49' Patina bagged in PA

[99 to Life]

8-30-13 FINALLY, getting this thread started. Some of you probably followed my 51' build on here. The 49' I picked up about a year ago. Its going on a bagged s10 frame with a full roller vortec sbc with carb, 5 speed trans and wide whites. I just really like the patina so its staying, hard part will be matching a door that didn't come with this, bed and rear fenders. All of which I have from other parts, but I might have to really source some fitting patina parts or do a little fauxtina to get them to match.

The rims will be a bronze/gold as will the interior, with some white highlights. Shooting for a really nice vinyl seat to compliment the color scheme.

The dash as you can see is destroyed, but my (already pressed for time self) decided to bring it back to life, rather than buy a replacement. Its been about 30 hours of messing with so far.

The engine is a Vortec 350 that I got as a bottom end with heads. I put 7/16 screw in studs, new springs and seals in the heads. Bottom end has new HP King racing bearings. Will be putting a Lt4 hotcam (roller cam) in with 1.6 roller rockers. High rise dual plane intake and probably an eddy carb until I get a quickfuel carb to try out. I'm just about done with heads and bottom end, I'm waiting on cam. Compression should be 9.5 to 1, max lift will be about .522

I have a ford 9" right now I'm hoping to put in to handle the torque and HP, but its gonna need narrowed, so we'll see when that time comes. Shooting for a nice street/strip truck that I'll drive for a bit and probably sell so I can get some other projects done. More to come on those.

[iowaboynca]

sounds like a fun build. Looking forward to it.

[99 to Life]

Here is the mangled dash, tons more pics to show you. This is the frame, ripped the rear end out to put in my daily driver. The garage its in is almost done, need to button some things up than get electric in it. So by this fall I'm hoping to really get the frame started, cab mounts done and get all the placement of body parts, engine, trans etc. Should be easy since I have my 51' to reference. The ride height will be exactly what my 51' is now.

I also picked up some decent chrome bumpers that will go on this truck, I got drop spindles, bags (still have to get from 98layinframe). I plan on building my own 4 link. Hoping I can score some tubular Aarms for the front.

I already have the trans, engine is almost done, will get picks of that soon. Then I need to get a clutch and I can drop them in once I get frame going.

The engine that is in here is actually a 235, so thats cool. I got a few of these now, one of which is going in my 52' (thread coming soon)

Much much more pics to come, just have to upload and resize them.

[99 to Life]

On the dash for a while here bare with it all. I pounded out the delete plate area, welded in a new patch there, on the upper right corner of dash it was in dire need of replacing, actually a bit of a compound curve there but I eventually made it work.

Now the hard part, I was weary of. First let me say this, at the moment of this particular work, I had no bandsaw, no shrinker, no anvil and the list goes on. So I had to do the gauge section in multiple pieces. I actually cut the radius with a cutoff wheel, I know what am I thinking. I actually like to use on most of my patches I make, this clear film. I use it for screenprinting, and it comes in handy making templates.

What I did was obviously get my diameter figured out for the gauge, then make the circle in a program, printed it out, traced it onto this film, lined everything up, then cut the film and transferred that to the metal.

This piece I had to shape to the curve of the dash and also the eyebrow up on top I pounded to get it close for now. This is a section I wish they made a patch for but now way would that ever happen, lots of hard factory stuff to create around the gauges.

[99 to Life]

so next move was the bottom part, you can see I skip a step on the one little patch above the long strip of patch I made. Next step was the bottom of the gauge and that was probably the hardest because of all the compound curves. I did use a planishing hammer (yeah actually have one of those bf basic tools) it helped some, but really stiffens up the metal. I shaped the bottom curve with a dolly, anvil would of helped there.

Anyway, you'll see that piece shaped in the next batch of photos. So its all roughed in and at this point I think I had 10 hours into tear down, gameplanning and making these patches. Then shat hit the fan with making the radius of the gauge area look right. I'll get into that later on here.

[99 to Life]

After I got the pieces all roughed in, I had make a lip around the whole radius of the gauge, since its not flat. So I welded a thin piece of rod all around it, no pics of that process, lots of back and forth with that, making the radius look right. But once you have the bezel in there, like the one pic, it really makes it look good.

I'm just about done with the shaping all around the gauge, I was going to lead all the welds, but I think just cause of time and money, I'm gonna duraglass all the seams and fine tune some radius shaping with it.

This last pic, I had to make some bolts for the gauge to mount to, I also didn't post on here, the section that the steering column goes in between the gauges, from the factory is offset, I later on and did not show, I moved it so the column will be centered in the gauges, its subtle but took a bit to get that right.

[99 to Life]

Ok, so I kinda skipped some riff raff to sum up the dash progress. I go the speaker grille hinged on there, still gotta make a box behind it for the cd player. If you look real close you can see up on the delete plate opening some hinges, I really tried to make that section hinge too, but just wasn't getting it and decided to give up after two tries, would be cool to have my air pressure gauges behind there or something. So I had to make little patches to fix the areas that I cut out for the little hinges, so wasted my time and I don't want to waste yours by showing you.

The one pic you can see a good angle of the eyebrow area on the gauge section how that shaping came out, once the gauges are in there, primer, filler paint etc, it should look flawless. I still have to fix the defroster areas. You can see in the one pic, some little patches I had to make, there have been a few of those throughout the dash.

The biggest thing I gotta do now, you can see I ripped out the spot welded strip that runs inside the dash on the bottom, its a support strip basically. But the dash is so rusted behind there, I wanted to rip that out, blast everything then weld it back together. Once I do that, all I gotta do is weld some nuts behind the dash for the steering column to bolt to, and work on the hidden cd player box. Some little metal shaping, then duraglass, then epoxy primer. can't wait to get it in primer, then filler primer then paint. Then I'll redo up my gauges and get them in there.

I am going to keep the stock gauges, only I'm going to make one of them a tach. Seen a really cool one on the hamb someone did and boy it blends in and looks factory.

I'll post more progress on the dash later, up next are the engine pics. Both the dash and engine I worked on back and forth. I get about 2-6 hours during the week to work on stuff and one day on the weekend, so thats all the time I got to work on my projects right now. I have been slacking cause I been doing so much yard and fence work, and garage work. I'v not been able to get cracking on the frame or cab etc. So if I didn't have all that and didn't have to waste so much time no this dash, I'd be much further along.

[99 to Life]

On to the engine, I'll spare every last step, but at the same time, I see alot of builds online and they skip alot of important building steps that newbies should know. Heck I'm still learning, but every engine I build is gonna be different and better than the one prior. I originally wasn't planning on using this roller vortec block because of the costs involved compared to a flattappet build. The more I realized it, I'm happy I went this route. I still got quite a bit of money in this, but at the same time is a very thrifty build. I saved some money by keeping it non bored, kept the original rods and pistons (pistons were a tough decision because of compression ratio) so I have to run a very thin head gasket to have the proper quench and target static compression ratio. Next engine I'm doing and gonna plop in my 51' I'm doing vortec full roller, with 6" rods.

So anyway, got it tore down, pistons were a mess, spent hours cleaning them and again, kinda kicked myself for using them because of CR, cleaning them and the $32 a piece head gaskets I had to buy. Here is just one of a few budget builds online http://www.popularhotrodding.com/eng..._manifold.html

So after I tore down the block and made sure everything looked good, I moved onto the heads. Got 7/16 screw in studs, a self aligning tool and tapped all studs. Since I'm running 1.6 roller self aligning rockers, I bored out the pushrod holes with .5" drillbit.

[99 to Life]

Studs installed, will be putting thread sealer on them and torquing. Measured valve seal for proper replacements, even though these seals looked perfect. I ordered up new seals, springs and locks from alex's parts. Springs are good up to .550 lift and have proper pressure for roller cam. New spring on right, vortec spring on left. Oh they come with shorter retainers, which with vortecs you can use stock retainer and "ghetto grind" them to save some money. biggest problem with stock vortec heads are the weak springs and retainer to valve seal clearance. there are lots of ways to go about increasing your cam lift, I took a quick easy way for this drop in setup that is meant for vortecs.

Bores were glazed, so I gave them a light hone.

[99 to Life]

Some goodies, I have to order stuff here and there as I go. Happy I found centerbolt finned valve covers, they are really nice quality. They will be painted and highlighted to compliment engine. Was going to do the same color as interior of truck, but I think I'm just going to do the firewall and inner fenders with the bronze/gold color and keep the engine black and aluminum, I really wanted a different color engine but I can't help to like that color scheme.

The intake is a crosswind product, I really didn't want to go that route, cause I had my heart set on the edelbrock high rise but it was almost $300 so I got this. I'v read really good dyno results with this intake, but the casting isn't the best. So next time, I def doing the edelbrock.

The oil pan is really nice, but I ordered it a long time ago, when I thought I was doing a 2 piece rear main engine, plans changed over to this 1 piece, so I gotta order the same pan, only for the 1piece rear main.

[chevyboy73]

whoho! another build by 99 to Life! wow. looks like a rough dash. good luck!

[av8tr33337]

Wow man you are taking this one to a whole other level. Can't wait to see it unfold!

[_Ogre]

looks like someone used a beaver to cut that dash hole

[69CST-V]

I'm in. Nice work so far. Looking forward to seeing how this develops.
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[99 to Life]

Here are the last of the pics for now, engine is waiting on cam, timing chain, cover, head bolts, oilpan, odd and ends and paint.

Rings are Steel with moly coating, gaps where good. Bearing clearances are on the tighter side, as is the endplay. Engine spins with like 12flbs, so its pretty smooth. can't wait to finish it up and get it on the start stand to get it dialed in.

This truck is quite a bit overdue, I'll be working on body parts for my 52' over the winter during the week. So I'll only be able to work on the 49' one day on the weekend. But I feel like I can get this this driving next year. can't wait.

[xpickup]

Henry, looks great so far. I can not wait to see it come together. Great job on saving the dash.

Shannon

[99 to Life]

thanks shannon, yeah dash is almost done. Hooked up my HF media blaster last night. Can't get that to work for shat. Worked at first then just seemed like the system needed burped, blew out a ton of media before it would build pressure again, but just didn't make sense you'd waste all that media before it build the pressure to blast anything off. I dunno, I gave up on it. Even put sand in there when they told you not to, I didn't care and don't care if I ruin this thing. The only thing holding me back right now is the back of the dash, very heavy rust and spots that are impossible to get to. I took a couple pieces and sprayed them down with vinegar mix and scrubbed them, works a little bit. also took some ospho and did the same thing, just not a huge fan of that method.

[99 to Life]

9-5 Here is another shot of the dash roughed in. I'v since fixed a few more things. The delete plate I had to redo because I cut it up to try and hinge it, so I had to then put it all back together and finesse the dash around it because it was so badly dented in there.

My HF media blaster is a POS, can't get it work for crap. Worked for a tiny little bit, now just sprays out media but with no power behind it. Pressure gauge gets up to 120 even. Sooooo all I gotta do now is clean up inside of dash, duraglass the welds, smooth some things ups. Spray with epoxy. Then I'm going to spray the dash support in the bottom separately so everything is coated. I'll then just rivet that piece back in. So this thing should be done soon.

[69CST-V]

Looking good.

[cleansquare]

Love the metalwork!
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[99 to Life]

thanks fellas, I'm very pressed for time with all my projects, work and family. However I wanted to bring this dash back to life to day I did and make me get better at metal work, I like doing it and I like building engines, I just like doing everything from the ground up. I cannot wait to see the body setting on the frame, then a perfectly clean painted frame, then a running truck, then a nice interior, then the test drive, then ironing out the kinks, then just driving it like ya stole it. Then sell it, whaahhhhh. I got soo many more of these builds in mind, I can't keep them all.

[chev3600]

Wow. You're determined, that's for sure! Great work on fixing that busted dash.
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[99 to Life]

chev3600 thanks man. BTW your build link doesn't work. I'd like to check out your build.

[chev3600]

I think the link is fixed. You can see how I tackled a chopped dash-smooth it!

[99 to Life]

chev3600, cool truck