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

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.

 

First step today was giving the rear end a bath. I loaded it up and headed to the carwash.



I then jockeyed into position.....which with the help of my hoist was shockingly easy.





I tacked a piece of flat strap (I did not have any square tubing on hand) at the new axle centerline. New axle centerline is 1" rearward to stock to center the wheel in the fender better.



I tacked the carrier to the flat strap and then used a floor jack to set the pinion angle.



Then as I was going to tack the carrier into place....I ran out of welding wire. 4 tacks from putting the tires on and checking ride height and I was dead in my tracks!!

 

Glad you know what you are doing~ I'm lost.
I will say it looks pretty friggin cool however!
Weld away!

 

First initial mockup last night. Have to go back to the drawing board.

I was hoping my notch would be sufficient, but it looks like I need a bit more room for the upper control arm to travel. The UCA is hitting the notch and the boards are 3-1/2" off the ground.









I have a little over 2" from the top of my frame hump to the bottom of the frame wood. I plan on having a local fab shop cut me some small step notch pieces out of 3/16" steel and I will weld it in place and cut out the center of my existing notch.

 

I spent last night trying to figure out a step notch.

Went through a couple variations by the time I felt comfortable I had enough metal to be strong enough.......and had enough clearance for the UCA and LCA as well as bag clearance.

Hope to take the templates to the fabricator in the next couple days.

 

I enjoy the cardboard mockup stage of fabrication. Then when all the cardboard possibilities are realized, the plasma cutter makes SHORT work of cutting those out of stock (MIG welding is fun, but cutting stock with the plasma cutter is just awesome). While I'm aware this will all be boxed, maybe radius the inside sharp corners for stress relief?

Thank goodness my chassis is painted. Seeing these pics had me looking at a complete 2014 Camaro IRS cradle that was for sale... must resist doing things a second time! (besides, it was a bit too wide)

You just never know what's going to be under the skin of an AD truck! Keep up the good work, and I love the pictures.

 

I really though about radiusing the inside corners.....but thought it would really make boxing it all a pain the in the butt. Might have to give it some thought.

 

Maybe its as simple as a piece of pipe- not unlike the second pic in (your) post #561. Then it'd just be a matter of butting up to it with a (slightly shorter) piece of flat stock. The frame isn't very wide, it should be simple. Certainly not any more difficult than cutting dozens of weight reduction holes in a perfectly good frame rail, and in the boxing pieces to boot!

 

I have to think radiasing would be the smart way to go....

 

Found this picture on Instagram. I think Henry needs blue wheels.

What do you think?

 

I like the body-colored wheel look. The wheels on that truck appear to be artillery-style (which I like a lot). I think the body-colored steel wheel lends a utilitarian-look, and when garnished with a trim ring and center cap (and requisite pinstripes on the wheels) really seals the deal for me. Wide whites? Not so much.

 

I'm a fan of anything except black wheels and black tires. Makes me think of those old, cheap, metal toy cars and trucks.
I thought the setup you were running looked damn cool the way it was.

 

I am all across the board on wheels.

I get a ton of compliments on my wide whites......but sometimes I wish I would have went another direction.

 

The wheels in the last two pics are black- so its difficult to see any detail. I'm not a fan of bling rolling stock especially when the rest of the truck sports the much-overused fauxtina look. But I'll be the first to admit I'd crane my neck around to get a better look at ANY of those trucks driving down the road! Living in the rust belt, the vintage sightings are scarce even in summer. Another observation is all but the OEM wheel are in the 20" diameter range, the last 2 pics hide the wheel diameter by virtue of the wheel/tire transition isn't delineated by color contrast.

 

Not much forward progress lately.

The IRS is mocked up and tacked. I made some templates for a bigger notch and those are at the fab shop getting cut.

I spent about 6 hours in the car over the last couple days and most of it was spent thinking of where and how best to mount my compressors and air tanks. Spent a little time tonight mocking it up.

I plan on drilling some holes for my leader hoses to go through the cross member to the tank.

 

I have been plugging away at the IRS in the back......so the IFS has not gotten a lot of attention.

Last night I mocked up the S-10 donor parts.



According to some rough measurements with a 27" tall tire, and stock spindles my running boards will be about 4" off the ground.

I am loosing some travel due to the upper ball joint binding up.

So the question is:

• Pie cut stock UCA?
• Buy Pro Forged Super Travel Upper Ball Joints
• Buy Tubular Upper Control Arms

I plan on dehumping the Lower Control Arm to accept my bags

 

Wouldn't a drop-spindle solve the ball joint binding issue, without negatively impacting the suspension geometry?

 

The drop spindle will lower the truck 2", but the upper ball joint will still bind up when aired out.

 

I forgot about the airing-out part!

I was thinking ride-height, and normal suspension travel. Although if the geometry of the mounting points on your frame are the same as on the S10, wouldn't you bottom out on the LCA snubber before you exceeded the angular travel range of the upper ball joint (I see the LCA snubber in your picture- unless you don't have the pad on the frame for it to contact)? I am just thinking back to when I set the motor mount locations for Penny's LS motor (low, and biased to the passenger side for better steering geometry). I removed the coil spring on the passenger side, and using a floor jack, cycled the spindle through its entire range (snubber to snubber) to check for UCA/exhaust manifold interference. I didn't observe any ball joint binding (but wasn't necessarily looking for it either). I would be inclined to modify the UCA, to bias the static angle of the ball joint to the new-nominal angle, unless the air-out induced travel is greater than the range of the stock ball joint. I would also mock the system up to ride height, and see if CAMBER will be an issue- if you need to modify the UCA for ball joint angle, it'd be nice to mitigate any required camber modifications at the same time.

Awesome stuff- keep the pictures coming!

 

Not too much to report.....still waiting for my step notch parts from a local fab guy. Hopefully this week.

I did spend some time tonight mounting the torsion bar mounts. I cut them off the stock Thunderbird mounts and welding them to the frame.