Projects my '53 Chevy truck project

back to work on the bed. this time with the new parts.

here you can see how the bed side flows with the contours of the cab, keeping an even 3/16" gap. the shortened bed sides allowed me to have the extra material to close up the gap from over 2" to a mere 3/16".


here is the new inner wheel tub. i found that the 1960-66 C10 wheel tubs had the nice contours that would work really well with the '53.


the inner tub is even with the frame rail. no need to make the bed smaller that i need.


testing the tub with the wooden floor board. added all of the bed cross sills, but in different locations than stock. since the frame rails weren't raised up or notched, they fit perfectly under the bed floor and stock height.


here is the rear cross sill. i had to move the mounting pockets inward since i narrowed the frame 14".


the tub and side fully welded.

 

Man this is a nice build you do some amazing work...shame to put paint on it

 

some more work to the right side bed.





need to do something with this area.

 

finally getting the stance i'm after. need to order the front brakes so i can get the front wheels mounted to truely get the stance.



i finally got the tailgate fitted.



next, i need some kind of rear roll pan and some kind of rear bumper. don't know what just yet.

 

just a few small tweeks this week.

filled in the bed stake pocket holes


filled in the wiper arm holes


simplified the dash with a flush glove box door and shaved everything else. i will keep one throttle/choke cable hole. i need it for the fuel shut off cable on the hilborn injection.

i used a simple un-keyed glove box latch from a '72 F-150.

 

Where did you pick up those inner fenders for the tub job?

Nevermind, I saw it in the text. Thanks!

 

finally have my front wheels mounted. now i have a real roller. i want to mount the front bumper and front fender to get a look at the stance. i am thinking i will need taller front runners. these are 26", but my original plan was with 28" tires. the truck is very low. the front cross member is a mere 4" from the ground. the oil pan is maybe 3 1/2".





next, i need to get some sweet headers in there. not much room, but i need to get them made and installed before i make the steering linkage...

 

one of my final mods to the cab. i filled in the indent in the dash for the steering column.

i cut out the indented area.




then i welded in a reinforcing plate to backup and strengthen this area for the column mount.



i also welded in the column to firewall brace. didn't need those bolts on the firewall. i still need to grind down the weld. i moved this brace about 1" to the left. now i can center the column between the gauges.


then i cut and formed a piece to fill in that area. welded it in, then ground and cleaned up the welds. only need to add the column mount bracket and center it like it should have been.



now, the dash is as HotRod as it comes.

 

love what you doin man and your AD is comin along great but , dont take this wrong the HAMB has not in the past been very "Tub" friendly..

 

My hat is off to you. Dan

 

Good luck, enjoy your build.

 

I have a few parts on the way.

1967 C10 steering column
1967 chevelle steering wheel
1975 E-150 front bumper (NOS)
1950 Pontiac taillights w/blue dots (4)
Brake pedal assembly
Lokar floor shifter
1947 doors (bone dry Nevada doors)

I finally received my sweet headers. Took a month to get. I am going to fit these this weekend.

 

Extremely nice work! You are a very talented individual. Cant wait to see this finished.

 

i dont know why tubbed trucks are HAMB friendly. i could build this very truck back in the early 60s.

anyways, back to work on the bed or should i say back half of the truck. this time with a rear bumper. i finally located an NOS 1975 Ford E150 front bumper. i will use this as a starting point for my trucks rear bumper.

here is it right out of the brown paper wrapper.





the plan is to narrow it 18", tuck it in really close to the bed, and french in four 1950 Pontiac taillights. i will start by cutting out 9" from each side and then weld it back together. then fabricate mounting brackets to mate it to my narrowed frame. finally, i will french in the 4 round blue dot taillights. we will see how that looks and go from there.

 

You're doing some really nice work, there. That's going to be one sharp truck!

 

keep up the good work

 

Looking good - ingenuity in action! Can't wait to see how that back bumper turns out.

 

Super job. Truck looks awesome.

 

Great job 65....I have Been keeping an eye on ya.....

To impart some personal experience....I also moved my bed up and wrapped it around the cab "to a mear 3/16" as well....and I can honestly tell you that with the frame flex it will rub on the cab....when I took the truck down for paint I'm opening up the gap a bit more cause its one thing to scratch primer.....it's another to scratch shiny paint.....just a heads up that you may want to open it up a bit more....

Keep up the great work.

 

Hey salty, my frame is 10 times stronger than stock, plus my rear cab mounts are fixed. No shackle mounts here. I have no movement between the cab and bed.

 

Great build, seriously cool!!

 

Ahhhhhh....makes sense...and honestly I likely would have been good w mine as well seeing as I boxed the entire frame and added some tubular crossmembers...that said a lil insurance policy cannot hurt in retrospect...

 

remember, my frame is a boxed truss design plus an additional 2 1/2" in tubing size. the main frame tube is 2 1/2" x 8 1/4". that is massive. being narrowed 14" and shortened 7" really tightens of the frame.

i cut the '75 E150 bumper down and tack welded it together for a test. it looks like it will fit nicely. now i can weld it up and french in the 1950 Pontiac taillights.



i've been also working on headers. left side header is fitted. now off to the right side.



here you can see where i had to scallop the frame to clearance the primary tubes.

 

Salty,

I'm curious if your frame is boxed and it still moves enough to rub? I too have been closely monitoring this build as my son and I are building a '51 for his first hot rod (he is 12 now). Since we crafted a new chassis from rectangular tubing I know ours is also many times stronger than stock but would never diminish the value of first-hand experience. We were also planning on reducing the gap between the cab & bed and this feedback would be much appreciated.

This is very valuable feedback for our build as we simply don't sell the cars/trucks we build. We keep them and drive them hard to the point of re-building again. Hopefully the wisdom learned from you guys will extend the life of the build.

Thanks in advance, this is a great build 65 Standard! You are quite the craftsman! It's cool to see home builds as nice as your project. Very impressed!

 

Maybe salty's flex isn't in the frame. If he is still using those shackle rear cab mounts, that is his source of flex. I have fixed rear cab mounts.

 

That is a good point as I never even thought of the shackle rear mounts on the cab (which are still intact just rebuilt with neoprene bushings I whipped up)

That said I brought my bed in closer to the cab prior to having the entire frame boxed front to back (was still a driver) and had the front portion of the frame unboxed....scince I have pulled the truck off the road and done a frame off I finished boxing the frame in its entirety and added tubular crossmembers as well as some additional triangulation in key areas.

Unfortunatly I have not driven the truck since these mods, (I shoulda kept my mouth shut "in retrospect" as I had forgotten 65's frame portion of the build.... I have opened up my gaps a scosh just as a insurance policy on my end....they are still much much tighter than the 2.5" stock (and wrap around where as the stock bed does not)...unfortunatly the bed is currently off for finish work and I am unable to take a current measurement...

Sorry for steppin on your thread 65....in no way meant to detract from your slice of awesomeness just throwing the full story out there (on my end)

.....dang....i've spent so much time thinking and overthinking the engineering side of my build for ease of maintenence and usability and the thought never crossed my mind that some of my flex was commin from the rear shackle cab mounts....the ol' second set of eyes concept....and hence the reason I like this forum.

 

As irony would have it I was behind a Ford truck with this bumper that you are using. The angled profile is the same as the rear fender, comparing your ends, they don't at all, I admire all of your ideas...on the rear bumper I think you can do better.

 

Man, i sure do enjoy these updates.....

 

Mam that is awesome, love all the pictures.

 

you have to give me a chance to finish the bumper. i am still reworking it. i decided to narrow it another 1 1/2" each side. here it is ready for surgery again.




tacked back together again and test fitting. did some contouring to get it very close to the bed.




i still want to recontour the ends where it wraps around the bed. the idea is to make it more verticle and inline with the bed sides and fenders



next the brake pedal..

i bought a manual brake pedal assembly for my truck. i had to cut down the mounting bracket because the frame is boxed. i had to pull the motor and trans to get this located just right. i had to reference points since the cab is channelled down over the frame. once the pedal was possition in the toe board correctly, i tack welded the bracket on the frame rail.

note that i had to alter the arc curve of the pedal. it was not a true arc. i heated the pedal lever to even the arc radius to keep it centered in the toe board hole.




i am using manual brakes because the pedal leverage is 5:1. this is too great for power brake. you will have too much pedal assist and lose the feel. a 5 to 1 pedal with manual brake has the perfect feel for me.

here you can see where i scalloped the frame for header clearance. i will cap these scallops.