1955 Long Distance Build

[caseyjones]

The truck made it out to me a couple of weeks ago and I've been spending a bunch of time going over it and updating my plans for it.

The carrier picked up the truck in eastern South Dakota on Thursday, I had been expecting an open trailer but it got to ride inside...


And it arrived in Portland in the pouring rain on Saturday:


I got it pushed into the garage and started work on the rear suspension. I had put together a setup from Ranger leaf springs and 4x4 fabrication stuff, but I was really unhappy with the shackle hangers/crossmember and wanted to clean it up. I ended up using stock Ranger shackles and built pockets in the frame for them.



I'm pretty happy with it, I have 3" blocks in there right now and ride height should be close to where I want it once I put the bed back on. I'm going to rethink the shock mounting after I get the rear end housing set and welded in.

I'm also rethinking the brake system - I have the through-floor pedal setup installed but the pedal arm hits the exhaust manifold and it looks like it would interfere with the column shifter linkage too. Plus routing exhaust around the area looks impossible. I ordered a firewall booster mount to see if I like that better.