norms 55 chevy pu build

[Techie79]

Awesome project. Definitely following along.

Someone else may correct me on this but I did the same repair on one of my hinge pockets a couple weeks ago. I noticed in the pics that you dont have any welds on the side of the door close to the outside skin. Mine had a spot weld there on the support that comes off of the hinge pocket. Seems like that is needed to take some of the strain off of the inner door skin.

[washington blue]

Originally Posted by Techie79

Awesome project. Definitely following along.

Someone else may correct me on this but I did the same repair on one of my hinge pockets a couple weeks ago. I noticed in the pics that you dont have any welds on the side of the door close to the outside skin. Mine had a spot weld there on the support that comes off of the hinge pocket. Seems like that is needed to take some of the strain off of the inner door skin.

Thanks, If you look at the pictures you can see 4 shiny spots on the side of the door. That is where I had already ground down the 4 welds. Also in the first picture you can see where I circled all the spot welds I could find with a Magic marker, I also added a weld further twards the center of the door where there had not been welds before in hopes to spread the force out some, which is represented by the circle I drew kinda off by itself with a tiny question mark by it. Norm

[Techie79]

Originally Posted by washington blue

Thanks, If you look at the pictures you can see 4 shiny spots on the side of the door. That is where I had already ground down the 4 welds. Also in the first picture you can see where I circled all the spot welds I could find with a Magic marker, I also added a weld further twards the center of the door where there had not been welds before in hopes to spread the force out some, which is represented by the circle I drew kinda off by itself with a tiny question mark by it. Norm

Looks like you have a few less spot welds than I do in mine. Guess the production guys must have been getting lazy on a Friday .

Here are some pics from my repair. On the first one I have circled the weld point on the hinge pocket support and on the second the missing weld I was referring to. Hope it helps.

[washington blue]

Techie, you are 100% correct about having welds in places I don't. I can see how that one specific weld would stiffen the area. Looks like you have about 4 more welds than I did. It also looks like you have fine threads in the 3 nuts, where I have coarse threads

[Techie79]

Originally Posted by washington blue

Techie, you are 100% correct about having welds in places I don't. I can see how that one specific weld would stiffen the area. Looks like you have about 4 more welds than I did. It also looks like you have fine threads in the 3 nuts, where I have coarse threads

I may be overthinking it but it looks like having that extra weld on that outer support would help prevent the door around the hinge pocket from flexing as much and the outer support from pulling away from the door when the hinge hit the end of its travel outward. I beleive the threads on mine are coarse also. I will have to go check it.

[washington blue]

There had been a couple different mirrors on this door over time so I decided to try and fix that area and it turned out ok. Now I have both doors hung and have been adjusting and working on gaps between doors and cab. I am also trying to decide about getting the Altman bear claw latches. norm

[Kim57]

Repair looks good.
Kim

[washington blue]

Thanks, I had to do some work to the lower corners where 20 years ago I had welded in corners. I should have done more hammer and dolly work at that time but didn't so now I fix. I did some welding on the corner to make a crisp corner then ground it down. I know I cheated doing it this way but I did not want to cut the corner out again on an other wise good fix. It will take a little bit of bondo to make it perfect but so will all of the truck. Please excuse the really crappy picture. norm

[washington blue]

I found this picture from 20 some years ago when I was working on the rear fenders.

[washington blue]

been working on the edges of the driver fender. Hard to believe the gaps were that bad from the factory, places they were off by nearly a quarter inch. Got a little to do on the top along the hood to finish this fender.

[dug224]

Nice project. Good work on the hinge pocket. Along for the ride. dug

[washington blue]

I finally got the driver side front fender done. The gap at the top was bad, don't know if I screwed it up 20 years ago or it is just factory bad, but it is better now. The hood seems to jut out just a little bit at the back corner. Next I will look over the passenger side and I know it is rougher than the driver side.

[Kim57]

Repair looks real nice.
Kim

[washington blue]

It's been a while, I haven't been too busy on the 55 but I have done some this winter. I decided to get a new passenger fender for the front as my repairs from long ago with my torch were not so great and I was very successful at warping a few places, a nice clean new fender was a good choice with just a little work it is a nice fit, equal to factory I'd say.

[washington blue]

The main reason I am slow on the 55 is during the summer I play with the A in the background.

[washington blue]

I have an 80 Firebird subframe to put under the front end, you can see it on the right. This is what I have been working on the last few days. The first thing I did was to build this frame so I know where the 2 bolts go that hold the whole front end in place.

[washington blue]

It's time to cut the frame so first I measured a bunch and welded on square tubing which is square front to rear and side to side. This way I have a couple reference points when the 55 front goes away.

[dsraven]

before you cut do a couple of quick measures to ensure the frame is square and straight.
corner to corner, front right to left rear, then the other way and compare. 1/8" is acceptable
down the middle. mark each cross member at the mid point side to side, then run a stringline, or laser if you have one, down the middle from the front to the rear and see if all the midpoint marks line up. wouldn't wanna install that front clip onto a bent frame. waaay better to straighten it first.
good luck, keep the pics coming. you have our interest now.

[dsraven]

I see the original trans cross member is gone. you may end up having to beef up that area because that is what keeps the cab mounts where they should be. if you start having trouble with the door fitment that could be the cause.
just info for you.you may already have a plan.

[washington blue]

Thanks, dsraven I have been measuring over and over making the X measurements. In the last photo you can see a screw driver stuck into a hole. The assembly manual says this is a reference hole. I am thinking this was used to measure or clamp somehow when the frame was riveted together. I have been using these 2 holes for my forward most points to measure front to rear and X measuring too and everything seems to be square, knock on wood.

[dsraven]

sounds good, just checking. some would just cut away and pay the price later.

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by washington blue

It also looks like you have fine threads in the 3 nuts, where I have coarse threads

one of the minor changes from 55-7 to 58-9 is fine thread bolts in door hinges

looks like a good build, did you build the T?

[washington blue]

Yes Ogre I did build the A in the background in that picture, was a 4 year project, learned a lot. Here is a picture of one of the ways I measured the 55 frame, and as I worked my way forward I found similar straightness. In the photo the X measurement was off less than 1/16 of an inch. Measuring the Firebird subframe will be tougher as it is not flat, I hope it goes well too.

[washington blue]

In my last post you can see the rear end. It is an 83 Camaro 10 bolt and the car it was in had like a 307 no power engine. I am wondering if it is strong enough for a 5.3 from about a 2003 chevy 2 wheel drive pickup in bone stock condition with a stock automatic transmission behind it? this rear end is the same width as the stock 55 was, which is why it was put in there. Thanks, Norm

[dsraven]

i would say run it as is. if it blows up doing burnouts or whatever it would be easy enough to replace it with another 83 camaro diff but maybe a more high perf camaro from same vintage. it's a pretty light truck out back so the wheels will likely spin pretty easily unless you do some custom traction control device.
at least it would put that cost forward a bit unless you know of a high perf camaro diff or some other donor with the same width and bolt pattern.