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

Ive been watching your progress with great interest. I have this identical project waiting for me. Your pictures/posts have already answered many of my questions and many things i didn't know I needed answers for, so thank you. A couple things I was wondering is, what final ride height are you looking at and what is the height of your step up/notch that you needed to get it that low?

 

There is always little obstacles. You just have to weigh the pros and cons.....and sometimes consider cashflow vs time spent to get it resolved.

I could have ordered new 6" bags and had room to spare, but with a couple hours of manual labor I can go with what I have on had. Everyday is an adventure.....

 

Final ride height is adjustable (Thanks to airbags) but I will most likely be between 6" to 8" at the running boards. I think these trucks look best with about 1-1/2" rake measure at the front and back of the running boards.

I would have to measure the size of the notch to be sure, but basically the very bottom of the step notch is sitting at the highest point on the 3600 frame hump over the axle.

 

Russ's truck has the ride height I am aiming for. He has been a huge help on this install.

 

Built some bag cups last night. Hope to spend some time tonight installing them with the bags......and possibly the first air up!!



The caps are not welded on yet. I may have to offset the cap to get the bags where I want them for clearance!!

 

I worked on air bags the last couple evenings. Straight cups, angles cups, moving the top plate, moving the upper mounting bracket.

It was an endless fight and I never seem completely satisfied with the outcome. Seems like I could get it to look good at air out, or at ride height, but definitely not both.

I was really unsure since I had never done this before. I reached out to a couple guys who had done it before and combined there advise with what I had learned already and came to a solution tonight.

The biggest problem I had was the bag was rolling down at air out. I was worried it would wear a hole over time.



With this set up the bag looked GREAT at ride height and at max air.





After pulling my hair out for a bit I decided if I increased the diameter of the top of the cup it would be able to support the bag and protect it from damage.

For a quick test I drilled a hole in the center of my other top bag bracket and installed it between the bag and bag cup.

I am going to call it a success.

 

Coach, air bags on big trucks and trailers look bad when de-flated. My trailer air bags look really wadded-up when aired down. They wrinkle so bad, that when inflating with a load on the trailer, they sometimes "POP", real loud, when they inflate.
The main thing is, they should be undistorted, at ride height. As much as possible.
Also, make sure there is no bag to metal contact anywhere. You probably will not have this problem, however, under load, they usually expand a little, also.
I've seen trucks with such an overload, that cylinder shaped air bags look like big doughnuts.

Steve.

 

Thanks Steve.

I have a solid 3/4" all the way around the bag of clearance so I hope to be fine.

 

Not a whole lot of forward progress this weekend. The honey do list was long.

I took my boys to a small local car show. Kind of neat. This '72 was super clean, LS on air.





After fighting with the bags with what seems like forever I was able to final weld the upper back bracket. Overbuilt to the max........but better than the alternative!!





Bent a couple pieces of flat strap and built by tank mount.





I spent a bunch of time going over the crappy factory welds on the Ford Cross Member. 90% of the factory welds look horrible.






Next step is to pull the rear end out of the cross member and flip the frame. Final weld the bottom side and then ready for paint.

 

This is just awesome stuff! You are getting this welding thing down to a fine art like your photography!
Flip that frame, get it welded up and PAINTED!

 

I am sure having fun doing it.

I would like to have the frame flipped and painted by the end of the weekend......but that might be tough....

 

I had about an hour to kill last night between hauling kids around, etc.

I still had the upper ball joint binding issue, so I was curious what it would take to get the running boards on the ground. Seemed like I had three options:

1. Super travel ball joints
2. drop spindles
3. pie cut the UCA

Since pie cutting the UCA was free, and I had spare UCA's in case I screwed up, it was chosen.

A quick Google search and I found a link on a S-10 site.

Pie cutting upper control arms - S-10 Forum

20 minutes later my running boards are within a 1/8" of the ground.




This morning I nipped the bump stops off and now it is sitting on the ground.







Tonight I will give them a really good tack, and then remove them to final weld them.

 

I had a great day in the shop. I took the day off work and helped out the wife with some stuff in the AM, and spent some quality shop time with my youngest. He was a great help!!



I needed to remove the rear end and control arms to get a good weld on the bottom wide of the cross member and frame. Every bolt was rusty and it fought me EVERY step of the way. Last night I could not move most of the bolts with a 18" breaker bar. I soaked everything down with PB blaster and hoped for the best. This morning I picked up a 24" breaker bar and was able to get everything loose. Only broke one bolt.

 

Cleaning out the old dif fluid in the 8.8. Dirty but the rest looks great!!



Finally all removed from the cross member.



Stripped and flipped......





Notch caps going in...

 

Looks like a trac-loc. Bonus.

Steve.

 

Yup......

 

That is looking sooo danged nice!!! I can only imagine how you are looking forward to seeing it all painted and put back together!

 

Great build, coach, i also dig, what you´re doing with Henry Not to mention the great pics...

 

Sure are some pretty welds no grinding
Frame is coming out amazing

 

True TRUCK PORN , never mind the ciggie , I need a clean towel .