I have an idea about your bed. I bought a 54 GMC truck and the previous owner used the metal floor from a late 60's early 70's bed. I'll try and post a pic later on.
I'd like to see the bed deal. I was just going to use some 3/4" plywood and split a trailer fender in half w/welded in side panels for inner fenders.
Great build thread. I'm building my first rod, a '49 GMC Long Bed, so this budget build is inspiring. I'm planning on making my own bed wood with hard pine, and painting it with some chassis or tractor paint for several years of low maint. wood.
I love this truck.....it COMPLETELY reminds me of some of the rare, successful, '70's style hot rods...'specially the variegated leaf "Chevy" letters....great job! Wheels, tires and stance are perfect too. How are you going to "age" the leafing, without screwing it up too much?
Sorry to keep everyone in suspense with the 'Old Brown Truck', but I needed to finish up a few things on a 72 El Camino I did from the frame up for my dad. Only thing I didn't do was the seat upholstery, transmission and rear gears. Way too much work, but it'll be cool for the "world's oldest 15 year old"! (He's 70!) I have about a weeks worth of little things after work and I can get back on my truck. Thought you'd like to see this anyway
Just in case anybody with a truck thinks theirs has no potential, this is what I started with in December! Pretty pathetic, huh?
I'm just finishing up a few things on the 'Camino and then I'm back to the truck! Here's an online mag that did a story on my dad's car. Here's the article http://www.stillrunnin.com/magazine/sr6/45-46 The mags' really cool! Brad
If you need some steel for the mini tubs,I got some 16 ga. sheet,about 4'x4' I'd donate,just gotta come and get it.I'm in Yucaipa if you don't mind a scenic drive.Also have a sheet of stainless 3'x4' I'll throw in too.
I'm back! Sorry about the delay, but I'm back on track with "Project No Buck$" I delivered the 'Camino to Dad and now I can finish this thing up. The frame (about 2 hours before it went on the trailer) is at the sand blasters, getting cleaned of 50 odd years of crud. Hopefully this weekend I can paint it and start bolting pieces back on! I know I'm preaching CHEAP, but I'm also trying to do it nice at the same time. I repainted the dash brown and started striping it to make it match the mexican blanket upholstery I have about another 2 hours and it will be done and then on to other stuff. Everyone has been wondering about the wiper situation. Stay tuned for more info! Brad
I saw the Camino on the back of a trailer by In-n-out in Hesperia a few months ago. Looked great. Hope to see ya cruisin town soon.
Man o' man.....i really tried to hate your lettering on the door. I couldnt. I am a sucker for gold leaf...and silver leaf....any leaf-ing. It looks great, alot better than the chalked on shit that alot of RR trucks have. I am watchin this build...curious to see whats next.
Wheels! I showed at the beginning that I used some cheap Halibrand/ET3 knockoff wheels I got on Ebay. I always loved the way ET3's looked, but didn't want to spend the money (way more) so I figured I'd fake it. I took the wheels over to a machinist friend of mine (after taking the tires back off) and told him I needed the wheels re-drilled for long shank 11/16" lug nuts instead of the tapered ones they come with. Notice the lug holes... Next I had another machinist friend make some 1/8" aluminum plates for the front and back. The front ones have a 1/2" smaller center hole to fig snugly around the brake rotor so they look a little cleaner notice the wheel on the right has the plate Now I just need to add some chrome wheel bearing caps and the fronts are done! The back ones speak for themselves!!! $100 to drill the wheels, $100 for the aluminum plates and $20 to polish all 4. They look bitchin' and I'm still way cheaper than the big dollar wheels!
This is very inspirational, I'd like to do something like this to my truck (1948 Dodge ½-ton) . Nice work!
I didn't take any pics of how I put this all together, but thought I should show the finished version. I wanted a stereo in the truck, but wasn't putting it under the seat or cutting a hole in the dash. This was my idea. I'll build a panel behind it when I'm at that point, but you can see where it's going. I used a 12" hinge I picked up at OSH, took the ashtray back off, glued the front on where it was even with the front of the cover. Ashtray handle opens it. I even used some washers to kick out the bottom of the glovebox, so it was even with the other door. Here you go...
Anybody have some original gauges converted to 12 volt, they want to sell? Mine are way too tired and 6 volt to boot! I need to keep with the old hot rod theme. Brad
Only gauge that has to be converted is the gas gauge. Speedway sells a volt drop resistor for it. Water and oil gauge are mechanical and amp gauge doesnt care what the voltage is. Although I dont like to run an amp gauge due to having to have too many hi amp leads running in and out of the firewall. I just put an idiot line somewhere to let me know if the alt is charging or not. You can get a new glass for the gauges with new lettering the speedo can be lubed if it is dry and growls. I'm using the originals in my '50 sedan delivery.
I'll finish shooting the chassis this week, but I shot a bunch of parts yesterday! A lot of the smaller stuff is painted and in a box, but the bigger stuff is looking good for a bunch of old crap! I sand blasted everything nice and clean, shot a coat of metal etch primer on them and then sprayed it with some Eastwood ceramic semi-gloss chassis black. They now have a nice egg-shell sheen going on. I need to put the bushings in and hopefully this Sunday (Bakersfield Hot Rod Reunion is on Saturday... Be There!!!!) I'll start assembling the frame. I'm still shooting for Christmas time to be done...
My friend Alex had a cool idea of what to use to fill up the old gas tank spout. He said a piston would look bitchin' if you could find one that size. So after checking the spout with calipers and doing the metric check (easier to find pistons that way) I came out with 60.5mm. I went to ebay and typed in 62mm so I could make it tight enough not to leak and found a brand new '69 CB750 Honda piston for $19 w/free shipping! Now I need to make a mount that uses the wristpin and that's all done. I'm having way too much fun!
The Jalopy Journal
