55 make over
 

what's up all...so we'll have this in the shop for now to do a bit of a make over. the truck was purchased back about 8yrs?? ago by a buddy of mine. what lead us down this path is about 4yrs ago we had the truck in to redo some of the interior and shave the plastic 90? model handles off. during that adventure the truck showed her true colors...a bondo build. needless to say he wanted to drive it, so we did our thing and shaved the handles, painted and sent it on the way for him to drive and enjoy. lately we just finished up a couple projects in the shop and it got him wanting to get his truck in and fix it right. so we wheeled it in yesterday and started the process to see what all she is hiding.

things on the list:
-body work all the bad areas and make right
-repaint new color
-seats reupholstered to match interior
-wheels and tires changed out
-LT1 out and LS in
-new lower A arms

Re: 55 make over
 

days 2,3; we got through the filler on the driver door, back of the cab and down the passenger side...ugly! needless to say, time vs labor we gonna have to order new doors and redo the cab corners. i have no idea what they had going on with the back of this cab, but they beat the loving $hit out of it and filled it in (sorry the nicest way i can say it). the doors consist of a wave in the paneling and a crease along the lower side, along where the handles were the body line was cut out and built up with filler. then the edge that meets the fender has some kind of work done to it covered under 1/4" filler... but the door ran an average of 1/8" to 1/4" of filler and the back of the cab ran the same thickness. we're not even going to waste time on passenger door, we can tell by the edges that it to is caked. the gas cab filler plate was far from being welded in flush and the cab corners were overlapped onto the body. (i'm not against folks using fillers BUT i believe at staying not more than a 1/16")

Attachment 2236181

Re: 55 make over
 

day 4: today we started in on the mess. sprayed some rattle can on it and blocked out to see the low spots and start in. worked with the puller, hammer dolley, add some heat here and there, run the shrinker over it. We've made some progress i guess, but more to go. the center of the cab is the worse of it all, those two low spots in the center were filled in with about 1/4" of filler!

Re: 55 make over
 

overall its a sharp looking truck. I had the LT-4 version of that engine in my 32 ford. Running a Gen V LT-1 in the 55 now. What's the plan for the new color?

Re: 55 make over
 

not to for sure, he's wanting something dark since his other vehicles are white. i found a dark green with a lot of metallic in it and the flop goes almost black and if we do a darker sealer it'll make the "green" slightly darker, so we can play with that part. since he's keeping the interior color the light tan, we can do just about anything. we just finished up a 57' belair shell for a customer (from bare metal, to paint) and its color was similar to the truck, but the belair had way more metallic and flop in it, so he likes that affect (pictures do this color no justice). the color on the truck now is very low metallic.

Re: 55 make over
 

Nice, that Belair running C4 suspension?

Re: 55 make over
 

yes. sitting on an art morrison chassis, coil overs, with a 6.2 LS3 sitting in it. this is setup as a roller for our end of the work. he has i believe c7 vette rims for it and lined out for a full TMI interior and polished trim. should look great when done out. it headed back home about 2wks ago.

Re: 55 make over
 

day 5: had a few little things going on today so i did this when i could. i started to take down some of their welds around the gas cap they filled in and just like the cab corners their filler plate sat partially on top of the hole. so i cut out the old, made a new one and did what i could. still have a pin hole or two to fill in but at least it shouldn't require 1/4" of filler now. the back of the cab is slowly coming along. we got it to stop tin canning and now my low spots are just a slight hair gap (under 1/16") under my straight edge. i'll probably work out the bottom edge and hit everything a bit more with the shrinker and call it good?

Re: 55 make over
 

Thanks for sharing. It is a good project to follow and with daily progress. The truck looked nice before but I see it had some issues

Re: 55 make over
 

day 6; didn't really go as planned. hammer/dolley and ran the shrinker over the back area of cab and scared it with 40grt then ran a skim of duraglass on the back of cab area and thats about it. started feeling like crap (stupid oklahoma weather, warm, cold, warm, cold) and went home. meanwhile my buddy is gonna be doing what he can and I'll be back at it soon.

Re: 55 make over
 

day 7: got the heads back from NAPA, we had them redecked, valve job, checked over and wanted them vatted cleaned and looking new if possible. apparently the vatting is not what it use to be, they still had dirt in the bolt holes, all over the head and still had paint pen marks on it. so i spent pretty much 3/4 of the day foaming them out with Gunk cleaner. i then got to work with a brass brush to clean out the guts and took a small soft steel wheel to the outside to get the dirt out of the pits. they turned out nice. i went ahead and polished the ends out for a little bit of wow factor and keep the bling on them if any part of them are seen.

ends were done in the following; DA sand with 220grt, 320grt.. then small 3" polisher; 800grt, 1200grt, 2000grt... then DA trizac; 3000grt, 5000grt, 8000grt... then hand rub polish with soft rag; SINISTER devil brew metal polish.

Re: 55 make over
 

day 8: started blocking the back of the cab and gas cap area along with the rest of the truck. hard to imagine that hey had over 1/8" over the cap area and to 1/4" going down to the cab corner and 1/8" to little over a 1/4" across the whole back! we ran over the truck with a magnet looking for any more thick areas and everything else seems to be solid, so we just started blocking over the body looking any low spots or weird areas that may show. so far everything seems to be good. we'll probably finish blocking the body out this week. the new doors and corners are on the way.

we still gotta adjust the rear end 4 link and pan hard bar a little and hopefully that'll fix the unsquared part...on a side note i pray they didn't cut the rear end and got one side longer a shade than the other!? ran into rubbing issues when we put it on the stands, just have to measure and find out...and also need to look at the drum brakes on the rear i think they seized up from sitting. truck is in neutral and no free rolling

thinking about doing the caddy lights into the rear sides by the tailgate, they make the shape of the caddy tail lights already...lol

Re: 55 make over
 

moving along pretty quick. how many guys constitutes the "we"?

Re: 55 make over
 

just two of us on the truck and all the builds we do. I've got another guy building just the motor for this build (I'm done being a mechanic..lol) but I'll help with the motor swap and wire up the holley terminator when that time comes. we're hoping to be in good standings at the end of January? but we'll see..

Re: 55 make over
 

thanks. sorry i just this. the progress i just figured i put up since there isn't a major overhaul and strip down like we're use to, so it gives me some time and just to help anyone if they need it. we're happy to work on this one since its not a complete bare metal to paint project, it just sucks that it was hiding all this and you gotta show someone what they bought...but it'll be a little lighter now..lol and look the way my buddy wants it and we can put our touches on it.

Re: 55 make over
 

day 9-15; progress has been slow but we are moving forward. sanded on the bed, removed driver fender and started on scuffing down the inside of the cab and getting it ready. these bed fenders are a whole new WTF moment. the WHOLE ENTIRE fender was loaded with filler, so that took a little bit of time to remove. found all kinds of damage and a really poor attempt at fixing. i worked on the fenders for a good two days before i threw in the towel so now we've got new fenders on the way. the doors arrived in good shape we'll get them mocked up after the Christmas break.

Re: 55 make over
 

got the new cab corners in and removed the driver side yesterday and got a new on on today. the cab corners overlapped the original body by about 4", once i got the old outters off, the inner was exposed. the inner was riveted on and beginning to surface rust from the inside, so that was addressed. i welded it on from the inside and put rust preventive on it. i'll seam seal the "under show part" side and spray with liner to prevent water from getting in there.

Re: 55 make over
 

polished on the valve covers a little. didn't get to carried away cause we're going to cover them. so i gotta clean up that driver side cab corner and install the passenger side corner. then we'll get the new doors on, fix some gapping and i'll have to cut and round the corners on the new doors. getting there closer and closer.

heading out on Christmas break ya'll have a Merry Christmas! and stay warm my fellow okies it's coooolllllldd out!!!!

Re: 55 make over
 

A buddy of mine is painting his 56 chevy truck that same color. i will be done next month. I'll post a pic of it so you can get a full idea of how it would look. nice progress your making

Re: 55 make over
 

well great now we gotta do something different 😄.. ya post it up. i can see it, but he's kinda riding the fence but i know it'll look good, especially after we get a different set of rims on it. maybe a 20/22 combo? i still gotta sales pitch that to him 😁.

Re: 55 make over
 

that was a lot of filler on that fender. it looks like it held on pretty well though, from a distance anyway.
I think some guys see the big shop guys skimming a panel and they think thats how it's done. not realising that the panels they do are metalworked first so they're actually pretty smooth and straight. one of my 57 rear fenders looked pretty good when I bought it. it was sold as "original paint and patina", "from an arizona desert truck". it had surface rust on the back side but was pretty straight for an original fender. well, when I started working on it I found it was an original fender, that is, it was a stock fender not aftermarket, but somewhere along the line, years back, a locomotive had fallen on the top and flattened it. the guy who fixed it did a poor job and filled a bunch. it looked good but when the rust was sanded off the back side you could then see the big dent.
anyway,
Merry Christmas tyo you and yours. keep posting pics when you get back at it, it's looking good.

Re: 55 make over
 

i agree 100% but part of the issue is that this entire build was done at a previous shop that does full builds and restorations, so i can only imagine the # of rides they've done in the past and after this build that are junk in my personal opinion. i just hate to see people get taken of their earnings for something they've wanted or whatever the case may be. the amount of filler I've taken off the fenders is time and money and the time it took them to recarve them to shape...lol..they could've just bought new ones and been done faster and cheaper.

Re: 55 make over
 

Wow… I actually thought the truck looked pretty nice before you cut into it, but it was a hot mess for sure. I made the decision to build rather than buy for that very reason. You just never know what they painted over to make it good enough to sell. Your customer will have a much improved ride when done.

Re: 55 make over
 

bingo! bad builds like this drive people away from having a shop do them and people lose trust in other builders. i got taken by a stereo shop when i was 16yrs old. i was proud of my money being spent, then as i got into that trade i learned real fast i got took. fast forward 28yrs later and every since then i try my best to build right for folks. with all the builds we do here, we take a ton of pictures and put on a flash drive and give to the customer when its done. this way they can know everything there is about their build, we also have an open door policy for them to come in anytime and check out the work.

Re: 55 make over
 

day 16/17.. got the back of the cab sanded down to metal and found some dents and of course all they did was load them up with filler. got most of the driver side cab corner smoothed in and pretty much done just need to work the inner part of the jamb. started on the passenger side cab corner and its story is like the driver side but it had a lot more good ol Arizona sand in it to drop off here in Oklahoma. went and cleaned all the rust off of best i could. welded it in full and put some rust preventive on it.

Re: 55 make over
 

lovely work!

Re: 55 make over
 

thank ya. i should finish out the passenger tomorrow and start setting the new doors on and get them ready to cut up since they rounded off the upper corners.

Re: 55 make over
 

good to see you doing a good job where the previous shop did a quick job.
my first truck, as a teenager, I would see the cool guy driving around our small town. it was a 63 GMC long box fleetside, in primer in spots because the guy was driving it while fixing it up. I finally connected with the guy and he sold me the truck. rebuilt this and redone that, ready for paint. well, the first oil change after a week of driving was very thick oil and it smoked thereafter. the rebuild was just a paint job apparently. the bodywork was simply steel wool or fiberglass filler where the holes used to be. it was good though, in that it allowed me to learn how to torch weld sheet metal and do some customizing of my own. yep, I overpaid for the truck, but it kept me out of trouble while I rebuilt everything. those rear fenders remind me of the bodywork the dude did on my 63.

Re: 55 make over
 

post up pics of those doors when you get to it. curious to see if that cab and door combo is any better than some of the ones I have had the priviledge of working with. same cab, 6 different original doors, they all fit (or don't fit) differently.

Re: 55 make over
 

man don't jinx me before i even get started on the doors :lol: .in short i have just come to the conclusion to work gaps over anyways. i know somethings may fit well, to get something to open and close and most people are happy with that. i haven't really ran into a panel that was just absolute junk...fingers crossed. now if someone wants to have a good gap around it all then labor cost goes up. generically speaking, nowadays most panels are repops of original and early model anything was made to be assembled and sent down the road. nobody back then even knew about a 3/16 gap around every panel :lol:

we had a couple things go on today so i got to this when i could, but here is the passenger side. i'll need to do a little hammer and dolly along its seam then it outta be good enough. after the new year, its off to fit doors.

(if you want to see big gaps look at bel air!)

Re: 55 make over
 

passenger cab corner almost finished out, i need to work the vertical body line with a little more weld, shape it and then just a little hammer and dolly and should be good enough.

EVERYONE HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

Re: 55 make over
 

Coming along nice! I can relate to the terrible sheet metal work hidden by WAY too much filler. It took me 2 years to fix mine. That’s after I spent good money on what I thought was a good body. Boy was I wrong! I’ll be following.

Re: 55 make over
 

day 20?... got the doors on and now the real fun begins. the previous shop cut the door(s) upper corners and mid corners and rounded them off. i like the way it looks so we're gonna go with it. first thing we did was get the body lines lined up best we could, it really didn't take much to get that but i'm not counting us in the clear yet, because we still have to get the Altman latches working. BUT before i get the latches working i'll have to trim the door corners off to get the door to set inside its frame, soooo that's where we're rolling the dice along with whatever butcher job they've done up along the B pillar to get the old doors to fit. SO LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN :uhmk::lol:

i wouldn't judge too hard on this fitment because there has been some previous hack work done along this cabs door edge, but i'm thinking that if you had a normal stock truck and needed replacement doors these would've fit good enough for open and close with a factory gap.

Re: 55 make over
 

here's a look at the over lay of the door... i'm just going to use my former to get the radius of the corner and transfer that to the door and trim back. i'm not too worried about gaps now, i just need enough off to get the door to close and work the gap later.

Re: 55 make over
 

almost there, then off to the other side and repeat the process.. ;)

Re: 55 make over
 

looks like fun. maybe you'll end up trimming that front corner a bit more when the time comes. I was thinking of new doors for mine but that is not gonna happen, they are waaaaay too much money up here in Canada. I'll skin the old ones I guess.
keep on posting up those pics, you're doing great.

Re: 55 make over
 

thanks, we just keep chipping along. the cutting i just did was just enough to get the doors to shut and work good enough to line up the center bodyline, move the door around, get latches installed and door to open and close. when its said and done the gap around the door will run close to 3/16. i'll be adding to the edge of the door in areas with weld.

the previous shop did some type of work up and down the B pillar to work with whatever the heck they had going on? when we got the drivers door hung and working great with the latches and lining up decently with the fenders and upper part of the cab, a problem showed up mid area and down along the cab, it was an 1/8 low. so we removed more bondo from the inner pillar to find out that they had cut the area up the B pillar and welded it back! so i cut their old work out and started to fix things. as of now the cab is pretty flush with the door, so far so good.

Re: 55 make over
 

I did the same thing on my doors. Lookin great

Re: 55 make over
 

while finishing up the door edge the work bled over to the inner part of the b pillar. we started cleaning out the filler that was caked inside the pillar hiding their previous work on the latches they added in and covering the original catch location. we left their cover plate over the catch area and cut out a small section to locate the nuts on the back side. i then pondered on weather or not to just put a piece in to cover the holes and then add weld, reshape the area they used for their door catch. but i couldn't, i think it would've look like we were covering up something. so i went ahead and cut out the area and took a small patch piece and ran it through the bead roller. i had to mismatch some dies to try and get the roll, i think i got the roll good enough but not exact, but it'll work.

Re: 55 make over
 

so after finishing up the lower area, i went ahead and added some weld to the top area. took out the reamer and got to reshaping. i think overall it'll work out and not need the 1/4" of filler like they had used. i never agreed with a lot of filler being used in the inner jamb areas, too much traffic in that area that could allow for something to cause a chip.