1951 Chevy / C4

[FarmerSid]

Holy cow Shannon! Glad to see ya back. Wondering what you were up to. Family's first.

[solidaxel]

That is a very impressive dash, do you have a steering wheel picked out yet?

[xpickup]

Advanced Design, Thank you very much.

Jim, yes it has been interesting, I will try and keep up with posting my updates.

FarmerSid, Thank you. I was still working on stuff just had not been posting for just lack of time and feeling down with everything going on.

solidaxel, Thank you. Ken is happy with as I am too. Ken is planning the truck to be a semi flat blue and a blue interior, therefor he bought a blue metal flake grant style steering wheel. It would have been cool for a smaller diameter Impala style steering wheel to fit the dash.

I now have the drivers side end finished up and have been grinding some if the things I did not get to before. Next will be the mounting tabs for the gauge bezel. Then figure out mounting the gauges in the bezel. I have a 5" auto meter speedometer which is too small for the opening. So I will have to make a filler piece for that. Then the smaller gauges are 2 1/16 for the smaller holes. They don't fit in the hole so I have to either mount them behind or bore the holes in the bezel so they fit through.


Shannon

[xpickup]

Finally, I figure out how to post more than one picture! This morning I mounted the fuel sending unit and the fill in the tank. Then mounted it up in the truck. After all that I finally lowered the truck off the jack stands and put it back down to ground level. I also put the seat back in the truck. Now it is time to mount the gauge bezel how it will be in the dash that is after i cut out the line up tube behind the bezel.Then put the gauges in.

Shannon

[oldman3]

Shannon, nice looking set-up...Jim

[xpickup]

Oldman3, thank you

Still working on the dash. I now have the dash bezel mounted to the dash. Just have to fix some edges around the bezel and then time for the glove box. I also started on the templates for the custom inner wheel wells. They will be paneled like the fire wall and the floor. I have to make a new coolent tank. The corvette ones neck is not high enough so I will make a new one with a higher neck and better mounting than the vette unit.


Shannon

[Advanced Design]

Wow, really nice dash!

[xpickup]

Advanced Design, thank you.

Here is a short video of my wiper conversion

http://youtu.be/x_FEppNNHI0


Shannon

[xpickup]

I need to get the inner wheel wells made before I figured out were the ac lines were going to go. So I bent up some sheetmetal so I could figure out what was going to work. Then cut poster board to fit my templates. Now I checked the ac compressor and of course it does not fit the corvette mount. Checked the price for a compressor at the parts house and they range from $300-$600. Probably because it is for a corvette. So going to see what Ken wants to do, get a compressor (or hopefully he has it) or change the brackets to maybe an Alan Grove set up or another brand. If I do go with the corvette unit I will have to notch out the wheel well for the compressor, but that isn't no big deal. Funny how one thing always snow balls into something else!


Shannon

[Advanced Design]

Nice wiper conversion. Good idea on the inner wheel wells. Simple and clean!

[oldman3]

Those panels will look great once you get them made...Jim

[solidaxel]

Are you going to hide the A/C lines under the inner fender?

[99 to Life]

top notch as always, and yeah my snowballs are like avalanches far more often than not.

[xpickup]

Advanced Design, Thank you. Yes they will be nice and clean. I had to make a new overflow tank for the radiator. It is a corvette radiator so no fill on it and the factory did not fit right. The cap will be in the passengers front corner.

oldman3, Thank you. Yes, I can't wait for them to be done in metal.

solidaxel, I think part of them may be and then come out through the inner wheel well. I will make a cover so nothing will get thrown at them by the tires.

99 to Life, Thank you. I hate to ask! I sent you a text and email.


Shannon

[ptc]

Some seriously great looking metal work you are doing here.... you obviously have some skills around a Bridgeport too?, I would just make some new billet brackets for a mini-compressor AC mount yourself and not touch those nice smooth inner wells.... those look so sweet just as they are. I can see the dimples and panels in them already!

[xpickup]

Ptc, thank you. Yes, it is great to work in a machine shop and be able to use what I need off hours. I looked at the bracket tonight and there is really no clean way to do except to use the corvette compressor. And the truck is not mine so I would be better off buying the brackets rather than making them till I would figure everything out. The only thing I don't like about the corvette set up is everything is off to the drivers side. Where as the aftermarket splits the accessories up to both sides and is more balanced. But the wheel wells will be smooth looking with the paneling in them and an indent for the compressor.

I ended out blanking out the pieces for the custom expansion tank for the radiator yesterday morning. So tonight I started to TIG weld them together. I have the top fill spout high so that I can cut it do when I get the radiator cap adapter. That will be sticking out of the wheel well front corner and built all in so it will be smooth too. I need to turn up 2 hose nipples on the lathe at work. It will be baffled in the inside like the corvette unit was. It was just another thing to do before making the wheel wells out of steel.

Shannon

[99 to Life]

great piece and welds.

[oldman3]

Looks great...Jim

[xpickup]

Oldman3, Thank you


Well it has been an interesting time since I last posted. A mile up the road is a house for sale that we liked with 4 bedrooms , 1 1/2 baths, AND a 20x40 garage. SOOOO, we ended up listing our house for sale in hopes of buying the other one. House just got listed and we have our first showing tomorrow morning. So we are keeping our fingers crossed. I redid the front porch for more curb apeal. Funny thing is , the things you will do to sell your house that you should have done before.

Now onto the important stuff. I did manage to cut out my steel for the inner wheel wells. Bead rolled them, rolled them in the slip roll, bend 90s on the edges and shrink them to the contour of the inside of the fenders. I have them bolted in and they need a little tweaking and trimming. But they should work out well. Then will be the front corners which will take a little work. It will be a separate piece roled the opposite way and the radiator fill will stick out of it on the passengers side and the drivers side will be that way just to match.

Shannon

[Advanced Design]

Nice looking place you have Shannon. Good luck with the sale and with getting the other house.

I really like the inner wheel tubs!

[oldman3]

Hope everything works in you favor, on both selling and buying. Panel looks great...Jim

[xpickup]

oldman3, Advanced Design, thank you both. Well let the fun begin, house was listed on the MLS on Monday. One person looked at it on Tuesday and another looked at it on Wednesday, had a contract on it Friday. Signed the contracts on selling our house and buying the other house today. Settlement is on October 23, and they are letting me move into the garage a week before settlement because of all my heavy and time consuming moving stuff. Other than that I worked on the truck for a little today but nothing picture worthy.

Shannon

[oldman3]

Shannon, boy that was fast, congrats on everything...Jim

[Advanced Design]

Wow, really fast. Congratulations.

[xpickup]

Yes it was really fast. I have a few things to do before the inspection. They are going FHA so they are a little picky with some things. They do not like pealing paint so that was today's project. The garage doors needed scraped and painted. I'd Rather fix the stuff before inspection rather than after. Another is hand rails on the stairs. I need a short one on the short wall going up the stairs and same for the basement. Put them up for inspection, and take them bake off because when you move you can't get anything up or down with them on. Trust me I would rather be working on the truck. Should be back on to it this weekend hopefully.

Shannon