is a lot like antiseize...meaning that shit find it's way onto everything. Tools, eyelids, behind your ears, etc.


Race track shot. Just cause I wanted to throw it in. That's me and my buddy Tim with the Brickyard trophy. Jimmy Johnson wanted me to drive but I was busy giving Danica a massage.





Thanks for looking!

Andy from STL

 

I needed a column drop that suited me and I really wanted a Moon drop. Had a few ads on here and found one. I've got a newer tilt column that came with the truck. I really would have bought a hot rod column from Limey Steve but I'm a tightass and don't have a lot of coin to throw a this. The column came with the truck when I got it so I'm gonna use. it. I'll paint it as not to look like a total boner. I'm not a huge fan of the stainless gold chainer shit to be perfectly honest as I prefer what looks old even it it's not. Long story short when I got my Moon drop I realized that my column, being 2" OD, and the cast Moon drop not having enough meat to cut the hole bigger, wasn't going to work. So I set out looking for a cast Tardel drop. Problem there is the foundry that Tardel's is using is going out of business and those are temporarily unavailable.

(heavy sigh)

I could cast my own, but I don't have a foundry. I know a guy, but damn...that's gonna be a long time and most likely a lot more than I was wanting to spend.

Sometimes, I go overboard but this time I just couldn't stomach a bunk ass column drop. Sooooo, I decided to cut one from a billet piece. I know, I know...gold chainer shit sucks so I decicded instead of machining it why not cut it by hand with a band saw and a handfile. I cheated a little and used a roatary file for parts but there was a lot of hand work in this sucker. I filed the "draft" that would be found on cast stuff and even beat up the rear a little to look cast.

I love this column drop. I keep massaging it like it was a pair of...nevermind. Take a look.



Here's the Moon drop. Notice the draft. It's gotta have that if it's gonna look like it was cast.








Awe shit. I'm gonna have to sculpt this material saver in the back if I don't wanna hear any shit from anybody. I'm starting to rethink this whole thing.




I remember reading somewhere that the Renaissance artist Michelangelo once said:"I saw an angel in the marbel and carved until I set him free".

Word up Mike.




Roughed out. I used the bandsaw set at different angels and where I couldn't cut the draft in (7° btw). Where I couldn't I did it by hand with a combination of rotary file and several differnt hand files. The finished piece turned out a little different than the layout. Long story short, it was going to be too big so I did what I could and drew some inspiration from a connecting rod. Classic design I think.




Nice shot of the draft I'm talking about. How bout the cool cap screws? Slotted head cap screws. I took them off the Moon drop but need to find some new ones as not to take away from the Moon drop.




My phucking elbows are killing me!




Coming along nicely. Gonna need accupuncture for these sore elbows and shoulder.




As for the material saver in the back. I actually punked out earlier. I'm not a poser so yes, I machined the 2" hole for the column on a mill (7° draft mind you) and I'm going to have to do the same thing here. Honest engine...no CNC code on this one. I cut it by eye and I moved the table by hand. I mean, if it's gonna look cast it can't look like a machine cut it.




It's hard to see the scribe lines in this photo but that's how much material i'm gonna have to remove.




Good enough for the girls I go with. I'm gonna rough up the back side a little more then bead blast it a bit.




I figure I can polish the outside up and ship to my pal in Covina, CA in a box with some bolts. He can ship it back and when I get I should be able to polish it by hand a little and it should look nice and weathered.

Seems like a lotta work for a column drop. Since I already quoted Michelangelo I'll quote another famous artist...Bon Scott from AC/DC: "It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock 'n roll".

Keep it real!

Andy from STL

 

cool build i like the 292 inline 6 , and some nice small touches like the pedals , and the column drop ,

 

Killer attention to detail!! And a very cool avatar too!!! Todd

 

Thanks for the kind words. It's been hot and dry in St. Louis all summer long. Labor Day weekend forecast...rain till Monday. So BBQ and beer drinking are out and tidying up the interior is in. Planning on getting the floor screwed down, column drop in and working on throttle linkage. Updates to come.

Thanks again!

Andy from STL


Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad

 

Nice!!!!!!!!! Very nice.

 

Great thread! Your pedals are killer!!!! Any progress lately? Hope to see you around STL sometime soon.

 

Man you're doing some great work on that truck!

 

this is a awesome build!

 

You are starting with a lot better truck than I did mine was hit hard on the right side took a long time to get all the parts to keep it steel.It is a very nice Ride just needs a little more legroom

 

First of all I want to say I apologize for the long delays in between posts. I'm sure there is a clinical term for it but when I get immersed in one of these projects I forget about everything else then I kind of come out of it and wonder where the hell I've been. It's kind of like blacking out after drinking too much whiskey but instead of booze it's like being drunk on Hot Rods.

Anyway, I just woke up in a pool of vomit and thought I'd show what I've been up to since last fall. The winter has been brutal and won't let up. I did some work till on my buddy's garage, which kept me away from truck for awhile but I had to payback a paint job on a motorcycle. Oh, and I knocked my old lady up. In between all that I managed to make a pretty bitchin' steering wheel, some stainless headers and a new gas tank.

So get a cold one and I'll try and make it brief.

I saw a thread here on the HAMB written by MetalShapes about a steering wheel he made using the wood from an old Superior Wood Grained wheel. I was just awestruck by it and how unique it was. Well, I used his as inspiration...a lot of inspiration. What a damn cool idea so I made a few changes to his design and made my own. They say the sincerest form of flattery is imitation. Err, something like that. I'd browse his thread here and you'll see my wheel construction isn't much different.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=501408

I'll save you all the details and post some pics of the wheel. I bought a shift lever & Ebrake from Limey Steve that I thought was perfect for the little truck and liked the idea of making the wheel match.



Just like MetalShapes used four identical spokes I did the same thing. I tried my best to not use any NC code to cut these things so I did it all manually, on a Bridgeport of course.




Scored the a 15" Superior Wood Grained wheel on Craigslist for $15. Would you believe it was just a few blocks away. It was like it was meant to be.






For those of you guys who don't weld aluminum fairly regularly it wants to suck up all the heat you give it. Had to spend a fair bit of time just making the fixture to weld the damn thing. Then stick it in the oven at 450 degrees till it normalizes, run back to the garage with it and then melt it with what amounts to lightning in your hand. I'd type that noise Tim the Tool Man Taylor used to make but how to type a grunt?




Sorry for the fuzzy pic but you can get an idea of what shift lever from Limeworks looks like.

There is a lot of hand work that I didn't highlight cause sanding and filing sucks. The center section was cut on a lathe and I did buy a steering wheel adapter to obtain the splines from. I suppose you could have cut one from a donor wheel if you had one laying around. The brass fasteners came from McMaster Carr but I had to machine down the binding nuts to make them fit. I beat them up a little to put some wear on them so they didn't gleam against the wood grain from 40 years ago.

I'll post the stainless headers I made for the 292 in my next installment. I promise it won't take another 6 months. I've made a few sets of headers in the past but never made stainless headers before. Welded my fair share of 304 but I'll say this. If any of you guys ask me to make you a set of 304 SS Headers for you 292 you'd better get your wallets out and spray some WD40 on him so you can open them wide. That shit is a bitch and it ain't cheap.

Thanks!

Andy from STL

 

I had bought a set of Clifford headers from a older guy when I bought the intake for my inline 6. Unfortunately, those headers were not going to work without some surgical intervention. I hated to cut up a perfectly good set of headers so I set off to make my own.

I have seen a post or two asking about the people at Stainless Headers Manufacturing in Fargo, ND. I can't say enough good things about their product and service. Great folks to deal with, reasonably priced and quick turn around. I purchased a set of merge collectors from them as well as the 1 5/8" 304 stainless tubing for the headers. All USA made parts from them so I don't mind paying the little extra the quality is worth it.

Any of you that play with Chevy inline motors know that the exhaust ports are so close to together that it makes creating these headers a real pain in the ass. Not to mention, the 304 SS is super hard so getting a perpendicular cut can be hell on your bandsaw blades and plan on going through a lot of grinding discs. Protect yourself too, stainless has a high chromium content so a good particle mask during this fab phase is important or you're likely to twitch a lot when you're older.

OK, here are the pics. I used the PVC trick to mock these up and then make a fixture for the actual headers. That way I'll have the fixture for future headers if I so choose to. My first car was that purple Chevy II in earlier posts. I've always wanted that '62 Nova again but next time I think I'll run a hot 292 in it. You never know, I may want to make another set of these.







The fixture is kind of hard to see but you can get an idea of how I used 1 inch angle iron situated on the straight sections of pipe. Since the PVC is slightly larger OD than the 1 5/8 pipe you will gain a little extra clearance around the intake.




At this point I left the down tubes a little long so I could trim them to length. The right way to fixture that would be to indicate where you wanted the collector and fixture it so it wouldn't move. Live and learn.





I love welding stainless. Some folks hate it because it will oxidize so bad on the back side if you don't purge with argon while welding. I feel like stainless much more forgiving because it is such a poor conductor of heat. The puddle won't get away from you as easy like welding aluminum will. Make sure you keep your filler rod in the shielding gas though. A big fat cup makes welding around these headers much easier. I think it's worth purchasing some Pyrex cups (not your mom's measuring cups but the same material) as well. I like them because I can see the arc through the cup.

These took quite a lot longer than expected. So since I was on a stainless kick I decided to make a gas tank rather than buy one. The gas tank was quick and I used an old Street Rodder article about Rock Valley as a guide to construction. I apologize for the lack of construction photos but it's 16 gauge 304 SS, fully baffled and pressure tested.



This is where I remember my Dad's voice, "Son, you can't ever have enough vice grips. Never have enough". Word Dad. On these end pieces, no filler rod. Just roll the edge over.




I always feel so satisfied when I step back and think to myself...I paid $120 in stainless material. I spent another $80 at Tanks Inc. for backing plates for fuel level sender, filler neck and pickup assembly. I bought a block off plate and made my own pickup assembly and installed a brass rollover vent. Soo, $200 in material and some Argon. 16 gallons btw.

Still have a lot to do but I'm finally going to be able to start buying some stuff for it. Wheels and tires will here soon and I can push it out into the street. I'm targeting the bed next as I need to get everything in place so I can make sure my fenders are where I want them and I'll start on the running boards. They'll be a new baby at my house sometime around the 4th of July so that will put the kabosh on some work for awhile while I get used to not sleeping much.

I'll have more soon.

Thanks again!

Andy from STL