Great year truck! Your kicking ass on the build time to boot. Are you painting the truck body also? Or leaving it in it's current patina?
I am going to leave the body as is. The only thing i am going to do to the body is a small amount of rust repair in the floor and one front cab mount.
Cool, I was hoping you we're gonna leave it in the current paint. It's hard to find them that way. That's gonna be sweet!
1 step foward and 2 steps back today. My goal was to finish up the rear axle, get it rolling and set the engine today. Well, i got the brakes together and went to install the drums. I used 68 backing plates, drums and hardware only to find out there is a 3/8" difference and will not fit. Although the 57 & 68 are overall the same width, the 68 housing is narrower with the axle flange sticking out a little further from the bearing so when i installed the backing plates on the 57 rear, the drums bottom out on the backing plate before seating. So now, i am going to have to clean the 68 housing up, paint it and install it to keep the bigger brakes unless someone here knows of another bigger brake that will work. And before i get reamed, i realized the shoes were on backwards after the pic was taken.
I really like what your doing ... question, are you gonna c-notch the chassis ? ... now is the time to do it. Again, looking good.
No, i am not going to c-notch the frame. I am not going to lower it the far. It will be about the tops of the wheel wells to the top of the whitewalls which should leave about 4"-5" of travel. Plus, i dont care to cut a hole in the bed for the center section to clear.
My dad is facing a similar situation concerning the backing plate issue. He says that you have to use axles from a 68-72 truck. They're the same length but the bearing is in a different position. Given that they both have the same spline count. PM 63feuni. Thats my dad. He's not on everyday but he'll get it.
Got thru my brake/axle problem today, chased a few gremlins with the Chinese front wheel bearings but got the chassis back on its feet today. I had to change the front bearings and races to some brazil (old stock from my fathers old farm equipment dealership) Tempkin brand to cure my problem in the disc brake kit. I couldnt get the rotors to tighten down. The problem were the chinese races were thinner, letting the bearings set deeper in the race. That caused the outer bearing to bottom out on the taper of the spindle before getting the rotors "tight". Tomorrow, if its not raining, i am going to set the engine to get the mounts bolted in.
Got the engine set in place to mount the front mounts. Still trying to get a S10 trans w/ mechanical speedo for the tailshaft. I have the engine on a stand now to paint it.
Looking good, 57 was the best year for the big three American trucks as a whole. Ford was definitely ahead of its time with this Boxier styling truck. Ford pulled it off nicely. IMO when the 58 dodge's and 60 chevy's came out with similar stylings they just didn't pull it off as well. Im also glad to hear you didn't put a Belly Button SB Chevy in it. Good choice!
great looking work and truck. I did one of these 4 or 5 years ago. I wasn't going to paint it either but couldn't stop.
Not much lately, i have been working on getting a new building built. About all I have got done since the last post is the engine painted and my transmission converted over to an S10 tail housing.
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