Dutch '59 Fleetside Longbed

[Mhubbard85]

Sweet truck! Lots of work done so far! I'm tagging along for sure. Love these old trucks!

[Advanced Design]

Hope you bounce back quickly Kees. Vent window looks really good.

[RockinKees]

Started slow last week with welding the plates for the doorstrikers at the inside of the cab.
It's finished now and I have painted the inside of the cab gloss black.

I also took out the ugly, damaged headliner, there was completely NO paint under the headliner??? So I solved that myself







After that I painted the roof and the ventcowl, so that I can put the windshield in next week. The windshield is one big thing, always in the way of things and expansive.....





As the paint has to dry, ofcourse , I started with the exhaust.
I have made the downpipes from the headers/collectors.
Now my question for you guys ans girls:

Should I go with a balancepipe or not???

I have a 350 with a TH400 and am making a true dual exhaust.
Whats excactly is the benefit of a balancepipe? I've read somewhere it has to do with the torque the engine makes, but does it make so much difference?
Engine is stock, its gonna be a daily driver, not a race car

Please fill me in on that, thanks!

[RockinKees]

Been searching for exhaust options, what to do or not...

Came across this article that explanes a lot:
http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/exh...for-your-ride/

For those who are interested, it's a lot to read

[ptc]

H v X - for what you are doing I think its just more labor than running two pipes out the back with some nice Flowmaster 40 or 44 series and dumping them before the rear axle....

Typically its done when you want to spend the time and money to really 'design' a "tuned exhaust system" for a specific motor assembly than it makes sense to do it. Or buy one thats already been engineered by Borla or Magnaflow or somebody like that. But just putting in a crossover or H or X pipe is something that just doesnt do what they say it will.

good luck!

[Steve-W]

Originally Posted by RockinKees

Been searching for exhaust options, what to do or not...

Came across this article that explanes a lot:
http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/exh...for-your-ride/

For those who are interested, it's a lot to read

Good article, i just run a pipe to each side, no H or X. but..i haven't been out for a testdrive yet..so that might change ��

[Kim57]

Looking real nice.
Kim

[deejaaa1]

your fab work is top-notch. love your ingenuity.
family were vacationing in Big Bend last year. neighbors were from Holland. we talked several nights. one night I made muffins in a Dutch oven. showed it to them and they looked confused. never had heard of a Dutch oven.
also, when I read your build title, I thought it was a project you were going to share with another member. Going Dutch.
great build!
few questions:
can you post a link for the "national Dutch "CL"?
what is "paintable body kit" you used on the underside of cab?

[RockinKees]

Thanks for your kind words, Deejaaa1.

I know the Dutch oven, and I don't know who uses that nowadays
I think the most of us fire up the BBQ

Our "National Craiglist" is called "Marktplaats", www.marktplaats.nl.
There you find all kinds of things, not only cars.

The bodykit I used is Teroson RB53 for the seams (http://www.henkel.co.uk/2838_UKE_HTM...=8797701636097), before and after that I primered all the sheetmetal, then a layer of Valvoline Tectyl 190, a sort of bedliner. After that I put on three more layers of gloss black paint. Hope that's enough for a few years....

And Going Dutch....Building it all by myself and I pay for the whole project myself

I'm Dutch and living in the Netherlands so that's why the build title

[58-GMC]

Truck is looking great - keep it up!

[RockinKees]

Thanks 58-GMC!!

After searching the allmighty Web, I decided to go with a balancepipe.
I made an exhaust that clears all the important stuff under the truck, only have to make some heat shields for the LPG (propane) parts.



Now I have to think what to do with the end pipes....go through the rollpan or dump just in front of the rollpan.....

As we planned to put the windshield in tommorow, so that it's savely away , I put gauze in the cowl vent, to prevent leaves and such go into the vent.
After that bolted it in place.





I also mocked up the steering, it was quite a puzzle to get it right!





It's a little hard to see, but the double U-joit is inline withe the column.
It goes around the header, and have to use two support bearings. At first I had one support bearing, but that wasn't going to work, way too much flex.

So now I have it working, made two bearing supports, the upper bearing was easy, the lower one exists out four little parts:



After welding you get this:





Just grind it smooth and bolt it in place:



This is what it becomes. The upper bearing support has to be finished of course.
All I have to do now is to adjust the whole thing, drill the shafts and put some paint on it. Easy

For the column at the inside I made this, two parts and a clamp I made earlier. (Clamp is hanging in upper right corner of the picture.) It's all welded up already, but the pic is gone...I make a new one tomorrow



Sorry for the large pics, I couldn't get them any smaller....

To be continued....

[Kim57]

Looking good.
Nice idea on the cowl vent.
Steering looks like a snake.
Kim

[oldman3]

Nice work...Jim

[ptc]

Dang Kees! -- its coming together! pretty soon you'll be driving that thing!!!!

[RockinKees]

Thanks guys!

Today my buddy Niels and I put the windshield in.
After two attempts it's in

Niels said only make a picture if you clean the windshield

So, Niels, here it is:



Almost as good as new!!

[Kim57]

Looks good.
Kim

[ChuckDriver]

Nice install!

[Advanced Design]

Nice work Kees.

[deejaaa1]

great work Kees!

[Steve-W]

this is my lack of knowledge speaking: is that double u-joint going to work? it looks almost freakish (and I mean that as a compliment hahaha)

[RockinKees]

Thanks guys!

Yes Steve, that double U-joint is working great, as long as you use two support bearings.
I made a small mistake by ordering one support bearing, but that gave way too much flex. At least in my setup.
I added another support bearing and the flex is gone.
Now I can steer the truck the way I want

You can come over and check it if you want

[RockinKees]

Just some small things done today, at home.

First I repaired the door windows, they were all cracked:



Took them out of their metal frame, went a lot easier than I suspected



Then put the new glass in and painted the frames. It looks like new again





I also took the speedo apart and painted the backplate black again. The PO had removed all the paint so it was metal coloured, didn't like that.





Last but not least, I painted the back window
I wanted it to be dark, but put foil on it was not for me... I came across a Motip rattlecan that is used to paint plastic back lights of cars. Sent an email to the manifacturer and asked if it was suitable for real glass, no problem was the answer. So I sprayed the back window
It's fairly dark, just as I wanted, you can still see through





It's beginning to look like a full on Rat Rod Restoration
Oh well, if you can do it all yourself, what's the problem then??

[Katrina/10]

Nice job on the door glass, did you have someone cut it for you locally? And I never knew you could get spray on window tint!

[RockinKees]

I also didn't know that Gary, just tried and it worked

Door glass is just aftermarket glass, fits great!

[Kim57]

Looks real good.
I like the back glass idea.
Kim