68 C10/international L110 Mut

[jmlcolorado]

I'm kinda cheating here. The chassis is a slightly modified 68 c10 holding together a 1950 international pickup.
I spent a lot of time on this board as half the truck is factory and will be utilizing aftermarket parts for performance a little later.

I guess I could start a build thread if amajorityof you find the truck appropriate for that




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[OSM 70 C20]

I like it! Sorta got that Rob Zombie look to it.

[67chevy1series]

It's got Chevy for its foundation, this is the best chevy site on the net so I can't think of a better place for you to get help. Welcome abord
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[jmlcolorado]

Originally Posted by 67chevy1series

It's got Chevy for its foundation, this is the best chevy site on the net so I can't think of a better place for you to get help. Welcome abord
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I've been here a while, since the end of 2010, but I spend most of my time reading up and filling my brain with all the useful knowledge this forum has to share.
Luckaly, 90% of my questions are answered if I utilize the search bar.
Funny how that works
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[Lippyp]

Now that I like, pretty evil looking.

[Sillyoldman]

Yes please do a build thread. That's pretty cool and I'm really digging the windshield openings.

[jmlcolorado]

This'll be a short version of the full length version, which is about 40 pages to date, and i don't want to bore you all with the gory details, unless you really want them

Here goes:

Got this 1950 International L110 from a close friend that didnt have the time or room for it.
Ive never done anything like this (except for a motorcycle i built) and he thought i could handle something like this. So i went for it.

First day, picking it up






First things first, to chop the top.

[jmlcolorado]

Looking at 6" of chop all the way around.
This truck is done on a budget........as little as possible so you'll find me doing things on the cheap. Hense the rebar bracing.







Youll also notive i out it together and take it apart about a billion times, mostly since i dont know what im doing, and secondly, to assure it looks right.

Factory bed in place, with no frame. This will help me decide where to go with the next step.


Time to shorten the bed.



I shortened it to an ironic legnth, 5'10", cause thats how tall i am and thought that would be fun.



I jept the factory stamped lined in the bed so it all flows well.



Filling in the doors



Picked up a 350 on C/L for the powerplant.


I wanted 20" wheels, cause i want to install some noce rims sometime in the future.

[jmlcolorado]

This is where it gets fun. Picked up a complete roller 68 C10 for a song on C/L.


i HAD to set the cab and bed on it to see where it is. Obviously, some modifications needed.







With the factory spring out, had to see how low it would go. Not low enough.



Since this is going to be a "rod" and since its IFS, i gotta make it look right. Rods usually have the front axle way out in front, and since i cant move the crossmember forward, i moved the cab back for the illusion.



Now to remove the cab, and do some cave man style lowering.



Chop chop cut cut

[jmlcolorado]

Cab back on to see how it looks.






The rear crossmember hits now, gonna have to fix that

I also zeed the rear of the frame too, but im not sure where those pictures went.

Here it is with the frame zeed, cab and bed in place, and some 2000 dodge ram 1500 spare wheels in place.



Proportions arent right looking at it here. Not quite the look im going for.

Time to take another 3" out of the cab. Section time!













I also sectioned the doors 3"s. I pealed the skins back, then cut the inner frame, then reinstalled the skins.











Putting the cab back together. I used the 3" cut off sections as weld backer inside the cab walls.

[jmlcolorado]

This is why i used the drops as weld backer. Its damn hard to get perfect cuts around so many surfaces!



Not to put the cab back on......again.....to see how it looks.







NOW were cookin with heat!

A couple buddys came over this night and we got to talking, and they thought i should i should see what the fenders looked like on it,







Looks pretty sweet! I like the side step, but im running no fenders up front, so with the steps, it just looks like i forgot to install the hood and fenders, so i cut the step down a bit.







Thats not me in it BTW, my buddy is more excited to drive it then i am!



Time to install some front disks, you are all familiar with this process






Heres a picture of the rear zee.



In denver, we sometimes get snow.


Here i have a couple monkeys helping drill holes for my motor mount. They broke countless drill bits on that night. I have yet to recover.

[jmlcolorado]

For now, i want to run some baby moons, till i get the green for some rims i like.




The tires in this photo are too small, but are working for now.


I used a cardboard template to moch up a split windshield to see if i liked it or not. I like it, so its going permanent.





Last look at the factory look. One of the reassons im splitting the glass is so its easier to find aftermarket glass. I cant find a factory windsheild for this truck, so itll be tricky.



Paper templates are my best friend! I always make a perfect template, then i tape off the outline on my sheet metal, then use an exacto knife to create perfectly clean lines to cut out. All my cutting is done with a 4" grinder.



i wanted to match the factory pinch weld setup, so i can utilize factory rubber, which i can find













View from inside.


Got a radiator from a neighbor. I want to turn it sideways to fit in the non existent grill shell.






This is where i really start jumping around. I don't get one project completely finished before i get motivated to do another. Bear with me here, ill cover it all eventually

Here i got my hands on an Alis Chalmer gas tank, or half of one.






Time to start cutting it up









I trimmed it out in 1/2" bar to clean it up. My quality control person must have been out of town, cause it doesnt look all that good.









Since i got this engine online, in the middle of the night, from a guy i dont know, with cash.....i wanted to see if it even ran. It does! Click for a short video.


And here is my idea of a grill shell:

[jmlcolorado]

And heres the quality control guy. Hes pretty lazy most of the time, and the rest of the time, hes chasing bugs!






Heres some grill shell building fun. This is built out of prebent exhaust tubing cause i wanted nice rounded corners.















First try is a fail! Its way too square and blocky looking. And way too overpowering with the rest of the truck. It will need more work to look right!

I ended up narrowing it 3" then angling the top side down, to give a better look.



Looks good, so now its time to sheet it. I used paper again here to template.










I just had the grill shell mounted temporally, so i need to figure out mounts, and they have to look good too!













On the inside of the shell i welded in 1/8" plate steel from top to bottom to add stregnth. Then i plated the backside and bottom of the bracket so i can bolt it up.







Time to take a break from the brackets and move to the front cross brace for the frame.











And now to figure out the headlight brackets.




The piece of tubing in the photo above will never do! Time for more style.







I also installed for the front bag cups.







You'll notice i need to get new tie rod adapters sleeves. Anyone has some they don't want thatll fit 68 inner tie rods and 73 outer tie rods, let me know!!

Now on to the brake master cylinder. I found this sexy van at the yard that had disk/drums and i thought it would work great!







Also picked up a new prop valve.


Good, now that thats behind us, time to try my hand at tig welding. A gas tank.
I cut all the pieces, then took it to my buddys house and tiged it all together.

[jmlcolorado]

Need some baffles to keep fuel slosh down.




also added a small sump.



Here is my pickup tube. I have a shrader valve so i can air test the tank.











Heres a bracket to hang the tank from the frame.






Bottom of the sump with the pickup tube in place.


I was going to make my own shifter, but i found on at the parts store for cheap, so i need a bracket for it.


This will bolt to the tail shaft of my TH400.















I got word on a brassing technique, so i figured id give it a shot.











Works pretty good!




Now to add some bars on the grill shell.















And now back to the air cleaner cover.
I wanted to add some bars to that to blend with the grill.


















And since im good at jumping around, i wanted to spend the day thinking about glass. Since my glass is curved, i figured i would make a template and drag that to the junk yard to see if i could find any car with the same radius.



This matches the factory glass perfectly. Photo is sideways, sorry.


I found 1, and only 1 car that has the same radius. 1972 280Z. Ill have to buy two full windshields to make my 2 since i cant get 2 pieces out of 1 and match the radius.




And now to the trans tunnel.

















You might not have noticed, but there is alot of natural light in the cab. Thats cause i removed the back wall and roof so i can fit in the cab to work. This cab bolts together, which turns out pretty nice.


Heres how the truck sits at ride height in my driveway.
I will be changing the angle of the grill shell and the air cleaner to match the bed rail and body lines so i dont have that nose up look.



And back to the trans tunnel again.

Piece by piece.








Not quite done but its close.
I liked this picture, so ill share it.

[jmlcolorado]

Fast forward to today!
I have been struggling with the front cross brace. It just does not fit! It looks like a giant shovel, so i need to change that!
I figured the easiest way to make this thing look a little better was to cut the frame horns back even shorter. In oder to do that, I have to modify the front brace. I have to have the front brace to keep the frame from flexing with the torque the steering box will put on it.
I'm poor, so caveman technology is the winner, so I went to the local cave man parts store (home depot) and bought some solid bar stock.
I went with solid since bending tubing in a tight radius will never work.

I went through the garage looking for something solid that I can bend the bar around. The swivel pad off the tip of my floor jack was just the ticket!

I tack welded the jack pad to a welding table, then went to town bending the cherry red bar around it.
Ya know, for a por guys method, the rings turned out pretty dang nice!

Now I have a couple rings to weld into the grill shell for my frame brace to ass through.

Here's the progress.















BTW, you don't want to be the guy that has to remove this grill shell! It's a PITA, and it doesn't come with instructions!

Got one frame horn shortened. Now you can see the final (I sure hope it's final) look. Looks TONS better!!!







Just gotta make sure I dont rear end anyone! I'd hate to see all this work go to waste!


P.S. nobody will look at until they read this, but never mind the angle of the air cleaner. I changed the angle of the grill shell to match the body and bed lines, but haven't touched the air cleaner yet. Each will match the other upon completion.





P.P.S. ya know, you really gotta admire those auto designers! I know all their design is on a computer, and it takes a mere second to modify this or that body line to make it all flow together, but damn, I would NOT want to do that for a living!


This is where im at as of tonight. I stopped to come in and get this thread rolling for everyone enjoyment


Please be kind on my spelling, i just wrote out 2 years worth of pictures and posts in two hours. And i didn't spell check. My spelling will be much better on future posts, i promise

[jmlcolorado]

WOW!!!!
All that on ONE page?! That must be the longest page in thread writing history!!!


Those of you that really want to read each and every detail and conversation during the project, and see mort pictures of each step, I have an ongoing build thread on RatRodsRule.com.
I will continue to keep this thread updated on my progress from this point on though.
Here's the link.
http://ratrodsrule.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15930


And here is a link to my 1st video of all my pictures and captions of the build.
http://youtu.be/82Ex_JOAac8

And my second video.
http://youtu.be/vttprPFjAnk

Thanks for looking! Hope you all enjoy.
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[Stephanie]

That is AMAZING!!!
I am blown away by your work! Cannot wait to see more

[jmlcolorado]

Originally Posted by Stephanie

That is AMAZING!!!
I am blown away by your work! Cannot wait to see more

Thanks for the kind words! I. Doing my best with what I have. The whole truck has been built basically with carpentry tools with the occasional welding


You got yourself a pretty sweet project yourself (despite the random snail invasions).
I see you found some neat documents in your rig! I found an old keychain with a church key and a pill case type thing with a bank check dated in the 50's with some directions on it! It was somehow in between the inner and outter walls of the cab, buried in years and years of old farm dust!

Gotta love what these old classics keep hidden for us to find!
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[sparkydog]

I love it!
Will be reading the big build thread this weekend. Thanks for posting in the Tinkle.. I mean the Tinkering section!

[theastronaut]

Whoa!! I was wondering how on earth I missed this, but I then looked at the dates and it's only been on here a few days. That's a ton of nice work you've done, and I'm diggin the split windshield! Great idea on finding a suitable glass for the windshield too, I like that alot and will have to use it if I ever chop something. We like "gory details", can't wait to see more!!

[jmlcolorado]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

Whoa!! I was wondering how on earth I missed this, but I then looked at the dates and it's only been on here a few days. That's a ton of nice work you've done, and I'm diggin the split windshield! Great idea on finding a suitable glass for the windshield too, I like that alot and will have to use it if I ever chop something. We like "gory details", can't wait to see more!!

Thanks for the kind words!
This has been a slow build (a little over a year and a half, and counting) but in reality, that's a positive since that gives me tons of time to set something up, then stare at it for a while till i get a nice final design in my head.
Like i said, ill start to keep this thread updated on my progress. As you can see, i take tons of pictures, mostly to get other guys eyes on it to make sure im on the right track.

I was laying in bed last night and got a sweet idea for my exhaust, so ill be starting that tonight hopefully, so you can expect more pictures later tonight

[JRANGER]

wow, this is crazy!!

[jmlcolorado]

Boy, I dunno.......
I started playing with the exhaust tonight. I had just a straight piece of two inch that I was thinking of wrapping with a shorter section of 3" with 1/2" holes drilled all through it, to make it look like A machine gun barrel shroud.

But then I got the idea of splitting the pipe, then adding another plate on top with holes drilled in it. Maybe carry the brass machine screw theme to hold on the "shield"

This is what I've come up with so far, but I'm just not sure about it. Maybe it's too fresh and I'm not used to looking at it.

What do you guys think? What would you change?

Here's the origonal thought.


Before I cut it all up:







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[jmlcolorado]

I really am kinda a conservative taste kinda guy. Not big into big, loud things. (what the hell am I doing building this then ) so I'm not sure if this is just getting too over the top or not.
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[Stephanie]

Originally Posted by jmlcolorado

You got yourself a pretty sweet project yourself (despite the random snail invasions).
I see you found some neat documents in your rig! I found an old keychain with a church key and a pill case type thing with a bank check dated in the 50's with some directions on it! It was somehow in between the inner and outter walls of the cab, buried in years and years of old farm dust!
Gotta love what these old classics keep hidden for us to find!
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Hehe, thanks for stopping by my build and yes, gotta watch out for those crazy snails! :P Your buried treasure find sounds so cool! Have any photos of it? Yu going to keep it at all? I am hoping that as we continue along, we will find more and more things Found a pair of rusted solid pliers under all the debris in the smashed in grill that we pulled off on wednesday! I wish I could say how old they are, but it is very cool non the less

I have to say, I like the machine gun barrel shroud idea, and I don't think you can go over the top with this beast that you are constructing! I say go with it, and if you don't like it later, I know you will be able to fix it up to how you like it!