1949 Chevy 3600......making it a daily driver!!

I had a couple hours available today and was able to button up most of the install cross member today!!












Next step is to pull off the cab and flip the frame and finish up the welding on the bottom side.

 

Stellar day in the shop today. Started out with some welding lesson's for my oldest son Ryder. He showed a ton of interest, so I figured might as well get him comfortable with the machines. Got the hang of it real quick. He welded up a bunch of scrap for the fun of it.





After that Ryder helped my get the motor back in place so I could figure out what I needed to do for motor mounts. Sure if a lot easier placing that motor and tranny with an extra set of hands.

I used a set of Chassis Engineering Motor Mounts when I originally installed the SBC. I was hoping to reuse them.

Engine Mounting Kit, 1958-up SB Chevy into 1940-1954 Chevy & GMC 1/2 Ton Pick-up

I was concerned about the placement of the motor above the cross member. Sure looked like the motor would be placed higher and I was nervous about having to modify the floor of the cab to make room for the transmission. Once we got the motor and tranny in place It looked a lot better.





I modified the motor mounts and motor placement is about 1/4" higher than it was before. The intake is sitting at about 3-4 degrees without the full weight of the motor on the mounts. I think the full weight of the motor on the mounts will get me within the 2-3 degree spec. If it does not work, all it will take is a small spacer between the transmission and the cross member to get where I need to be.







The next step is the pull the motor again and final weld the motor mounts. After that the cab will get pulled and I will start on install the rear IRS.

 

I was looking at some of your older pics of your truck
What did you do with all the straight six parts ?
Also that cool visor too.

 

I sold it all as a package deal to a guy building a '1954 Chevy Car. The only thing I have left is the headers.

I still have the visor......but I prefer the look without it.

 

Had a spare 30 minutes tonight before supper tonight......Just enough time to finish pulling the cab.

 

That's how I took my cab off with the cherry picker by myself wiggles around a lot
Mine kept on trying to do a nose dive

 

Spent a couple hours in the shop tonight with both my boys. A little added help is always nice and it gets them out of their mom's hair so that is a bonus.

We build a cart for the cab and tucked it away for later.



I turned my little guy (Colton age 3) loose with the vacuum. Taking care of 63 years of dirt that was caked on the frame.



The rest of the night was spent cleaning up and prepping for the next phase. Boxing the frame and the IRS install.

I still have not finalized a frame finish. I got a couple quotes on powder coating today, and that got eliminated quick. Too expensive and I do not like the fact that I cannot touch it up. I reached out to some people on Facebook and surprisingly a number of them suggested Rustoleum over a good self etching primer.

At the end of the night Colton was running around the garage saying " I am Iron Man". It was a good night!!

 

This is a very interesting project. Nice work on it.
My thoughts on powder coating are, if someone offered to do it for free, I would politely, decline.
Powder coating WILL eventually fail, and allow corrosion to begin underneath. It will advance, undetected, until you have a horrible situation on your hands.
My advise, FWIW, would be to sandblast, prime with a quality epoxy primer, then, whatever paint you decide on.
I like polyurethane enamel, or acrylic enamel, with hardener, much better than an alkyd enamel.
Thanks for keeping us up-dated, and, all the great pictures.

I envy you for being able to work everyday in "Tony Stark's" garage.

Steve.

 

Looks like a good ' sticky ' thread here , to show others how it's supposed to be done .

 

I love your pit crew! You know you are building some special memories with them, right? Probably turning them into welder extraordinaires.
Keep up the incredible work and fantastic photos!

 

Thanks guys......love having my kids involved. Hectic sometimes.....but the pay off in the end will be huge.

My dad did the same with me back in the day......and although I did not appreciate it then......I sure do now. You have to mold them when they are young. Cant wait to help them with their projects,

 

Spent the last day of 2015 in the garage. A local guy building a truck bought my rear end and suspension so I spent a good part of today cutting that all off the truck. 6 skinny wheels and a couple sawzall blades later it is ready for him to pickup!!



After that I button up a couple easy welds on the cross member install that I could not get to with the cap in place.



I had decided to weld all the cross members and cab mounts in place even though the rivets seem tight. I also started welding shut some holes in the frame.



After that a thorough clean up so I can start out the new year right.



I am dreading wire wheeling this frame before paint.....but I am too damn cheap to pay to have it sand blasted.......

 

Get a disc for your grinder or use 3M paint stripper wheels. They come in two thicknesses and do SO much better than a wire wheel.
This sounds like another way to get your crew involved.

 

Looks pretty clean now just some wire wheel action where the cab sits
Keep up the good work

 

Expenses to date......

 

DON'T do that ! .

Since you like the truck it's better not to know how much $ you're wasting.....

 

No worries......it is never money wasted if it is something you love!!

 

Nice progress, and pictures! they are quite familiar to me! It's ALL forward progress from where you are right now. I would think sandblasting the entire frame really won't be that expensive. But however you get down to bare metal, rather than etchant primer (toxic as hell), consider metal-prepping the frame. Spray on, wait, rinse, dry in the sun (maybe not at this time of year). Now the pH of the metal is optimized to accept paint. Thin Rustoleum, apply as primer. Apply a second (top) coat of Rustoleum. Done. Give it some time to cure. I considered using Rustoleum's hammer-tone finish, in silver for my chassis- so it would look like bare metal. Ended up sticking with plain old black. Nice to see the boys helping.

 

Nothing huge accomplished the last couple days. I kind of butchered the relief for the rack and pinion, so I worked last night to close that up neatly. Use some 4" pipe and some 1/8" flat plate. 4" holesaw was also used......damn I need a Plasma Cutter.







I drug the frame outside today and cleaned up all the loose rust and buildup on it. It is almost ready for paint.





Tonight I drug my Thunderbird IRS into the shop and started getting it ready for install.

 

The front mounts were trimmed off and will be boxed in.



Inside to inside on my boxed frame is 31". I trimmed the back mounts on the IRS to 31".