55 TF Stretched Cab/Fleetside/LSx/Trailblazer Frame

[ricott]

Originally Posted by apache200

Your truck is going to be killer.

Thanks man. I don't know if you remember, but I bought the long wheelbase fleetside sides from you a couple of years ago. I plan to use some of that metal to extend the spears into the doors.

Originally Posted by dug224

Love it. The stance feels perfect. dug

Thanks Dug for the comment. All your hard work on making the Trailblazer frame swap work sure made it easier for me! I'm dying to see how your bed is coming along.

Originally Posted by Kim57

Looking real nice.
Nice job on the adjusters for setting up your cab.
Kim

Thanks Kim for the comment. I have followed your build for a long time, and have gotten lots of great ideas from you. Your picture documentation (like Dug) sure makes it easier to follow the modifications (your pancaked hood/tilt hood comes to mind). You are part of the reason I'm doing what I plan on this truck.

Originally Posted by ChuckDriver

Very nice, stance looks perfect! Now slap a fender up front and lets see how it looks!!

I so want to stick the front cap on the truck and a rear fender before I leave for the next several weeks. I may take off early tomorrow and pick up the front cap out of storage (about an hour away). Thanks for your comment.

[Bomp]

Totally dig that stance!
Cab is looking great all stretched out and all.
Have a safe trip.

[ricott]

Originally Posted by rgunlock

That's an impressive amount of progress for a 3-day weekend between both vehicles. Sure looks like your plan is going to pay off with the Trailblazer donor. Looking great!

Thanks for stopping by. It was a couple of great working days - one on the GTO and one on the truck. There will be a lot of welding and some fabricating to merging the floor and the cab together, but I have a 10# spool of wire and a bottle of gas - now all I need is the time. Hopefully that will come in October. I visited your project and love your truck. Also love the two cabs you had in your shop.

Originally Posted by Bomp

Totally dig that stance!
Cab is looking great all stretched out and all.
Have a safe trip.

Thanks for the comments. When you rolled your truck out of the shop a couple of months ago it was a great motivator for me. I love the stance and the proportions of your build. I hope I can come close to that with mine - and I do want people to scratch their heads and wonder if a particular detail was vintage Chevrolet or a recent enhancement.

[jlsanborn]

Holy smokes - mad skills in here. What a cool project!!

[apache200]

Yes I do remember now, glad that you will using them. Cant wait to see more progress!

[71sierragrande]

Just discovered this build. Wow! Cab looks perfect.

[Nut Case]

Councilor, your a wild mad designer. I too do this for stress relief, you just have certain flair. I too am in the process of adding 4" to 57 JIMMY. I have the space in The Barn otherwise named "Manworld" as soon as my youngest removes 55 ford that has been on perma hold for over 4 years. He has been given notice that this friday is the last day, to come fetch it and all the parts and trucks. That's right the ford pu and a 29 A four door with a flatty all have to go! As soon as the space is clear,, I'll have a grand opening party with photo's and everything with anoffical candle lighting.. I just need two JATO packs for the local County Mounties, they don't know that they are up for this years Darwin Awards. Beware The Demented Nut Case will armed and loose Then the build will begin

[ricott]

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

Holy smokes - mad skills in here. What a cool project!!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope to be back on it in early October.

Originally Posted by 71sierragrande

Just discovered this build. Wow! Cab looks perfect.

Thanks for the comment. I really hated to leave Memphis without being able to finish the "level up" and hang the front cap - but October is coming fast!

Originally Posted by Nut Case

Councilor, your a wild mad designer. I too do this for stress relief, you just have certain flair. I too am in the process of adding 4" to 57 JIMMY. I have the space in The Barn otherwise named "Manworld" as soon as my youngest removes 55 ford that has been on perma hold for over 4 years. He has been given notice that this friday is the last day, to come fetch it and all the parts and trucks. That's right the ford pu and a 29 A four door with a flatty all have to go! As soon as the space is clear,, I'll have a grand opening party with photo's and everything with anoffical candle lighting.. I just need two JATO packs for the local County Mounties, they don't know that they are up for this years Darwin Awards. Beware The Demented Nut Case will armed and loose Then the build will begin

To borrow from the fishing world, "A bad day in the garage is better than a good day at work". I really don't have many bad days in the garage! I'm dying to get back on this in October, and hoping I can take a couple of days off mid-month and hit it hard. Please start a build page - we all love the motivation that comes with another person posting up their work. I would love to see the 55 ford – even apart - I learned to drive in a 58 ford PU.

I roll back in to Memphis from Denver in a little over two weeks, the truck is waiting patiently in the garage, and I’ve had many hours to map out what I want to do next. Thanks to all of you who stop in for a look but don’t comment – that’s cool and I hope I will be posting something that is read worthy in early October.

Ricky

[ricott]

It is great to be home after 28 days on the road!!! Dallas was fine and Denver and the mountains were great, but I was glad to see Tennessee again and to get back to work on the truck.

I began yesterday by picking up my front cap from my friend's salvage yard.



Next I completed the level up of the cab to the floorpan. Even with the adjusters it took approximately three hours of trimming and moving to get the cab set where I wanted it on the floorpan. I shot this picture last night. In the end, the rockers are 7 and 1/2 inches off the floor. I could have lowered it as much as another inch, but I liked the look of the truck at this height.




I also began fitting the front cap yesterday. After a looking at Dug’s pictures, and some additional measuring, I cut the Trailblazer frame horns off the front frame just ahead of the sway bar bracket.





I spent the rest of the day disassembling the front cap (between football games) and doing other minor prep work to mount the front cap. I am off tomorrow (Monday) and Tuesday - so I hope to get the sheet metal mocked up by mid week. As always, more to come.

Ricky

Hours spent on Saturday: 7.
Total hours: 91

[ChuckDriver]

Good to see you back at it!!

[Kim57]

Nice progress.
Kim

[dug224]

Welcome back. Nice job jumping back in it head first.

[ricott]

For the last 5 hours or so I've been hanging sheet metal. A storm is moving through (at 3:00 pm) so I thought I would post an afternoon update, and ask the forum a couple of questions. First the good (and I think it is real good), here is the sheet metal on the truck:





Now for the "not so good":

The wifey said "you will be good as long as you don't need to turn!"



The rockers of the truck are at 7 inches off the ground at this point. The tire is in the fender just under 3 inches. I'm thinking I will raise the whole cab approximately 1 inch (those adjusters are real handy), and then rework the fender opening to make up the rest. I read somewhere years ago that people have grafted the fender wheel openings from a late 50 / early 60 Pontiac to increase this opening. Can anyone verify this, and if so, can you send me a link? Another possibility is to roll the fender lip, but I don't think that alone would do it.

Next problem:

My arithmetic apparently wasn't so good when a set up the frame!!! Check out the front part of the rear wheel opening:



Since the frame is tack welded only, when I pull the sheet metal to do the finish welding, I will shorten the frame approximately 2 inches to center the rear wheel up in the wheelwell.

Final issue:



While I love the look of the rear wheel in the opening, I don't think I could pull the tire without having to unbolt the bed. Anyone who runs their truck this low, please chime in if you think it is possible. I'm still debating how to fix this potential problem. I'm headed back out to the garage in a little while to start working through the issues. As always, there is more to come.

Ricky

Time spent so far today: 5.5
Total time : 96.5

[Kim57]

It sure is going to look good.
Better to find those little issues now when they can be fixed without too much trouble.
I solved the problem of dropping the rear to get my rears off by making my bed tilt.
Not sure what you can do though.
Kim

[Bomp]

It looks like its doing a hundred miles an hour sittin there.
How often do you plan on changing your wheels? May be a pain to do so but heck it sure looks cool like it is.
On the front, not sure what to tell ya other than air ride. Hit the switch and you've got plenty of room.
Looks great!

[dug224]

Man, that thing looks great like you have it.

Frame Arithmetic: Hate to see you missed that dimension. Glad frame was just tacked. Check "Cab to Bed Gap". May be able to make some up there.

Rear Wheel Change: Same concern on mine. At my current bed height, when I lift the truck, the wheel falls out from under the bed just enough to change it. Air Ride? Same reasoning as Bomp. Not too familiar with them but, from what I have seen, you get lots of travel out of them.

[ChuckDriver]

That's the fun of the mock up stage, getting it right. Looking good!!!!

[dsraven]

hey ricott
good to see you back on the project. the truck looks great. hopefully you can figure out the turning thing without raising the truck body because that height really suits the look. different offset wheels maybe?
I am doing a 57 gmc onto an envoy all wheel drive chassis. an xuv I got as a write off. once I get the extended cab section finished, so I can move the cab without fear of a twisted distorted mess, I will be up against the same perils. just wondering, are you planning on a reskin of the doors? the body line tapers front to rear so how do you plan on making that right? reskin seems like the only way to me, but then I need to get out more, ha ha. with the metal skills I have seen on the goat it looks like you could just fab a whole new door, in an afternoon, between games...
I opted to use the stock door and add behind the seat room. that longer door opening definitely looks cool though. I am already committed (or should be), so I will continue on with mine. dug tells me to start a build thread but I will have to snag the paperboy or a preschooler to help me figure that out. I tried but my work seemed to go into oblivion. I will have to take another look at it I guess.
today, working on a high mount brake light mount in the roof panel. we'll see how that turns out. I can always weld it closed again. ha ha
dennis

[dug224]

Originally Posted by dsraven

hey ricott
good to see you back on the project. the truck looks great. hopefully you can figure out the turning thing without raising the truck body because that height really suits the look. different offset wheels maybe?
I am doing a 57 gmc onto an envoy all wheel drive chassis. an xuv I got as a write off. once I get the extended cab section finished, so I can move the cab without fear of a twisted distorted mess, I will be up against the same perils. just wondering, are you planning on a reskin of the doors? the body line tapers front to rear so how do you plan on making that right? reskin seems like the only way to me, but then I need to get out more, ha ha. with the metal skills I have seen on the goat it looks like you could just fab a whole new door, in an afternoon, between games...
I opted to use the stock door and add behind the seat room. that longer door opening definitely looks cool though. I am already committed (or should be), so I will continue on with mine. dug tells me to start a build thread but I will have to snag the paperboy or a preschooler to help me figure that out. I tried but my work seemed to go into oblivion. I will have to take another look at it I guess.
today, working on a high mount brake light mount in the roof panel. we'll see how that turns out. I can always weld it closed again. ha ha
dennis

Dennis...as Ricky has said, if there aren't pictures, it didn't happen! I need to come up there and help you start the build thread so we can see the progress!!! We need more high quality entertainment. Dug

[Advanced Design]

I love the wisdom of wives...You will be ok as long as you don't have to turn. Can you run a flatter face wheel (moving the centerline of the wheel inboard)?

[Kim57]

That's a great set up for aligning all the body panels.
Kim

[rgunlock]

Originally Posted by Kim57

That's a great set up for aligning all the body panels.
Kim

I agree - great idea. Beats heck out of trying to do that with wood blocks and shims.

[ricott]

Thanks guys for the comments. Nothing to report - I rolled the truck in order to clean up my messy garage. Of course I shot some "outside" pictures.





I plan to pull the sheet metal off the frame tomorrow night so I can begin the final shortening process by next weekend. As always, more to come.

Ricky

[jholt]

Looking great so far. Keep it up.

[Kim57]

Looks good.
Kim