'52 Chevy 1300 Canadian 5 Window

[motorhead153]

Well here we go. I've been planning, collecting and building this truck in my mind for 5+years. I don't have every single part I need to complete it but it'll never get done unless I get going on it.

Since this is my first build of this magnitude and the idea of the build is to hit the vision in my head as cost effective as possible. I've Decided on the typical S10 chassis swap and use Sarge's instruction manual for a basis to get me going. Thanks Sarge BTW!

[motorhead153]

So I started with a clapped out S10 that I scored from a neighbor that I had never meet or talked to because frankly he looked like an ax murderer...Well long story short I exchanged the keys for 150.00 and managed to drive away with the truck without bring buried under it

Fast forward 4ish years a new home and a lot of life in between and the S10 had slowly lost some weight and thats where we are in this first picture.



Once I had some time to get to it things moved briskly

[motorhead153]

Since I had bought the S10 for so cheap I knew that I will likely have to shorten the frame to land at the correct wheel base. So I inspected the chassis with the cab off and threw up some questions on the forum, with some help I came up with a game plan and dug in!

I supported the chassis with 8 adjustable legs, borrowed a transit laser level, shot the chassis in, recorded measurements at 12 different locations, welded in 4 square points and cut the sucker apart

[motorhead153]

Once every thing was done I was able to get the height to within 1/16 of an inch and to 1/32 of square. Happy with that I whipped up the body mounts using the plans supplied by the fine gentlemen on this forum.






That made it time to get the 52 into the garage. Since the cab that I have is basically what is left of a striped out farm truck there is no easy way to roll it around. So I scabbed some crap together and got it into the garage lol

[motorhead153]

Once the cab was in the garage I tore it down and welded in a frame using 1x1hss so that I could move it around with my engine hoist without having to call in favors every time I needed help







I then set the cab on the chassis and started really digging in.

[faribran]

I like your project and your progress!!

[motorhead153]

After digging in and to no surprise I found 4-5 inches of dirt/mud and tools and beer cap in the cab corners and a fair bit of rust in the common areas of these cabs. Since the majority of the metal work that has to be done is in the front cab mount area I figured the best way and most cost effective way to access it was for the cab to be on a stand. So again with 1x1hss is whipped up a stand to set it on.

[NorCalGal]

Looks like you're well on your way. I'm intrigued

[chewychevy67]

That's going to be a cool truck!

[84blaze]

Cool! In for progress!

[motorhead153]

As live gets with family, kids, and work, I've been slowly picking away at the rust damage caused by the 60 odd years of farm use and abuse. I've been making decent progress despite not being a body man or all that good at metal work.

[motorhead153]

The drivers side was by far the worst side of the two. I maybe should have bought the replacement floor pans and firewall sections but once it's all said and done everything covered by seam sealer, undercoating, and sound mat, ect so my scabby metal work will only be a memory haha.

[motorhead153]

Mostly finished up

[motorhead153]

From the day we got the cab both doors would not shut or latch, the thing must have been pretty twisted for the loss of structural strength. Now with most of the fab and weld completed the door closes and latched with one finger, Success!!



Both cab corners have rust and those are getting repaired also, but the driver side had some damage and was partially repaired at some point. So I got the hammer and dolly out and tried my hand at cleaning it up some.

[joedoh]

thats a neat idea on making wider wheels. I would like to try that with some late model camaro 18's, either flip the centers or at least change the offset to negative.

nice work on the repairs too

[lower50's]

Cool beans dude. I like where you are going with this. The York compressor will work great I have had one on my Jeep for years filling tires and whatever. Use air compressor oil in it, the oil does not hurt rubber.

[Matt_50]

Wow dude, I wish I had your skill and confidence. Looking great, and the wheels look good. I like what you said about covering up scabby metal work with sealer, undercoating and sound mat. Ive kept the same idea in my head since I started but your metal work is awesome compared to mine.

[motorhead153]

Originally Posted by joedoh

thats a neat idea on making wider wheels. I would like to try that with some late model camaro 18's, either flip the centers or at least change the offset to negative.

nice work on the repairs too

Thanks! I like this idea, which Camaro wheels are you refering to?

Originally Posted by lower50's

Cool beans dude. I like where you are going with this. The York compressor will work great I have had one on my Jeep for years filling tires and whatever. Use air compressor oil in it, the oil does not hurt rubber.

Thanks! I really like the idea of the York, from what I was told their output is really good and much quieter than electric ones, and since I'll have a 11g tank on board I can use it for more than just the bags.

Originally Posted by Matt_50

Wow dude, I wish I had your skill and confidence. Looking great, and the wheels look good. I like what you said about covering up scabby metal work with sealer, undercoating and sound mat. Ive kept the same idea in my head since I started but your metal work is awesome compared to mine.

Thanks, Not gonna lie it took me a while to get my confidence where it is haha. I spent a lot of time reading and watching videos to get my head around what I was taking on, and yet that still didn't prepare me enough.

I'm still nervous about welding in the outer panels but I feel like, if I take my time it should go well.

[vintovka]

Wow! Great work. Makes me really appreciate the lack of such serious rust on mine. Keep it up.