Project Step Aside, 1971 SWB/Step

[darkhorse970]

Nice build you've got going. What did you do to align the rear fenders to the cab? I like that idea!

[AJohn6]

Originally Posted by darkhorse970

Nice build you've got going. What did you do to align the rear fenders to the cab? I like that idea!

I had an extra set of rockers laying around and thought they would look good so I cut One upnand tried it.

[knomadd]

Nice touch with raising the step. It looks much better that way.

[AJohn6]

Got the front and rear roll pans on and had to see it outside.

[AJohn6]

I got quite a bit done other the last few days. I made a tube bender using one of Speedway Motors die sets and an 8 ton jack. Works pretty good for being made with scrap metal.

[AJohn6]

Having the tube bender allowed me to get started again on the roll cage.

[AJohn6]

More....

[AJohn6]

Yep, even more....

[mcbassin]

Very nice work on the roll cage! I would like to have one of those benders. Did you use your own design or borrow it from someone else?

[AJohn6]

I kind of stole the design from Speedway Motors (http://www.speedwaymotors.com/3rd-Ge...Set,20066.html) but got it a little backwards when I built it but it still works well enough. The only thing is I can't get a full 90* bend right now because I basically have the main die and roller die backwards. I build it at my work and I did not have a picture to go off of. I couldn't even use my phone because we do not take our phones into the buildings.

[BossHogg69]

Nice work on the bender and the roll cage. The stance of your truck looks killer - I'm diggin' everything you've done so far!

[AJohn6]

Originally Posted by BossHogg69

Nice work on the bender and the roll cage. The stance of your truck looks killer - I'm diggin' everything you've done so far!

Thanks man.

[Graham57a]

Cage is looking sweet! Any updates?

[AJohn6]

Originally Posted by Graham57a

Cage is looking sweet! Any updates?

Thanks for checking in on the build. There really hasn't been to much updates lately on the truck. I switched jobs and had a new addition to my family, my baby girl was born Aug 22nd. The two of them combined with the misses gives me not much time in the garage.

I have finished smoothing the fender lip using some 1/4" rod. I had been struggling to get the cowl, hood, and PS fender to look right with everything else. I lost my cool one day and dented my re-pop fender pretty bad. I found 2 perfect cowls, and a slightly rusty OEM fender for a whopping $110 total.

I fixed the rusty fender using the dented re-pop and a lot of the fitment issues I was having were fixed with the OEM fender. I purchased a smooth front roll pan for the truck and it fit like crap and I couldn't get it to look good at all so I gave up on it. I am now making a mold out of foam and am going to try to make a custom fiberglass roll pan/diffuser with parking lights and air inlets for the intercoolers. Once I get the mold done I will post some photos.

I am taking off again for work so the truck and all the other projects will need to wait until I get home.

[GEARBOXGARAGE]

Great progress on the cage!

[502ms]

sweet upgrades!
thank you for your service!

[Graham57a]

Congrats on the new addition to the family! That's awesome news. Glad to see you're still plugging away despite things being busy. Looking forward to more progress

[tinydb84]

Great build! How do you weld the top of the roll cage being that it is so close to the roof?

[AJohn6]

Originally Posted by tinydb84

Great build! How do you weld the top of the roll cage being that it is so close to the roof?

I haven't yet but there are holes in the floor where the vertical bars go through. When it comes time to weld it up i will let the cage slide down a bit, weld the top, then slide it back up.

AJ

[AJohn6]

Hello everyone,

Welp, it has been quit some time since I have posted on here. My daughter is now 5 years old... man it's been a while. I think even the Admins thought I was a goner and I couldn't log into my account for quit some time. I had a fellow forum member help me out to get it reactivated.

So what has happened to the truck over the last 5 years?

-The original cab is gone because I screwed up the passenger side. I must have a poor job of bracing the floor when I cut it out because when I put the truck together for final mock-up I couldn't get the body lines to line up. It turns out the lower portion of the door jamb had spread out about 5/8 of an inch.

Needless to say I lost motivation and the truck sat until Sep 2017.

-I went over to a members house and seen his truck and talked for a bit and that was the spark I needed to get going again.

-I contacted a guy who lives near Mooreville and bought a cab from him to start over again.

I removed the roll cage since it was built to fit the wrong shape of the old cab. 5/8 of an inch made it look too weird for the new cab.

I now have a truck that is closer to being done than it has ever been. The entire truck has been sandblasted and put into epoxy primer. I mounted my inner fenders, made the trans tunnel, mounted a few things on the chassis, smoothed out the firewall, ordered a driveshaft from Dennys, and about to start the last of the body work now that its cooled. Only catch is I started another project that I thought would be a quickie but has taken a bit longer and more work than I had anticipated.

Here are the updated photos.

[AJohn6]

More pics

[AJohn6]

Heres is the new project. It's going to be a rat rod, 1-ton dually toy hauler that will slowly get modified.

It's a 1971 LWB C10 I picked up for a decent price. It is being mounted on the 2014 Chevy Express 3500 chassis with a L96 6.0 LS and a 6L90E transmission. The chassis, engine, and trans only had 36k miles.

[BossHogg69]

Welcome back! Sorry to hear about the cab ordeal, those kind of things really kill motivation! I went through something similar with a blowing a fresh motor. New project looks fun also!

[AJohn6]

Originally Posted by BossHogg69

Welcome back! Sorry to hear about the cab ordeal, those kind of things really kill motivation! I went through something similar with a blowing a fresh motor. New project looks fun also!

Thanks BossHogg,

I'm thankful that we have some great forum members who keep in touch. Had it not been for tkennedy I may still be looking at it in the garage.

I had read your posts about the motor and I can only imagine the dread. Your Step-side is beautiful and I had once thought about painting mine almost the exact same color. I think I'm fairly certain what color I am going to paint mine now but probably let my 5 year old little girl help me choose. I just have to tell her pink and purple will not happen. Haha