47-55.1 Long Time Coming......

[gsinon]

Tonights installment of what did Glenn do is brought to you by the letter F for fuel! Lol...

I hope I don't insult anyone on there when I say, I HATE when people install their fuel filler up through the bed floor. But then again, what other people do to their own truck is none of my business right!? But for me that was a zero option. That is the reason I used the 41-48 Ford passenger car tank as it has the side fill. I did want the fuel filler/cap to blend in so I decided on one of these steel flush top weld in fillers. I had to first figure out a good placement. There is a slight arc to it so I made a pattern. Then after moving the pattern around I found the perfect spot from both top to bottom and side to side for the contour to line up. This will be very useful when its time to do the filler work and blend it all in.

Here is the fender mounted on the bed as normal. Dig the 49-50 Merc taillights!!



Hole cut....




Threaded bung welded to the fender from underneath. There is a very slight "step" milled into the bung so that the inner edge sits flush with the fender.




And then the cap threads on and then when it bottoms out you push the top down and rotate it a 1/4 turn so it ends up being flush with the fender. When I need gas you rotate it a 1/4 turn counter clockwise until it pops up, then spin it off.




A little filler work followed by primer and paint and it will virtually disappear in the fender.

[gsinon]

With the bed back on after the boxing plates and suspension was installed I was able to make the mounts for the bed and play with the rolled pan some.

This is all still in the mock up phase and I will post more about it when I get back to it. I got a rolled ban and very quickly mounted it for an initial look. At first glance I liked it, but it was also very bland and just kind of blah. So I grabbed a tape measure and a Sharpie and started taking some measurements, then came the die grinder and cutting discs. I started with a "flowing" relief cut from about 2" down from the top and roughly 18" across. and then tapered each side to the bottom. I then tipped in the trimmed piece inward creating about a 2" step. If you look all I used here was some 3M green tape to fill in the gap to get a sense of it all.

The question now was.... where do I mount the license plate. At first I just help it up against the pan, but the flat plate hanging off the rolled pan looked stupid to me, like it was an afterthought. So I taped it where I wanted it, then grabbed some poster board and made a surround for the plate that filled in the gaps.

So this is where I am right now. I walked away and look at it from time to time trying to decide what to do. Do I proceed and finish it all out in metal then body work it and paint? Do I tweak it in some way? Or do I change it upon completely or go so far as to weld it back up as it was??

What are your thoughts on where it is heading? The most important part of visualizing this is what will it look like all painted and with the truck on the ground. It is hard being a different color and such to visualize sometimes.


The first pic before installing the rolled pan. Definitely need to put something here to hide some of that tank.

[nvrdone]

I think the recess for the license plate looks good. definitely different. then maybe lome led back up lights on each side.

[gsinon]

Back when I pulled the cab off of the frame I gathered several friends for the task. Doing so took about a week to get everyones schedule together, then add the difficulty of lifting and walking this heavy cab off the frame. Well there had to be an easier way right? I have seen others make this support arm to lift the cab with a cherry picker. So I bought three 2x6's and started making this. What a difference it is moving the cab on and off the frame with the right tools. I was able to do this alone in about ten minutes from start to finish.

[gsinon]

With the cab back on I was now able to mate the engine and trans together for the first time. This is a new crate 350 from Chevrolet, rated at 350hp and 390 ft Lb of torque. I also ordered a brand new TCI 700R4. Now it was time to get the engine/trans in place and get the mounts for both tacked in place.



With the pair in place I was now able to position the engine properly front to back and side to side. I also was able to get the angle situated correctly so I don't have any driveline vibration later on.





I really like these round tube engine stands. They are made from DOM tubing and are super strong, plus with the design I don't have to worry about room for the steering shaft. One fully welded with the engine back out I will show these in better detail in how they look and the support they have for the mounts.

[8man]

That is a nice looking gas filler. Blends nicely.

OH, and yes, newbie, 1699 of the posts are questions.

[gsinon]

I grabbed the original aprons and rad support and bolted it all onto the truck after trimming some for the front suspension. I then used some 2" masking tape to fill in the gap around the suspension to be able to use it as a guide when I get to the new panels.




I slid the new aluminum radiator/condensor/fan/shroud combo in place to get an idea of where it would sit in stock form. This put the combo too close to the engine, so I had to start trimming to pull the unit forward.



At this point it was pretty obvious that the top cross brace needed to be cut off. But not being comfortable with it being gone I made this one that is moved forward and also on an angle to match the front latch cover. While there I welded 3 nuts on the inside of the new brace for attachment points.

[gsinon]

I got the new fender aprons from Dynacorn out and trimmed around the suspension using the old ones and that taped area as a guide. Once I got the new ones bolted in place along with the trimmed out rad support I was able to install the front serpentine until on the engine. I was expecting I had room enough for everything, but now was the time to see for sure.

As you will notice in these pics I removed the crate motor 4 barrel intake and bolted in its place GM's Ramjet fuel injection. This will come back off at some point to clean it up and powder coat it. But for now I need it there to continue mocking things up. Also you will see the Holley Mid-Mount sera kit I chose. Was this cheap? Nope not at all. But Holley did a great job rethinking this kit and how compact it is overall. In all my research I could find it is roughly 7/8" tighter to the engine than most other similar kits available. This leaves plenty of rom for the rad combo but also between the power steering and the apron.

[youngrodder]

Everything looks great. I rally like the roll pan/lisenas plate combo.

Marc

[6DoF]

shoot, you've been going to town on that thing! cool story

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by youngrodder

Everything looks great. I rally like the roll pan/lisenas plate combo.

Marc

Thanks!!

Originally Posted by 6DoF

shoot, you've been going to town on that thing! cool story

Thank you. While this looks fast in posts it has taken me 14 months to get to this point. Feels slow to me in reality! I'm pretty close to being completely updated, so the posts will slow down soon.

[gsinon]

With this post I am pretty much caught up with where I am now. 14 months just went by quickly with these updates.

I work long hours and travel quite a bit daily for work so getting out in my shop during the week generally doesn't happen. I am now down to just Saturdays when I get out there about 8-8:30am and work until 3-4pm. And that's usually all I can do in a week. I used to get much more time out there, but then 2020 came and my life was forever changed. I was a training instructor for PPG at their Hartford, CT training center, only 9 miles from home. In 2020 with the pandemic and everything PPG decided to shut down 9 training centers, mine being one of them. I ran my last class in September 2020, then spent 3 months closing down the facility to an empty building and effectively shut myself out of a job when I handed the building keys over to the realtor December 23rd 2020 and pretty much lost my job that I loved so much. Oh well things happen right?!


In any case back to happy things like working on a truck. This past Saturday my time was reduced to just a couple hours as I was dealing with some things for my dad. While out there I reinstalled the lower dash panel and steering column so that I can now make up the steering shafts and joints to connect the column to the steering rack. I thought I was golden as I had leftover 3/4" double D joint and a splined/double D only to find my column is a 3/4"x1" joint. So now I am waiting for the new joint to show up and make the connection.

Here is how I mounted the steering column to the dash and floor...

For the upper mount I was trying everything I could think of and ended up buying two different column drops. Nothing was working the way I wanted it to until a friend was over and took one look at hot and said to go buy a 2" exhaust clamp! Some times we over complicate things, like in this case. The U bolt wraps under and around the column, and the cross piece of the clamp is welded to the dash panel. All I have to do is slide the column where I want it, put the U bolt in place and then two 9/16 nuts and tighten it all down.




The bottom is a swivel mount I got online. It has a ring and the swivel ball on the interior side of the column that goes through the hole in the dash, then on the engine side there is another ring and its all bolts together through the firewall.




And lastly, while digging out the swivel lower mount I came across the box I had stashed away from a previous project that I never used. Sometimes things just work out because I think they will be perfect here. I knew I wanted to change the arm rests but didn't know what to, then this box was in my hands. These are 1957 Chevrolet arm rests. I love the look and shape of them, and I think they belong as they are era correct for what I'm doing and will fit the overall style and theme I am going for.

[gsinon]

Well..... I haven't been in the garage much the last couple weeks. My dad health is failing. The guy who taught me everything I know about building hot rods from start to finish, the man who was not only father of the groom when I got married 30 years ago but also stood by my side as Best Man is not doing well. It has been coming on slowly for several years. In November he fell and broke his hip, which led to surgery. That has led to a permanent move into a rehab/convalescent facility. In mid January more decline, and then two weeks ago I as POA had to make the difficult decision to enter him into hospice. He now has only weeks or months to be with us, and that is tough to come to terms with. It struck me on Saturday when out in the shop working on this truck that he will never see it run or drive, never see the finished product. For two hot rodders that have built many cars together that's a difficult pill to swallow. For now he hets to hear about it and I show him pictures of updates, and that will have to do.

Here is some shop therapy from this past weekend.

I started with several pieces from Speedway of mandrel bent tubing to make an upper radiator hose for my truck. I'm sure I could find a rubber hose that would work, but with the odd contours it needs, and me being me I just decided to make one. So here is what I came up with. I like it, but part of me doesn't love the contours and think I could do it better. But that would mean buying more tubing and doing it again, and in the end is it bad enough to really go through all that? I know myself well enough to know that at times I can over think things and over analyze.






After I did that I took the time to throw the passenger fender on so I could verify I ordered the right size/backspacing on the front rims. I then dropped the truck on to the ground to check clearances and see how the truck sits, stance is everything! I'm loving the overall look for sure. The truck is not as ass up as it appears. It does have a healthy hot rod rake to it, but this exaggerates it for sure.




And lastly I installed the Snowden seat one more time and bolted it in place to check for shifter location before drilling the floor for it.

[Getter-Done]

Originally Posted by gsinon

Well..... I haven't been in the garage much the last couple weeks. My dad health is failing. The guy who taught me everything I know about building hot rods from start to finish, the man who was not only father of the groom when I got married 30 years ago but also stood by my side as Best Man is not doing well.

You are in my thoughts and prayers.

Your story is very similar to mine in a Lot of ways.

My Daddy survived a lot of health issues and He survived I beleive , So He could see me Get Married.

He taught me more than any school could ever teach.

[oldman3]

Glenn, thoughts and prayers for your family...Jim

[8man]

Sorry to hear about your dad. Nice work on the truck.

[6DoF]

freakin awesome, love the progress!

is that steering column floor swivel thing sealed from the elements?

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

You are in my thoughts and prayers.

Your story is very similar to mine in a Lot of ways.

My Daddy survived a lot of health issues and He survived I beleive , So He could see me Get Married.

He taught me more than any school could ever teach.

Originally Posted by oldman3

Glenn, thoughts and prayers for your family...Jim

Originally Posted by 8man

Sorry to hear about your dad. Nice work on the truck.

Thank you guys for the comments! Very much appreciated.

Originally Posted by 6DoF

freakin awesome, love the progress!

is that steering column floor swivel thing sealed from the elements?

Yes the lower mount will seal it. The mount to the column is a very precise fit, then the mount to the floor I will put some sealant in between as I assemble the last time.

[Rickysnickers]

I'm sorry to hear about your dad....

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by Rickysnickers

I'm sorry to hear about your dad....

Thank you... So far he is doing ok. There has been a change recently with some swelling in his lower legs from fluid build up. Hospice nurse tells me that is early stage heart failure. His heart isn't pumping strong enough to get good circulation. Also his breathing is starting to get worse. I go visit him 3-4 times a week and after about 45 minutes he starts to struggle with his breathing and needs a hit off of his rescue inhaler. At that point I know its time to end my visit.

Tougher days are ahead, but for now I enjoy what time I have left with him.

[gsinon]

I have been in a struggle of late trying to find headers that will work and for the way I want them to. Tight confines between the frame and steering shaft with the rack & pinion steering. After some searching I came up with these manifolds that hit the ticket just right. They are meant for a 1996-2004-ish Chevy 3500 Thriftmaster box truck. What I love about them is that they are made for a 350 so they have 2.5" collectors which most manifolds don't. And because they came off of a fuel injected truck there is already a threaded bung built in for the 02 sensor. I will clean them up and smooth them off a bit then have them HPC coated when I get the exhaust coated.


As you can see in that picture the steering shaft fits but is close to the manifold as is. I was hoping to not have to use another joint and support bearing. But in the end I did. So I made a standoff for the bearing and put a small notch in the frame for shaft clearance. In the end I might not have needed to do that, but for plenty of room I opted to. Once boxed it will be perfect.



With the steering done I was able to make sure the seat and steering all fit right. I then was able to get the shifter permanently mounted at this time. I also have the brake pedal in place here too.






I then got the LS-Fab speaker panels mounted as well. On the bottom of the bead rolled area I drilled a hole and mounted the button for the electric E-Stopp emergency brake. Out of the way and mildly hidden, and yet accessible when needed.


Yesterday I put the bed back on and put the truck on my skates and rolled it over to the other bay. I need to jump off my project for a short time as I need to finish installing quarter panels on my fiends 55 Chevy. I hope to be back on this soon.

[joedoh]

gorgeous work, truly gorgeous!

Originally Posted by gsinon

I need to jump off my project for a short time as I need to finish installing quarter panels on my fiends 55 Chevy.

freudian slip?

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by joedoh

gorgeous work, truly gorgeous!





freudian slip?

Hahahaha.... possibly so!!

[mongocanfly]

Very nice work Glenn..somehow I missed your build til now..doing a great job..
Really like the little things your adding to it..
Having recently been thru what your dealing with , I lost my Dad, it's a hard pill to swallow
Keep up the good work..

[Rickysnickers]

Originally Posted by gsinon

Tougher days are ahead, but for now I enjoy what time I have left with him.

Yes, and in the end that's what it's all about, enjoying your time with him. Your truck is looking really good.