59 Chevy Fleetside LSx build

[Ratpin]

As a side note, the new owner also did not want the chrome bed spears so dwcsr was kind enough to offer them to me for the price of shipping. That way they can be put to good use and live again. Thanks dwcsr! and Merry Christmas!

[dwcsr]

Originally Posted by Ratpin

As a side note, the new owner also did not want the chrome bed spears so dwcsr was kind enough to offer them to me for the price of shipping. That way they can be put to good use and live again. Thanks dwcsr! and Merry Christmas!

You must have taken the blue pill today instead of the red one. Just remember Red is for reality, Blue makes you take the lid off of that can of crazy.

[dwcsr]

Made a little progress today tearing down the truck. hopefully we can get it to the media blaster at the end of the week.

[dwcsr]

Its back from the blasters today not nearly as holey and I thought. rot in the usual places, steps, corners , door bottoms and toe boards. The roof eye brow was rotted along with the inside panel. The bed panels were in great shape and only need a little TLC. The rear window was also in great shape hopefully in the next week we will have space for it inside and start the build

[Kim57]

That's some nice clean metal to work with.
Kim

[Advanced Design]

Going to be a good build and I am tagging along. Real nice metal. I remember RB's...they went out of business didn't they?

[dwcsr]

Thanks guys it does have a lot of good metal on it and the parts that are rotted are the easy ones to replace. RB's did go out some time ago but the front clip is still available from Kimbridge Enterprises in WA state

[dwcsr]

We been working on this for a while now and have a few pictures of the progress. Bed side are almost done and starting on the cab now, the usual rocker/step, corners, pillars.

[dwcsr]

We are also doing the inner and outer roof.

[Kim57]

Bed sides are looking good.
Good luck on the cab repairs.
Kim

[dwcsr]

Here's an update on this one, we replaced the inner and outer roof panel, there were just to many pin holes to make repairing it worth while.

One of the issues I've found over the year with replacing large panel is they often don't fit well right out of the box. They still have the tension from the stamping press so what we do is set it in place trying to fit it as best we can, no cutting yet, clamp it up just to hold it there and wait a day. Right now its sitting clamped up so the panels relax a bit and conform to the 59 door frames. Once they drop on nicely without any forcing we will weld bond the outer panel. The Dynacorn roof panels fit very well if you let it relax a day or so.

[Kim57]

That's looking good.
Kim

[dwcsr]

Thanks, next it the Absolute sheet metal firewall and floor panels

[dwcsr]

Resurrecting an old thread I have many new updates and pictures

We added a Kimbridge front clip. It s a nice setup and slides into the existing rails. Next was boxing the frame

[dwcsr]

With the frame boxed we added an X member from Progressive Auto, The firewall from Absolute sheet metal is done. The wheel are 14" wide. We also added a swing arm rear coil over suspension and a 9" narrowed to fit.

[dwcsr]

Here it is painted and most of the suspension on

[dwcsr]

Rear is in and setup with Wilwood disc kit front an drear, QA-1 front Coil overs and a Unisteer rack for a 78-87 G body.

The Kimbridge cross member uses G and A body part that are a dime a dozen.
Rear disc kit is staggered for a 9" and the front is a G body kit.

[Advanced Design]

Good looking chassis Dave. Guessing you have used the Kimbridge before? I haven't seen it, though I remember someone in the early 90's made a cross member to use G body suspension components as I was considering it for a 39 Chevy I was building.

[Kim57]

Frame came out real nice.
Kim

[dwcsr]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Good looking chassis Dave. Guessing you have used the Kimbridge before? I haven't seen it, though I remember someone in the early 90's made a cross member to use G body suspension components as I was considering it for a 39 Chevy I was building.

Kimbridge is still around, RB's Obsolete used to sell them before they went under. Its a nice clip. It uses A and G Body 80-88 which cover most all the GM heavy cars and the S10 for suspension parts. It drops the truck 5" leaving the Hub to Hub 57.5" They make a 55-57 and a 58-59. Best part is you could do it with the original sheet metal still on the truck. I had this for a while and intended on using it when I owned the truck.

Its about $1300 but when you consider an MII base kit is 1500 its not so bad.
S10, Monte Carlo parts can be had for little cash at the bone yard. It has to be the easiest install I have ever done.

[dwcsr]

Originally Posted by Kim57

Frame came out real nice.
Kim

Thanks, Its sitting on top of a Ford F3 frame due to the space issues we have at the moment. We got very busy at the end of the year and are literally stacking up jobs.