Features My lost and forgotten 51 AD chevy

Thanks for the glass tip LB!

I had really been struggling with getting comfortable in the cab/ I'm 6'2" and leg room was tight and i was looking out of the top of the windshield with the stock seat. I had really hoped to retain the stock seat but it just wasnt working. Picked up a late 80s chevy bench of local craigslist and with the help of Cubby's tech week article, went to town...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=742211


Narrowed the seat frame 4 inches and made the require spacers to bolt the seat back to the narrow frame.



Bolted the tracks back on the seat and shortened the slide position release.





I am in love! This thing is so much more freaking comfortable. I now look out of the center of the windshield and have probably gained 6" of leg room. Ill get it recovered in some black vinyl at some point down the road. Best part of instaling the seat this way is the stock seat riser is retained. More to come on that, I've got a little "lightbulb" moment to show you next.

 

I'd been trying to figure out how I wanted to handle repairing this little odd spot of rust out in the middle of my floor pan. The floor underneath the stock seat riser was rotted out.
I had contemplated removing the stock seat riser when i installed the new seat. But, I prefer the looks of retaining it and hiding the modern seat frame. So a couple days ago, i started thinking how nice it would be to be able to utilize the area under the seat for storage. Towels, tool bag etc. Lightbulb!









Now all i need is a simple latch. Any suggestions?

 

80's or older Toyota tail gate opener - just look at the u-pull it yards, you will get it.

 

Weld on overlap on the main piece of the base at each side and attach a pair of magnet to it. They'll hold the flap easily.

 

Thinking about a magnet setup, just don't want something that sticks out and ends up ripping a gash in my forearm when I'm shoving stuff in there. Time to poke around the hardware store...

 

Boom Shockalaka!

 

Wow!! Looks great, how'd the brake pedal work out?

 

Chaddilac,
Go back and check out post 74. It was really really simple. Had to drill 4 holes, notch about a 1/4" out of the pedal support. ( you can see the area in the pic of the empty gauge cluster) Its the shiney humped up part. I still need to cut off the pedal pad and offset one the opposite direction. Also need to determine if the master cylinder will work for my disc/ disc application. the donor this one came out of was a disc/ drum 88 suburban.

 

truck is coming along nicely. Subscribed

 

(Mods would one of you please move me over to the "Traditionally styled forum"? ) Thanks!

Kinda been dealing with a setback lately. This was one i wasn't anticipating. Ugly little surprise when i pulled the front glass.





Mothertrucker helped out supplying the patches from his AD graveyard.






This all was pretty discouraging because it was destroying my "run what you got" paint theme. So, i decided to salvage it as much as i could and it actually suprised me how well it turned out. Dont get me wrong i'd love to have nice, paint, it just isnt in the budget or time frame i am shooting for right now...maybe one day...

Some, body filler, sanding primer , blue rustoleum, maroon rustoleum... sanding away the shiney... in progress.



Finished up... Its not perfect, but beats the hell out of what was there before.

 

Nice job on the windshield repair. Paint fixup looks good, once it's weathered a little, should be nice....Jim

 

That engine looks sweeeet good work. The window repair is something to be proud of. When life gives you rust cut it out. Your boy looks good just what until he is older I have a blast teaching my two 9 year old boys about cars when there attention holds.

 

Shop time for me last night, first time in a while!

something is missing...





Ewwww! Fiberglass over rust...brilliant!





Spent some time wire wheeling tar and dirt...still more to go.



Looking better!









Forgot the pic, but got the welds completely dressed and ready for a bit of filler.

 

Had a 51 once, loved it, love yours, great work enjoy, keep it up. I'm enjoying reading your posts.

 

Should have some more updates soon, lots of little projects going at one time. I'll probably just wait to post them until the old image galleries linking gets fixed.

In the mean time... Rolled him outside for the first time since he went in 4 years ago!

 

Finally made some progress this week! Spent some time with a torch and scrapper getting rid of roofing tar undercoating, wire wheeling and finally priming and painting the bottom of the cab. Then got the cab back and bolted on the frame for good!

 

Next up was pulling the engine one final time. This gave me access to weld up a couple unused holes in the firewall and wire wheel before prime and paint. Turned out pretty decent...really starting to come together!

 

Did the same inside... Forgot to take a pic after the inner firewall, toe board and kick panels got paint, but here it is in primer. Have the dash completely stripped and in primer also.



Filled the gas neck hole and did my first round of paint blending. Worked on blending the new cab corners back in also. Not completely happy with it yet, but it'll get there. A big improvement over what was there though!

 

Couple more from today... Not perfect, but it'll do.

 

Thats looking real good. Glad to see an update.

 

Dash is looking real good. Did you make any vroom vroom, sounds when you were shifting the trans ...Jim

 

No pictures .....

Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Thanks fellas! And 10-4 on the vroom vroom!

All the not recent pictures disappeared with the hamb update...ryan said he has a fix in the works...

 

Just went through and repaired all the broken links from the site update. Holy Hell, what a pain in the ass.

Ive been side tracked with the phaeton project. Hopefully this will give me a little kick in the rump to finally finish this truck!

 

Looking forward to some updates.

 

Hey hey,

Got back on the truck for the first time in a while!

My wife is cool, like really cool! She knows I've been hankering for some garage time, so she suggested we try a garage night. Last night she brought the little man out to the shop and entertained him while i got to get back on it. Even had a hot dinner waiting when it was time to come in!

Ever since I finished up the chassis, one thing has been nagging me. I forgot to weld up the saddles on the axle the last time i had it completely mocked up. Which meant, i couldn't finish cleaning up painting the and getting it bolted in for the final time. So, I set the pinion at 3.5 degrees, tacked the saddles and ripped it out. Flipped the axle over and burned them in. Then went and pulled the rotors, surveyed the brakes, changed fluid , wire wheeled..... sealed, back together and painted. Should be ready to go back in after it dries.

While i was busy with this...


They were beside me buiding wall-e

Image by PurdueSD posted Jan 8, 2015 at 5:20 PM

 

Glad to see some progress. Garage nights with family are great. Keep up the good work.

 

Looks good!!! The truck is really coming along.

 

Well, its been a while... maybe to long. Been a crazy whirlwind of a year for me. We moved back to my childhood home, remodeled, got a bad concussion, had another baby. And with the addition of the phaeton, the truck saw the back burner. My detached garage/shop at the old place is sorely missed!
But i'll build another one in a couple years.

Anyways, I have found some renewed motivation to jump back on the pickup. Dug it out dusted it off. Made a mental list to stay motivated:

Exhaust
Wiring
Cooling
Fuel
FIRE!


Ordered some odds and ends and am back to tinkering. I can do this!




Got a wild hair and mocked my twin blues under the dash for some motivation. I think we have a winner....