Project "Molly" - 1952 Chevy 3100 S10 swap

[dettmer13]

Well, after lurking the site, I've finally decided to start my build thread. My wife has always liked these style Chevys (and my father in law retired from GM, so I had to build a Chevy). I am active duty in the Army, so when I finally moved back to Georgia, I decided it was time to find one. I bought this truck from a Baptist preacher in South Carolina, and the S10 at the same time.

My plans for the truck are to swap the body over to the S10 frame, put in a 5.3L LM7 paired with a 700R4 transmission. Thinking about putting in a Ford 8.8 rear end, but haven't quite been sold on the idea yet.

This is when I bought the truck:


Floors are rotted out of it.


The truck was hit from behind and it pushed the bed into the cab. THe fact that someone put a 1/4" steel plate as the bed floor probably didn't help.


Dash is in good shape though

[dettmer13]

I started disassembly as soon as I got it home. As always, there are more issues than what was originally seen or expected. More pics of the disassembly.

Front clip came off pretty easily


Under that steel plate, the original bed floor was still intact, well, somewhat...


You can see the damage to the cab here. The bed came off in rusty pieces. Sounds like a problem for future me...


Not much left of the cab floor.


Stripped frame!!!

[dettmer13]

I figured I'd start with the front clip and move my way back on the body work. I started with the hood to get my metal working legs back under me.





Had some small patches to weld into the hood as well, but no major fabrication. The hood latch support was really bad, but I was able to fix it.





Finished hood after a thin coat of filler to smooth things out and some primer.


Inner fenders looking pretty rough.


Just took a little TLC and a whole lots of sanding and wire wheeling. Had to weld up a few cracks but again, nothing too bad. I also used some roll-on bed liner on the road side for extra protection. I plan on doing the same for the inside of the outer fenders.





After looking over all the rust damage on the cab and the fenders, it was time to make an order from LMC truck. I ordered:

-Complete cab floor with seat support
-New cab back
-Replacement lower cowls
-Fender repair panels
-New floor pans
- Splash guards for the running boards
- a few other odds and ends.

It's like Chevy truck Christmas!!!

[dettmer13]

Now onto the fenders. The passenger side of the truck was worse all around, but I needed to weld the front and rear repair panels onto the original fender. My goal is to keep as much original metal as possible, but they were way too far gone to repair. I also had to fab up some patches for the mounting to the grill.



After the welding was done, and filler was applied to smooth things out, I hit them with the bed liner as well.


A coat of primer, and they were finished.


Starting to get a collection going here!!!!

[Advanced Design]

Welcome Dettmer...good work on the hood and fenders. Tagging along for updates.

[Root2812]

Nice progress. I was stationed at Ft Gordon for a few years. I kinda miss the area sometimes.

[iowaboynca]

Very nice.

[dettmer13]

Can someone do me a favor and measure the door opening on the cab both drivers and passenger sides? I just want to double check after all the welding I've done. If you can, please tell me the points of where you measured as well. Thanks!

[SalvagedSouls]

I'll follow along as well.

[hagenkustoms]

Looking good !

[dettmer13]

I figured I'd post some more progress here. I got the truck in February, but it's been so hot here in Georgia, that I haven't wanted to work in the garage. Now that the front clip is done, I went to the cab. Of course, there was WAY more rust than I thought there was. The back of the cab was way too far some and dented up to hammer and dolly, so the first step was to cut it out and start new. Holy crap, so many spot welds on the door frames.



After that, I cut the floor out. After the fact, I reealized I should've probably braced the door frame to maintain the geometry. More to come of that later. The bottoms of the frame was pretty rusted out and needed replaced. Rather than buy new, I fabricated them.





Putting the new floor pan was pretty straight forward. Everything seems to line up. I also welded in the new footwell pans as well.



Getting the new footwell pans to line up was kind of a pain, but it worked out in the end.



The bottoms of the cowls were pretty bad as well, so new ones are going in. The welds are strong, but will need cleaned up and hammered out before primer and paint. Seeing as they're Chinese repop parts, I figured fitment wouldn't be the greatest.




Now time to button everything up. I had to fix the mounting surface where the cab back bolts to the truck on the top. I got a little overzealous with the welding, so some shaping needed to happen. After the new nut plates were in, it was time to install it. A little seam sealer and about 30 spot welds later, the back was installed.



I still have to clean up my spot welds and smooth them out, but I plan on doing them all at once. New seat support added in.

[SalvagedSouls]

Nice work! Pictures are great too!

[dettmer13]

Decided to work on the truck a bit more today, but first, I got my drive train!! It kinda fell into my lap. My neighbor has a wrecking service type business and I told him that I was looking for a 5.3L LM7 and a 4L60E to go with it. A few weeks later, he told me he had a motor. Long story short, he traded me the motor, a 700R4, and a Ford 8.8 rear end for the extra body parts from the S10 I'm not going to use. So basically, I got the motor for free.



Did a little cleaning of both and painted the intake. I'll clean a bit more before it goes into the truck for the final time.

[dettmer13]

Now to the real issue at hand. I'm sure like the most of you, I'm having door figment issues. I figured I'd be having problems with all the welding I've done, so any input would be extremely helpful. The cap on the cowl seems right, but the rear side seems totally jacked up. Any little tricks to help?

[dettmer13]

Got a lot of progress finished this week. The cowl vent showed some rust holes, so a little more welding. Looking back, I should've had it sandblasted rather than wirewheeling and sanding. Oh well, at least I know it's done right.









I ordered my trans dapt motor mounts the other day as well. Next step is to clean up the frame and get the motor and trans mounted up. I'm going to make my own crossmember and body mounts.

[ChuckDriver]

Nice work!

[Katrina/10]

Nice work on that cab, it really looks nice now.

[dettmer13]

Thanks guys. I appreciate all the atta boys. It's been a lot of work and so much body work and welding. More to go as well. Hopefully I'll have the frame back and start mocking things up.

[Flysocal]

Awesome work so far. A little massaging here and there and the doors will fit.

[joedoh]

nice work! having neither the patience nor the skill for bodywork I sure enjoy the work of guys who do!

[Nut Case]

Dettmer13

Sometimes I'm really dense!

Why is blasting superior to wire wheel & sanding?

Looks like to much fun

Keep on keepin on

NC

[dettmer13]

Nut Case: Sand blasting is much more efficient at removing all the rust even deep in the pores of the steel. Media blasting and soda blasting work as well, but the bright side of not sandblasting the cab was there will be minimal warping of the metal once I'm done. I figure I've already warped it enough from all the welding I've done.

[HUSSEY]

Man, that's a lot of metal work you've put in so far. Looking good, definitely going to have a solid truck.

[II_Slow]

Damn your making that metal work look easy, guess the rest of us are just whiners!
I started my project 5 years ago and you may pass me in another 3 days.

[dettmer13]

II Case, it's been a labor of love for sure. I'm building it for my wife who had always loved these AD trucks. And I have the whole weekend off and I have a bunch of parts coming in tomorrow, so hopefully it's productive.