My 57 build (lots of pictures)

[blackdiesel]

You people need to live in Arkansas, Take a hand written BOS, 13 bucks, and prof. of Ins. and get tags for life and a new title. As long as it's over 25 years old.

[Bigblue29]

Originally Posted by blackdiesel

You people need to live in Arkansas, Take a hand written BOS, 13 bucks, and prof. of Ins. and get tags for life and a new title. As long as it's over 25 years old.

That was pretty much the drill in MN too. Except it cost around $100 and I got a lifetime collector plate for as long as I own the truck.

Sometimes I wish I lived in California... then I remember why I like it here where its cold! Keeps the Riff raff to a minimum!

[dennis57]

Originally Posted by blackdiesel

You people need to live in Arkansas, Take a hand written BOS, 13 bucks, and prof. of Ins. and get tags for life and a new title. As long as it's over 25 years old.

That's a sweet deal.

[dennis57]

Well I've been slacking these last few weeks. I'm just not real happy with the seats and console so I decided to put the cab aside for now and get to work on the frame. I stored the cab and moved the frame in. When I took the bed off I found that the joint where the frame was sectioned needs some work to make it sound. I measured a 3 places to see if the frame was straight and came up with 3/16 off to dead on.

bye for now


The splice/joint. Not so good looking.

[hotrodrookie]

That joint definetly needs some full penetration, backing plate, and a rail boxing. Good luck.

[ChuckDriver]

Sometimes we all hit a wall and have to move on to something else to get re-motivated!! Have you gotten what you need to install the vette components??

[57ToyBox]

Originally Posted by hotrodrookie

That joint definetly needs some full penetration, backing plate, and a rail boxing. Good luck.

I have to agree... Looks to me like there wasn't enough HEAT.
Doesn't look like penitration was acheived. Weak weld.

[pgf545]

I went with the Progressive tranny mount and boxing plates. The crossmember was really nice. Somewhere on my link I have pictures of the install.

Bernie

[watahyahknow]

just read the whole thing . i realy like those 57 trucks and youre done a great job sofar
nathan porterbuild is a great guy i met him and his father in person hes an ace welder and verry good in either chassis or suspension work , a couple of his projects are featured in truckmagazines
when i was there he had a couple of projects going and i seen some sheetmetal he done on them unpainted it was good enough to be painted without bondo

[BluTooth]

Really good job, have you decided on what you will do with the gas tank?

[Coronas56]

Build it yourself, I made my own trans cross member, custom rear for the vette, I got flat outs front cross member.........about 40 hrs in chassis. Thought about changing it again.........All 3 companies are helpfull...........

[watahyahknow]

i once was dreaming about a midengined truck with the engine in the bed against the cab and using a corvette Ceeeh5? transaxle for drive i would put the bellhouse straight against the gearbox and dont use the torqtube when i saw a pic of the transaxle i knew that wouldnt work , that thing is loooooong and has the diff at the end of the gearbox .
it would balance the truck better if it had the engine in the front closer to the cab than normal though .
knew someone a long time ago who crafted an old vette frame and everything on it to a 60's truckbody when he brought it in for service they asked him wat he done he just said nuttin but hitting sumtin does weird stuff to the body

[Kabwe]

Just was looking through your build and was wondering what happen to you, hope everything is ok. If you done some work on the truck lately please do post pics.

[dennis57]

Originally Posted by BluTooth

Really good job, have you decided on what you will do with the gas tank?

Thanks. I will most likely build something after I get the chassis done.

Originally Posted by Coronas56

Build it yourself, I made my own trans cross member, custom rear for the vette, I got flat outs front cross member.........about 40 hrs in chassis. Thought about changing it again.........All 3 companies are helpfull...........

Oh yeah. All of these companies have been very helpful.

Originally Posted by Kabwe

Just was looking through your build and was wondering what happen to you, hope everything is ok. If you done some work on the truck lately please do post pics.

Hey guys thanks for reminding me to post what's going on here. I started back to work 3 months ago! I'm now back home after 2 months out of town. So right now all work on the truck has stopped. I’ve bought the material to build my own chassis that I’ll start sometime after the first of the year when I get caught up at work.

I’m planning to build the chassis out of 2x4x.180 hot rolled and use a Flat Out cross member with bags for the front and a bagged 4 link for the rear. This should be fun, I've had it drawn out on the garage floor and doing my best "goesintas" figured my fenders aft of the wheel well will be 3"~4" off the ground at ride height. I'm not sure if that's a good height but I think it will be OK. I'll post some pictures when I get started.

[dennis57]

I figured it was time to get off my butt and back to work on the truck. So I cleaned up the garage to start building the chassis. I'll order the FOE cross member next week to get this started. I'm planning to Z the front 2" and a notch for the rear.

[ChuckDriver]

I definetly want to see this one come together!!

[lonelywanderer]

FOE is flat out engineering? if so what made you go with their cross member over the progressive one?

still trying to figure out which one to go with for my truck

[dennis57]

Originally Posted by ChuckDriver

I definetly want to see this one come together!!

Me too!!

Originally Posted by lonelywanderer

FOE is flat out engineering? if so what made you go with their cross member over the progressive one?

still trying to figure out which one to go with for my truck

It was a difficult decision as all of them look like they offer an excellent product but in the end it came down to price.

[Kabwe]

Well I'm glad to see you are still at it. Keep us posted.

[my67chevytruck]

looking forward to the progress. looking great thus far...

[dennis57]

Change of plan. I tried to order my parts from Flat Out several times today. No one answered the phone and their voice mail was full. I’m not comfortable sending money out there if they are going to be difficult to deal with. I called Progressive and talked with Bob and I am getting some dimensions together for a custom fit cross member. One benefit of this set up is it looks like I can eliminate the need to Z the front of the chassis.

[lonelywanderer]

custom dimensions? this sounds interesting

i'm confused on which one to get. from the pics the progressive set up looks like it would be lower than the flat out set up but i dont like having to use the ford rack with spacers you would run in the progressive set up.

i want my truck to ride low at ride height without having to run the bags at a low psi and throw off the suspension geometry to get the stance i want. i'm almost to the point where i want to try and built my own crossmember

[dennis57]

Found a deal on CL today. Never used RB's Obsolete automotive under floor master cylinder kit for 55-59 Chevy truck and new cab mount kit for $120.

[ChuckDriver]

Nice score!

[Kim57]

Looking good.
Kim