1957 Chevy truck re-rebuild

[Stepside Jim]

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

You have done some beautiful work on this truck but you are kind of loosing me now. I'm not really digging the shark concept but I'll wait to see the end result. Based on what you've done so far I feel sure that you can make it work and look good.

Thanks for the compliments, as I'm moving along with the modifications it's easy to second guess if I'm going the right direction.

With the Shark idea, I'm not so much trying to build a Shark image into the front so mach as I am trying to merely enhance the lines that are already there in hopes to bring out more of a Shark image that is already there.


We've all heard the phrase "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder", much of my build is just me expanding my horizon when it comes to building. Much of my build thread is based on how I expanded my horizon, this is why I post not only the finished result but how I got the result.

I've mentioned the welding of the gills, I've decided my best bet is to weld them from the backside, this way I can limit the amount of weld build that I will have to clean up later.

My first step was to fit the gills then tack weld them into place. Once tack welded I was able to grind away most of the excess gill material, basically have a flush surface from the gill edge to the fender material.


Here my biggest concern was to keep from burning through and adding to the amount of fine grinding I will do later. One stitch weld at a time and moving from gill to gill helped keep the heat from getting out of hand.


Here was the goal. By welding from the back side I was able to use the 4 1/2" grinder and do a clean up grinding. The weld beads that are noticable are the ones made when I made the gills. Since this part of the front fenders can be seen in the front wheel well when the truck is done, I will smooth these welds also. This way, when done, these should look nearly factory when finished.