55 make over

[nvrsatisfied]

Originally Posted by dsraven

looks like fun. maybe you'll end up trimming that front corner a bit more when the time comes.

thanks, we just keep chipping along. the cutting i just did was just enough to get the doors to shut and work good enough to line up the center bodyline, move the door around, get latches installed and door to open and close. when its said and done the gap around the door will run close to 3/16. i'll be adding to the edge of the door in areas with weld.

the previous shop did some type of work up and down the B pillar to work with whatever the heck they had going on? when we got the drivers door hung and working great with the latches and lining up decently with the fenders and upper part of the cab, a problem showed up mid area and down along the cab, it was an 1/8 low. so we removed more bondo from the inner pillar to find out that they had cut the area up the B pillar and welded it back! so i cut their old work out and started to fix things. as of now the cab is pretty flush with the door, so far so good.

[slammed57]

I did the same thing on my doors. Lookin great

[nvrsatisfied]

while finishing up the door edge the work bled over to the inner part of the b pillar. we started cleaning out the filler that was caked inside the pillar hiding their previous work on the latches they added in and covering the original catch location. we left their cover plate over the catch area and cut out a small section to locate the nuts on the back side. i then pondered on weather or not to just put a piece in to cover the holes and then add weld, reshape the area they used for their door catch. but i couldn't, i think it would've look like we were covering up something. so i went ahead and cut out the area and took a small patch piece and ran it through the bead roller. i had to mismatch some dies to try and get the roll, i think i got the roll good enough but not exact, but it'll work.

[nvrsatisfied]

so after finishing up the lower area, i went ahead and added some weld to the top area. took out the reamer and got to reshaping. i think overall it'll work out and not need the 1/4" of filler like they had used. i never agreed with a lot of filler being used in the inner jamb areas, too much traffic in that area that could allow for something to cause a chip.

[nvrsatisfied]

since i felt like i was on a roll after doing the drivers side this morning, i went ahead and knocked out the passenger side to. pretty much same process as driver side. i cut out an area and this time i did a turn or so more on the roller to try and match the curve area a little more. it worked a little better i think, so i tacked it in and blended. and as for the top part same process, this side was a little easier because they didn't weld as much around it so it was easier to clean up my work.

now that im done with the b pillar areas i think i can start on the door gaps now.

[daveshilling]

Sweet!! Keep up this momentum, its motivating

[nvrsatisfied]

Originally Posted by daveshilling

Sweet!! Keep up this momentum, its motivating

for sure! we just keep chipping away..

my next process, is the way i do it. it is a bit of a process but i can say that there is next to no filler around my edges. once you get this process figured out it really isn't all that bad, but then again i don't mind the extra work. there are tons of other ways but this is my take....

i got started by double checking the center body line on this truck. with no striker bolt, i start by loosening up the hinge bolts (cab and door), just enough to move the door around. after a few times opening/closing i ended up with 4 paint sticks stacked on the foot well step, i taped them together and taped them to the foot well step so they couldn't move. with the door loose i picked it up while closing it and rested it on the sticks, everything seemed to line up good enough. i crawled inside the passenger door and tighten the door bolts. i then taped and made some marks to get a rough idea of the cab hinge placement. opened the door used a jack under the door to help with support and movement i may need and ran the hinge bolts on the a-pillar. next insert the striker bolt and get the door depth adjusted to meet the cab. i had about 1/16 of door higher than my pillar area so i ended up using a piece of wood 1/2" thick about 2ft long and a small ball ping hammer. lay the wood on the door and hit the wood along the door edge area, allowing the outter door edge to "massage" it's way down to become flush with the cab b-pillar.

with the door opening/closing, body line all good and depth good. i tape off the inner area of the cab. there's a lot of welding and grinding going on, so i want to keep it out the cab. next i take black spray paint (because the under lying door is silver) and i spray a little around the doors edge. i use a scribe from Big Kid Blocks. it is a machined piece with a flat side and a scribe edge (a very useful little tool to have). i run the flat edge along the fender and where ever the door is too close it will scribe a line through my black paint giving me a silver line. i run the tool up the fender, along the cab and down the b-pillar letting it put a scribe mark along the door where areas are too close.

with your scribe line, work a little area at a time, because in some places you could grind through the doors rolled edge, allowing a little separation and you don't want too much of that when you'll be welding that shut. now where the part did not touch i make a note on the door where i can either stack some welds or weld on some dowel rod. in this doors case it was away from the b-pillar area by quiet a bit, so i welded in an 1/8" dowel. the dowel is just the right thickness to keep the look of the rolled edge. if you add by welding always weld more than what is needed this allows for you to have enough material to shape on the show side and inside to look clean. you may have to bounce back and forth for a scribe mark but it'll work out.

[nvrsatisfied]

i should finish out this door in the morning and hopefully finish out the other door by the end of the day????

[nvrsatisfied]

i never really got a good pic of their previous gap. but you could see about 1/4" of the door seal showing along the whole b-pillar. where the mirror was at i could stick my pinkie all the way in and the upper corner was almost pinching...so i'll be happy with what i'm doing.

[62 Barnfind]

Nice work. I had to do the exact same thing with both doors to get them to fit right. I even had to extend the rear of the door to meet the top body line. I wish someone would take their product and do a quality check to see how it fits.

[dsraven]

nice work. thanks for posting pics too. I also use paint sticks for gap checks and use the same kinda procedure for setting up the hinges. it's great that these trucks have the hinge bolts accessible when the door is closed. I also use tape and a sharpie to mark thngs like hinge set points when I am doing the door on, door off thing when I get it right I usually drill a 1/8 hole through the parts so after dissassembly and paint it is easier to line stuff up like it was during mock up. a roll pin set in place there can help too.

[nvrsatisfied]

thanks everyone!

worked on the drivers door a little bit more finishing out the edges and corners so they might not look too bad.

[nvrsatisfied]

moved on over to the passenger door to get it lined out. this one might be a little quicker, since it seems to fit better in more area's. got the rods and stuff tacked in for the evening and will go in tomorrow morning and start getting them cleaned up and get the upper corner and mid corner welded in...i'll have to go over everything and double check a few things and maybe we can change paths and get ready to start the primer and blocking..

another fun thing to add to the list is that we might be bagging it now! he seen a bagged one and really liked it. wheel size in rear might be a 22 and a 20 up front. he wants to lay it on the ground it sounds like or at least really close. i have bagged a few rides but but not this model. any preference on upper lower A arms, the truck already has rack and pinion up front and we have a four link out back with a pan hard bar, but thinking about switching out to a watts link. any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[dsraven]

a drop like that is gonna call for some serious frame work, like chop off the rear and weld in a big C notch to allow the frame to drop over the axle. that also means a bunch of box work to allow for the C notch. I would make sure the owner understands what the final look will be and, of course, how many hours it takes to do this properly so YOU don't have "come back warranty" problems. it may affect the wheels and tires chosen as the lower it goes the easier it is for tires to rub. shocks need to have the proper travel factored in as well. the front axle centreline may also need to be looked at once he decides on the actual "driving down the road" ride height.
sounds like fun. sometimes more fun when it isn't yours and somebody else is paying the bills. haha

[nvrsatisfied]

Originally Posted by dsraven

a drop like that is gonna call for some serious frame work, like chop off the rear and weld in a big C notch to allow the frame to drop over the axle. that also means a bunch of box work to allow for the C notch. I would make sure the owner understands what the final look will be and, of course, how many hours it takes to do this properly so YOU don't have "come back warranty" problems. it may affect the wheels and tires chosen as the lower it goes the easier it is for tires to rub. shocks need to have the proper travel factored in as well. the front axle centreline may also need to be looked at once he decides on the actual "driving down the road" ride height.
sounds like fun. sometimes more fun when it isn't yours and somebody else is paying the bills. haha

i hear ya, defiantly some work ahead but nothing i really haven't done. i told him how the ride quality will still be good especially with the setup we'll install. i've done a few cheapy? setups where they have the floating feeling, but then customer gets more money and improve things. but i think we can get it to ride good, we'll be doing the Accuair "premium" setup, i like the ride sensors used to help smooth out the ride some. i did tell him however that he lives in beautiful Oklahoma and not to forget our beautiful highways and road conditions...

[nvrsatisfied]

we'll we've been busy outside the truck work, but have been doing what we can. colt's started on the body work since i've pretty much finished out the doors. we did run into a hick up with the door to fender, with the previous body work they basically took down the body line and redid it with filler. so we took down the 1/4" worth of filler all over the fender to discover another beautiful patch job? once again they stacked the patch on top and attempted to weld on the patch, WHICH by the way wasn't hot enough to burn into the metal so it basically pulled up all at once.. so we fixed it and continued the body work. with the body line i scabbed a piece off our old door and grafted it in.

[nvrsatisfied]

i also got into the rear suspension and since we are ridding the coilover setup and replacing with bags is going to be nice. i did remove the coil overs to discover that they had one in such a bind it actually bent the shaft in the coil over! the four link bushings were completely shot and if not partially missing. so i ordered new bushings and got that all back to good and adjusted correctly, i think previously it may have been running slightly dog legged down the road because my beginning measurements showed the rear axle to be crooked, which might of been the cause of the tire rubbing on the passenger side? but who knows; crooked bed installed also? but either way the axle is setting centered a bit better.

[nvrsatisfied]

after getting the suspension stuff figured out i moved onto the bed to install the caddy lights. i would like to give a shout out to
https://www.ebay.com/usr/cadillacdev...&ul_noapp=true

i did some research and found out that he posted some info on another guys build on the site. i hit him up about my project and he built up a new set of buckets and the rest is history the project was off and running. the buckets and lights are in great shape so big thanks to cadillacdevillelights

started off by cutting away the front and side part of the post. after getting more into mock up i had to remove the rear part. the quick overall info is that my post is 5" deep front to back and i slightly tapered the bottoms. i will say that you could probably get away with 4.5" depth. that would put the light plugs about a 1/16" away from the back wall. with the way i did it i've got about 1/2" from plug to back wall. since you have to pull the whole light out to replace bulbs then the back wall placement shouldn't matter.

using some chipboard i did a combo of the end cap of the bed and the post to get my shape. i didn't want the square boxy look i seen on a few others so this kinda help me keep the curve of the post. once i got the mock up going i transferred to metal and got to building.

i like the end result. it is a bit "big" but i'm going to mod the other posts so that'll match and maybe the taillight won't look so odd? now just gotta go in and finish out the spot welds and grind my ears away...

[dsraven]

the light buckets came out nice, a little deep but ok in my books. curious, since the lights are frenched in, will you add a side marker light somewhere for transportation dept regulations (and because the design comes back to you the fabb guy) or will you leave it and see what happens? on my 57 the lights are not frenched in but they don't show from the side so I will install a side marker wired to the signal so it blinks when the signals are on. that may help deter lane change issues. I plan the same on the front fenders. a couple of those small LED penny sized lights.

[nvrsatisfied]

well everyone says they like progress pics so here ya go. we've been pretty busy on work stuff, but daily we chip away at the truck. trying to pick up from where i might o left off.

after the lights i built a filler piece/roll pan i guess you could say, to help fill in the empty area since originally it was just a license plat bolted to the bed area. once i got that in i spent a ton of time tacking and grinding everything in. the lesson i learned, is that i wish i would have rolled my edges of the taillights with my fender die (forgot i had till later) through my bead roller. it would have softened the edges to roll more with the truck. what i have will work and looks good, but i know what i would do differently..

next up, made some measurements of everything in order to build the notches we were gonna need to send the body of the old truck down to earth. got to cut them out and a few other parts on our new toy...very nice!

then we received a load of goodies in! ready for the fun to start!

[nvrsatisfied]

next move was the front pocket area. i basically built a set like the rear to help maybe make things look more evened out and to calm my OCD. so instead of a balky back and a skinny front, figured i'd make them match. went ahead removed all the bondo they had stacked along the top rail. we did a little metal work where they had filled in the pockets and then built up bondo to hide it. now it won't require their average 1/4" of filler.

stripped down the frame to bare bones. removed the old 4 link after noticing how far down the front brackets were. those brackets would've bottomed out before the desired drop. next mocked in the notches and bought a universal 4 link setup from the boys down the road in Choctaw, Ok...Phat Phabz...great group of guys!

[nvrsatisfied]

once i double checked distances, pinion, etc...(about 100 x's) it was time to make it official. this first pic is my favorite part of the build no matter what! this is my oldest son and he knows how to weld (school 3yrs for welding and now works as a full time welder last 3yrs). it was a proud poppa moment for sure! so once he got those things tied in i was able to check fitments, drop, etc...

then i moved up to the front. removed the lower A-arms to flat plate and removed the old coil over setup for my own setup. tacked it all in and went through another 100 x's of checking. then had my son come in and work his magic and make it all solid. i did have to remove the small notch they did for the steering arm because of the amount of drop we are going to. so we removed it and put a piece of 2x3 3/16 wall in place and it has plenty of area. i will come back and work on the sway bar setup and shocks next.

[nvrsatisfied]

next i jumped back to the bed where a huge amount of the build is gonna be at. did some mocking up of bridge ideas and decided to keep it simple and clean. once that was made up my son came back in and welded it all in. i will admit that made a mistake and put my bottom brackets in wrong the first time out. i measured off axle instead of plumb bobbing my center of bag movement. so i had to cut those off, make new bottom brackets and watch my son shake his head at me...lol next i removed the wheel spacers that had been installed and cut out our bed panel to start making tires fit.

so with things going down i realized some things need to go up. i did get lucky on the mustang 2 front end they installed, it does not hang below the frame. the bed was my issue. since going with a 29" tall tire i raised the whole bed 1" i made spacers out of 1x2 tubing and welded them to the frame. i also raised the fenders about as high as i could get them with out hitting the rolled bed side. as of now the setup keeps the body when aired out, about 3/4" from the pavement. and keeps about a 1" gap above the tire. yes...other mods soon to come.

once most of that was figured in i built a frame to help bring up the bed floor and then went ahead and started making the fenders.

[nvrsatisfied]

the first pic is what i made to raise the entire bed of the truck 1"x2", these are welded to the frame. everything is accessible from the top if anything needs to be done; remove entire bed, access air compressors, anything fuel related, battery removal, etc... i think of later down the road and working on it and i hate being on the ground...lol. So anyways, with the bed being raised we cut and added 1" to the step to make it match the lower part of the cab. and with the fender being raised more than just the 1" we will cut the lower area of the fender and drop it accordingly so that it bolts up to the step as if nothing has happened.

i then mocked up the wood to start in on the next big adventure...why keep it simple..

[dsraven]

did you use thin wall tubing for all the structure? is it heavy?
I have thought of using the plastic deck material for the floor but went with a steel bed floor instead. i incorporated a stroage area under the floor since the bed floor is raised to accomodate the frame over the axle.
nice work, keep on plugging away, and of course posting up progress pics