My new 57' stepside

[Lockedup]

Hey everyone, Just thought i would post up my new project. I am new to these trucks and am pretty excited about owning this one, I have wanted one for a few years now. I am doing some trading for it and am picking it up on thursday. Heres what i know about it.

1957 chevy 3100
full roller 350
turbo 400
lowered
all new chrome
shaved handles and firewall
fuel tank relocated to under bed
uncut Original front end
disc brakes
12 bolt rear


It has everything to put the interior back together besides the window regulators and glove box. Heres a few pics of it.

[apache200]

Nice find. Looks to be in great shape

[71'tahoe]

Welcome to the board and that is a cool truck!

[Kim57]

Welcome.
Looks like a real clean truck.
Kim

[Daze57]

Very nice truck - good luck with it

[1959 Apache 3600]

Welcome and congratulations. Time to buy another... this one's about done!

[la hi]

On the picture of the motor, headers, steering gear box. How much clearance do you have from the header tube to the adjusting nut on the steering box?
Where were the headers purchased?

[Lockedup]

Thanks guys, the truck is just enough done that I can still get my feet wet in building these trucks and add my own touches to it. I am new to these trucks but I have built a few rock crawling jeeps so it's going to be exciting to switch up the style a bit
Posted via Mobile Device

[_Ogre]

very nice steel on that body, good place to start a project.

[entourageguy]

welcome!

[Maximus]

Love the custom battery relocation job! hah.. but seriously, nice SOLID truck!

[Kabwe]

Its looks to be a really solid truck you have there. Please keep us posted.

[waybad]

[Lockedup]

Well we picked up the truck yesterday and made it home with it without any issues

Its in a little rougher shape than it was explained to me, which of course led to a cheaper price which is always good for me. It needs about 50-60 hours of body work to finish it up, suspension work, something in the front end because it wobbles all over the place.

There were a few suprises though, No rust at all, already has bear claws installed, motor might be a 383 (the guy wasnt sure) eithier way its a clean strong motor, Fuel tank has already been relocated to the rear.

Overall i am extreamly happy with it, i will get some more pictures today.

What would cause the front end to feel like its wobbling all over the place? Everything feels to be tight, could it be the alignment? It hasnt been driven in 10+ years, just rolled and driven onto a trailer to move it around.

I am going to adjust the carb today and see if i can figure out whats up with the front end and drive the **** out of it while i decide the direction i want to go with it

[Lockedup]

My better half, she actually insisted we get the truck. We have been talking about getting one of these trucks for about a year now.

[jimig1]

Originally Posted by Lockedup

My better half, she actually insisted we get the truck. We have been talking about getting one of these trucks for about a year now.

That is how I ended up with my truck. I have wanted a classic car/truck for a long time. We were at a big car show here in MN called Back to the 50's and she said we should get one and i told her that we can get what ever she wanted and she picked a truck.

[Red Foreman]

Your better half has good taste...but then again you have excellent taste

[Chevette]

Originally Posted by Red Foreman

Your better half has good taste...but then again you have excellent taste

You're a bad man.....Red Foreman..........a bad man.......bad, bad.....

[Lockedup]

It Drives!!!


After getting the truck in the garage and going over everything I re-timed the engine and adjusted the carb to get it running smooth. Also i found the hopping problem, turns out when they installed the lowering springs in the rear they never finished the job, the rear spring pins where not installed and where just barely in the holes so the whole rear end was flopping all over the place. After fixing that it drove good down the road, a few vibrations here and there but overall a very exciting experience.

A few questions for you guys,


The Cragar S/S wheels that are on it, the bolt holes are oval instead of just a standard hole. This looks to be how the wheel was made but my question is how do you center the wheel on the axle? I figured it centered off the center of the axle but there are 1/4" spacers on there now to clear the bed so is there another way?

Also on the front im not sure how they lowered it but the axle is only sitting 3/4" away from the aftermarket motor mount and bottoms out on bumps, you can see it in this picture.



Is there a typical way of changing this or do you just redrill the centering pin?

[Rude Dude]

Engine crossmember was installed wrong should clear front axle by an inch or or two, my neighbors truck as a similiar set up it clears I will take a pic and post

[Rude Dude]

If the pic looks bad I had to use my phone sorry about that. If your crossmember is bolted to bottom of frame and sides you can put metal spacers on bottom to raise it but also do the same about on tranny mount.

Originally Posted by Rude Dude

Engine crossmember was installed wrong should clear front axle by an inch or or two, my neighbors truck as a similiar set up it clears I will take a pic and post

[Lockedup]

Wow, it is installed completly wrong because the front of the cross member is hitting on the back side of the axle

Thanks for the picture that really helps.

[Kim57]

Lockedup
The wheels sound like unilugs. They take a special washer that fits in the oval.
Kim

[Lockedup]

Originally Posted by Kim57

Lockedup
The wheels sound like unilugs. They take a special washer that fits in the oval.
Kim

Awesome thanks! It doesnt have those washers it just has standard round ones, im sure thats why they feel unbalanced. Do you know what the correct size i need is? I would like to get them ordered so i can drive it some more

[Rude Dude]

You will have to do measuring but they sell them at this place

http://www.prestigewheel.com/Image5481.asp#ET