1957 Chevy 3100, meet 1994 Dodge Ram 1500

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by palerider

Thanks I think the 2wd dodge and 4wd dodge tanks should be close My 57 is a swb and the 98dodge is a swb I need to still pull some measurements to see if I can make it work as watching your vids and progress it looks like anything is possible as long as you put your mind to it.

To my knowledge, there is no difference between the 2wd and 4wd gas tanks, but a check of part numbers would confirm it. There. IS a difference between the long and short bed fuel tanks, as the short bed seldom got the 35 gallon gas tank. I used the smaller 26 gallon short bed gas tank to fit the shortened frame, since I started with a long bed, single cab truck.

Like you said though, anything is possible when you build these. It only comes down to how you choose to solve the problems that come up.

For the fuel door, Hagen Industries and a few others offer several options for custom fuel filler doors. I just chose to use the Ford F-150 door because I had it on hand and felt like saving $135. For simple things like this, I like to try to work with what I have and save my money for things I need, like cab corners.

-Joe

[palerider]

Originally Posted by Purcell69

To my knowledge, there is no difference between the 2wd and 4wd gas tanks, but a check of part numbers would confirm it. There. IS a difference between the long and short bed fuel tanks, as the short bed seldom got the 35 gallon gas tank. I used the smaller 26 gallon short bed gas tank to fit the shortened frame, since I started with a long bed, single cab truck.

Like you said though, anything is possible when you build these. It only comes down to how you choose to solve the problems that come up.

For the fuel door, Hagen Industries and a few others offer several options for custom fuel filler doors. I just chose to use the Ford F-150 door because I had it on hand and felt like saving $135. For simple things like this, I like to try to work with what I have and save my money for things I need, like cab corners.

-Joe

Thanks I may try this I sure wish all your photos would show up I can only see a few I did sub to your YouTube channel to learn more. I'm hoping I can leave the motor where its located in the Original frame and just add a elect fan like you did. I have 57 radiator I may try to just leave the dodge in and make it work? Its going be a fun build I would love to put a Chevy LS in the dodge frame at some point if this works out. If not I may go a different route just saw your post and that inspired me. I just bought the dodge for the body parts for my 4wd model the whole truck is rust free and runs great it has a auto trans. My 4wd is a 5 speed model. I like Chevy the best I'm doing a 72 jimmy and a 81 K5 Blazer also. So I got my hands full but I'm like you I like to do my own style and save a $ when I can. Good luck with you build its a one of a kind and my fav build I have seen so far

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by palerider

Thanks I may try this I sure wish all your photos would show up I can only see a few I did sub to your YouTube channel to learn more. I'm hoping I can leave the motor where its located in the Original frame and just add a elect fan like you did. I have 57 radiator I may try to just leave the dodge in and make it work? Its going be a fun build I would love to put a Chevy LS in the dodge frame at some point if this works out. If not I may go a different route just saw your post and that inspired me. I just bought the dodge for the body parts for my 4wd model the whole truck is rust free and runs great it has a auto trans. My 4wd is a 5 speed model. I like Chevy the best I'm doing a 72 jimmy and a 81 K5 Blazer also. So I got my hands full but I'm like you I like to do my own style and save a $ when I can. Good luck with you build its a one of a kind and my fav build I have seen so far

As I recall, I don't think it was "necessary" to move my engine back. As I recall, there is enough room to keep things in place, but I was concerned that the stock clutch fan would have been extremely close to the radiator. The electric fan was an afterthought. The Magnum V8 is almost identical in size to a small block Chevrolet, not counting front mounted accessories. I will double check my spacing. The electric fan I am using is about 5"-5.5" thick and there is at least another 4"-5" between it and the water pump pulley on the front of the motor.

Also, since you are going with a 5 speed, keeping the engine in place may help with shifter placement. Years ago when I was messing with the stock Chevy frame, I was going to run a small block/T-5 combo and found the T-5 shift would have been about 4 inches into the front of a bench seat. I doubt that will be an issue with the NV trans since the shifter is located in the top tower rather than at the rear of the trans, unlike the T-5.

I've also toyed with the thought of swapping in a 5.7 Hemi at some point in the future and there are cross-over engine mounts to go from a 5.9L to 5.7L Hemi engine. Of course, this would mean a different transmission and more wiring issues, but I think it would be fun, much like an LS swap. In the meanwhile, if you are planning to do anything with the internals of you Magnum engine, get with Marty and Savannah Fletcher at http://utawesomeperformance.com/index.html Marty has a very nice cam upgrade for these motors which maximizes the torque output. This guy has invested his own time and money into dyno testing and have a very stout combination that can get you a daily driver with nearly 500 ft/lb of torque. Had his cam come out before I bought mine, I'd be running his right now. I've talked with him directly on the phone and he's been super helpful.

The whole Photobucket thing continues to haunt me. I wish there were an easy fix, but since I removed all of my pictures from there server, there is no way to restore the links. I had literally thousands of photos hosted there. If there is something you need to see, just let me know and I will either find the original pictures or take new ones to help give you guidance. It is always easier if someone has already done the work before you get to it.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

The sun came out for just a few minutes the other day, and this is what I saw out the living room window. I have to admit there is a part of me that is slightly tempted to leave the current paint alone, other than clean the moss off it. The OCD side of me says that would be a lazy thing to do. Rest assured, Ethyl will be painted back to the original Turquoise Green with a white cab top when it is all done.

-Joe

[joedoh]

looks amazing! nice work, I like it now and your eventual color choices too.

[palerider]

She looks great and thanks sir for the info and your help I may need to ask you a question or two LOL and I will start a new thread when I start the build. I am just beginning to tear into the 2wd dodge now and remove body parts for my 4wd dodge. And the 4wd is the 5 speed truck. The 2wd is a automatic , that is the one I will be attempting to put the 57 on when I get it all torn down. I was going to use the cab to but its a 2wd and just didn't what to change all that but my 4wd is not bad just needs rockers rest is ok. So it will be a nice truck again when I get done, not a show I use it for hunting and winter time in mountains It has always did me good. I will be in touch and thanks again I may get with your buddys on the cam too sounds like a great setup.

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by palerider

She looks great and thanks sir for the info and your help I may need to ask you a question or two LOL and I will start a new thread when I start the build. I am just beginning to tear into the 2wd dodge now and remove body parts for my 4wd dodge. And the 4wd is the 5 speed truck. The 2wd is a automatic , that is the one I will be attempting to put the 57 on when I get it all torn down. I was going to use the cab to but its a 2wd and just didn't what to change all that but my 4wd is not bad just needs rockers rest is ok. So it will be a nice truck again when I get done, not a show I use it for hunting and winter time in mountains It has always did me good. I will be in touch and thanks again I may get with your buddys on the cam too sounds like a great setup.

No worries at all my friend. It really does suck that the Photobucket images are lost, because they really helped to illustrate what I was doing and put things in to context. Regardless, I can either hunt down the images, (I have them stored on my computer and on a thumb drive), or I can check what I have done and take some additional pictures, if it helps.

There is also a parallel thread that follows the build on ADV Rider. I try to keep both threads updated and they more or less mirror each other, however, between the two, the ADV thread probably has a bit more detail, though it is still missing the images in the beginning thanks to Photobucket's policy change. The link to the ADV thread is here: https://advrider.com/f/threads/and-s...-dodge.900040/

-Joe

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by joedoh

looks amazing! nice work, I like it now and your eventual color choices too.

Thank you Joe. I've got some more nice weather this afternoon, so the plan is to try to remove some of the moss from the white paint when I get home from work today. I've been using a few sanders, a little here and there, to remove the worst of it. It will just take time. Who knows, maybe I'll find "patina" underneath. Lol!

-Joe

[Purcell69]

Ok, time to get this one caught up. Things got off to a slow start this spring with all of the rain we were getting in central Oklahoma. It seemed like rain was nearly an every day event all the way through June. Then July hit and someone turned off the faucet.

In between storms, I managed to get a lot of little things done. I may have already mentioned this, but I devised a way to mount the stock 1955-1959 center caps on the Dodge wheels. Other than the addition of a nylock nut in the center of the caps, they look stock.

From there, I pulled out the copper and brass manual transmission radiator and replaced it with an aluminum unit that has a built-in transmission cooler. WIth this, I was able to remove the Cummins oil cooler and plumbing that went behind my front bumper, and I'm certain the transmission will stay cool, especially since I added a proper electric fan. I mounted a two speed electric fan from a 1995 Ford Taurus station wagon. In the low speed mode, it flows an honest 2000+ cfm, and in high speed mode, it is over 4000 cfm. The engine stays nice and cool and you can feel the air being pulled through the auxiliary transmission cooler.

I also added an overflow tank from Speedway Motors to give the new radiator some extra volume/recovery.

In the past week, I remounted the running boards and found a small hiccup that came with the new metal floor. I didn't account for the lack of depth at the cross sill that mounts the running board supports. As a consequence, my supports sat about 5/8" too high. I had to cut the running board supports and then add a piece of metal to lower them. At the same time, I added in an additional support in the middle of the running boards, since this is a long bed truck. The boards will easily hold my weight and then some without any distortion now. Once all of this was done, I coated the under side of the running boards and the supports with POR-15 that I had on hand.

While I had the can out and a little bit of POR-15 left, I painted the inside of one of the rear fenders with a coat of the good stuff. I didn't have enough for both at the time, so only one is done right now, but it will be a nice layer of protection from the rocks that will get thrown from the new mud tires.

I also dug out the original headlight trim rings from storage. These came with the truck, but were never mounted in the 25 years or so that I've had it. They just sat in storage, filthy with nearly three decades of grime on them. I pulled out the steel wool and went to town. They aren't perfect, and Ethyl isn't a show truck, but for 62 years old, they look pretty good.

[Purcell69]

One other big change that I didn't touch on was the rear suspension. At one point, I had Ethyl hooked up to the horse trailer to move it around the muddy yard. The rear suspension was bottomed out and it was pretty obvious that even without a load, the back end had a slight squat to it. Not what I wanted. Adding 2.5" over stock would put just a slight rake back in the truck. In the long run, air bags will be needed for hauling a load, but running empty, she will at least look like a proper pickup truck.

I pulled the stock 3" rear blocks out and added some 5 1/2" blocks with new U-bolts to secure it all. The ride with the stock springs is nice, so I really didn't want to add a stiffer rear spring for the sake of lift. An air bag kit will handle the extra weight when needed, without affecting the ride when empty.

I even added new pads for the bump stops to the new rear blocks.

-Joe

[dsraven]

how does this new change affect the drive line angle?

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by dsraven

how does this new change affect the drive line angle?

The angle changed a little bit, but the new blocks have a taper built in to minimize the affect. Being a long bed truck, the affect was not as severe as a shorter vehicle. 2 1/2” over stock isn’t an extreme change. My bigger problem is likely to be spring wrap in the rear suspension. I have not had any issues yet, but I’m not hot rodding the truck around either.

The rear springs are pretty soft and the ride is nice, but the trade off will likely be wheel hop.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

I spent the last two days off working on my lights. I already managed to get the stop lights and turn signals to function, but my headlights and parking lamps didn't want to work. I also needed to connect the front parking lamps and headlights to the Dodge wire harness, so I spliced those connections in.

After chasing things with a meter and a test light, I was reasonably certain that the Dodge headlamp switch was bad, not my connections or grounds. I have a headlamp switch that came with the Ron Francis Wire Works kit that I bought 20 years ago. It is a different style plug and has some different/less circuits than the Dodge switch, but for troubleshooting, it worked well enough.

I ended up jumping my wires from the Dodge headlight switch plug to the GM style switch provided with the RF kit. Once everything was jumped, I found I have parking lights OR headlights, but not both. The headlights do switch back and forth between low and high, using the Dodge multi-function switch on the steering column. I'm reasonably certain that the parking lamp situation will be resolved when I replace the Dodge headlight switch with a new one.

-Joe

[joedoh]

looks real good leveled out, I like it a lot!

on the 98+ chevies the headlights are ground triggered, so using a 3 prong headlight is a real problem. make sure dodge isnt that way too, also check your DRL relay/fuses.

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by joedoh

looks real good leveled out, I like it a lot!

on the 98+ chevies the headlights are ground triggered, so using a 3 prong headlight is a real problem. make sure dodge isnt that way too, also check your DRL relay/fuses.

Thanks Joe. The squat in the back annoyed me like no other. I’m glad I got it fixed too.

The Dodge harness isn’t that fancy. The lighting on the 1996 harness is identical to the original 1994 harness I started with. The GM headlight switch from the RF kit uses separate wires for front and rear parking lights, but the Dodge switch doesn’t and I didn’t run both wires to the same terminal in the Dodge plug. I suspect once I get a new Dodge headlight switch, the problem will be solved. If not, I’ll find the answer. There had been a bunch of redneck wire-around involving multiple relays and generic wiring in the light circuit on the 1996 harness. I removed that mess last year and put it all back to stock to make troubleshooting easier. I’m glad I did. In reality, this has been pretty easy. Time consuming, but easy.

-Joe

[joedoh]

I know what you mean, I stress over ride height and stance to the point of obsession. yours is perfect!

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by joedoh

I know what you mean, I stress over ride height and stance to the point of obsession. yours is perfect!

Thank you Joe. I am very happy with the way it came out.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

It's been horribly hot here in Oklahoma for the past week or so, which had limited some of what I am doing with Ethyl as of late.

Last night while watering horses, I had a thought about what to do with the moss that is growing on the white paint. Actually, I've been thinking about it off and on and tried a few different things, but last night I stumbled on a winner.

The white paint that covers Ethyl is bad and is failing in places. It was a result of a re-paint that had been done by a previous owner, probably in the late 1970s or early 1980s. I don't plan on keeping the white color and when the time comes, the white will get stripped off and I'll be going back to the original turquoise green. In the meantime, I want to get rid of the moss.

In the past, I had tried sanding it, but in order to keep from clogging the paper, I had to use a coarse grit, which in turn, ate into what is left of the current paint. I'm not ready to repaint yet, so I don't want exposed metal starting to rust.

The other night, I tried a wire brush on an angle grinder, but it would smear a green moss residue behind and would also eat into the paint rather quickly.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

I remembered my parent's home in Maryland from when I was growing up, before we moved to Arizona. The back yard had brick walkways that Dad had put in, and over time, they became covered in moss and could get quite slick. Before they put the house on the market, we were tasked with cleaning the moss off the brick. We used a combination of stiff brooms and a bleach solution to kill and clear the moss growth.

This caused me to think of bathroom cleaner. I had some Clorox bathroom cleaner on hand, and some old, used up red Scotchbrite pads. What could it hurt.

I found that by spraying the area with the Clorox cleaner, letting it dry, then re-applying before scrubbing with Scotchbrite made the moss come off like butter. Sure, the Scotchbrite is still scuffing the white paint underneath, but that paint will eventually get stripped off anyway.

-Joe

[Old57]

Looks great! I haven't checked in for quite a while here.

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by Old57

Looks great! I haven't checked in for quite a while here.

Thanks! I got behind on updates for a while too.

I just finished scrubbing her up tonight. I got everything done but the hood...I ran out of cleaner.

-Joe

[joedoh]

well by golly that just looks fandamntastic.

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by joedoh

well by golly that just looks fandamntastic.

Nothing some chemicals, abrasives and elbow grease couldn't fix. I'm going to take some polishing compound to her next, to try and keep the moss from coming back until I can strip off the old paint and give her a proper paint job.

In the meanwhile, I finished off the hood today and put the front hub caps back on. OCD was kicking my butt.

-Joe

[Purcell69]

The other day, I removed all of the tools and spare parts from inside the cab and scrubbed the inside down with Simple Green. The next step will be to scuff the remaining paint that is inside on the floor, firewall, and rear wall and then give it a coat of POR-15 to keep the rust monster away. Eventually it will get some thermal barrier and sound coatings, but for now the POR-15 will be a good start. All of the unnecessary holes in the cab floor have been welded shut to keep debris and fumes out.

In the meanwhile, the new headlight switch arrived on the big brown truck yesterday. I plugged it into the Dodge harness and everything lights up like it is supposed to, parking lights, headlights/parking lights, stop, turn, high and low. I know it took some time to sort things and determine the switch was bad, but in the end, it was so satisfying to plug in a new switch and have everything work correctly.

-Joe

[gigamanx]

Originally Posted by Purcell69

The other day, I removed all of the tools and spare parts from inside the cab and scrubbed the inside down with Simple Green. The next step will be to scuff the remaining paint that is inside on the floor, firewall, and rear wall and then give it a coat of POR-15 to keep the rust monster away. Eventually it will get some thermal barrier and sound coatings, but for now the POR-15 will be a good start. All of the unnecessary holes in the cab floor have been welded shut to keep debris and fumes out.

In the meanwhile, the new headlight switch arrived on the big brown truck yesterday. I plugged it into the Dodge harness and everything lights up like it is supposed to, parking lights, headlights/parking lights, stop, turn, high and low. I know it took some time to sort things and determine the switch was bad, but in the end, it was so satisfying to plug in a new switch and have everything work correctly.

-Joe

Looking Sharp. That's a nice proportional lift for that truck. Any thoughts on slightly larger diameter tires?