Got it one piece at a time... 51 chev

[LOW A D]

I have built several old trucks over the years, both for myself and for customers, but I have been without an old truck, in running condition, for about three years. When I sold my last one I thought I would build another truck right away,but that didn't happen till now! This winter I am not taking on any customer restoration work and want to build this truck for myself! I started on the chassis in spring, camaro subframe in front, built my own rear section of frame,but got busy with other things over the summer. Now that winter is back,had our first snow this morning, I should be able to spend more time in the shop. Plans are to keep it simple, 350, automatic,etc. I have collected most of the parts for this build over the last few years, mostly by trading either labor or other parts, so this should be a fairly inexpensive build. I have never posted ant of my builds before but I enjoy seeing others projects, so I hope some of you will enjoy my build too. This is how the truck sits as of right now.

[T_Raven]

sounds a lot like mine. I just picked up a bed from one guy, and a cab and front end from another. I have a spare 2nd gen Firebird sub frame I was going to use and build rear rails for, and I have a spare 350, though mine's a Pontiac

[LOW A D]

Spent the afternoon cleaning mouse dropping, etc, out of the cab. Cab has some rust issues but not too bad. Hope to be able to spend some time on truck this week

[LOW A D]

This is what I started with this morning. I know these pics are not that exciting,but I'm hoping that by posting pics from the start of my build, I will stay motivated and have pics to look back on. In my previous builds I never took enough pics during the build and was always sorry at the end

[LOW A D]

This is where my day ended. Got steering column and firewall insulation out, a few shovels of dirt and debris, and most of the old wiring. Also cut out seat riser as I will not use stock seat. Found cab to be about what I expected. Will need new floor pieces, rear cab corners, and some work at lower cowl area. Not much progress, but progress non the less!

[alaska gasser]

You have to stop and build one for yourself once in awhile. That's what I'm doing with my '48.

[Daze57]

low A D

o yeah !!!!!!!!!

[alaska gasser]

That is sweet!!

[LOW A D]

This is my engine/ transmission donor. Truck looks pretty tired, but the previous owner put in a new GM crate engine and GM rebuilt transmission about a year before he parked it. My sons had a lot of fun driving this truck in the field behind our house, they learned some things about driving that are not covered in a normal drivers training course! Now the power train will live on in my 51.

[LOW A D]

Many years ago I built this dolly as a temporary way to roll a cab around. I built it out of scrap I had laying around at the time, thinking it would be a one time use dolly. I found it was very handy and have used it many times over the years for moving cabs, boxes, engines, and even used it to move my lathe and iron worker into place. I add welded brackets as needed for the current use. When I'm done using the dolly, it comes apart quickly for storage. Just thought this might give somebody a useful idea.

[LOW A D]

Gues I can only attach one pic at a time? Here is dolly ready to use, it adjust to any width.

[99 to Life]

can't wait to see this unfold. My first truck build was a 51' so I got a super soft spot for that year. This site is by far the best compilation of AD truck builds on the web.

[LOW A D]

Originally Posted by 99 to Life

can't wait to see this unfold. My first truck build was a 51' so I got a super soft spot for that year. This site is by far the best compilation of AD truck builds on the web.

Thanks, I am getting my parts together and doing a little work on truck each day. Hope to get some serious work happening soon, stay tuned

[LOW A D]

So, about two years after my last post, I'm back to working on my truck! I often wondered what happens to people who start a build and then disappear. I now know life can throw you a curve ball and everything can change in a heartbeat. Right about the time I made my last post, my wife started to feel sick. Long story short, she kept getting sicker, after many trips to doctors we found out she had cancer. Within six months she passed away! So needless to say, my project was put on hold for a while. We did everything together, we were married for 32 years, almost to the day. I figured its about time to get back on my truck project, I find shop time to be good therapy! So the last few weeks I've started to figure out where I was at and got back on the build. I have been working on fixing rust on the cowl area and made some new floor pieces. I know you can buy new floors but I decided to make my own

[99 to Life]

welcome back, so sorry for your loss. words can't really describe it I'm sure. You've been married longer than i'v been alive. its a strange world and universe which I go nuts trying to figure out its meaning. Sometimes the simple things are the answer. I just told myself today actually. "you don't make your own life, life makes you". In a nutshell, life creates the day or the action and we create a reaction.

[LOW A D]

Spent a few hours on my truck today , got one cab corner installed. I know this has been shown many times before but here are some pics. The corners were in decent shape, no rust holes, but metal was getting thin and the corner had been damaged at some point so I replaced it. The inner panel had some rot so I made a patch and welded it in so the outer corner had a solid lip to mount to. This is the patch for the inner corner

[LOW A D]

This is the inner panel all patched up with a coat of paint

[LOW A D]

Outer corner installed. I butt weld all my patches and try to get the metal as close to straight as I can. This corner of the cab had some old body damage that was repaired very poorly so it will need some straightening before I apply the filler. Not a lot of progress but I'm trying to do something on the truck every day!

[99 to Life]

nice patch, love seeing patch work, never gets old to me.

[ptc]

AD good to see you back here, and condolences to you Sir. You are so right in that working on these projects is great therapy for the mind and soul.

Good luck on your project.

[LOW A D]

Today I took off a good part of the day to run errands. I found some seats I liked at my favourite wrecking yard. I need the seats so I can start positioning my steering column, pedals, etc. I ended up choosing a pair of leather buckets out of a Cobalt SS. They are not power seats but they can be adjusted up and down manually and I like how they sit. The headrest will be removed. I'm not crazy about the embroidered SS emblem but I hope my interior guy can sew in a new panel to eliminate the emblem and cover the headrest mounting holes

[LOW A D]

I did get to spend a bit of time in the shop. I'm tired of fixing rust so I decided to close off my gas filler hole. The area around the filler hole had been damaged and poorly repaired and had a long crack in the metal so I'm making a patch big enough to fix the whole area

[LOW A D]

This is the size of patch I decided to make

[lower50's]

Sorry for the loss of your sweet heart. Cancer sucks!! My step mom went through it and now my dad is dealing with it, but doing good as can be. I also wonder what happens to some ppl's builds, loose interest, life changes? Glad your back at it. It seems it is therapy for many of us.

[LOW A D]

Got the filler hole area all fixed up today. Pic makes the patch look high but it feels straight. Ready for a skim coat