Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Nice! Open road!

2500 RPM at 60 mph seems perfect to me, but then again I live in a mountainous area where one doesn't want the constant up-and-down shifting that an OD automatic does on steep grades. That's why I replaced the 700R4 I initially had in my panel truck with a TH350.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Mark, glad you could get out and drive...Jim

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Me too Jim, trying to gain confidence in the build so I can drive to my brothers grave site in southern Minnesota without worry. The day is coming soon...

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

More small improvements. I finally found one of the early '47-'48 style cast front hood emblems to replace my rusty stamped steel original. I'll probably paint the letters black eventually.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Mark, I know what you mean, the farther you drive the better you feel about your build, then you don't have to worry about "did I tighten all the bolts and nuts". You built a great truck, enjoy...Jim

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I'm sure he has been watching from above with a grin from ear to ear!!!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I got brake fluid to all 4 calipers, and only had 3 leaks in all the new brake line pluming, 2 of which were on the master cylinder to proportion valve lines. I used a vacuum bleeder, so tomorrow I'll have my wife step on the brakes and re-bleed everything and double check all the fittings.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I was dead on the couch tonight we are talking asleep watching a Hockey game. Just didn't imagine I could get out there and get anything done. I haven't been talking my evening walks as I have for the last 5 years and just HAD TO do that. So I got up and took a little walk, on the short side, about 2 miles. I got back with a little spark, went out to the garage for my five minutes and ended up getting all four door hinges ready for primer prep. You know how they have a metal cover on these trucks, those were all bent up and I was able to repair every one of them to metal finish without any bondo and ready for primer. WHOOOO HOOOOO! I did something!

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I lost the 55-59 forum somehow! These postings are mostly 54 and under. Did the postings for tri-five move or did they dry up?

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

WE dried up. All of us '55-'59 owners are sitting in our rockers staring at our truck parts, trying to remember what fits where.

(Seriously, there is no forum dedicated to '55-'59. This is it: the '47-'59 forum. The '55-'59 folks are all working on their stuff instead of gabbing on the forum. I'm going to go out to the garage after another cup of coffee and put my door hinges in. I don't post much anymore since Snapfish broke my photo account and I can't edit/fix my build thread.)

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Removed another leaf from the rear (the three main ones remain). Can’t go any lower with this rim/tire combo.

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Just right!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

More puttering.

Got out my touch-up brushes and hand painted the logos in my hood emblem. Much better!

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I got somewhere today with the hood. Been thinking about it and thinking about it and starring at it and starring at it and talking about it and talking about it! Today I walked out there and cut that sucker in half and removed the 2" strip. I got something happening!
Good:
It' started, looking good.
Bad: I am blown away that the cab is sectioned 2.5 inches and I cut the hood 2" and it looks like I should have left some at the front. I thought about it, thought about bringing the front down to an inch and a half or so to leave me metal to work with bringing the smaller top to the larger bottom. I didn't, and you can see that I should have! Oh well, There is a very good chance I am going to have to fab a strip of metal go make the two match anyway, so I guess it will end up being a moot point but damn I wish I had left another half inch to work with. The funny thing is at the cowl it doesn't look like it will even 2.5 inches! It looks like it will be less than that, odd the cowl is 2.5 but it really looks like the hood will be cut a little less than that, hmmmm.
I installed the hood bumpers on it, the fenders are aligned and all that just in case you are wondering.
So I have a 2" strip of the hood if anyone you know is wanting to return a sectioned hood back to stock, the price is right.

Brian

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I really like it, I have 2 more hoods that I want to try it. I saw in a few magazines that 1 1/2" is the magic number, keep up the good work.:metal:

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Understand that the cab is sectioned 2.5 inches.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Cleaned all of the bugs off after Wednesday night's drive and threw the cover back on. Rain through the weekend and into next week.

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That took guts!

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I didn't have the guts of MARTINSR but I did get the old lady to help bleed the brakes! Then I found and got the gas pedal installed and adjusted, then while looking for the gas pedal found a new carpet for truck, so I set it in place just to see! then I crawled around installing some wiring under the dash, and the got the cruise control turn signal lever out to install in the Ididit Column tomorrow.

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Brian: I think your hood slope is nearly perfect. Why don't you just make some relief cuts in the lower part at the front and tap it in to meet the upper part?

.

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...like I said in post #3176, more or less. Lookin' GREAT !!

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That's basically what I am going to do. The thing is the top may need to come down a bit further to meet the bottom. Remember it's sitting right on top of it now in the photo and they are a half inch apart! So bending them out and in to match, there will still be a gap between them so the top will need to come down a bit more. THAT was the mistake I made, should have left more, I thought a half an inch was enough, and it wasn't.

Brian

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Sorry I stole your idea. But great minds think alike!

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No, it's all good! It's just that I seldom get things right... :lol:

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Ok...............................I got to working on the hood and have decided to go in a different direction. You can see from my first few photos I have marked the center of the hood up on the cowl, marked and cut a few relief vertical cuts. I then split the hood into pieces so I could work with one piece at a time. Then after working with these pieces a bit bending at the relief cut and wrestling with it, I have decided to go a whole different direction. As many people have suggested I am going to bring the top forward, and split the front out to line up that cut around the front. I will then tack it here and there, bolt the rear of the upper pieces together and then once it's tacked into place I will split the front center, cutting it along the body line where the center moulding goes as I plan on using it. I will bring the center strip together and filling the gap to the sides of the it. I will then add to the rear of the hood making it long enough. I didn't want to do all these welds out in the center of the hood but heck, I ran the seam through the middle of the roof gas welding it with zero warpage I can pull this off damn it!

Brian

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The rear of the hood will need to be lengthened about a half an inch.

Brian

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Perfect. What size wheel tire?

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This is way over my pay grade, but I think I would have preserved the back line at the cowl so I wouldn't have to deal with messing with the hinges and the crease for the center trim piece. That said, I'm not there, dealing with all of the other problems. When Foose did his Dad's '56 F-100 truck he "just" massaged the cut:

https://www.chipfoose.com/chips-56-f100/

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The hinges won't change, all that stays the same, yep welding those long welds on unsupported metal is an issue, but reshaping that front would take a LOT of relief cuts and covering that area with bondo or covering the rear with bondo, what the heck, it's a toss up.

Brian

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Well, you're the one living the dream, not me, and you have much more experience! Go for it!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

How about this for an option: build the cowl out to meet the hood instead. Way less warpage than that big floppy hood edge.

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Very good idea, I thought about that, may just do it.

Brian

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MartinSr. is that spi grey epoxy? i have used the black and the red..

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Yep, so far so good. Used the black on chassis parts and under the cab.

Last night, most certainly 5 minutes was about it. I did get my wife's 1957 Murray Hot Rod put together so I can clean it up and sell it. She is not a biker and we have stored it for 25 years in the shed, think it's about time. I'm going to sell my '39 Columbia hot rod bike too, so we don't have to move them to Idaho and store them there right?

But I also got some planning and thinking on the hood done too, really thinking I am going to split the front and move the top forward, I am really thinking this now. It lines up pretty good, pretty amazing in fact.

The one thing that is surprising me is the bracket that goes across the back that the hood hinges mount to. I carefully shortened the right one the 2.5 inches that the cab is sectioned to, and the way the thing rotates as it moves on the hinges some how changes all that and I am about 3/8" to short! With the hood side sitting there in place the bracket at the proper height in the middle, it is at least 3/8" up off the bottom of the hood where it mounts!

Soooooo, thank goodness I didn't do the other side yet and I only tack welded this side together so I can go back that 3/8" or so. The funny thing is I had to work my butt off shaving this and that to get that 3/8"! 3/8" up will be much less work, so that's good.

Tacking and trial fitting saved my butt on this one!

Brian

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you just can't leave well enough alone can you? haha.
gonna be tracking you on this one. looks like it's gonna be a geometry project.

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I had a professional auto appraiser check out my GTX and '58 to prepare for an insurance review. The inspection process was very thorough and he asked some really good questions, it will take a couple days to research comparable vehicle pricing and put the report together. When he asked what value I would put on the truck, I didn't have an answer other than high enough to avoid being totaled.

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Thanks for the reminder: now that my truck is running and driving it's time to increase my agreed value coverage!

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I was devastated that I had nothing to post here last night, what did I do on my truck, not a damn thing. But alas, I forget that yesterday I called LMC and ordered my bed cross sills and mounting bolts and blocks. So YES I did do something on my truck, WHOOO HOOOOO!

My cross sills by the way had to be gotten for a 47-49 because I am running the tank on the frame under the bed that they used in those years before it got moved behind the seat in the cab.

Brian

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That’s where I’m coming from. My GTX was last appraised in ‘06 so I wanted to be sure coverage aligns with current market value. It came back $20K higher than the ‘06 number.

The truck came in at $50K which is probably a fair number, although I wouldn’t sell it for that due to sentimental reasons. Now I can upgrade the agreed value coverage with the confidence that I won’t take a financial hit if something bad happens.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

285 50 18 on 10" rim's.