What did you do with your truck today, Part 3

[la hi]

I lost the 55-59 forum somehow! These postings are mostly 54 and under. Did the postings for tri-five move or did they dry up?

[DransportGarage]

Originally Posted by la hi

I lost the 55-59 forum somehow! These postings are mostly 54 and under. Did the postings for tri-five move or did they dry up?

WE dried up. All of us '55-'59 owners are sitting in our rockers staring at our truck parts, trying to remember what fits where.

(Seriously, there is no forum dedicated to '55-'59. This is it: the '47-'59 forum. The '55-'59 folks are all working on their stuff instead of gabbing on the forum. I'm going to go out to the garage after another cup of coffee and put my door hinges in. I don't post much anymore since Snapfish broke my photo account and I can't edit/fix my build thread.)

[mobileortho]

Removed another leaf from the rear (the three main ones remain). Can’t go any lower with this rim/tire combo.

[MiraclePieCo]

Originally Posted by mobileortho

Removed another leaf from the rear (the three main ones remain). Can’t go any lower with this rim/tire combo.

Just right!

[MiraclePieCo]

More puttering.

Got out my touch-up brushes and hand painted the logos in my hood emblem. Much better!

[Marty68]

Originally Posted by mobileortho

Removed another leaf from the rear (the three main ones remain). Can’t go any lower with this rim/tire combo.

Perfect. What size wheel tire?

[mobileortho]

Originally Posted by Marty68

Perfect. What size wheel tire?

285 50 18 on 10" rim's.

[mobileortho]

Originally Posted by mobileortho

Removed another leaf from the rear (the three main ones remain). Can’t go any lower with this rim/tire combo.

Gotta move on to plan B. The drive shaft hits the emergency brake cross bar when I foot "accidentally" push the accelerator to hard! Putting the 4th leaf back in and adding a c-notch.

[MARTINSR]

I got somewhere today with the hood. Been thinking about it and thinking about it and starring at it and starring at it and talking about it and talking about it! Today I walked out there and cut that sucker in half and removed the 2" strip. I got something happening!
Good:
It' started, looking good.
Bad: I am blown away that the cab is sectioned 2.5 inches and I cut the hood 2" and it looks like I should have left some at the front. I thought about it, thought about bringing the front down to an inch and a half or so to leave me metal to work with bringing the smaller top to the larger bottom. I didn't, and you can see that I should have! Oh well, There is a very good chance I am going to have to fab a strip of metal go make the two match anyway, so I guess it will end up being a moot point but damn I wish I had left another half inch to work with. The funny thing is at the cowl it doesn't look like it will even 2.5 inches! It looks like it will be less than that, odd the cowl is 2.5 but it really looks like the hood will be cut a little less than that, hmmmm.
I installed the hood bumpers on it, the fenders are aligned and all that just in case you are wondering.
So I have a 2" strip of the hood if anyone you know is wanting to return a sectioned hood back to stock, the price is right.

Brian

[crossfire84]

I really like it, I have 2 more hoods that I want to try it. I saw in a few magazines that 1 1/2" is the magic number, keep up the good work.

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by crossfire84

I really like it, I have 2 more hoods that I want to try it. I saw in a few magazines that 1 1/2" is the magic number, keep up the good work.

Understand that the cab is sectioned 2.5 inches.

Brian

[MiraclePieCo]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

I got somewhere today with the hood. Been thinking about it and thinking about it and starring at it and starring at it and talking about it and talking about it! Today I walked out there and cut that sucker in half and removed the 2" strip. I got something happening!

That took guts!

[MiraclePieCo]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

I got somewhere today with the hood. Been thinking about it and thinking about it and starring at it and starring at it and talking about it and talking about it! Today I walked out there and cut that sucker in half and removed the 2" strip. I got something happening!
Good:
It' started, looking good.
Bad: I am blown away that the cab is sectioned 2.5 inches and I cut the hood 2" and it looks like I should have left some at the front. I thought about it, thought about bringing the front down to an inch and a half or so to leave me metal to work with bringing the smaller top to the larger bottom. I didn't, and you can see that I should have! Oh well, There is a very good chance I am going to have to fab a strip of metal go make the two match anyway, so I guess it will end up being a moot point but damn I wish I had left another half inch to work with. The funny thing is at the cowl it doesn't look like it will even 2.5 inches! It looks like it will be less than that, odd the cowl is 2.5 but it really looks like the hood will be cut a little less than that, hmmmm.
I installed the hood bumpers on it, the fenders are aligned and all that just in case you are wondering.
So I have a 2" strip of the hood if anyone you know is wanting to return a sectioned hood back to stock, the price is right.

Brian

Brian: I think your hood slope is nearly perfect. Why don't you just make some relief cuts in the lower part at the front and tap it in to meet the upper part?

.

[DransportGarage]

Originally Posted by MiraclePieCo

Brian: I think your hood slope is nearly perfect. Why don't you just make some relief cuts in the lower part at the front and tap it in to meet the upper part?

.

...like I said in post #3176, more or less. Lookin' GREAT !!

[MiraclePieCo]

Originally Posted by DransportGarage

...like I said in post #3176, more or less. Lookin' GREAT !!

Sorry I stole your idea. But great minds think alike!

[DransportGarage]

Originally Posted by MiraclePieCo

Sorry I stole your idea. But great minds think alike!

No, it's all good! It's just that I seldom get things right...

[MiraclePieCo]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

I got somewhere today with the hood. Been thinking about it and thinking about it and starring at it and starring at it and talking about it and talking about it! Today I walked out there and cut that sucker in half and removed the 2" strip. I got something happening!

Brian

Brian: I thought you might be interested in this truck currently for sale on Ebay. Note the line where they sectioned the hood, almost identical to yours.

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by MiraclePieCo

Brian: I thought you might be interested in this truck currently for sale on Ebay. Note the line where they sectioned the hood, almost identical to yours.

WOW! Very cool, I just found it on ebay. That sucker is a good start but has a LOT of work to do! The hood is sectioned similar to what I am planning, interesting. You can see that hood isn't meeting back with the cowl, it really is very close to what I am doing. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1948-Chevro...EAAOSwVcBc59VK

Brian

[MiraclePieCo]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

WOW! Very cool, I just found it on ebay. That sucker is a good start but has a LOT of work to do! The hood is sectioned similar to what I am planning, interesting. You can see that hood isn't meeting back with the cowl, it really is very close to what I am doing. [/url]

Brian

It's only logical that as the upper hood comes forward to meet the lower hood it would leave a gap at the cowl.

Note the pie cuts to match the upper and lower hood curvatures:

[DransportGarage]

Got the headliner in and lined up with the visor screw holes. Then I test-fit the upper back panel. All fit pretty well, but it's just hangin' there. That little bit of upholstery work moved the wife from ignoring the project to saying she wants to DRIVE it! As Martin would say, WOO HOO !!!

Then, when I came to installing the rear window I got a little surprise. I had bought the glass at a swap meet for an unbelievable $15 two years ago, wrapped in what looked like the original paper. Well, the corner is chipped out, and the chip isn't in the paper. The seller knew it was broken and palmed it off on me. So, I ordered a new one from Auto City Classic today and am held up a week on this part of the project.

Literally, two steps forward, one step back.

[Black_Sheep]

Cleaned all of the bugs off after Wednesday night's drive and threw the cover back on. Rain through the weekend and into next week.

[idbeast]

I didn't have the guts of MARTINSR but I did get the old lady to help bleed the brakes! Then I found and got the gas pedal installed and adjusted, then while looking for the gas pedal found a new carpet for truck, so I set it in place just to see! then I crawled around installing some wiring under the dash, and the got the cruise control turn signal lever out to install in the Ididit Column tomorrow.

[MARTINSR]

That's basically what I am going to do. The thing is the top may need to come down a bit further to meet the bottom. Remember it's sitting right on top of it now in the photo and they are a half inch apart! So bending them out and in to match, there will still be a gap between them so the top will need to come down a bit more. THAT was the mistake I made, should have left more, I thought a half an inch was enough, and it wasn't.

Brian

[MARTINSR]

The rear of the hood will need to be lengthened about a half an inch.

Brian

[MiraclePieCo]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

The rear of the hood will need to be lengthened about a half an inch.

Brian

How about this for an option: build the cowl out to meet the hood instead. Way less warpage than that big floppy hood edge.