1957 Chevy 3100, meet 1994 Dodge Ram 1500

[Baldeagle SR]

Joe sorry to hear about your health problems. Glad you are getting better. Rich

[Kim57]

Sorry for you troubles.
Glad you're on your way to a full recovery.
Kim

[Purcell69]

In spite of my setback, here is how things are looking now. I need to trim 1/2" off the rear of the frame to move the bed forward toward the cab for a proper fit, but all in all, it is coming together.

I takes a lot more than bleeding out a couple of time to keep me down. : )





-Joe

[Groyd]

Sorry to hear about that. Glad your getting back to work on the project.

[bajabob]

Mr.Purcell
Hang in there, you have done a ton of work on this deal to not see it through now. A small set back is nuthin on you brotha !!! Your still up right and breathin... take baby steps...
I completely understand your pain... Awhile back I broke my collar bone and could not stand another day in bed. Went out into the garage and was just "tinkering" a bit and the doctor went nuts !!!! lol... get well first and then back to work !!!!
bb

[Purcell69]

I appreciate the encouragement Bob. The project is not dead by any stretch. Between recovering and the weather, things are merely on hold until spring hits again. The down time has given me time to think a bit about what needs to be done and some minor adjustments to what is currently in play. Obviously, I need to finish painting the frame. From there I have some panels that need replacing in the cab, (corners and front floor). I am also toying with the notion of recessing the bed floor a few inches (about 2") to line the running boards up with the bottom of the cab. That, or possibly lowering the running boards to match the cab.

I have the firewall section from the donor Dodge to use for mounting the brake booster, ABS, pedal assembly and steering column. With those items out of the way, I can put the engine, back in, sort out the wiring and get it running before next winter. By then, I hope to have my shop built and I can start on the final body prep for paint...indoors.

This whole illness thing slowed me down a lot, but it takes a bit more than bleeding out to keep me down.

-Joe

[Baldeagle SR]

It is good to hear from you Joe. Hopefully things will get better. Rich

[Purcell69]

Thanks Rich. I'm healing up pretty well. I had no idea the abdominal muscle tissue takes so long to heal, but I'm making good progress. I've been back at work on limited duty since the beginning of January and will be going back to full duty in the next week or so. My "workshop" is full of snow right now, so no monkeying around with the project, which is probably a good thing. I don't need to be lifting a door by myself just yet.

Definitely looking forward to spring!

-Joe

[Purcell69]

Here's how the workshop is looking today.



-Joe

[Purcell69]

-Joe

[Purcell69]

After a lot of down time, a really wet spring/summer and lots of work, I have finally returned to the project. This week, I pulled the front sheet metal back off the chassis and started welding in the original 1957 front frame stubs to reinforce the 1994 Dodge frame horns and allow stock mounting position for the front bumper.

When I was sandblasting the frame last fall, I noticed there was a dip of several inches at the front, forward of the steering box and sway bar mounts that collected dirt (and my blast media). There was no provision to remove the accumulation and 20 years of sediment had held enough moisture to cause the inside of the frame to start rusting and becoming thin in places. The driver's side seemed to be a bit thicker metal, most likely due to the steering box mount, but after blasting, I found some pin holes on the passenger side. I was able to drill 1/2" holes at the lowest point on either side for drainage, then I rinsed out the debris, and blast media, as well as large chunks of scale. With that done, I formed a piece of 1/8" by 2" flat plate to fit over and beyond where I found the pin holes. This piece was welded on, and the inside of the frame will be sealed with Eastwood's frame treatment to prevent further corrosion.





There are no pics of the patch yet, but here are a few of the stubs tacked in, as I was cutting off the front body mounts that will not be needed. With them out of the way, I can trim back the front of the Dodge frame and make it even with the 1957 Chevy frame stubs. The Dodge frame will serve as a mounting point for a winch, under the stock 1957 front bumper.

Once I am done with all of the work on the front of the frame, I am going to finish painting it and then I will swing the motor in. From what I have been reading, it does not sound like it should be too difficult to sort out the engine compartment wiring to support the MPFI on the 5.9 Dodge V-8. I already have a Ron Francis harness for the chassis and had adapted it to run Chevy TBI when I was playing with the Crossfire Fuel Injection system and the Camaro front clip. I am hoping I will be able to drive it to the car show in Pauls Valley, OK the end of next September. I don't expect to be done by then, but driveable would be nice.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

I finished trimming off the front of the Dodge frame this morning before work. Looking inside, i will need to address the captive fasteners for the front sway bar. The corrosion is pretty bad on the right side, front-most bolt and I am afraid the "nut" is not long for this world. I'm going to use the steel shell for the sway bushing as a template to make some repair plates. I figure 3/16" plate stock cut to the same shape at the footprint of the shell, with 3/8" nuts welded on to what will be the inside, then cut the same shaped piece from the bottom side of the frame where the bar is supposed to mount. I can then weld my patch with new nuts in to place and all will be secure again.



This is the patch inside the right front frame rail where I noticed pinhole corrosion.



This is the front of the trimmed frame now. The open ends are 2.5" by 4" inside, so I am thinking I can use 1/4" 2x4" rectangle tube to bolt in and make extensions for a winch mount to stand in front of the stock bumper. This will strengthen the front end, fill the existing holes, and make it look less like one frame was stacked on top of another. I can use the existing bolt slots already cut into the Dodge frame as my mounting points for the winch extension.

-Joe

[Kim57]

You're making good progress.
Kim

[Baldeagle SR]

glad to see you back on the truck again. Rich

[samples45]

Looking good joe, I live just up 35 from ya by riverwind, I have a 1955 TF. If you ever need a hand with the truck just hollar at me!

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by Kim57

You're making good progress.
Kim

It feels good to be back at it Kim. I'm pretty confident I will have the engine in place before it gets too cold to mess with.

Originally Posted by Baldeagle SR

glad to see you back on the truck again. Rich

I'm glad to be back at it Rich. Right now it will be a lot of little things that need attention so I can finish painting the frame before the motor install. I spent most of the day yesterday repairing the passenger side sway bar mount inside the frame.

Originally Posted by samples45

Looking good joe, I live just up 35 from ya by riverwind, I have a 1955 TF. If you ever need a hand with the truck just hollar at me!

Heck yeah, you're not too far up the road. I'll give you a shout next time a I need a bit of extra muscle moving the big pieces around. I am really looking forward to getting this project ready to move under its own power.



Tuesday I was down for the day. I went in to the hospital first thing in the morning to have the clot filter that was installed last September removed for good. I am 100% clot free and don't have a history of clot issues, so there was no need to keep it in place. By Tuesday afternoon, I felt like I had a couple of guys standing on my neck, trying to shove a garden hose down my vein. By Wednesday, I felt pretty normal, so I started to tackle the corroded captive fastener inside the right frame. The fastener is used to secure the passenger side end of the sway bar.

Even though my donor Dodge is a southern truck, the design of the early 2nd Gen frames is prone to corrosion issues at the front, where dirt, debris and moisture collect and cause the frame to rot from the inside out. I was not aware of this problem until I started stripping my frame for paint prep and found a few pinholes on the bottom right inside. Somewhere after 1995 or 1996, I believe Dodge addressed the issue. From the outside, mine appeared to be solid, and for the most part it is, but there are some places that were mostly scale on the inside. The good news is there is more than enough solid metal to support patching the thin spots. Once everything is patched and clean, I will treat the inside of the frame with Eastwood's inner frame treatment to prevent further corrosion.





Like I said, the biggest worry aside from structural strength, is the captive fastener for the sway bar. The thought of making some sort of external mount crossed my mind, but I was afraid I may create problems with suspension geometry down the road. To avoid this, I used a piece of 1/4" plate stock that was drilled to match the bolt pattern of the sway bar bracket. I used some 3/8" nuts welded to what will be the inside, then used my repair plate to mark the cut in the frame where the repair will weld in.









Once this was accomplished, I added to the repair I started last week, this time to the bottom side of the frame, extending forward from the sway bar mount, and around the bottom of the horn where the corrosion was its worst. I used 2"x1/8" plate, tacked and hammer fitted to follow the contours of the frame rail. This material is thicker than the two halves of the original frame rail except where they overlap and are welded together. I'm not quite done, as you can see below, but you get the idea.



-Joe

[Kim57]

Nice fix on the frame.
Kim

[Purcell69]

Thanks Kim. I would have been a bit more concerned if the rusted area was more than the bottom 1/2" of the horn and the captive fastener. As you can see looking at the hole I cut in the bottom of the frame, there is still good metal to work with. The scary part is this frame was originally a Texas truck, so no exposure to road salt. I can only imagine what a northern frame would look like.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

I spent most of the day working on fabbing up the winch mount for the front of the truck. Before I got started, I re-hung the front sheet metal to ensure the fit was right and square. I also addressed two issues with the core support. One was isolating noise and vibration a bit better than the stock rubber "bushing". The other was to raise the core support up about 3/4" to fit properly, since it is not mounted to the original Chevy mounts.

My first though to replace the stock rubber was a piece of old radiator hose between the frame and the core support. This would isolate noise and vibration, but not do much to raise the core support. The next thought was a piece of nylon block in conjunction with the old hose rubber. Then I remembered some leftover urethane sway bar end link bushings I had on hand. The stepped side fit perfectly into the mounting hole on the core support. The thickness was what I was looking for and a longer 3/8" bolt was all I needed to go through the frame.

With that handled and the sheet metal hung, I started looking at what I needed to make the winch mount. I had already bought some 2"x4" box tube in 1/4" thickness that fit the inside of the Dodge frame horns pretty well. There was a bit of gap on the sides that I had already planned to fill with some plate stock to give extra wall thickness at the mounting points. I used 1/4" plate on the outsides and 3/16" plate on the insides, which tightened up the gaps for a near perfect fit.

With everything mocked up, I tacked the filler plates in place, marked my hole locations to match the frame, and pulled my drill press out of storage to bore the 27/64" holes I needed. Once I had the holes drilled, I finish welded the plates to the sides of the box tube and then tapped my holes to 1/2" NC. This allows the winch assembly to be removed if need be.

Pictures to come...

-Joe

[Purcell69]

This pretty well covers the work I've done to the front end this week. I did notice the bottom sheet metal that goes between the fenders, below the grille was almost touching the frame extensions I had welded in to mount the front bumper. I should have test-fit the front sheet metal before mounting the frame extensions, but I got a bit ahead of myself. Rather then cut out all of the welds and start over, I was able to notch the top rail on the frame extensions about 1/2" deep and 2" back. This gave me the extra room I needed to help the front metal sit right.



^^^ The visible cuts on the outside of the frame rail are from a piece of angle stock that had been welded on to mount the front subs to a Camaro front clip. Since the angle stock was not needed for this build, I've been cutting out the extra material to clean things up. I'm not quite done on this side, obviously.


-Joe

[RockinKees]

Just went through your thread.
That's quite a project!
Great fab work you're showing us!

[Purcell69]

Thanks Kees! I don't know that I'm much of a fabricator, more of a problem solver. Given time to practice, a metal brake, and a tubing bender, I could probably be something of a fabricator. I just do what I can with what I have. It keeps me out of trouble, or at least my mind occupied, lol!

-Joe

[Truck Guy99]

Looks good! Where are you located? I just moved to elk city ok. Would love to check this build out some time

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by Truck Guy99

Looks good! Where are you located? I just moved to elk city ok. Would love to check this build out some time

Elk City is a three hour haul. I'm south of Norman. Give me a shout sometime if you come out east.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

I finally finished up the metal work on the front end and was able to shoot some paint this week. No pics yet of the first coat of black, since it was getting dark.
I did add a piece of 2" angle stock to reinforce the Dodge frame where the winch mounts will insert into the frame. the angle is tied to the '57 frame stubs, in case someone were to lift the front end via the winch mount.



I shot the inside of the frame rails with this stuff. Should keep the rust issues under control now, especially with drain holes. I'm thinking of getting some more for the cowl vent area as well.









After shooting the inside of the frame and allowing things to cure, I pulled out the sand blaster and cleaned up the welds that I could not get to with the wire brush. Fate was working against me this week. My trusty DeWalt angle grinder has begun to show its age. It is a refurbished unit that has required me to repair the cord, twice now as of Monday. Then the brass insert for the side handle came out of the plastic body yesterday. Looks like I'll be asking Santa for a new one this year. In the meanwhile, I'm going to try some JBWeld to see if that helps to snug things up a bit.





I ran out of light gray primer, so there is some dark gray patches where I finished it off. No matter, the topcoat will be semigloss black.

-Joe