Dug's 1959 Fleetside

[RockinKees]

Plateholder came out nice!
I think you're gonna make yourself a really nice rearbumper!

Are you going to paint the bumpers or rechrome them?

[dug224]

Originally Posted by RockinKees

Plateholder came out nice!
I think you're gonna make yourself a really nice rearbumper!

Are you going to paint the bumpers or rechrome them?

Paint. Trying to keep in mind this is a budget build. I still have to build a new house!!! If I'm not careful, I could $100 myself into a pretty large build cost. A buddy of mine here in Mobile is north of $25k in his truck and I believe it is for material only. Don't get me wrong, the truck is fabulous and he is an incredible craftsman. I just want to be able to use mine to build the house without worrying about it. I'm currently on track to spend $10k to $12k and a gillion dollars in free labor. dug

[67Mal]

Looking great! Doug.
I'm still following along in Tupelo,
Always look forward to your updates.
Malcolm

[dug224]

Originally Posted by 67Mal

Looking great! Doug.
I'm still following along in Tupelo,
Always look forward to your updates.
Malcolm

Thanks. Love your car. By the way, there is a local El Camino with that same body style that I am trying to sneak up on. Appears to be in restored condition but sitting outside at a mobile home with junk piled in the bed. Hasn't moved in a year or two. Stay tuned on this one. dug

[dug224]

Cut off the back of the bumper at the ends so it fits flat against the truck. The cuts turned out pretty good in spite of the fact that I was freehand cutting with a 4.5" cutoff blade on my grinder.


Mounted it flush against the back of the truck and moved the bumper to the left (driver side) to get the best look on the passenger end. I don't want the bumper hanging outside the plane of the bed side. I determined I will be narrowing the bumper by 2.75" rather than the preliminary determination of 1". Looks like the tag will fit just fine in the new more narrow opening.

[Kim57]

Looks real good.
Kim

[RockinKees]

The rear bumper looks great this way.
Its a very nice touch!

I know what you mean about a budgetbuild and billion dollar on free laborwork...I'm right in the middle of the same. I think, building and making your own parts, stands out from the rest, because no one has that same part

[dug224]

Managed to section the rear bumper. Removed 2.75" using my DeWALT chop saw and got a pretty square cut on both passes.

Tag fits nicely. Was afraid it would be too tight.

[Kim57]

Looks real nice.
Kim

[ChuckDriver]

I like it!

[RockinKees]

^^ me too!!

[dug224]

Thanks guys! Today will be dedicated to attaching the hitch/bumper to the frame. dug

[dug224]

Spent a good bit of time setting up the bed so I could position the hitch/bumper. As you can see, I setup my long aluminum straight edges along the face of the tires and determined the center point between them. Using a plumb bob, I dropped a mark from the center of the tailgate and lower cross member to the concrete floor. Looks like I'm still off laterally by 1/4" but, with each ratchet strap and shim I add, I seem to be getting a little closer.

So, before my head exploded, I finished welding the bumper and decided to give the bed positioning a multi-day rest. Flap Discs really do a good job finishing the metal work.

[Kim57]

Bumper came out real nice.
Kim

[dsraven]

looks nice. are there plans for back up lights?
just looking at the bed side, you would really benefit from a stud welder. maybe sell off some of the wife's shoes or handbags to finance, haha. oh wait a minute, that just means she would have to fill that empty space with more shoes and handbags. there goes that theory, lol.

[dug224]

Originally Posted by dsraven

looks nice. are there plans for back up lights?
just looking at the bed side, you would really benefit from a stud welder. maybe sell off some of the wife's shoes or handbags to finance, haha. oh wait a minute, that just means she would have to fill that empty space with more shoes and handbags. there goes that theory, lol.

Backup lights are on the list. First idea was to buy some small round LED's and inset them below the brake lites. Other ideas may over take that.

Good idea selling off her stuff. She'll never miss any of it!

[dsraven]

hey dugg, looks good. I use flap discs all the time as well (when I get time to be in the shop....)
just wondering if you have a horizontal cross brace to keep the dimension at the tailgate hinge consistent while you play with the box sides vertically. if not you may have issues with a tight hinge. I am sure you have that covered. you have everything else covered.
nice job!

[dug224]

Originally Posted by dsraven

hey dugg, looks good. I use flap discs all the time as well (when I get time to be in the shop....)
just wondering if you have a horizontal cross brace to keep the dimension at the tailgate hinge consistent while you play with the box sides vertically. if not you may have issues with a tight hinge. I am sure you have that covered. you have everything else covered.
nice job!

Back from Atlanta so I had some truck time today. I used shims and straps to locate the tailgate in its' hole. I followed that by reinstalling the 4 factory bolts in the horizontal structural piece below the tailgate. This tightened the entire assembly up nicely which allowed me to start to determining where I was askew..............Using my long aluminum straight edges that are firmly planted against the face of the 4 tires, I determined that the '95 bed is 1/4" to 3/8" too far to the right (passenger side). Using the body line strings, I determined that the floor in the '95 bed was not parallel to the '59 body line. I already knew this but was going to try to hide it. Too big to hide so my wife Cindy and I pulled the bed off. Should have taken a picture of that! I commenced with slotting the mounting brackets to give some movement of the '95 bed towards the driver side and I built some shims to raise the back of the '95 bed to make it more parallel with the '59 body lines. While I have it apart, I'll be able to do the final weld on the bed supports, route the spare tire winch so I can access it from the back through a hole in my new sheet metal filler piece (behind the tailgate) and do some final anchoring for my gas filler tube and e-brake cables.

[dsraven]

looks like you are making good headway. just curious about the fuel filler and wondering if there is a low spot in the hose, like a P trap, or if that levels out once the box and filler neck are attached. wouldn't want fuel to sit in the hose. the fuel door location can't be in too much of a different spot than from factory by the looks of it.
do you have to buy your wife a new purse or some shoes now? she is gonna want some sort of pay back, haha.

[dug224]

Originally Posted by dsraven

looks like you are making good headway. just curious about the fuel filler and wondering if there is a low spot in the hose, like a P trap, or if that levels out once the box and filler neck are attached. wouldn't want fuel to sit in the hose. the fuel door location can't be in too much of a different spot than from factory by the looks of it.
do you have to buy your wife a new purse or some shoes now? she is gonna want some sort of pay back, haha.

It is not too much different than the factory setup. No low spots in the fuel filler setup. The only thing I have not done is fill the truck at a gas station. Will be interesting to see if it can take the gas pump flow rate without tripping the handle.

Building the wife a new house in the not so distant future. Hope that covers the bed removal.....

[dug224]

Got all the holes slotted in the bed mounts so I can adjust to towards the driver side. Finished welding all bed mounts to the frame.

I ended up cutting both mounting tabs off of the spare tire winch. Turned the top on 90 degrees and welded it back on. Welded a stud on my right rear bed mount to receive the top winch tab. Extended the lower winch tab to reach existing frame mounted nut that I believe was the original lower tab nut. To make the receiver for the winch parallel to frame, I had to slightly bend the winch cable tube. Probably didn't have to do this but it made me feel better. Note that the plastic funnel that receives the tire tool rod is about 1/8" from back side and slightly below frame cross member.

[dug224]

OldChevysRule's Jason stopped by and helped me hoist the bed back into place. Great having a young strong Navy guy around. Thanks man!!! dug

[OldChevysRule]

Dug......I don't know about the young and strong part, but I was glad to help. It was also good to see you and the progress on your truck. Maybe you could adopt my truck, so that I can get some forward progress on it!! Haha If you ever need an extra hand, give me a ring.

[dug224]

All the slotting and shimming has paid off. The '95 bed now resides about 3/8" further to the left thanks to the slotting and the tail end is now up an other 3/4" thanks to the shimming. The bed has 8 mounting points so it took me a while to make the graduated heavy shims required to get it right.

I used my welding magnets in a horizontal position to align the '59 rear pockets with the '95 rear pockets. The smaller magnets helped me keep the beam square with the pockets while I bolted it all back together.

Note the 1"x4" wooden spacers. This is what I was having problems with. The space to the left initially took two 1"x4" spacers which meant that the '95 bed was too low in the back.

This is the stack of shims that I made which allowed me to make the top line of the '59 parallel with the '95.

[Advanced Design]

Nice work! That bed is coming out really well.