55 TF Stretched Cab/Fleetside/LSx/Trailblazer Frame

[Low Elco]

This is gonna be good! Happiness is a warm sawzall!

[skymangs]

No, happiness is a burnt up Plasma tip! That's when you know you've been cutting too much... LoL

[shadow1967]

Great Project! GOOD LOOKING GTO.

[ricott]

Thanks everyone for the replys!

Jean-Marc Lacasse - Your truck is so cool. I've followed your build for years, congratulations on approaching the finish line!


Rednek13x - I feel like a little schoolgirl whining about the cold when our daytime highs are between 20 and 40. It takes more man than I am to work in subzero!

Skymangs and Low Elco - I have to agree with Skymangs: a Plasma Cutter is the best, and I plan to work mine this weekend! But for work out in the junkyard, the trusty Sawsall is the absolute best.

Shadow1967 - Thanks for the complement on the GTO. My son and I have (mostly) enjoyed building that car, and it is a blast to drive. I love the way you and your dad have built your TF. I cant wait to see an outside shot of your stretched truck.

Thanks again everyone. It is supposed to be in the mid 50s Saturday and Sunday, so I plan to hit it hard on mocking up the cabs. Pictures (I hope) Sunday night. As always, more to come.

Ricky

[alaska gasser]

I sense a lot of hours welding and grinding in your future!!!

[ricott]

This weekend was a great time to be in the garage. The cold and rain were gone, and I was motivated! I marked the cut line for the tops and floor pans of both cabs with soapstone or tape. I marked the “big window” rear section 9 inches longer than standard so that I could cut it down to 8 inches during the final fit up stage.







Next I welded diagonal bracing side to side and up and down on the inside the “front half” of the cab. I cut holes in the floor so that this bracing would extend to the cab dolly. I welded a small tab to the bottom of the bracing and used it to bolt the bracing to the cab dolly. My thought is by bolting this bracing to the cab dolly, it will prevent distortion when the cuts are made.





I sliced the big window cab through the top and doors and discarded the unneeded parts.



This takes me through mid-day. As always, more to come.

Ricky

[ricott]

I sliced the small window cab through the top and doors, and slid the back section back 6 inches to see what that would look like. My son Andrew helped me remove the rear section of the small window cab and put it outside. My trusty watch cat hopped on that part to sun. The front part of the cab is left.







Next I marked some reference points on both cabs to aid in reattaching the cabs and made what I hoped would be the final cuts on the big window part. I had to do a lot of grinding/cutting to get to the final 8 inch stretch (I am also adding 2 inches at the "b" pillar thus the total stretch was 8 inches).





A lot of the afternoon was spent working the two sections together to the point we needed to make an eight inch stretch. Andrew and I removed, cut re installed and remeasured several times before it fit. I clamped everything down then welded the lower section of the two cabs together. Buggy (The guy that built Big Birtha) had PMed me and told me that a problem with these cabs is the top is tapered to the front -THANKS FOR THAT HEADS UP! Where the two "halves" joined at the top it was approximately half inch off. You can see it in the second picture.





To fix this, I will cross brace from the corner of each door bottom to the top of of the other door. I will then do relief cuts and pull/push the two sections until they line up. While I had planned to finish this up tomorrow afternoon, I have a list of "Honey dos", so I may not get back to it until later in the week. All in all, a very productive day! As always, more to come.

Ricky

[ChuckDriver]

You're making some really quick work! Nicely done!

[Kim57]

Nice progress.
Looks good.
Kim

[ricott]

Thanks guys for the comments, I'm happy it's going together as well as it is.
As expected, the rest of life kept me out of the garage yesterday. I need to pick up some steel tomorrow to do my crossbracing (I didn't have as much as I thought I did!). With a little luck I can have all that done so that Saturday will be a "kick butt" day in the garage.

I also have a question, one of my thoughts on this truck was to "pancake" the roof about 2 inches. I have always thought the roof sat up to high. I have seen pictures of roofs that have been pancaked, but if anyone reading this has a picture (or a link) to a TF Truck with some of the "fat" cut out of the roof, would you please notify me. Thanks.

Ricky

[JML55]

Originally Posted by ricott

I also have a question, one of my thoughts on this truck was to "pancake" the roof about 2 inches. I have always thought the roof sat up to high. I have seen pictures of roofs that have been pancaked, but if anyone reading this has a picture (or a link) to a TF Truck with some of the "fat" cut out of the roof, would you please notify me. Thanks.

Ricky

I agree with you these truck sure look tall and there is lot of head room inside the cab. I put in a one piece fiberglass headliner in mine that is almost 1 1/2 inch of the inside roof panel and i still have lots of head room. I have an ouside visor on mine and that gives the illusion the the roof isnot so tall.
BTW cool project.

[buggy5872]

Looks like it's going good so far....Glad I could help you out a little.

[dsraven]

there was a good tech article on custom classic trucks or classic trucks, can't remember, but it was on panjcaking a roof withouty cutting the whiole thing off. mostly just the front part overhang on the windshield.

[ricott]

Originally Posted by JML55

I agree with you these truck sure look tall and there is lot of head room inside the cab. I put in a one piece fiberglass headliner in mine that is almost 1 1/2 inch of the inside roof panel and i still have lots of head room. I have an ouside visor on mine and that gives the illusion the the roof isnot so tall.
BTW cool project.

I am considering the visor and that may be the answer. When I measured my S10 and my Envoy Denali, both are between 46 and 47 inches from floor to finished cealing - and both have ample headroom for me. This truck has 51 from unfinished floor to unfinished cealing - so I think I could loose 1 -2 inches and still be OK.

Originally Posted by dsraven

there was a good tech article on custom classic trucks or classic trucks, can't remember, but it was on panjcaking a roof withouty cutting the whiole thing off. mostly just the front part overhang on the windshield.

Thanks for your heads up on that article. I did a Google search (should have done that to start) and found the article in Custom Classic Trucks. While that pancake was a little severe for my taste, it had several good ideas. I think this will be added to the list (the dreaded "While I'm at it!).

Thanks again.

Ricky

[blue57]

[Russell Ashley]

That black truck is trick from top to bottom, and obviously a high dollar truck, but does anyone else but me think it would have looked better if they had left the overhang over the windshield? That top just looks wrong to me.

[ricott]

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

That black truck is trick from top to bottom, and obviously a high dollar truck, but does anyone else but me think it would have looked better if they had left the overhang over the windshield? That top just looks wrong to me.

I agree with you Russell, the look is to severe. My thought was to retain all of the overhang, but "decrown" the top by cutting out 1-2 inches of the rise all around. That involves a lot of "reconstructive surgery", but I did this years ago on another car. That was the thing I remember about the surburban I saw posted - the inch or two out of the top looked to be a "factory" job, which is the look I want. If anyone has a picture of the surburban, I would appreciate it if you would post. Thanks.

Ricky

[ricott]

Well it didn't take long for my day job to start getting in the way of fun in the garage. I spent last week in Dallas working and will be headed back in 10 days for another week. At least it has been cold so I haven't missed working in the garage that much. Before I left for Dallas I went to the salvage yard and had them load up the part of the Trailblazer cab. It was so cold I didn't get any pictures until I got home (and warmed up).



On MLK (a really warm 65) I stripped the cab down and got it in the garage.



Today I began drilling spotwelds and also marked off where the cuts will be made. The yellow tape in the center of the floorpan/firewall is my reference point.



The rest of this week (until the weekend) will be really cold, so I plan to work in the house on the wifey's list. I hope to be cutting up the floorpan on Saturday. As always, more to come.
Ricky

[Bomp]

Wow, Wish I'd caught the start of this build sooner. I've noticed the name ricott at the bottom of my thread but never thought to click on it to see whats up. Finally I clicked and Wow, You have a project. The type of project that I really dig. Not the," I ordered something and the brown truck dropped it off" (Not that theres anything wrong with those builds) but cutting up, total reconstruction, mind blowing stuff man. Oh yeah, and stretching<------- the most important part!
I wish I caught this in the beginning. On mine so far the most PITA has been the outer roof skin. (which Im attempting for the second time) am starting again.
I read MP&C and theastronaut. MP&C 55 build has tought me sooo much. May lend a hand in roof skin fixes.
Anyhow,,,, I started reading and saw the " thanks BOMP " and the many other names at the beginning of the build.
Im behind ya on this build. Cold, rainy, spiders ( I don't like spiders either) Looks like you have a great start.
This is gonna be cool! Way Cool! Now stop reading my babbling babble and get to cuttin'

[ricott]

Thanks for the kind words/encouragement BOMP. I am dying to get back in the garage, but I've been working in Dallas almost full time since January 27. This Friday I should be finished in Dallas until the last week of March/first week of April, so I'm hoping to be back in the garage in the evenings next week. On a really positive note, my son and I swapped vehicles last week, and I drove the 66 GTO we built from Memphis to Dallas this week. What a blast! I set the cruise at 78 and in 6th gear it was turning 2000 RPM. Averaged 22 mpg, and I still need to get the final tune on the engine. I can't say enough good about the LS engines. That ride makes me want to get this truck going A LOT SOONER.

[dug224]

Ricky: Man, I fell asleep at the wheel and missed all the progress to date. I am all caught up now and officially subscribed to the thread. Can't wait to see how the floor pan works out. That Memphis to Dallas commute has to grow old. You need to retire. Dug

[ricott]

WOW. . . . It has been cold for the last 6 weeks. So cold that I decided I would rather install hard wood flooring in three bedrooms than work on the truck. 700 square feet later, and several weekends, the wifey and I are very happy with the results. I know that without pictures it didn't happen, so here is the floor.







During much of this time I have been working on a case in Dallas and commuting M-F. The hardwood floors were completed last weekend, and the Dallas commute is done until at least April 1, so the two evenings I have spent drilling out spot welds on the Trailblazer floorpan, and prepping it to fit up the front cab section. Here is where I am on the floor pan:






I’m off tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday is also mine, so I plan to make some serious progress. I’m headed to the salvage yard tomorrow to pick up the firewall from the “parts” 55TF. I plan to use it to fit up to the Trailblazer floorpan as a mock up (thanks BBeep for reminding me you did that). Once I have that done, I will transfer the measurements to the “keeper” cab floor and firewall.

I am also going to show the running total of hours spent building this project. I keep up with them on a tablet each day that I work on the truck, and I thought it might be interesting (depressing?) to show what a project like this takes. I also keep up with the money spent on this project and will post an itemized account of that amount once the truck is further along (don’t need the YOU SPENT HOW MUCH ON THAT??? Questions from the wifey at this time!)

As always, more to come.
Ricky
Total hours spent to date: 38

[Kim57]

Nice floor.
That's some scary fab work you're doing.
Kim

[Bomp]

Your a braver man than me. Wood floor is way to scary to me.
Metal on the other hand. Piece of cake.
Can't wait to see that cab come together.

[ricott]

Friday morning I headed out to my friend's salvage yard where my parts are stored. Here is the cab as I left it two months ago.



First order of business was to pull the doors and then cut the seized bolts that held the front end on. I pulled the front end off in one piece and then cut the seized bolts that held the "firewall" part of my "parts" cab.





I loaded the firewall up to bring home in my trusty S-10 and then turned my attention to the final part of my frame. On the Trailblazer ext frame I purchased, they yard had cut a portion of the frame bracing that held the power steering rack. When I purchased it the front end was disassembled, but all the parts except one wheel hub assembly was there. After I stripped the vehicle, I discovered that some of the structure had been cut. Since I am going to shorten the wheelbase from 129 inches to 123 inches, the yard owner said we would just cut another frame at the splice joint, and I would use that when I shortened the frame. He had a burned 2003 trailblazer that he planned to crush, so that was the victim.



He pulled the body off the frame and then pulled the frame into position for me to cut. It was short work with the sawzall, and now I have everything to make my shortened frame.



I was lazy the rest of the day and hung out at the salvage yard.
As always, more to come.
Ricky

Time spent on Friday 6 hours working.

Total time to date: 44 hours