Great White North 59 Fleetside Build

[dicer]

It is from mice. And I don't think its the poop thats corrosive, its the pee, and also when that area sweats all that nice fluff holds the moisture, and since it was never ever painted up there good old rust happens.

[Chevette]

Nice fab work. Your truck is looking great. Sure wish I had your shop equipment. BTW cotton is no big deal, you should have seen mine. I hauled out a huge wad of newspaper that the PO had stuffed in there as a backer for the bondo, used to close up the speaker hole above the windshield. The bondo was about an inch thick in some places at the speaker hole.

[fabguy]

I read through you entire build thread and That is some VERY nice fab work you did. I will be starting my fan shroud soon and was wondering how to get a radius bend instead of a sharp bend and I looked on post 32 and seen your die you used. I guess i will make one to do mine. I wish i had made my tank although i bought mine years before i opened my shop.

[HiRMKin]

That’s what’s great about this forum getting some ideas for our projects from everybody else. The pipe was a 2 3/8 and I used a 3” channel for the bottom. Good luck with your build.

[northerngmc]

Nice looking project. Real nice work you are completing.

[HiRMKin]

Unfortunately I’ve been very busy at work and with the family therefore haven’t had much time to work on the truck. I did manage to Mfg. an SS drop down battery box under the passenger side.

[Kim57]

Very nice box.
Kim

[HiRMKin]

I haven’t accomplished much since my last post, just over a year ago. I’ve been to PO’d with in the way the corners lined up with the steps and couldn't get motivated to do something about it.
I’ve been to a few car shows and it seems most people weld the corner to the step but I just don’t like the look.
So I re-cut the drivers corner and step and now I'm much happier with the fit.
I’m in the process in fitting the new doors to the cab and I'm not much happier with the way they fit. Hopefully I'll stay with it this time.
It could be the way I welded the new sheet metal in because the door seems to be twisted but I think not the old door fit fine.
I got a new scissor lift and it seems to rejuvenated me , I can now lift the truck up to work on the passenger side corner and the bottom of the doors.

[Kim57]

Looks good.
The doors never fit these trucks very well even from the factory.
Nice lift.
Kim

[HiRMKin]

Thanks Kim57 and you keep up the good work as well

[HiRMKin]

I forgot last September I bought a 58 GMC grain truck.
I paid 300 bucks for it and took all the chrome/SS trim from it and parted it out the rest and ended with extra cash in my pocket.

[Kim57]

Nice score on the grain truck.
Kim

[Lokin4AReason]

heck of a find =0)

[CMACDONALD1]

Nice build! Great score on the stainless trim. I'm surprised that a grain truck would have that trim.

[59chev]

Just found your thread. Nice score on the trim from the grain truck! I got my seat out of a grain truck for my 59 project. It was recovered a few years back and since a grain truck is driven relatively few miles it was in excellent condition.

[HiRMKin]

I think the only reason I got a good deal on it, as I was the only fool to drive to Cardston almost to the Montana border in the middle of nowhere to get it.
It’s good to see a few fellow Albertans with the same passion for these old trucks. Nice work on your builds guys. Hopefully I’ll stick with it until it snows flies (which it did this past weekend) LOL

[HiRMKin]

I crazy that it's been over two years since I posted on my build thread. So I'll bring you up to date. I've done a few things but nothing major. Most the things I've done are reworks and things that I just wasn't happy with. I replace the vortec heads with summit heads as I was getting antifreeze in the oil. Come to find out the intake gasket wasn't sealing correctly. Damn. I removed the hydroboost as i just didn't like the hoses running along the frame rail. I found a brand new never installed underfloor kit and installed that instead. I replace my battery box as I found a new SS drop down box at a swapmeet dirt cheap and it works better then the one I made. Then the big one was I raised the truck back up. I took the 2" drop spindles out and reinstalled the stock ones. Then removed the flip axle kit and re welded the frame back to stock. I then installed a 2" drop shackle kit to take some of the rake out of it. I did this for two reasons I guess I just didn't like it low and I could drive it over my lift with ramps. Just a PITA. Some of the new stuff I did and doing. I made some tail pipes and started to repair the box. hoping to have the box repaired by the end of the month.

[59chev]

Looking good. Making progress.

I'm still plugging away at mine. Just got the master cylinder mounted and the cab back on the frame rails.

[HiRMKin]

Hey 59chev I just reread your build thread. I tried to subscribe to all the Calgary build threads I come across. You also keep up the good work

[59chev]

Thanks HiRMKin!!

I'm hoping to at least get the fenders and box mocked up before the snow flies. I'm really eager to see how it looks as a shortbox.

[ChuckDriver]

Cool build!

[HiRMKin]

Been working hard on the getting the box done. I got the passenger side done and very happy with it. I made a couple of patch panels and got them welded in. A lot of hammering and dent pulling but I got it.

[Kim57]

Looks real good.
Kim