Br3w City's Project omgwtfbbq

[ChrisDollins]

Yea, seems like every forum has a few of those guys. There's a lot of "experts" over there with 13 sec cars lol. I've never had any trouble. Just have to know when to ignore a post. I would say it's probably just because they are online, but I've met them at the track too haha. Just do your thing and not worry about it.

Chris

[BR3W CITY]

CONGRATULATIONS CHRIS YOUR THE 500th REPLY!

[ChrisDollins]

Woo Hoo!! Door prize? Lol. Have you started cutting on that truck yet?

Chris

[BR3W CITY]

Originally Posted by ChrisDollins

Woo Hoo!! Door prize? Lol. Have you started cutting on that truck yet?

Chris

Not on mine, but I've put a few hours into my guy Joes' 1958 Chevy Apache.

backstory: Its a pretty cool little truck, tho its got a pretty MAJOR quirk; its got like 3 frames...most not from trucks. The front stub is out of something else, and rear end was "backhalfed" with a freakin 1983 Chevelle Malibu rear end. So...ya. (he didn't do any of this to it)

The coil spring rear end tracks ok, but rides very harsh because of how damn low the thing sits. Its a static dropped truck that rides lower than most bagged truck's I've seen.



The issue tho, is that the welding was done very poorly by the previous owner and the transition from truck frame #1 to the Malibu rear was dangerously under welded and under built. Its made from 2x3 1/8th square tube. While thats actually just fine (and I use it for the repair also), it was not reinforced to the frame in any way.

This means shear loads and torsional loads actually caused the frame to crack along the weld and become unsafe.





The Fix

It gets interesting here. I ended up cutting out the lower portions of of the rail above, and cleaning up all the end sufraces. I trimmed back the lower c of the frame transition that had rusted out, and gave myself and easy set of "ends" to fit up another piece of square tube. I ground back the old welds flat. The few that were good I left, the others were ground out and cleaned up so I could weld them up with the new bar.






I then ran 3" stitches on both ends and both sides of the new bar, reinforcing it against the rail. I then ran larger second passes on the ends tying the new bar into the malibu and truck frames. I also came back and fixed any of the bad weldments from the first go-round. I'll put those pics up tomorrow, when I'll be tapering the rail for a cleaner fit, dressing the welds, and moving on to the other side.

[BR3W CITY]

Heres a view of the bed area on this thing. Thats the Malibu subframe in the back, and then a diamond plate bed-cover thing that comes out mini-truck style.



So I welded all of the seams, and boxed/gusseted the ends. I also shaped and boxed the lower portion to fit the shape of the rail and allow the steps to fit back on without difficulty. (excuse the dirtyness on the welds, there was seam sealer hidden in everything and it decided to smoke up )




The last step is to dress the welds back a bit more, then coat the whole thing so it doesn't rust out. This is 200% stronger than before. While the whole thing isn't really ideal, nor the way I would do it on my own; it was the best solution to the situation at hand. Short of cutting the whole back half off and starting over, this was the strongest and safest solution. Everything is solidly welded to the old frame, the boxing and gusseting, the new frame bar, and the backhalf.

I'll post of up "dressed" and finished photos tomorrow. You'll never have to see the repair again once the steps are back on.

[ChrisDollins]

Wow, that dude does set low! Work looks good, sometimes you just have to do the best you can with what you have. Do you have any whole pics of the truck? My great grandpa had a '58, good looking pickups.

Chris

[BR3W CITY]

Thanks man, like I said, its not ideal...but its what he had to work with. Shops would charge him more than the truck was worth to do frame work, the truck was just unsafe without the work being done. It might not be pretty, but you'll never see it once the fenders are back on, and its plenty solid.

Heres some pics up on stands (aka closer to stock height lol).

[texasld]

That looks like a mess.


I always loved the 58/59 Chevys. Such cool trucks!

[texasld]

I hope you don't think I'm talking about your work. I was talking about before you went after it. Sorry if you think I was trashing you.

[ChrisDollins]

Cool truck! Glad you're getting it straightened out. I'd love to see it down on the ground.

Chris

[BR3W CITY]

That 58 was back at my house for a little bit. We replaced the destroyed old springs with some El Camino load-helper progressive coils and a spring spacer to get some useful function from the on-the-bumpstop rear suspension.








And look at how nasty this spring was. They were literally being held in with layers of rust. I had the spring fully compressed HANGING with the weight of the spring and the compressor on just the rust alone. We had also been concerned that they may have been heated at some point, so the snapping risk on these had to go. The elco springs are noticeably thicker.


And unrelated I was just doing my weekly welding lab, working on some outside corner joint on aluminum, and then just some beads to practice my feed hand.

[BR3W CITY]

Another version of the 350z, this time trying out Alien Pearl.....nothing else I've seen has turned out quite like this.

You Tube

[BR3W CITY]

I was able to come up to Gingerman Raceway a few weeks back for a private track event with our friends from PSI, and I posted some pics of the carnage to our Trans Am...but we also had a full day of racing with our friends Tim and Pat who let me rig up their cars for a few laps at the event. We put the cameras onto their Gbody Monte and C4, and recorded a few laps of fun.

Tim built the car himself as a father son project, and wasn't afraid to push it (he has a close call in the video). And it was Pat's first track day, and first performance driving ever really in his "stock-tastic" c4 (a car he found with less than 60k on it for under $5k).
**Always choose HD, and please Like Comment and Subscribe to me on Youtube.**

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[BR3W CITY]

The followup vid to our project with the Alien Pearl. Check it out, and PLEASE LIKE COMMENT SUBSCRIBE TO ME ON YOUTUBE!

**Always Choose HD**

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Your views support the channel, please don't be afraid to thumbs up or watch the playlists over on my CHANNEL

[BR3W CITY]

A mildly humorous video I threw together of some vaguely (and similarly) named products for car care and "people care".

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Not what I usually do, but I thought some were funny, and all of them are real products, some of which I had. (the car ones, dummy).

[BR3W CITY]

Cuz like all I do is post videos now:

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[BR3W CITY]

I went down to the Race&Performance Expo in St Charles IL and met up with our friends at Borowski Race Engines, and we shot a few minutes with them about upcoming projects, the shop etc.

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[BR3W CITY]

The projects are slowly peeking out from under the storage blankets. My truck isn't out quite yet...but I stopped by a friends garage (one of them ) and he had a couple things sitting for completion. Must be nice.

[BR3W CITY]

Some channel updates and format changes, plus we'll be doing a contest/game with our subs if we get to 1000! Please subscribe to support the channel.

Yall know I put in a ton of time here on the forum, so even if you only tune in for the car stuff, please subscribe! I also do sneaker reviews, some tech pickups and some gaming, but if there is stuff you guys WANT to see, all you gotta do is say it.

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Thanks to all of those that have sub'd and do support the channel! I didn't even think it would last as a hobby but its been a really great time, and lets me connect with even more great people. If your new and have no clue what I'm talking about, click the link in my signature and see the over 85 videos that I've put together.

[mechanicalman]

Sub'd. Wow so much, I'm going to have to come back later.

[StarDust]

This build makes me want to throw my truck on craigslist "WTT for 66c10"..nice went through it all!

[BR3W CITY]

Originally Posted by mechanicalman

Sub'd. Wow so much, I'm going to have to come back later.

Originally Posted by StarDust

This build makes me want to throw my truck on craigslist "WTT for 66c10"..nice went through it all!

Thanks guys.

MechanicalMan - thats what Playlists are for! Beer + YouTube Autoplay function = at least an hour of not having to leave your computer.

Stardust - I appreciate it, and your comments over on the channel as well. We've got so much work to do on this thing for this season, and its already april. Found out today we have at least 2 more vehicles confirmed to be plastidipped this summer, which (cross my fingers really hard) will include a guy whose kids want their dads minivan to be an acid-trip of pearl and colors.

[BR3W CITY]

You Tube

[BR3W CITY]

Extended clips of the warmup, idle and shutdown from the the trailer.

You Tube

[BR3W CITY]

Shes' back under the knife! We started pulling off the front end (and of course, filming it for a video segment!)

So far all the main bolts except one are off, and we have all of my wiring etc de-mounted from the inner fender. Funny side note; the mounting pads that held my rad support were under the washers.....soooo I don't think they were actually isolating or supporting anything.

Tomorrow we're coming back to finish up the removal and look at some of the next big plans; cockpit mod/pedal changes, the new heads, custom long tube headers, and then a new convertor to top it all off.


Other news; I mentioned in the channel update that there are some new projects coming into the shops. One of them might actually be a F*rd. I'm giving yall fair warning that I will only touch a F*rd on one of 3 conditions. A) its real old b) its a truck or c) its a Gt40. There is an important 4th condition that applies D) if someone is paying me a crap ton.