My 1955 Chevy 3100 build

[55 Chevy Dave]

The back end of the bedsides were not as rigid as I would prefer, so I made a new rear roll pan frame. The top of the roll pan frame is two angles welded together. Each side bolts into the rear stake pockets. Both bedsides were very rigid after bolting this piece in.

[oldman3]

Nice work, looks great...Jim

[Scottish58chev]

Truck is looking awesome.
Some great touches in the bumper mod and you're right, like a lot on these trucks, only you and those who know whats involved in even the supposedly smallest of mods will ever fully appreciate the work actually involved.

[mongocanfly]

very nice work..!!!!

[55 Chevy Dave]

I haven't posted on here in quite a while. But, I have been working on the truck. I finally turned my attention to the bed wood. I purchased some African Mahogany boards from a local exotic wood shop.

They look awesome, but I was a bit nervous working with the expensive wood fearing I would make a bad cut and ruin one of the boards.

After hand-picking each board, I determined the placement for each board.

In the last picture, you can also see the flush, polished bed strips with hidden fasteners. I picked these up from BedWood & Parts. This is a very nice setup.

[55 Chevy Dave]

I carefully cut each board to width and cut out for the wheels on each side.

I then used a dado blade set on the table saw to cut the grooves into the edges of each board so the bed strips would sit flush to the wood (3rd pic).

[55 Chevy Dave]

I then trimmed up the inner fenders and welded flanges onto the bottom so they would sit on top of the bed wood. I also had to weld in sides to the inner fenders.

[55 Chevy Dave]

The wood strips in between the inner fenders will be hinged so that I can lift them up to fill the gas tank and to show off everything underneath. I made a structure out of flat bars to connect the center boards together. I wanted the structure to be flush with the bottom face of the wood, so I used a router to cut grooves into the underside of the boards to accept the bar stock.

[Rickysnickers]

Quite an update. Looks great!

[55 Chevy Dave]

I needed a new beam across the frame to mount the new bed wood hinges. There is a lot going on in this area, so I decided to remove the round bar I previously installed and fabricate one crossmember where I could mount the hinges, attach exhaust hangers and it would also become part of a removable driveshaft loop.

I purchased a couple of weld-in driveshaft loops and cut them apart to attach them to the rectangular crossmember.

[55 Chevy Dave]

I wanted the driveshaft loop to be removable, so I cut it apart flush with the bottom of the crossmember. I then drilled holes through the crossmember and welded nuts into the removable portion of the loop. It bolts together and I think it looks pretty good!

[55 Chevy Dave]

Here it is bolted together.

I then made mounts for the hinges and bolted them to the same frame I used with the other set of hinges.

I wanted to be able to adjust the panel up and down, so I slotted the holes where they will mount to the crossmember. Obviously, I need some more practice slotting holes! I also oversized the holes where the hinges mount to the frame so I can move it around to ensure the hinged panel is in the right place.

[55 Chevy Dave]

I added mounting plates to the crossmember to accept the hinges.

I then mounted the bed panel frame and hinges to the crossmember. I reinforced the plates by adding a plate on the opposite side of the crossmember that slopes back to meet the end of the plate. I filled in the sides and did some grinding. These can be seen in the 4th picture.

[6DoF]

that DS loop is bonkers, that is awesome!

[Tempest67]

very nice fabricating.

I enjoy seeing everyone's ideas,

Thanks for sharing

[55 Chevy Dave]

Again, one of the uses for the new crossmember was to hang the exhaust. When I was mocking it up in place, I realized that the exhaust was going to run right into the diagonal panhard bar.

The first pic is an earlier pic showing the panhard bar. I bought a panhard bar kit and ended up installing it over the axle so that I could route the exhaust where the diagonal panhard bar used to be.

[55 Chevy Dave]

I also realized that the driveshaft loop I made was way too long. It hung down toward the ground much lower than necessary. I cut some sections out of the loop and welded it back together. I first welded in some internal sleeves to ensure that the loop is strong enough to do its job if ever needed.

I made some exhaust hangers and welded nuts into the crossmember.

The last picture is the new crossmember in place with the exhaust hanging from it.

I will also use the crossmember to attach the brake line going to the passenger-side rear brake to the frame. The current brake line is the bent one in the last picture. I had it mounted to the underside of the old crossmember. During one of my rides, the rear suspension bottomed out and the driveshaft made contact with the brake line. Learned my lesson on that one!

[dsraven]

nice work.
I always wonder about the diagonal panhard bar and how much real estate they take up right where other stuff needs to go. have you done a suspension swing from bottom to top to see how mucch driveshaft loop you actually need and that the shaft won't interfere with it now that the loop is shortened? it would also give you an idea as to how much side to side movement the axle will have from top of suspaneion travel to bottom of suspension travel. always best to know that when doing the body assembly so you know if the tires will rub at any point.
the longest panhard bar swing is always the best to allow the least bit of lateral movement. also, to have the bar level when the truck is at ride height is best so the lateral movement swings a little botth directions under normal driving.

[dsraven]

good lesson learned on the brake line, good thing it didn't cause a high blood pressure moment, lol. I always try to mount lines on the back side of a vertical surface or up inside a channel when crossing the frame to the other side. it helps with road debris damage as well. when I wreck a vehicle for parts I try to keep some of those plastic hold down clips they have that screw multiple lines under the single clip/retainer. they come in handy when you have all your lines run and it's time to fasten them down neatly. there are also some that hold a single line for brakes that come in handy for stuff like this. summit sells some that simply push into a hole in the frame and are help with a built in retainer like a Christmass tree door panel clip.

[55 Chevy Dave]

DS,

After I welded the crossmember into the frame, I bottomed out the rear suspension, took a measurement and then fully extended the rear suspension and took another measurement. I left some extra room in the loop to ensure that the driveshaft never touches it after it is powder-coated.

That's how I figured out how much to cut out of the loop.

[dsraven]

welders series has a lot of misc brackets, tubing, eyelet ends, poly bushings etc etc that come in handy for projects like that. a Canadian company so USD gets you more for your money.

[dsraven]

good plan. I have blown a few ujoints over the years when doing burnouts or fast take-off when I encountered some wheel hop. they can make a mess of things when they spin on outta there.
as a heavy duty mechanic I remember once where a long haul trucker stopped by holding his intermediate driveshaft, the one between the tandems, in his hand. it failed a forward u joint and when the shaft hit the highway it broke the pinion shaft on the rear axle right off clean like you sliced it with a knife. he used a heavy tow operator to get the truck and trailer to our shop. he unhooked the tanker full of latex paint on the side road by the shop, engaged his interaxle diff lock to allow a short drive to the shop door and while doing a U turn at the end of the street he got to watch the tanker of paint drop the dolley legs of the trailer through the roadway, due to a void under the pavement, and the trailer tipped and rolled on its side dumping latex. that was a mess. hazmat crews had to come in and clean it up and I think they cleaned the storm sewers for a distance as well. all at the truckers insurance expense, he wasn't having a good day for sure.
anyway, good idea to have that loop installed if you have some HP under the hood.