The day I brought the project home. This is the '59 And here is the '58 parts truck. Cab & frame isn't as nice as the 59's. But it has a 235 in it that shouldnt take too much to get running.
Next step was to get the 59 into the shop and strip it down some and assess the damage. Front clip, doors, seat and floor mat removed. Rough motor I'm not gonna use. Drivers side rot. Pass side rot. Bad rot above the windshield with a big ol mouse nest in there (they swiped padding from the seat). This spot has me worried. No pre made panels available for that spot and looks double tough to make.
Did a little Craig's listing and scored some fenders that are better than mine. The parts truck has fiberglass fenders (all 4). I don't care for glass body panels. Also got some repair panels from our host. Next outside to do a little sandblasting. I also cut away the inside spot above the windshield and dug out all the nest. Wanted to really blast that area well. Swiss cheese. :-( Looks like I'm going to be replacing everything from the red line down.
Tore into the drivers side first. Ripping stuff up goes fast. A drill and a 4 1/2" grinder with a cut-off blade made short work of it. Parts fitting in well. Even made a patch for the floor and welded it in.
Now on to the pass side. Same thing as the other side but I took a little better pics. The before.... And after Butt welded the cab corners to cut down on body filler. Scored a tailgate off of Craigs list.
Time to take a break from all the welding & grinding. Figured I'd get the parts truck running and see what I've got in the way of a motor. Pulled the clip and got it to run (not well) Pulled the valve cover and found this mess. Well enough playing around. Time to ship the head off to be rebuilt with hard exhaust seats and strip the block. Goes fast in pics, but to tell the truth it took some time to get everything clean. Took rockers to work and disassembled and glass beaded.
Head shop informed me that the head is cracked, so I'm on the hunt for another. Block cleaning continues. Heavy stuff off. Time to strip the rest off so I can hit it with solvent & a wire wheel. All clean and honed the bores. Also got a reworked head off of e-bay. Hope it's a good one, guy said it has hard seats. Fingers crossed.
Well I was poking around on Craig's list again. I gotta quit doing that but ya gotta jump when the deal pops up. Got a 3 speed manual transmission with OD out of a 55 Chevy 210 for cheap. Stripped off the orange paint and replaced with grey. New rod and main bearings, rings, oil pump, e-bay head and a paint job. Rattle can grey.
Pushed the motor & trans into the corner. Time to get back onto the cab work. I've been dreading the above the windshield repair. Tried to make a panel for the outside but with all the compound bends its out of my skill range. Enter a ray of luck. I post over at the Stovebolt fourm also and one of the guys there offers to give it a hand at making a panel. He nailed it perfectly!
work in progress Welcome. All those pics reminds me of all the rust that was removed and then replaced on my truck. Note about the steps you got from our host, there is supposed to be a long narrow brace under the step. I didn't realize it until my step was already welded in. Welding upside down is not one of my favorite things. I got the passenger step from a different supplier and it came with the brace as part of the new step. There are people on this site that can answer almost any question you have, lots of good, free advice and years of experience. It is good to see someone keeping their truck as original as you are. Mine isn't all original but it is all Chevrolet except for the bucket seats. Gerald in Florida
Thanks! Got pics of your truck? I got my steps from Classic, and they had the reinforcement on the bottom.
Well it took about 3 hours to get the old panel out without messing up the roof or the windshield edge. Also cut away the rotten area on the inside to gain better access. Turned into an all day job, but the new panel went in there. I'll make a patch for the inside and bondo it up.
Pulled the cab off of the frame and set it on the back panel so I can seam seal and paint the floor with por-15. While the frame is open I installed the dual chamber master cylinder set-up. Dropped in real simple. Also installed a heavier tie rod with modern ends.
All the pins and shackles were worn out, stuck and won't take grease. Tip here: if your going to replace front shackles. Buy the harder to find later style that has nuts on the outside of the plates. Much much better set-up than the taper and carrage bolt on the earlier ones. After thats done I start running a wire wheel over the frame and start brushing on more por-15. Picked up brake shoes, wheel cylinders, brake hoses and some 3/16th steel line form the local auto parts store. Painted the shocks XO Rust green. For rattle can this stuff really dries slow.
Pics of my truck click on "photos" above in the blue line then click on 1955-1959 scroll down until you see the yellow truck, that's mine click on picture of my truck over to the right, click on "see all user photos" and more pics will appear hope you like it. Took 5 years and a pile of money. I don't think these projects are ever finished. In the last month I replaced the master cylinder, all 4 wheel cylinders and new brake shoes. It still has drum brakes front and rear. Master cylinder is a newer dual style. All the brake lines were replaced years ago. The brakes are as good as drum brakes get. At least now I have "go" and "whoa. You are progressing at a fast rate on your truck and the work looks good. Keep the pics coming.
(Blushing smiley face) not really that fast. My posts on the build thread are getting ya'll up to speed on the past two years. Currently, truck is running and interior & firewall are painted. Checked out your truck (I didn't know there was a photos section). Sweet truck! Yea by the looks of it you got way more go under the hood. I like the yellow, it reminds me of my '66 chevy I had. To give ya an idea how long ago. The little girl in the pic is all grown and has a little girl of her own now.
Right about this time a friend of mine stops up to check out my progress. He grabs the pinion of my differential and shakes it all around. "Your gonna rebuild this, right?". Well crap, hadn't planned on it. But if it's bad its bad. I really don't know much about differentials and lucky for me he did and offered to rebuild it for me if I bought the parts. Cracked the rear end open and orderd a kit for the diff. The kit was lacking in a few areas. Only came with a gasket for the diff side, not for the cover side shown removed above. Also the crush sleeve for the pinion didn't work well and I ended up machining one out of some round stock. Finished coating the frame with por-15. Highly recommend wearing gloves with por-15. It will take a week to get it off your hands.
Now that the frame is painted the cab can go back on. I made a "T" end that goes on the end of my cherry picker for picking up the cab, makes it a one man job. Ordered some epoxy primer from Summit and decided to get hopping on getting some paint on the firewall. That way I can go ahead and chuck the motor and trans in. Primer shot on real well. My bodywork experience is all pre-epoxy and HVLP, so I've been doing some relearning. Got some urethane paint in British racing green from paintforcars.com and the price was way better than the quote I got from my local supplier, even for their "value line" of paint.
Gotta say, seeing the green on there lit a fire under me and the desire to get things done before cold weather sets in. Figured the green went so well that it's time to do the interior. I've got my grandson helping me with this project and at 4 years old is alot of fun to work with. It's also worth noting that at the same time I'm trying to work on my doors at the other shop. I had them hung on the truck for the cab corner install, but they need some work. Thing is they are a little rusty and whether they are a little rusty or a lot rusty it's the same expensive/labor intensive repair panels. So in a fit of frustration I called a friend up that owned a body shop and asked what the "good buddy" price on a set of new doors would be. Well I sucked it up and bought two doors. They are Dynacorn doors and seem a little light/flimsy in the hinge area when mounted. We'll see if this was money well spent or not. "in for a dime, in for a dollar" ordered all new hinges from Classic.
In prepping for doing the interior turned into quite a job with making sure I didn't forget anything ( ashtray, trim next to door glass, trim at base of windshield etc.) When I ordered the green I also ordered a gallon of Myan gold for the interior. Had a bad day of painting. I think every thing that could have gone wrong that day did. I mixed the first batch wrong causing it to be too dark and not lay down as smooth as the green did, some foreign material got in there from somewhere and my air compressor decided to cough up water. It's on there and it's done and now that some time has passed I don't notice the flaws as much and the darker color is growing on me.
