49 ls1

[oldman3]

Chris, where do you come up with all these finds on the old sheet metal, bed looks good..Jim

[Billys68SS]

Nice bed! Real nice price! That's what I gave for mine and it's nowhere near as nice or complete as yours. Mine was both sides, the front panel and the rear cross sill. Usable for sure, but definitely in need or some repairs. Thankfully I already had a tailgate.
Is that heat and a/c unit an aftermarket piece?

[skymangs]

Jim; I've got friends in low places? LoL

Billy; Yeah, I felt that I got a pretty good deal on the bed. Had to do some digging, and pop the old truck in 4x, but it was worth it. AC is actually a Vintage air mock up unit (no guts, just the case), it's Vintage Air's GEN II Compac. I like them better than any other unit because the hose setup doesn't stick way out the side, or into the firewall. Makes for much easier hose routing, and it's able to fit into smaller places because of it.

I bought a mock-up case, so I can get cabs/firewalls prepped before dropping $470 on the unit, just so it can sit around and collect dust till the paint's done. $50 well spent!

[STOCKISH]

Grear score on that bed man, and nice progress!

[skymangs]

Thanks Josh, work will slow for the next week, till I get this Impala done. I have a buddy coming from Colorado for 2 weeks in April to thrash on the bodywork and finish up the driveline/frame. It'll be good to work with an old friend again!

[skymangs]

This may be a little off topic, but I wanted to share some pics of my new '56 GMC 6400... It really is a nice clean old truck. Nice cab corners, nice eyebrows, nice floor boards, no real rust to speak of!


This one will be going on an '83 Chevy 1ton dually chassis....

[99 to Life]

Sarge, I don't see any pics. Sounds like a cool truck. I got a 54' chevy 6400 all original dump truck, its a beast. I like the sounds of your build though.

[skymangs]

Sorry, edited. Accidentally hit submit before pics were uploaded. I'm thinking long bed '56 step side, widened to cover the duals. It'll be my Tow Pig for my Show Pig!

[oldman3]

Chris, nice looking rig, will be an interesting build...Jim

[Billys68SS]

Love it!!!

[skymangs]

Thanks Billy, 99, and Oldman3. That one's gonna happen when things slow down a bit. I got a nasty email informing me that I'm supposed to deploy to AF in the end of April... I'm fighting it, but not sure if I'll win yet or not.

My weekend of '49 turned out to be more like a Sunday of '49. I had to go to Topeka for an estimate yesterday, took all day pretty much.

I have another job coming in on next weekend, so I'll get to spend some time on the '49 this week.

I got the trans tunnel finished up today, and spent some time figuring out my steering column bracket this afternoon. Since I'm using the '55 dash, all the factory column bracing got cut away, and will be replaced with 1/8" steel. Here's some pics.

[skymangs]

Here's the final couple. it's nice and low for a trans tunnel, and left me room for that Lokar 16" shifter behind the hump.

[sqrlnts]

Trans tunnel looks great! Good luck with your deployment orders.

[oldman3]

Chris, floor looks great, hope you stay home...Jim

[skymangs]

squirts; Thank you
Jim; thanks, I hope I do too... too many projects going on to take a 6 month break now!

Spent a little time in the shop today. Got the dash re-mocked up, got the column bracket built and tacked in. I need to finish mocking up the column, then take the dash back out, seam in the column bracket, and make a gusset for it to a plate on the firewall. Then I'm ready to start welding the dash in. I'm so close to bodywork I can almost taste it!

[Low Elco]

Dash and Tunnel look great!

[skymangs]

Thanks Elco... Hoping to get the column set today. I just ordered pro-line brushed billet louvers for the center of my dash, and the AC control panel I intend to use. I'll likely do the dash work before I weld it in.

[99 to Life]

sarge, looks awesome, that dash could be factory it fits so nice. hope you don't have to leave for duty. such a shame what their pointless wars do to our families and country. sadly from here on out we are gonna always gonna be in war because now we can use the term terrorism, which is a wash.

[xpickup]

skymangs, everything looks great. Good luck with your deployment, hope you get to stay home. You got plenty of projects to keep you busy rather than a deployment!

Shannon

[skymangs]

Thanks 99 and xpickup. I'm hoping to evade the sandbox orders, but it won't be the first time, so it's gonna be what it's gonna be I guess.

Updates.

Column is in, upper and lower brackets finished up. Tomorrow I'll pull the dash back out, and do a gusset from the column support bracket (suspended from the cowl) out to the firewall, with some 1/8" plate. Should be plenty strong then.

[skymangs]

Here's the last few pics.

[BlueJeep]

Looking good! I really like the low-profile tranny tunnel.

[oldman3]

Hey Chris, nice job on the column...Jim

[skymangs]

Thanks, I really like the way the tunnel and the column came out. When it's done, you won't be able to see the column bracket at all, so it will look like it "floats" below the dash.

[skymangs]

Todays updates. Got the column bracket all finished up, speed holes and all. Also made a tab so the wiper motor bracket welds to the new column bracket. I'm going to go with Classic Parts electric motor on this one, just so I have one less part to fiddle with.