1957 Chevy 3100, meet 1994 Dodge Ram 1500

[Purcell69]

Ambryatim was asking about pictures of the repurposed Dodge cab mounts and of course, Photobucket being the twatwaffles that they are, has killed the link to the original pictures.

I just took these a few minutes ago with my phone, to help illustrate what has been done.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

And the last two pictures of the mounts that I took today...

-Joe

[Old57]

The bed floor looks nice with the strips on it. Coming along good!

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by Old57

The bed floor looks nice with the strips on it. Coming along good!

Thank you sir. I was really hoping the strips would break up the monotony of a flat sheet of steel. The color works well, in my opinion, sort of wood-like. I think it will look even better when I get the colored liner on the box sides. It should really pop after that.

Yours has been coming along very nicely...and fast. I always look foward to your updates.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

Ambryatim, I was finally able to find the original pictures relating to the new cab mounts.

Obviously, I cut the factory cab mounts off of the Dodge frame, (using a Sawzall). I had built a jig for the cab mounts on the original Chevy frame to help locate the position on the Dodge frame.

Once the mounts appeared to be in the right location, I welded them in. I found out later that I had the cab about 2" too far forward, nad had to cut them off and start over. It was worth the extra effort to put the front axle in the center of the wheel well openings.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

Here are some more pictures related to the cab mounts.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

These are the last two I can find right now that relate to the cab mounts.

-Joe

[ambryatim]

Thanks Purcell69!! I really appreciate it!

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by ambryatim

Thanks Purcell69!! I really appreciate it!

You are very welcome. Hope these helped.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

Of course, the weather has turned here and now the project is slowing down until next spring arrives, though I will get done little things here and there as I can.

This week, I got the rear driveshaft taken care of. A couple of summers ago, I shortened the rear driveshaft on my own so I could move the truck around under its own power and to get an idea of how short it would really need to be. I tacked it back together knowing full well that it would go to a driveshaft shop when the time came so it could be cut to final length, trued and balanced. Precision Drive in OKC did a great job and had it ready to go in about a day.

Since I had left it a little long, I had two inches taken out, to allow for extra suspension compression if I load the truck or start dragging a gooseneck. I still have over 3" of spline engagement on the transfer case output shaft with the slip yoke, and 3" of compression available instead of the 1" that I had initially after my handiwork.

Precision will definitely get my business when the time comes to build the longer front driveshaft next year.

I also devised a scheme to attach the bed strip to the hitch cover plate and make a pair of tabs to keep it secured to the bed when not in use. I figured I could use some longer bolts with nylock nuts to hold the strip against the bottom of the hitch cover. The remaining exposed thread below the nylock nuts would be used for the tabs to hold the plate in the opening. A piece of steel with a nut welded on would be attached at the bottom of the bolt. The tab could be threaded up the bolt until it held the plate securely, with red Loctite to keep it in place one it was adjusted.

An allen wrench could be used to turn the tab back and forth, with a locating pin in the hitch plate for a stop.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

I got treated with a few hours of beautiful weather today and was able to get home from work before it was all gone. I celebrated by reinstalling my rear fenders for winter storage, so they wouldn't be sitting in a truck bed full of damp, decaying leaves until Spring returns. I also made sure that the truck, and all my small engines, got a dose of Stabil and some run time to ensure it is in the entire fuel system.


-Joe

[ambryatim]

Lookin good Joe!

[Purcell69]

Well since Photobucket stopped hosting images without charging non-commercial users, all of the original image links are now dead. I’ve got nearly 1,000 pictures taken of this build so far and it would be very difficult to hunt down all of the images from the first part of the thread. As a result, I’ve begun creating short slide shows from the original images and made several 3-4 minute movies. They are on my YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyc...FXSmXuzOULBTsQ

Feel free to stop by, check it out, like and subscribe. I still have a lot more to go and I’m still learning how to use the editing software. The first two videos are a bit rough, but I am getting the hang of it. I will keep working on videos as well as updating here as progress is made.

-Joe

[mikebte]

Nice job. Love the truck and hope your able to get the photo stuff figured out. Sucks loosing build photos.

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by mikebte

Nice job. Love the truck and hope your able to get the photo stuff figured out. Sucks loosing build photos.

Thanks Mike.

I'm lucky, in that I haven't lost the photos. A while back, Photobucket decided that they would charge everyone who used their site to host images. There was little warning given to the site's users before Photobucket disabled all of the links. The only way to reactivate the links was to pay up. PB did this because they felt their sites users were hosting photos for commercial purposes and PB wanted their piece of the pie, despite what efect it would have on non-commercial users.

It turns out that after many months, PB reactivated the non-commercial links after their ransom demands were not met. Meanwhile, I had downloaded all of my images to a few different hard drives and a USB drive, and then deleted all of my content from PB. As a result, every image I posted in any forum has a dead link if it was hosted by PB. Initially, I was going to go back and ad my photos in locally, but we are talking nearly 1,000 images, maybe more.

When I downloaded my images from PB, all the metadata for the images was lost, so I can't sort them by image date. I have to go picture by picture and then remember what I was trying to illustrate at that time. Rebuilding the threads with the correct photos would take months, after sorting the images. The file names are no help, because I used several different cameras for the original images, so they are not in any sequence, though the originals still have the metadata files.

Instead of trying to replace all the PB images in sequence, I think the YouTube slide show option is a bit more practical. I'm sorting the images into groups relating to specific events or parts, like the engine, or frame modifications, etc. By doing this, I am starting to reorganize the images and I may take some time later on to replace the PB images so the links are functional again, but I don't trust Photobucket to continue to do the right thing.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

Here is the next installment.

https://youtu.be/4gRqvuDqSTY

-Joe

[Purcell69]

The weather outside was crappy today, so what better way to spend the afternoon than editing the next video.

Please enjoy!

https://youtu.be/nPK7Li7i4ec

-Joe

[Purcell69]

Well FedEx dropped off a few goodies this week. I picked up an all aluminum radiator to replace my copper and brass unit, the one without a transmission cooler. No more monkeying around with the Cummins water/oil cooler.



I also got a pair of new rear tires in 235/85R16. My fronts are the same size, albeit used roll-arounds. At least I have the same size on all four corners now. I just need some decent weather for the radiator swap. Come on Springtime!

-Joe

[joedoh]

in the midwest you dont have to wait for spring, just thursday. haha

nice goodies!

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by joedoh

in the midwest you don't have to wait for spring, just Thursday. haha

Very true! The problem is Thursday is always my Monday. Lol

My days off fall on Tuesday/Wednesday and it seems for the past month, those days are cold, wet, or both. If one of them is supposed to be nice, I'll have a trip scheduled for a Dr.'s appointment in Tulsa, without fail. Lol.

No matter, I'm going to make some time to start the radiator swap this week, even if I can't finish it right away.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

https://youtu.be/0ZCNMN1WDNc

-Joe

[Old57]

Looking good, keep chipping away at it and It'll be done before you know it. I was hoping to have a lot more driving time on mine lately to make sure everything is good, and get some break in miles on the motor. This weather, and salt on the roads has put a stop to any of that.

[joedoh]

man I still think the bed floor came out awesome.

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by joedoh

man I still think the bed floor came out awesome.

Thanks Joe. Hopefully I can get the rest of the bed to match my vision.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

Here's a short video on the radiator swap. I had a bit of difficulty due to the chassis swap. The radiator would have been a perfect fit if I was on the stock GM frame.

https://youtu.be/RN3tgeWpfvU

-Joe