1957 Chevy 3100, meet 1994 Dodge Ram 1500

[Purcell69]

Things have been a bit bogged down this week. My wife has been in the hospital since Wednesday and I have been driving to Tulsa daily to be with her. I did manage to get a little bit more done before she went in, crossing a few more items off the list as it were.

To start with, I put the front sheet metal back on again for winter storage after applying a coat of clear over the primer on the firewall. When spring comes back around, the sheet metal can come back off and I can finish the firewall once and for all. Also, with the sheet metal in place, I can see what I need to do with the brake lines coming from the frame and going to the master cylinder. Right now they are the stock length Dodge hard lines and will need some extra length to route them neatly between the cab and frame. No pics of any of this yet.





I also started cleaning the cab out in earnest one more time. I had accumulated tools, parts and containers of hardware inside while I worked on the outside of the truck. This was handy, up until things moved to the inside of the cab. Now I am looking at a patch panel to repair the dash and one for the passenger side floor as well as steps and rocker panels. The tools and parts need to go someplace else. Also I found some rust issues starting along the back wall of the cab where it meets the floor. Over the years, water has gotten in through a small hole in the original rear window seal and where the fuel filler came through the driver's side of the cab. I took some wire wheels to this area, cleaned it up, treated with Afterblast and then a coat of POR-15. I still have a bit of rust repair to accomplish on the back wall, but for now the rust is contained.



The last item is the rear frame and bed. I extended the rear frame rails last year to match up with the bed, however I did not account for the rear sill. I found I needed to trim about 1" off of my extension to allow the bed to tuck up closer to the back of the cab. Out came the framer's square and Sawzall again.

Once the frame was trimmed and the bed slid forward, I found the crossmember that hold the spare tire winch has a bulge that interferes with one of the crosssills under the bed. I needed to trim off a half inch of the sill in a notch so the bed will sit flat on the frame. After completing this extra trim, I was able to redrill holes to mount the bed to the frame, in their new locations.







-Joe