My Dream 1950 Chevy

[Lripka1950]

That's primarily the brand's I was looking at, biggest problem I have is that I don't have 220 in the garage but I could pull it from my laundry room.

I was looking at floor pans today, with the floor and part of the angled part of the firewall missing would it be worth it to purchase a complete floor pan to save time?

I started to to look at pullys, alts, starters, ext. For the engine I need to get this truck running anyone have a good resource to look at for the smallblock?

[morgan71]

Originally Posted by Lripka1950

That's primarily the brand's I was looking at, biggest problem I have is that I don't have 220 in the garage but I could pull it from my laundry room.

I was looking at floor pans today, with the floor and part of the angled part of the firewall missing would it be worth it to purchase a complete floor pan to save time?

I started to to look at pullys, alts, starters, ext. For the engine I need to get this truck running anyone have a good resource to look at for the smallblock?

Alan Grove components is a good source for pulleys and brackets

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by Lripka1950

I was looking at floor pans today, with the floor and part of the angled part of the firewall missing would it be worth it to purchase a complete floor pan to save time?

a complete floor pan is a huge project to install because there are supports under the floor that have to be drilled on the spotwelds and left behind. but if your pan is truly gone, it might be a better option.

Originally Posted by Lripka1950

I started to to look at pullys, alts, starters, ext. For the engine I need to get this truck running anyone have a good resource to look at for the smallblock?

I gave this advice in your other thread, but try to avoid spreading your money and time around. mount the body, fix the floor, get it running. none of those tasks are a "sunday afternoon to monday morning" kind of project. I have seen a lot of projects on this website come and go, more than get finished. the guys who finish stick to a plan. the guys who buy parts build box forts and sell the project when its time to actually start working because a huge pile of parts is daunting.

just being real with you. I want to see it finished as much as you do, I love seeing these old trucks cruising around.

[Lripka1950]

Yea I hear ya, I think putting more TIME into the project will be the better option, I'm going make Momma happy by getting the basement finished " only trim left" thankfully I busted my butt the last year and it's almost finished 95% was done myself.

But in the meantime I will be able to get my manuals here and start looking at all the specs, get the truck setup in the garage and pull off the body getting a better look at it and the chassis.

Once it's in the garage I will post pics of the cab and get opines for the gallery on the best way to tackle the cab floor.
I did find out that the chassis is a 96 and the trans isn't standard it auto, which would exlain the chevy auto steering column. It did come with petals and another bracket I believe for the petals but I'm not 100.

I won't be purchasing anything but essential tools and components like I was advised to get the body mounted and engine running.

I also have my son's first car outside that needs a little work done on it. But at least it is driveable needs a new chapter axle and lower control arm it's pretty much his X-Mass gift.

[Lripka1950]

I could be over reacting based on what I see myself about the cab floor but for what I paied for it and the fact that I have a lot of patch pannels lower doors, cab corners, rockers, kickplates, floor plates and all the extras I think I have enough metal there to pretty much rebuild the entire floor pan.

[joedoh]

I had a 49 that looked pretty rust free but some jackhole shot up the truck from the back and one bullet popped out the windshield seal, not a hole, but pushed it out away from the metal and water just poured in and sat on the floor. the floor in front of the seat was probably 85% gone but behind the seat it was better, and those two patch panels you have fixed it. I drilled all the spot welds and left the structure under the floor and then laid down the new floor and welded it to the supports again. there was some rust on the firewall but flat sheet took care of it.

if your floor sounds like that, you may not need a whole cab floor. honestly, if your plans are for a cool retro cruiser you may find you dont want to replace literally everything thats rusted just yet.

[Lripka1950]

Ok well that concerns me a little now from your explanation of your cab, there is literally nothing in the bottom of the cab.

[joedoh]

sounds like all the floor supports are gone too. how about a picture?

does the entire floor replacement come with the supports on it? I dont remember

[Lripka1950]

I will get more pics up, but the main supports are still there I believe all the sheet metal is gone. I do believe it comes with the supports.

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by Lripka1950

I will get more pics up, but the main supports are still there I believe all the sheet metal is gone. I do believe it comes with the supports.

if all the supports are still there it sounds like your job is halfway done! use the patch panels you have and under the seat just use flat sheetmetal, 16ga oughta do it.

cutting out the supports will let the body sag, it may be imperceptible or it may be obvious, but cutting out the supports means you need to brace the body laterally and diagonally beforehand. that makes it fun to get the complete floor in too haha

[Lripka1950]

Lady luck is falling my way for the floor pans just part of the firewall and the part in front of the seat mount is going to need repair.

[Lripka1950]

All the extra parts for the truck were packed inside the cab when I was taking pictures so it was hard to see everything.

[gigamanx]

I'm not the one who did the rear end swap. I happened to have had a long bed already. This thread is the most recent I can think of, but not very descriptive

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=750872

Anytime you're in E-town, give me a holler. I'm maybe 15 minutes from there.

This might be the link everyone talks about. Photobucket broke the pictures, so I "borrowed" them for you

https://www.killbillet.com/showthrea...-(step-by-step)

Normally what guys use for these swaps is a long bed regular cab S10 because the wheel base is almost perfectly matched to the 48 truck's 116" wheelbase. My donor is a short bed and only 108" so I had to correct this issue. The cool thing is that the front leaf spring mounts are riveted to the frame. I just popped the rivets out, moved teh mounts back 8" and drilled new holes and bolted them on with grade 8 bolts. the rear hole on the bottom could not be bolted due to interference with some bracing so I just plug welded that hole and welded around that end of the mount.





Now for the rear mounts. The rear mount is kinda built into the frame:





...so I couldn't slide those back very easily. So after a little measuring I cut the last 11" off the frame on both sides and swaped them side to side effectively moving the rear mounts back 8".









Then we threw the springs and 8.8 under it:

[Lripka1950]

Thanks GIG now I have an idea of what I need to do when I cross that bridge

[gigamanx]

Originally Posted by Lripka1950

That's primarily the brand's I was looking at, biggest problem I have is that I don't have 220 in the garage but I could pull it from my laundry room.

I was looking at floor pans today, with the floor and part of the angled part of the firewall missing would it be worth it to purchase a complete floor pan to save time?

I started to to look at pullys, alts, starters, ext. For the engine I need to get this truck running anyone have a good resource to look at for the smallblock?

Two items. I put in a 220v with about $40 worth of parts from home depot. I am not an electrician at all! I cheated by just making one end of the junction box a dryer plug then added two outlets...one dryer, one welder. Plug the dryer into the new dryer plug and welder when you need it. I then got a 50ft welding cable from Amazon and voila, welder in the garage

I would heed JoeDoh's message not to gather a bunch of parts too soon. That's how I burned money early on was getting stuff I thought I would need. By the time I got to that point in the project, I had learned enough to realize I needed different stuff.

My 350 came without any accessory drive. I got a new starter. I spent a boat load of money getting that stupid thing running. A few ways to research:

1. Will it be cheaper to find a donor 350 that rebuild that one?
2. It will be cheaper to find the full accessory drive from a late model truck like a Silverado. I believe mine was from a 1995 Chevy 1500. On CL or eBay, you can grab the whole set of brackets and pulleys for maybe $200. eBay search "sbc 350 serpentine" you'll see what I mean.
3. Hit up a junk yard and pull all the accessories from a 350.

The most expensive way is to do what I did...source each part new and try and hobble it together only to turn around and have to go with option #2 because there are a hundred options that don't work together haha.

[joedoh]

be careful with dryer plugs some are only rated at 30A and a welder doing frame work might be more than 40. check your breaker box for the rating on the dryer outlet and dont just swap the breaker if its 30, the breaker is sized to protect the wire.

most breaker boxes are in the garage now a days so pulling a 6/3 into the (shut off) box and wiring in a 50A breaker and a 50A plug is not really a problem. if you havent done anything like this, its an hour job for an electrician and about $50 in parts, if the breaker box is in the garage that is.

I dug up a couple pictures of the supports under the floor, I drilled holes and "spot welded" the new pieces to the supports (not shown, although it does show my terrible cut around the battery box haha, still dont miss that one)

IMG_2345 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_2346 by Joe Doh, on Flickr


you can see there is plenty of strength to build the mounts and hold the cab even without the sheet of the floor, just the supports.

[Lripka1950]

Thanks for the tips, I did already ask my counterpart at work he is the electric shop instructor and he advised even with the Flux core I would need a designated 30 amp. I have no more room in my pannel box as of right now, and my main pannel is in my mechanical room in the basement, it will take me a little figuring out to drop a sub pannel,in my garage but it may be worth the time and little cash for the appropriate power source right there in the garage.

On the engine this is the same engine that the previous owner intended to use in his everyday driver along with the trans, I will verify that this engine is good to go, there is some new components already mounted like the fuel pump, from what I could see already and there is a new manifold as well.

On a really good not my project just got a much needed financial bump, needless to say my contractor has to pay "re-emburse" us 15k for the floors that he installed and voided our warranty. So we will have a nice X-Mass bonus next week. This will be a great start to getting the chassis and body mounts made and mounted, along with a running engine. But like,everyone has advised body work and mounting first and get the engine running and drive this Beast down the road.

[Lripka1950]

Well look what showed up today my golden ticket.

[Lripka1950]

Forgot to add pic

[Lripka1950]

So it's been,a while since I posted, I have a little snag with the title but it's all good. So I took some more pics of the engine took the hood off to get a better look.