49' Patina bagged in PA

[99 to Life]

hey 49' thanks, yeah the 52' thread will be a very slow progress thread. all I have done is that one fender, almost done with a front fender and door. I have the 235 with 5 speed all ready to go, just needs dressed up. I'm hoping to bag the frame after I finish this project. then back burner it and only work on body parts during the week after work, like I have done before. Well now that my daughter sleeps through the night, I go to bed around midnight or 1am and wake up around 7:30-8 am so I'm good there but.... I drive to pittsburgh 2hrs away on tuesday then I drive back up north thursday night so my schedule is hectic.

I'm surely but slowly getting the right tools and once I have them and stop buying all the junk trucks!!! I can really mash em out. I like showing people how bad something was and how good it can be. Sure it takes time to get it there but its saving stuff from the scrapyard and gets my skills better.

[99 to Life]

8-3 sunday, Got the cab flipped over, nice to see. I cut out all the patches I had left to finish the floor, undercoated the bottoms, now I just have to weld them in, seam seal and coat the floor, under dash etc, basically strip and coat the whole inside of cab. Then I'll flip it over and seam seal and spray the Herculiner on the bottom.

Doesn't look like much progress I know. I made up patch piece for the back cab support, so I'll weld that into the floor once that is on. I'm repurposing the gas tank strap in the cab for a battery hold down cause its right were I'm putting the battery. I then run a killswitch up under seat. or under dash

waiting on my headers to show up so I can verify the reducers are what they say they are, so I can start ordering up some stainless to finish exhaust and get engine in the frame.

I have to get some flexline to run to the front bags, then I'm hardlining it to the back, prolly start on some brake line soon so I can get cab back on frame for good. Then I'll prime and paint inside of cab and firewall. Get the dash back in and I'll be getting pedals in. Once cab is on, brakes are ran, clutch is in and get a driveshaft, I can actually move this thing! then wire it up and work out all the little details.

[Advanced Design]

Looking good 99. That floor is solid.

[oldman3]

Nice job on the floor...Jim

[IWanna49]

Ditto. Floor looks great.

[99 to Life]

thanks guys, I'd have to look through my notes on how much tubing I used but its well over 100 ft on this truck so far. a bit overkill and makes for alot of welding. Next truck I'm just going to do a 1x3" square tube parameter, then make the tunneling and floors in big pieces now that I have 7.5" brake. So should be able to have less hours and less welding on the next one. Right now I got like 85 hours in all the cab work, floor toe boards, kick boards, custom inner cowls, cab corners and back of cab. I'm gonna get some more hours on stripping and coating the inside today.

[99 to Life]

8-5 Well my plans of working on cab changed. I got my stainless headers in and was worried about the length of them, so I had to put engine in and get a header on to see what was up. I'm literally touching the frame so I'll just trim the bottom flange a tiny bit. I'm ordering up some stainless flex pipe to connect to my straight pipe. and thats it, two simple straight back shots.

I measured my steering off my 51' and its about 3.5" off the block and it runs through the s10 V8 headers. These stainless headers are really close to those ones but look a million times better. So my plan is to still run the steering through the headers, I think it will be a very close fit but should work.

[99 to Life]

8-8 Got some more of cab coated, finished up the fuel pump recess in frame, moched up some exhaust. I need to expand a couple pieces to fit over one another, get mufflers and thats done. Got engine in for good, put other header on and it clears just fine.

Having a real hard time finding a place that knows anything about the fitting I need to put on my stainless flex line for my front bags. The crimp tool is a bit unknown as well, almost seems like an AC tool would do the trick, but those are pricey so I'm not sure what I'm doing yet, thats why I don't have the front all done cause I need my airlines hooked up. I'll then run aluminum hardline to the back.

Little car show saturday so I won't get much if any work done. Its the oil festival weekend in Titusville, PA. Not many people know its where the first oil well struck oil and started the oil industry.

[Advanced Design]

99, headers and the flex coupling look good.

How does the front line you were showing connect to the bag?

Yep, I am familiar with the first well and Titusville. Enjoy the show.

[99 to Life]

AD, thanks. this is a leader hose they call it. You can buy them for the air compressors. The line I need is 1/2 NPT and will thread right into the bag. I just don't want to use a push connect up in the front bag and wanted a flex line with durability and heat resistance. I can buy the lines but its $40 per line. Seems like a waste since I have 1/2 stainless braided line sitting around, just needs the fittings put on. Some hydraulic fittings won't work because they are designed to bite into rubber. Closest thing I found is AC fittings. Not sure if you could run a regular compression fitting or AN fitting cause of the furrel.

[99 to Life]

here is the line I have.

Here is an AC fitting called a beadlock.

Here is a dye used to crimp AC lines, its a hexagon, most all other crimpers I'v seen aren't like this kind.

[99 to Life]

8-15 friday. Still chipping away on the cab. Got the dash in today, and man it wasn't as easy as I thought. But she's in. Got all underneath coated with chassis saver, down to the floor. I'll coat floor soon, just have a back corner to finish up on it. I cut out the stock brace that runs from the door pillars in the back of cab, I have some steel plate that I'm welding in across in place of the skimpy stock crap. lastly on the cab, I have to fill a ton of holes on the firewall and prep it for prime and paint, and paint dash.

Got seam sealer on all the welds and seams. I still have to strip back of cab and roof and get it ready for epoxy primer. I got a little more work on a cab corner and the outter cowls, all of which I can do when cab is back on frame.
I have to flip cab over, finish seam sealing and spray Herculiner, might spray it inside too depending on how much I use.

Wrapping up my exhaust. I then need to run air line and brake line. So I need quite a few things before I can get cab back on. Still need cab bushings too.

I want to get cab on soon so I can moch up pedals and steering. Once I get brakes done up, steering, pedals, buy clutch and driveshaft I should be able to move it on its own. Then onto wiring and all the little tedious things of the still forever long list.

[Advanced Design]

Great progress 99! Dash looks good.

[oldman3]

99 Looking good there bud....Jim

[99 to Life]

thanks guys, here is one of the back of the cab. the steel brace I was talking about that runs from each door pillar. you can see the pass side corner I decided to tear up and gonna replace all that too. Sometimes its easier to just tear everything out from day one instead of keeping this and that and building around it, lesson learned as well as making larger sheets for the floor, so its less seams and less welding.

[IWanna49]

Dash and floor are looking great. What are your plans for seats and interior color?

[99 to Life]

thanks 49 (or should I say 51!!!!) The seat is on p.6 post 139. I posted a debacle with two seats I already had out of 73-87 trucks. Turns out those were about 2" too wide. So I got a bench seat out of an 89' in great condition. I just need to get the cover made to match my interior. The plan has been from day one a goldish color just like I painted my rims. So the dash will be that, then for sure white head rack area. So basically a mix of the gold and white and the seat I'm leaning on a classic black and white pleat. Still up in the air with it, same with carpet. I'm doing door panels on my own and possibly the vinyl roof. I think I'm goin with a white steering wheel perhaps. I like to keep some of the original aesthetics of the interior but done up really well.

[IWanna49]

Ha! For sure! Thanks for the redirect. Now that I have a start to my project, I'm gonna have to go back and re read a ton of threads! Funny how some stuff sticks with ya and other stuff doesn't. I'll def go back through your '51 build!

[99 to Life]

8-18 Not much to look at, but the floor is pretty much done. Coated it with some chassis saver, eventually will get sound deadener. Not sure if I'll spray Herculiner inside or not, might just hit a few areas with it. Hoping to flip cab over next weekend and seam seal and spray the bottom.

Might have to put cab on chassis real soon even if I don't have all the lines and exhaust ran. Still need to buy quite a bit of stuff, since I'm on a weekly budget I gotta keep things moving so I really want to get cab on and do pedals and get the brakes all goin. again need money for all the slotted rotors, better calipers, pad, lines, and MC.

I still have some holes to fill on firewall and will put a reinforcement plate in the inside for the pedal area.

[CURSED GEARS]

99, don't know if I posted on your thread or not, (I'm following a bazillion builds on the internet,) But I always enjoy looking at your builds. I always like something from nothing builds and the thought that goes into saving a piece. Keep it up, and I'll follow.

[99 to Life]

thanks cursed gears, don't believe you've posted bf on mine. I appreciate the words and anyone that feels the same way I do about vintage cars and trucks. I got alot of hours in this one can't wait to be done and start on some others.

[Advanced Design]

Hey 99 the floor is looking real good all seam sealed and painted.
Really appreciate your enthusiasm and progress!

[99 to Life]

AD, same to you man, your floor is looking top notch. I'v got over 100 hours in the whole cab already, not counting the 60+ in dash work. No matter how workable some of these may be, the more you dig in, the more you find and the more you got to make right. I got a better plan for the next rusty beat to high heavens cab, should shave down alot of time next time. Live and learn.

[skymangs]

Looking good '99. I have one of those AC line crimping tools, and you're right. The cheap ones start at about $300. I think it would work for your application though. Try Oreilly's, Our local one has an AC crimper.

[99 to Life]

8-22 Friday thanks sarge. Today was about 4.5 hours of stripping and filling all the holes in the firewall and the dimmer switch in the floor. I'll reroute my dimmer switch in the cab. Lots more holes than the picture shows, you gotta look close to see them all.
On driverside inside I welded in some reinforcement plates for when I hook up clutch and brake pedals. I have a few more holes to fill and then a skim coat of filler on some areas and its ready for epoxy. Pass side I'm going to install a heater/ac bulkhead. I'll have heat but no AC as of now. Figured I leave that options open for the future.