Dan, I finally got around to checking out the project. Awesome. It's great that your kids are so into it. The truck is coming along nicely. Someday I'd like to head down your way and see it in person. You are only a couple hours away. I would love to drive the 47 down, but I don't think my wallet will allow me to get it that far this year. Keep up the good work. It's great that you all have such good quality time together. My son and I are fixing to tear into the 74 Dart in a few weeks and I am looking forward to passing on a bit of my knowledge to the next generation. Catch up with you soon.
Thanks, Mike. I enjoy being part of your Yahoo Group just for the updates. I'm glad that you send those out to show that you are still at it and the progress you've made over the past few years. The boys took a look at the Hunnert Car Pileup website last night. It is the day before Eli's 13th birthday. He has a sudden urge to go to Chicago and Court says 'We can take my truck!' Uh oh, more gas money!! Maybe the bride can ride shotgun this time. She missed Billetproof because of all the animal action we have going on right now. (32 baby goats born this year, 2 just before BP). They should be all taken care of by October!!
I understand. We used to raise sheep, and during lambing season it was a FULL time job. Your boys enthusiasm is refreshing. I am sure the gas money will be a worthwhile investment.
Cool build Dan! Thanks for mentioning it in your PM. Your son will remember your efforts and lessons for a lifetime J
Not too much to update so far. Been a busy summer. Had 4H camp where the boy went to learn all about hogs and then we had the fair. One had Grand Champion Angora Goat, one had Grand Champion Shetland Sheep. They both had fun. Right after fair was Driver's Ed. Court passed and got his permit yesterday. We've been working on the radiator supports and have the truck all leveled out on jacks and jack stands right now. One side is in, need to bolt it up and get the other side done then on to inner fenders and plumbing and wiring. We'll get there!
Well, after messing around doing this and that and not getting busy on the truck, we hit it today. We started off by finishing the radiator supports and getting them all bolted up. This led to the uprights off of the frame being finished. After we thought we had those wrapped up, we pulled the passenger fender off. We realized that putting the inner fenders together was going to require some modification of what we'd just finished. We changed the uprights to go between the radiator and the radiator supporting mount rather than outside. They would have forced some major surgery if left outside and it would have looked stupid. We trimmed the end of the frame back about 1/2" more so the inner would cover it and then we made foam board templates to clear the idler arm for the steering and transferred them over. We also made marks for the A arms to clear and then we trimmed away. It wasn't that hard once we got rolling and now it looks pretty good under the hood, at least on the one side! We'll post more pictures once we take them in the daylight. Most of the 'in process' pics were done before we got it in because it was dinner time and then dark! Dark didn't stop us, though. We bent up some 3/4" strapping to make the starting for the seat brackets. We're putting in a bench seat from an '88 Chevy that we picked up from Enjenjo. Got it sitting in there now with some cross braces to go but it sits pretty good so far.
Thanks, all. Hopefully, this weekend will be the second inner fenderwell followed by the beginning of the wiring and plumbing. We scored another S10 from my nephew so that will end up with all of Court's leftovers!!
Last nice weekend of the year it looks like. Got some farm stuff to do but hope to have the other fender well in by Sunday night. I'll post up to see where we are. Also ordering windshield gasket to swap out the shot gun glass with something a little less broken.
Its lookin great guys. I can relate to the buisy summer! Chey has been involved in everything she can from Girl Scouts to Cheerleading, and everything in between. We still find time to go out in the shop and tinker on the Model A. When winter comes and all are hibernating we will be wrenching and welding. maybe you 3 can help us push it into BP with this truck (running this time) I think those keystones look good on it.
I found a set of Keystones on Craigslist that are only a year old. Just don't have the $$$ for it right now. At least I know they are still out there!! Cut firewood yesterday and today so no truck work yet. Still a chance!
Nice work Dan. I had planned on doing the S10 chassis for mine. The truck came with a 1956 235 (the truck had sat idle for 10+yrs) turned out to run so good I didn't have the heart to pull it out, so now I have a "old school" pick up. Not the best high-way runner, but great around town truck. Keep up the good work and enjoy the project. For me, the building is as much fun as driving them. Baron
We finally had good weather and a few hours yesterday to get the DS Inner Fender installed. The truck has PS so there is some line work to be done now but we'll get that with no big issue. I have the bed from an old 4 post lift that was removed from the shop at work. They were going to scrap it so I got it. When you do too much work in the driveway, this is nice because you have a small area underneath to get to stuff and you've also got a solid foundation. I'll eventually have cement in the barn but until then, this is just fine. Court started by removing the DS fender from the truck. Did some checking to see what we were up against. And some more!
In our initial attempt, we'd put the radiator supports on the outside of everything. I wasn't paying attention to the fact they'd be in the way of the inner fender. Fortunately, there was room between the rad and the mount channel to put it inside after some clearancing for the captured nuts. Here's Mr. Grumpy Pants working at it. He'd already told me we shouldn't do this because we'd never get done in time for the party and bonfire that night. Hard to see but he'd already put the square stock in the radiator channel after we'd notched it.
Measure twice and cut 3-4 times. We used the PS as the template to start with and trimmed accordingly. We then had to bend some around for the A arm to go in and a bit more for the steering box.
Here, Courtland puts on the inner fender brace. We opened up the holes to fit the larger bolts and we drilled out the broken studs. Once we are all done and running for a while, we'll blow this truck apart and paint everything that we can. I'm sure we'll do some upgrades as well. For now, it's a bit ratty but trying to be structurally sound.
With the folded clearance for the A arm, we were able to get everything in place. The steering shaft is close but that has a bit to do with the fact the bottom of the column isn't fixed. Once it is lifted to the top of the hole, we'll have more room. The tightest aspect will end up being the exhaust manifold. Comparison to the Passenger Side.
We'll decide how we want to go on filling the lower areas where the kick up in the frame is. There is a big gap and we'll want to protect the lines, wires, and front of cab. We'll most likely form some filler panels and we'll go for some rubber like the late model cars do for flex. After some push/pull/tug we got the fender back on. We love this TX cab from Black Magic Customs. The captured nuts are still captured and work!
Forgot to mention we broke out the body hammers and beat some of the headlight area back into shape. It is a good start but I think I'm going to start watching for new front sheet metal from the southwest!
Great looking project and it is always good to get the younger set involed. They are hotroddings future........
Great looking ride, love the way that thing sits. Cant wait to get going on my truck! Im going to have to come down there sometime and check it out in person.
I've had lots of questions about how we did the bed. Here are some acceptable fotos to get you through. Side rails are simply 3/4" angle iron from Tractor Supply with 2 holes drilled in them to line up with the second bolt hole up for each fender. We then used 1" x 2" tubing as cross braces. We've got the front mount sitting on the S10 frame mounts and the rear sitting on the frame. We've been running lines so we keep popping the bed on and off, that is why there aren't any bolts right now. We'll end up cutting up chunks from an old tire to give some rubber pad in between the frame and the mounts just to minimize vibration and rubbing. Not a big deal, it is just the bed!
The Jalopy Journal
