'55 Chevy Truck - Need Advice for Grill Surface Rust

Thanks. Yeah, I've made that mistake before - UGH.

Throwing the latch panel, latch and new hood springs on there - I hear springs can be a bear to get on. My current ones cane be stretch by hand so yeah, they're done, lol. I've heard you can use your floor jack to stretch them and put a bunch of wrenches between the spring coils to hold the stretch til you mount them. At least that's what I'm gonna try.

 

Speaking of what I "started with"...

THIS is 1-1/2 year ago:


...and this:


This is yesterday:

 

Ok, so today I stopped at the local bicycle shop to ask for an inner tube out of their trash and did THIS with it:

Yeah, kind of meh.... But the ones the shops sell don't look much different. It is what it is I suppose.
I also finally got my Craigslist-find front bumper painted on the reverse side and mounted. Thereby finishing the recent front end work:

Hell of an improvement to me.

 

Truck looks great man. Glad you got that innertube, hate to see that paint all scratched.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't want to see my uber fine rattle can paint job scratched!

But thanks for the thought!

 

Well even still, that's a pretty good rattle job, I've seen far worse.

I'm looking at you, ricer Civic kids.

 

Well thanks....I think! lol.

It's got a few runs but since it is just rattle can crap I've gotta let it cure a few days to get hard or it'll just ball up if I try to sand them out now. I'll touch up the bad spots and hopefully it'll hold for the summer at least.

 

nice pickup.
rich

 

Thanks Rich!

Today I was reminded about....The Slippery Slope"

I wanted off white/almond letters to match the contrast on the cab.
No dice; only straight white, black or chrome.
The added "flash" in back plus newer front bumper I installed yesterday made the other chrome on the truck look like ass.



So I bought new mirrors...

which made the arms look bad....

which made the door handles look bad....

which made me think of the scratch guards (haven't decided if I'm installing those or not yet:




As you can see the door handle chrome was pitted and totally dead:

 

Once the snow ball starts rolling it just keeps getting bigger. I've used the bicycle tube trick and I reccomend a small hole at the lowest point. Otherwise rain and wash water collects in there and forms a rust pit.
Nice solid truck. It keeps looking better and better.

 

Thanks Chubby! Yes, I did razor out a small hole at the low point. I just didn't show it.

She's still walking around on her "tip toes" totally stock height. I've got to get her lowered. I'm leaning toward a combo 3" Sid's dropped axle an Posie's Super Sliders rather than IFS....but I've gotta save awhile for that anyway. It'll give me time to think it over.

 

I've moved on to (trying) to install new weather stripping on my doors. But unfortunately they were full of all THIS:

(Flashlight for scale) PLUS a half a hacksaw blade, and chunks of rock hard rubber of some kind. This trash led to some surface rust in the door interiors and (fortunately) only a couple very small holes - 1/8" to 1/4".

I decided to treat the inside-the-door rust by cutting garage towels into 6" wide strips, soaking them in Ospho and laying them inside the door bottoms. It worked great. The crust-iness you see below looks worse than it is. It's the damage done to the face of the metal but incredibly they're very solid, not "Swiss cheese" at all.


Next? Wipe with acetone, weld the couple holes shut with my Hobart Handler and .030" fluxcore (because I already have it and don't yet have a bottle for the ArCo2 I SHOULD be use w/ .023" solid wire), then paint with KBS Rust Bullet .

 

Nothing got done today on the doors because I got THIS used chrome grill. Imanaged to get this, the front upper & lower panels & bumper back on.

I'm re- IN LOVE! ha ha. I can't help myself, I like chrome.

My buddy says putting this much chrome on a rattle canned truck is like dressing up a wrinkled old whore with red lipstick and lots of jewelry! He made me laugh, but I don't care.

It's a Chinese repop grill, but love is blind you know! ha ha.

 

Looking good!

 

Thanks Matt.

Got a couple tiny things done today:

"Restored" the side emblems. The chrome is "pecky" but they look ok from 10 ft.


I got freebie inner tubes from the local bike shop but they bugged me. Too loose cause they were mountain bike tubes. Replaced with roadie tubes. They fit nice and snug now. Tire dressing on them gets rid of the talc gray look.

BEFORE:


AFTER:

 

Love it, now get it in the weeds!

Side note about chrome, was at a show and was watching this guy put those chrome half covers on his headlights, he remarked " I don't care if the quarters are rusted and about to fall off,,,, We've got chrome headlights!"

 

Ha ha, yup chrome makes you FASTER!

Thanks for the nice comment.

Next up is starting weld repair. I've been procrastinating even though I recently bought the gas for my mig cause I'm a lousy welder.

 

So I've been trying to get tight fitting patch panels fabricated for the FOURdunno speaker holes in my truck's doors. They were cut by drilling a series of small holes maybe 1/4" - 1/2" apart then connecting the holes with tin snips - makes it hard to get an accurate patch. I ground the edges including paint with my angle grinder.

Used a large rat tail file to reach the "scabs" on the backside of the hole. I previously made a cardboard template to TRY to transfer the hole shape accurately - It did NOT work well.
I finally just pulled the latch actuator bar to get my arm inside the door with a blank taken from my spare door (above).
The doors on '55-'59 trucks is "wavy" by design so the patch must be not only be tight fitting, it has to "clock" right too for the waves to be straight. Holding the blank inside so the waves "mated", ensured the clocking would be right.
RESULTS (Pretty tight, so far):

NOT so tight but it'll have to do:

I intend to make all four patches first, THEN start tacking them in by jumping around to keep the metal cool/avoid warping.

 

Thanks Tinman!

It'll definitely be lower but not truly "in the weeds". Above all I want it drive-able. No crawling into parking lots or going over speed bumps at an angle. Screw that bullshit - "been there, done that".

I keep debating IFS but leaning toward a Sid's 3" dropped axle w/him doing the king pins, fixing the steering arms & drag link, plus Posie's Super Sliders to lower it an additional 3". It'll probably cost about $1500-2000 but I hope I don't regret it and later want the IFS.

The idea of cutting my frame for a clip bothers me and a No Limit Wide Ride IFS would cost me about $3000+. Then more $$ for a tilt column, PS, custom brackets (no-hole style heads on my 283), yada, yada!

Any opinions on this appreciated.

 

turned into a nice looking driver. good job.

 

Looks great! My absolute favorite series of trucks. Used to have a '56 GMC and wish I still had it. I really like what you've done with yours.
Thanks for posting the progress and keep up the good work!

 

hi dan...like your truck....interested in whatever you do to it.
just sold my 55 ford f-100 that i had stored in my garage for 27 yrs and picked up a 55 chev truck out of missouri....just happen to like the lines better of the chevy truck....keep the photos coming..

 

Looking good, Dan! Every time I see this truck it looks even better.

I remember when you first posted up the "before" pictures on the 67-72 site. I'm Chevyrestoguy on that site.

 

Thank you guys. All very generous words. They help me stay motivated - someone besides me actually cares!

I'll keep at her til she's the way I want her, lower, drives & brakes smooth with no drama, seat belts, emergency brakes, nice upholstery, basically everything but final paint done. THEN I'll tear it down to nothing & send the pieces for final paint. Still not sure what color? Seems like maybe original was Ocean Blue, so maybe a '50's turquoise, but bright red and the current green is kinda growing on me too!