47-59 59-60 Car dash into 57 pickup

[Blackie]

G'day fellas, I am going to make a start on converting my 57 pickup to RHD over the christmas break and I have a 59-60 RHD dash here, was wondering if anyone has seen this done before and has photos so I can see how it looks ?

[geezer#99]

Welcome to the forum here in the up over!
Found this for you.


https://www.trifive.com/threads/impa...7-truck.22037/

[dsraven]

do you have the rest of the underpinnings for the conversion? are you staying stock with suspension and column?
there was another down under fella on here who did a rhd conversion but I can'r remember his posting name. sorry. maybe you can use the search bar and find him somehow? i don't think he was changing to a car dash though.
post some pics of what you have, that'll peak some interest

[dsraven]

here is one with the truck dash conversion

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...d.php?t=696114

for the last few years in Canada it has been a fad to have a rhd vehicle, or it has been really cheap to bring them over. whatever. anyway, if you want to see a really nice job of converting a 55-59 to a 59 belaire dash check out kabwe's thread. just punch in kabwe or bam's build and see what comes up. not sure what page the dash is on but it is a great thread to read anyway. great fab skills and attitude.

[Blackie]

Originally Posted by dsraven

do you have the rest of the underpinnings for the conversion? are you staying stock with suspension and column?
there was another down under fella on here who did a rhd conversion but I can'r remember his posting name. sorry. maybe you can use the search bar and find him somehow? i don't think he was changing to a car dash though.
post some pics of what you have, that'll peak some interest

The truck I have is a NAPCO conversion, but the chassis is rusted and I am going to fit the body to a 1993 Nissan Patrol chassis. This will give me 4 wheel discs, RHD, power steering and LSD diffs for far lees than what it would cost me to refurbish all the NAPCO bits here in Australia.
I will hopefully sell the original chassis to a restorer. I did a thread on the truck but its on the intro thread

[Blackie]

Originally Posted by geezer#99

Welcome to the forum here in the up over!
Found this for you.


https://www.trifive.com/threads/impa...7-truck.22037/

Thanks Geezer, theres tons of good info in that thread - its a sweet truck

[dsraven]

a frame swap sounds like a decent idea since you have limited parts supply. i recomend to download a free copy of the factory assembly manual from the trifive site, it will have a bunch of dimensions and drawings which you can use for reference when doing the swap. maybe keep the original frame till you have the basics complete on your swap, if you have space for it.
when you get the nissan frame stripped and cleaned start the swap off by doing a dimension check for square, sag etc.
on my '57 I used the donor bodie's floor and firewall since mine were rusted beyond wanting to spend time fixing. that gave me a floor that fits the donor frame mounts and also would accept the donor bucket seats with built in seat belts, carpet and underlay that is formed to fit, a console and floor shifter with a hand brake mechanism, a firewall mounted booster and pedals, etc. i am also using the dash and heater/air conditioning unit so I will get dual zone a/c etc. doing a frame swap made sense to me since my truck will be a daily driver. my donor also has factory 4 link rear susp, factory strut front suspension, big disc brakes all around, a large midship fuel tank with fuel pump and all the fuel lines etc and a complete 4x4 driveline. it has the rad and a/c condensor designed to fit the system, exhaust that fits, etc etc. a lot of time, effort and cash is saved when you use a donor but you gotta also factor in the home engineering involved to make it all fit together, work and look normal. on mine I did an extended cab addition to gain some seat room. thats a whole different conversation tho.
post up some pics of what you have to start with or a link to your intro so we can easily find it and follow along. sounds like fun.

[mr48chev]

Originally Posted by dsraven

do you have the rest of the underpinnings for the conversion? are you staying stock with suspension and column?

The big question is right there, Do you have enough of the 59 dash to have all needed pieces.

I hate to send a new guy over to check out another Truck group but here is the info you are looking for https://www.trifive.com/threads/impa...7-truck.22037/

A little bit of modifying in the middle plus flipping images in your mind as you go but that can come out pretty nice.

[mr48chev]

It looks like he used a pretty common street rod "billet aluminum" column drop on it.

There is a lot of cutting and fitting involved including taking a few inches out of the middle.

[Blackie]

Yeah there is some work in it - I converted my '57 Sports coupe from left hook to right a while back , had to cut the dash into 11 pieces to get it to look right - this should be heaps easier.

[Blackie]

Here's a link to my intro thread with some pics of the ute

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...d.php?t=854877

[Blackie]

Went to order some bits to get ready for the Christmas thrash - got some rust and some pretty serious alignment issues to deal with so was going to address that over the break - check out the quote I got from DHL

[mr48chev]

Wow, how big of a crate is all that in? or what are the largest parts.

You could probably fly to a west coast city that JAL or maybe Alaska flys back and forth from. Have someone that is a member receive the parts for you and then you pick them up and haul them back as oversize luggage for a lot less than that.

Or check with Wes at Classic heartbeat https://www.classicheartbeat.com/ and see if he has a connection to ship to Japan as he is in Olympia Washington 60, miles south of Sea Tac airport.

[Blackie]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

Wow, how big of a crate is all that in? or what are the largest parts.

It would be pretty big, have door bottoms inner and outer, the step pockets and rockers, cab corner outers , left front fender bottom plus a handful of little bits like hinge pins, striker plates etc. I also need a roof skin plus the inner repair section that goes across the front and a dash garnish - I took them out of the list as it wouldn't give me a price at all with them in it.

You could probably fly to a west coast city that JAL or maybe Alaska flys back and forth from. Have someone that is a member receive the parts for you and then you pick them up and haul them back as oversize luggage for a lot less than that.

Well and truly - and have a holiday while I am there !!

Or check with Wes at Classic heartbeat https://www.classicheartbeat.com/ and see if he has a connection to ship to Japan as he is in Olympia Washington 60, miles south of Sea Tac airport.
Didn't know about classic heartbeat, will check their website out, not much good sending to Japan I am in Western Australia

..

[leegreen]

there are freight forwarding services that consolidate packages into freight shipments. You'd get the sheet metal shipped to them, they'd get it to a major city near you. Probably via a container on a slow boat, but the savings might be worth the wait. The google AI suggested a couple names when I searched "US to Australia freight forwarding"

[mr48chev]

I know hot rodders in Australia use the freight forwarders who ship a continer with several people. shipments in it so the cost is split but they are usually gettng pretty big orders.

I've had good luck with prices on Fedex ground freight before but haven't used them for overseas air freight. What you described minus the roof panel is not that bulky in that it could be shipped in a couple of 2x4x3 foot boxes pretty easily and neither would weigh over about 70 lbs.

I checked Amazon but the price differences with their shipping on prime makes it look like they are charging about 180 to ship the inner door bottoms within the US https://www.amazon.com/s?k=1958+chev...ref=nb_sb_noss

It looks like those parts might be shipped from China though so it might be worth snooping into for those four pieces. You might get a better shipping rate from them than we do.

[Blackie]

I have a mate who ships containers of cars and car parts out of Houston to Perth, it will be coming with him but that means I wont see it until February/March next year.

I ordered a couple of rust repair sections and some new body mounts, hinge pins,door latches and strikers etc yesterday and paid $150 to have that stuff airfreighted so we can at least sort out the horrible door gaps and get the body and tub mounted to the chassis over xmas.

The body is twisted, it appears its been reversed into something at roof height so there is a fair amount of fettling required to straighten the old girl out. I will start a build thread in the appropriate spot but heres a pic or 2 of what we need to deal with -

[leegreen]

Ouch, nasty combination of bad collision repair and rust. Grinding the back edge of the door to fit was a nice touch. I hope the other side is better.

probably don't need to say it but make sure the frame / cab mounts are all sitting where they are supposed to before you start on the door frame & roof. Some of that misshape could be from collapsed front cab mount or twisted frame.

[Blackie]

Originally Posted by leegreen

Ouch, nasty combination of bad collision repair and rust. Grinding the back edge of the door to fit was a nice touch. I hope the other side is better.

probably don't need to say it but make sure the frame / cab mounts are all sitting where they are supposed to before you start on the door frame & roof. Some of that misshape could be from collapsed front cab mount or twisted frame.

Yeah it's not the best is it ??? Drove it into the shed tonight and started blowing it apart, once the body is off the old chassis and onto the new one we will square it up and get the pulling gear out. Tell ya what I get envious looking at the price and availability of parts in the US compared to over here

[dsraven]

these truckls suffer from rusty cab floors and hinge pillar rust out. you won't really know what you have until you take it off the frame and get the old paint off. I think you should not worry about ordering patch panels untill you have checked ALL your body parts. really, sandblasting them is a great way to start, after its apart, because it blows through any thin spots so you will know right away exactly where the good sheet metal is and where you will need patches.when its been in a body shop previously, whether an actual shop or a home garage, because of accident damage, and you can see cracked filler in areas, meaning thick layers, plus you have doors that don't fit, then be prepared for a bad day once you get it down to bare steel. these trucks have a common issue with water sitting in the outer cowl panels on each side. it comes in through the air intake vent in front of the windshield, along with pine needles, leaves, dust and other small debris that is able to get through the vent grille. it flows downhill into the cowl voids on each side and SHOULD easily run out the drain hole at the bottom of the cowl, but, the drail plugs from the debris. the outcome can be that water builds up, ice can form in colder areas of the country, and then that water builds up until it runs out on the floor through the side vents.
common places for rust I have found on several TF trucks
-roof line just above the drip rail, sometimes just below the drip rail also. usually find a few pinhole rusty spots in the paint. when pushed with your fuinger it feels soft.
-eyebrow area above the windshield. common to find mouse nests on the inside void area between the sun visors
-rear cab corners, inner and outer
-rear cab mounts "sandwich" area under the floor
-rear cab wall inside braces behind the fuel tank
-area around rear window, usually pinhole rust near edge of the bend in the sheet metal
-floor under pedals. water comes in from the vent on the kick panels and sits on the floor, runs down onto the step and also into the hinge pillar, which eventually rusts the lower area of the hinge pillar, the rear lower fender mount, the cab mount and the floor sheet metal
-himge pillars
-rear lower fender mount bracket
-cab mounts
-steps and rocker panels (these come as one part usually, but there is also just a rocker panel strip available)
-floor area ahead of the seam under pedals. actually the rear section of the firewall panel
-small section of sheet metal in the front step area that is inboard of the hinge pillar, below the hinge. usually a "make it yourself" part. cab mounts weld to this on their outward end
-cab outer cowls behind the front fenders.
-front fender rear upper mount areas. this is part of the outer cowls and has the captured nut on each side that the fenders bolt to
-once the outer cowls are removed there is also a trough above the kick panel vent that is common to rust off. its like a gutter that directs water from dripping into the vent
-front fenders behind the wheel opening. lower section
-front fender rear vertical brace at the rear. on the back side of the fender. different contours at the bottom between 55-57 and 58-59, but earlier ones don't seem to be available so guys use the later ones on the earlier trucks
-front fenders above the headlights, the eyebrows
-headlight buckets
-rad supports, usually at the bottom where the pocket is for the mounting hardware
-rear fenders above the steps and around the mounting flange
-bed sides aropund the fender mounting areas and also in the lower areas where the bedwood is able to hold moisture and cause rot
-bed cross sills

i find it is a great idea to look into what patch panels are available for any vehicle you are restoring. they are available because they are commonly asked for. then look at your project, with an unbiased eye, and see how solid it looks in those areas.
you can't fool the sandblaster, it is definately unbiased. if youi have it blasted make sure to ask if the blaster has done vehicles before. otherwise you will come back to a warped mess. they will charge you either way. I have wondered how the wet blaster works. i may try it next summer on my frame. kinda leary on using it on body metal. it is the "wet" part that bothers me, and the surface rust that may come with that part. i'll havr to check into it tho. there is some chemical that is added to stop the rust maybe?
anyway, sorry for the long response. just would hate to see anybody spend a bunch of money on parts shipping only to find their list was incomplete and they need more stuff

[dsraven]

one more place comes to mind for rust. under the windshield rubber and the rear window rubber
I forgot to mention the door issues as well. the lower section of the doors, inner and ouiter, but also the actual structure of the door can be rusted or the spot welds can come apart around the hinge reinforcement brackets. once the inner panels is removed you can likely see the spot welds on the inner skin. sometimes they look ok but have seperated none the less. I have 5 or 6 doors and they all have this issue. if the glass and regulator assy's have been removed you can look down inside the door and see if those parts. also look for cracks in the structure usually around the area at the bottom of the window opening, around the regulator mounts etc. there is a "web" of metal at the lower edge of the window opening between the vent window and the sliding glass. it is also commonly cracked.
if the truck was a work truck, like a farmer's truck who drove in rough fields, also check the dash ends for cracked braces etc

[dsraven]

take pics as you take things apart, bag or box stuff together in groups and try to keep the fasteners with the parts. even screw them back into the parts. that way you know what went where and how it fit. my current project is 15yrs in the making, between a couple of jobs and other home renos, surgeries, and life. trust me, you forget stuff, lol.

[Blackie]

Cheers for the heads up mate, this isn't my first rodeo I have built over a dozen cars from a bare shell up - off the top of my head. Did my first at 18 under a tree in my mates front yard , pain in the arse when you drop a nut or washer and cant find it in the dirt This thing has rust in a lot of the areas you have mentioned, plus the unknown stuff under the bog. I have most of the tools required to make panels except for an english wheel so can make some of the easier stuff in my shed

[mr48chev]

Nice shed.