so a while back I picked this up. wasn't going to do a whole lot to it just kinda make it streetable. well i got carried away. pulled the wooden floor out and cut the front of the floor out. I am body dropping it 6 inches basically because the bottom six inches is pretty rotten anyways. i am going to section above the rear fender and move them up so i can still have the full fenders. I may chop a little out of the top later on but for now i'm just going to rebuild the floors and fix some of the redneck bullshit the guy i got it from did. when i got it. Floor coming out. body off the frame. Old suspension. 62 year old springs with wore out bushing. Started boxing the frame to hold the spring perches and make it stronger. S-10 blazer springs in place. flipped the axle over to where it should be. I moved the springs to the inside of the frame rails so i can run a wider rear end. I've got a rear crossmember tacked in but didn't take a pic. I'm going to add one in between the front perches too but i ran out of gas for my welder. hopefully i can get some more done tonight. I want to get it all boxed up and rolling so i can move the frame and get started on the floor braceing.
I don't know about skirts. I've got a rolling chassis now. springs fully mounted. I've got all day friday to work on this thing so hopefully i can get some of the floor bracing put in and set the body back down. Used some wheels off the 56 i need to get started on. these wheels are 11 inches wide. and i have about 3-4 more inches before i hit the side of the fender.
Well i dropped the body back on the get it ready to put a floor back in it and I'm stuck. not from lack of stuff to do just trying to decide how much i want to drop the body. I've got it dropped 4.5" now but i think my front sheetmetal will be on the ground. And the camaro clip is as tall as it'll go. plus it would rub a little before when i turned. I'm happy with the back where it. I plan on running a taller tire but i still have plenty of room to put some blocks on the rear without bottoming out on the frame. here's the front end. and the rear. So here's my options as i see them 1. put the floor back in at stock heigth. Then just lower the rear with some blocks. 2. Keep the body where it is. and move the front fenders up 3" sectioning 3" out of the hood and grille and extending the bottom of the fender down that 3". I would like to be able to pull a camper or small trailer with this thing. What do you guys think?
Got some more work done on this thing tonight. started getting my floor bracing in place and figured out. I decided to raise the cowl section up 1.5"s while leaving the back down. It still has a little rake to it but should fix my front sheetmetal problem. Side wall preped must have forgot to take some inbetween pics but heres the drivers side with the new floor brace partially welded in. Notice the old floor brace a couple inches below the new one. This will be cut out later. I got 2 cross braces in but ran out of material. Guess I'll have to work on the coronet until I get some more monday.
Ah yes...the old 'can o worms' syndrome. the more ya dig, the more ya find! Groovy panel you've got going on there. Build it however is gonna make you smile the mostest, but I do like the taildragger/skirts idea. Actually, in a few years I'll probably pull mine down and do just that to it as well...(it'll need to be refreshened up for like the 8th time by then!) subscribed!
here's some pics the guy before me took. this truck as he found it in February of 09' hopefully february of 10' it'll be on the road. the pictures got wet before i got them.
I sure hope you plan on taking the body off at least one more time to clean up that frame.....Great looking project! You've made great progress on it!
Yeah the body is gonna come back off so i can finish boxing the frame and paint it. plus i'll have to seam seal and paint the underside of the body too. got some new wheels. This ones blurry but the lip is pretty deep. I might have to move my fenders out a little to clear the tires. I wish the offset was a 1/2" more on the backspacing but i think for the price they were pretty good. I wish the front layed this low. oh well.
I got quite a bit done on this but my phone died nothing really worth taking pictures anyways. Got my front wheels mounted. I also got a lot more of the floor bracing in and the body is now setting on the frame instead of the rails i put across the bottom of the frame to hold it. I've got about 12-15 small pieces to put in and then I can start making floor pans and mount my seats. Then it's onto the rear tubes and getting the pedals where they need to be. Maybe by the end of the weekend i can have most of this done.
So me and Cheetos brave the 4 degree weather (not a whole lot warmer in the shop) and got some work done. Now I just have to figure out how to connect it to the firewall and add a couple more little pieces. here's how it sets now. My illegal amigo
Love the panel,s !!! Like the one guy said ,do what makes ya smile.I think your doing great ! keep it up and I like the new wheels better.....................YG
Very cool truck, really has a neat front end shape/style. Love the new wheels. Gas pedal is cool too. g
the vette wheels were only on it because i sold the cragars off it and that's all i had that was the same bolt pattern. The gas pedal is gonna go in my "hemi road runner"
Scored a bunch of parts this weekend thanks to craigslist and a couple buddies that had shit laying around. spent $200 and got some almost new 305-50-15 tires, torker II intake and a new RCI 16 gallon fuel cell. Hopefully i can get some help this weekend and mount the fuel cell and put my engine back together and start on the floors and tubs. BTW my engines apart because i'm putting 305 heads on it to try to sneak a little more power out of it. Tire on with fender off. with fender on. how my motor looks right now. New fuel cell
I might bag it eventually and make it lay out i just need it more reliable right now. Just use a s-10 clip when you do it. The camaro clip under this one is too wide.
nice project,dont think panels look good chopped once its lowered down a bit. cant believe it was a trailer for long as i dont see any dents from barrel rolling down the road.holy shit thats scary.
Wow! Man this panel is awesome. Im glad I found your thread. I liked the way you did your floor frame and that looks like the way I should do mine. now if I only had your lift in my garage I would be set! Your project is lookin awesome! good job! Keep us posted on your progress!
Had last night off so spent a couple hours trying to finish up some things on this. I got the fuel cell mounts almost done. just gotta make the bars for across the bottom. But it fits in there pretty snug. I'm gonna try to pick up some fuel line and try to get it plumbed this weekend. I also got the other head of the other motor and put on the one in the truck. The intake is just setting on there. I'm gonna blast it to clean it up and get some nice mounting hardware. I'm also looking for some finned valve covers if anyone know of any used ones for sale. if not the stamped steel ones will go on it for a little while. I also need a 4 barrel edelbrock or holley carb. don't really care which as long as the price is right and it works. And last I mounted my front end. I used the same holes as before but for some reason the drivers side is 20 mm lower then the passenger side. I'll look into it this weekend and get it leveled out. The truck will have about an inch and a half of rake from back to front. with the front sheetmetal being about 4.75 inches off the ground.
Domepiece, have you thought about sectioning the grill at all? It will give the truck a lower look without causing any clearance issues. Not sure how it would look from the side but the side panels could be easily modified. Was thinking about this on mine so I used yours as a test.
Yeah i think i'll probably cut an inch or so out of the top half of the grille. If you look at pics of these trucks the grille seems to be higher then the cowl section anyway. bringing the top of the grille down would fix that plus maybe make it look a little more raked.
Ok Im jealous.......Where can I get one of those bud goose necks? Its looking good domepiece!! I finally hit the slow stuff on mine.
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