Customs My 1950 Shoebox, unconventional build

Now back to story line

Frame was notched, needed to get the rear done! Built my own 4 link, diff plate (by my man Craig), had to have some bungs custom made (thanks jeremey) and now to do 6 different mock ups in the middle of July! It was so hot out a lot of my work was done between 11pm and 4am!

2" box tube (0.25 wall) lower links...why? I got them off craigslist for $10!
1 fixed, 1 adjustable...2.5" ends



Diff plate by Craig...



Top bars are 0.25 wall with 1 fixed, 1 adjustable 2.5" ends


Pinion Angle test...notice my 2 boys came out to drop the jack for me...still in their pjs.
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Ok I think I know now where your heading with this and I half understand your doing it all a little different the pics of the chop look good

 

Thanks again for the words of encouragement. If anyone has every watched back from the dead II or any interview with Ian Roussel, he talks about looking at a build like a piece of art...I've always built buy feel. It works for me...especially since this is my first bottom up build with no help. The first time I sparked a welder was on the door handle of this project in 2009...so I'm fumbling my way through it like a 16yr old in the back of a car with the prom queen

 

Er,,,,,,,,are those the wheels you're going to run?

 

1@1

I wanted it low and I wanted to have options...so I've used a bunch of different rims for mock up. I've used 15" with 75 series, 18" with 55 series and 20" with 35 series...so no...those aren't the actual rims, technically they are for a front wheel drive car...but I basically traded each set to keep trying different variables...

I will have 2 sets of wheels for the car...each depending on how I feel that day . I go to traditional shows & cruises as well as mini-truck & custom shows...so it just depends what I am feeling

 

So once the suspension was figured out and mocked up completely it was time to put the body back on and start to put it all together.

The S10 front clip caused a need to change the front mounts, besides those things are a little light and the guy that had the car before me did some "amazing" work on them and I couldn't find a good way to fix them...so I cut them out. Also with the ability to lay the car out with air came the ability to hit the firewall with the tires No problem thats what a sawzall is for. There are a lot of little ways to tub the firewall, but I wanted something that wouldn't be too deep into the floorboard and looked more natural to the car.

Old mount and part of the firewall cut up to clear tires


New mount built, extended it as well because S10 & original frame arch up differently


Even customizing it, I wanted to keep the overall design consistent with its original but slightly stronger.


I recessed the firewall to the ridge (see below)


Passenger Side

 

If you had not cut off the front mounts from the body you could have welded a 2"x2" section of sq tubing on the side of the frame up to the mount with a flanged bolt welded to the top of the tubing... that's what I did (see pic below... it's just tacked in place for now).

Good Luck!
X

 

I like that setup. The mounts were in pretty bad shape from the previous owner so cutting was safer. So you are flush mounting the front or will you be using any bushings in between?

 

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I'll make some thin rubber pads like were on the mounts originally.

X

 

Well...its Friday and I have a little time at work So here are some new pictures.

So earlier I showed the terrible channel & floor
ORIGINAL:

It wasn't braced well, level or straight.

Since the floor was being built by stick, roof was chopped and the car was on air...I wanted to make sure my lines wouldn't flex and the Shoebox is notorious for the the door sagging. I cut anything that looked rusty.

First I rebuilt the lower front pillar by sliding a 2.75"x1.5" box inside the factory pillar and rebuilding with new material.


Next I needed to close the gap between the Rocker (new from EMS) and the raised floor frame. So I used some 11 gauge drops (cut scrap) I picked up from my Steel Guy. ***Did I ever mention that I buy 99% of my metal as scrap weight drops? Thats why I've been able to over engineer everything! I may have $200 in steel other than the stamped panels from EMS via Mac Auto!

So here is what I did for the door sill. 11ga, 4" wide and hand formed for proper door closing.



Over layed the rocker...


**notice the inside floor is not paralle to the door. The curve of the bodyline need to be right so the floor was built square and then began spacing at the "B" pillar until the curve was correct. Plus it going to be a great place to build the door poppers in...or I have room if I decide to suicide the doors.



Finished the front behind the fender...

 

Car was missing all of the inner fender pieces and the original owner used some angle iron and flatsheet. It wasn't going to give me a clean look or the room I need to lower the car. So I started the mock up of the top of the fender well. Once everything is mocked up, I'll break & bead roll panels to make I nice finished engine bay. And yes, its a 350 sbc...came with the car, I'm still hunting for the final motor to build. But I cleaned this up just in case.






But now the lower mount for the Hood Hinges was blocked...so I cut!





Its on at the firewall...but braced with a 2x4 at the front...well it time for scrap pile...a couple bends and holes later...




Now its pretty sturdy...and level




Now I set the fenders and I've decided to build box tube mounts with welded nuts. They'll be hiden with the finish panels.




I'll get more up to date pictures soon.

 

I like the way you clipped the frame, got any close ups or pics of the jiging to set it before welding?

thanks

 

Lots of good , solid work ... keep it up !

 

wow. subscribed!

 

Lookin' good! Subscribed as well! Post some pictures of some steel wheels and WWW's!

 

Jiging??? It was really just from the hip on jiging.<O</O
<O</O

1. We found the spot on the 50 frame that was a) closest to the width of the S10 b) behind the firewall & under the body so it was out of sight.

<O</O2. Measured from that point forward to the center of the spindle so we knew how much of a clip we needed to work with.<O</O
<O</O

3. Used that measurement to cut our clip (we shaved 1.5" for adjustment). Then braced the 50 frame about 5" behind where we planned to cut and cut the stock front off.<O</O
<O</O

4. We actually just sat the frame & clip on the hubs and leveled the frame, my garage floor has a 1/2 slop forward over 20' but that wasn't a huge concern because of the Air Ride that was going on it would be made up for any difference. But we wanted the frame as level as possible.<O</O
<O</O

5. Using 114" on center wheel base we just squared out the frame. To square it we measured 114" center, then cross point from the center of of rear notch to shock mount hole on clip and body mount under door to frame horn of clip.

***I'll look for better close ups.

 

Wide Whites are going to cost me $800...I bought the mockups for $100! There won't be any WWW until its finished because if I'm spending money...its on the new fenders patches first! I found some rust on the fenders and I'm going to cut them apart now


Thank you all for the encouraging words! I'm just a hobbiest, but apparently a damn good fabricator for an accountant At least that what my buddy said.

Its all in mock right now, I've just reworked the roof on the driver's side because there it looked pinched and had a flat spot. But the cool thing is it feels perfect now, but kind of looks like Frankenstein.

It is going into FULL MOCK this weekend hopefully because it will be at my best friend's grand opening for his body shop. I'll put a bunch of better pictures from that and throughout the process of full mock.

This weekend is the Road Rockets' Rumble in Indy...my favorite show of the year so I'm hoping for inspiration!

 

Thanks for the reply, great info.

 

Looks great!! Subscribed...

 

Well...I've been horrible about posting for the last 4 months. The summer in Indiana was the driest and hottest that I can remember, garage work slowed a lot and when I was out there anything more than a few hours would put me out of commission for the rest of the day. That plus a new position at work has put me in 4 places at once. But I'm uploading some images so I can post som progress to get caught up.

 

Looking forward to your progress pictures

 

cool

 

I was wondering why the floor looked so close to the dash..

amazing craftsmanship, I was confused on the over complicated look of the chop
But I cant wait to see it rolled outside.

 

What are you going to do for the back window?

 

Do you have a full side shot of the roof, chop?

 

I like the way this is going. Subscribed.

 

Its roomier than it looks...I had a buddy get in the driver seat to check and he's 6'5"...he fit, couldn't see out the window but he fit I'm only 5'8" so its real roomie for me

 

Working on a mold from the original window, going to have it formed by either a company in town or ship it out.

 

How did you make those fenderwells?

 

^^^^^ x2!