Dean - Mine is coming along - but looks like Steve is quite a bit ahead of me. There are a lot of little details that will take some time and I am targeting the end of the year for a road worthy truck. My time is fairly limited and I am lucky to get 4 hours a week free in the garage. From the look of the gas tank it appears Steve is preserving your old paint. I would like to see the rear frame/chassis work. I can also see how you dropped the seat riser. That same mod is on my to do list. I have my body mocked up on the garage floor now and I am playing with the seat height/column angle. That extra couple of inches in the riser will make a big difference. Q - Did you put back in the wood framing behind the seat, modified for the lower riser ? If you didn't , were there any problems with body rigidity due to the wood framing being out ? Please post on your thread if he sends some more detailed photos.
The car has been stripped and completely repainted. No wood was left in the back of the cab. It was not needed with the Healey buckets. The lower roll bar tubes were bolted to the frame and welded to the rear top rail of the cab. The wood is not in my current RPU either. The wood really does not ad any support to the cab. It's just there to support the stock seat back.
Backed the chassis out so that I could clean the garage today. I was hoping that between the dropped axle and the reverse eye spring that the front would set a little lower. My driveway is pretty sloped toward the rear of the car so it has an illusion of the front being even higher than it actually is. Once I have the body and fenders on I might need to adjust the front down some more through removing some leafs. Will give it a test fit when I get my new tires and see how it looks. I am also concerned about the steering arms and the drag link. I have about .5" clearance between the drag link and the split wishbone. I might have to bend the steering arm down a little more or replace the straight tie rod ends with one that has a dip. I don't think that they will hit as they should all flex as a unit - but the close proximity has me concerned. I am digging around for photos of a similar set up to see how much gap is normal. I am going to use the 40 wheels that are on the truck now, but with smaller diameter pie-crust Firestones in the fronts (550s)_ and with the rear wheels reversed. The wheels are going to be gloss black.
' Thanks - it helps to start with a very nice chassis as a foundation. I am just about done with the mechanical piece for now. Will be working on recessing the cowl and modifying the bed to fit the rear kick-up next.
Chris (CJSteak here on the HAMB) is helping out this build with some metal work. I was concerned about foot room and did not want to go with a large cowl recess. I also want to maintain the stock hood dimensions so going with a body setback was out. The path I am taking is to lower the seat position, and then have minimal cowl recess. For the cowl - the overall recess is 4". That is not enough for the engine - and the solution was to take the bubble from the original cowl that was removed and then mold it into the center of the recessed cowl. That route gave back about 2" of clearance and allowed more room in the floor. That 2" is a bubble up in the center of the cowl and well away from the foot/leg area. It looks a lot better in person that these photos. These are phone snaps and the bare metal reflection is very hard to photograph. <a href="http://s887.photobucket.com/user/agshelby/media/20%20RPU/DSC_0530_zps9fa00d0e.jpg.html" target="_blank"></a> The bed is just sitting on the kick-up in this photo. Chris is currently in the process of adjusting the bed infrastructure so that the bed will sit down better on the rails.
I am just glad it's finally starting to look like a truck. It's nice to see a pile of parts in the garage come together. Today we worked out the drop for the seat riser - going down about 2.5 inches. I don't want to remove it completely but I also don't want to be propped up like a Shriner in a parade. I did sit in the cab and it has decent leg room for a RPU. The seat is going to need to be very low profile and have high density in order to pull it all together. the windshield posts are about 2.75" lower than stock, and they are angled back for about another half in or more drop. I am 5'11" - but fortunately my legs are not very long. The seating angle is shaping up to be a pretty decent fit. The master cylinder access door will have a magnetic popper and there will also be a shifter and an e-brake in the floor soon. I haven't made up my mind about the gas tank cut. I may either cut out the innards from the bottom and use the space for the fuse box, or I may have the two raised panels converted into matching glove boxes for storage. It is a pretty good amount of space and I want to make the best use of it. A few more of the floor rough-in. The transmission tunnel is a rough-in and will have a curve that ties into the upper bubble.
Shelby, you've planned this thing out! I went with the early SBC distributor which is smaller, then switched later to a Mallory dual point. Those big cap jobs, ate too much room.
More test fitting. The wheel/ tire offset came out perfect with stock ford 16" wheels. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
3/4 view. I will go up a tire size. I also may need wider wheel with a greater backside offsett in order to look right from the rear. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Chopped down the seat riser. I didn't want to remove it entirely - but needed some more room. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Bed fitting to the kicked up chassis presented a few challenges . Had to relocate the front crossmember of the bed and also the rear frame rails interfered with the bed sides. Rather than adjust the chassis we went with some small boxed kick outs. Worked well and will be under the fenders, behind the tires and out of view. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
One last issue with the bed. The rear frame cross member and shock mounts are up against the wood of the bed. The good news is that it is in the same area of the bed as the stock metal cover plate. Plan is to replicate the stock metal plate that is in the middle of the bed floor and extend it the width of the bed. This will allow me to retain most of the bed floor and should blend in well. Past the bed, my only remaining item for body mods is the steering drop. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Bed is finished. The new pan is at the height of the wood and allows for clearance of the shocks and rear frame cross member. The wood looks higher in photos because it is too short in length. I am going up have to cut new wood for the bed. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Column drop - will mount under the dash with a threaded mount. The mount is made from wheel studs and secured with lug nuts. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Fun to watch your truck come together. Here's mine. It was built in the 80's, and I'm still un-doing some of the stuff, but I'm getting there. Yeah, the door and kick panels are on the list to get replaced so they match the new seat. Craig
I had your seat photo saved as a future reference. Is that a custom made frame, or is it a cut down original? Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
It's a home-made wooden seat riser, and the seat is a plywood base with foam (no springs). I don't think I'd have done it that way, but you know, it works, it puts the seat at a good height and angle, and it ain't broke. the seat back is wood framed instead of plywood, but otherwise, just stiff foam like the seat bottom. The original 1929 wood angle pieces to support the seat back are still in place and in good shape. I just recently got the seat re-upholstered, and while I was at it, I cut the length of the seat bottom down by 2" to ease getting in and out. Once in the truck, it's comfortable and has a reasonable amount of room, but getting your feet in the door was a problem. The space between the seat and the front of the door opening was only 8" before. Better now, but I still have to flail around a bit to get my big 'ol feet in the door. I've attached a couple of pictures...the first one is of the seat before I got it re-upholstered. You can see why I wanted to change it, and why the door and kick panels are on the list next. Similar thing with the wiring...the original builder must have wired it himself from scratch, and while functional, I can clean it up a lot with a new wiring kit. My truck still has the gas tank in the cowl, so I'm limited in terms of places and space for switches & gauges.
Ready for the final mock-up (Fenders, aprons, hood). I am pleased with the progress so far. The column drop appears low - but is right for my mocked up seat. I left the original drop in place. I may put a small gauge or clock in that space. If it turns out to be too low - I will just cut the rivets and remove it. Windshield is low ... maybe a bit too low. Will have to wear some glasses for sure. This is the look when you put a 200 lb. meat-head in the seat.
The Jalopy Journal
