55 TF Stretched Cab/Fleetside/LSx/Trailblazer Frame

[ricott]

Thanks for the kind words/encouragement BOMP. I am dying to get back in the garage, but I've been working in Dallas almost full time since January 27. This Friday I should be finished in Dallas until the last week of March/first week of April, so I'm hoping to be back in the garage in the evenings next week. On a really positive note, my son and I swapped vehicles last week, and I drove the 66 GTO we built from Memphis to Dallas this week. What a blast! I set the cruise at 78 and in 6th gear it was turning 2000 RPM. Averaged 22 mpg, and I still need to get the final tune on the engine. I can't say enough good about the LS engines. That ride makes me want to get this truck going A LOT SOONER.

[dug224]

Ricky: Man, I fell asleep at the wheel and missed all the progress to date. I am all caught up now and officially subscribed to the thread. Can't wait to see how the floor pan works out. That Memphis to Dallas commute has to grow old. You need to retire. Dug

[ricott]

WOW. . . . It has been cold for the last 6 weeks. So cold that I decided I would rather install hard wood flooring in three bedrooms than work on the truck. 700 square feet later, and several weekends, the wifey and I are very happy with the results. I know that without pictures it didn't happen, so here is the floor.







During much of this time I have been working on a case in Dallas and commuting M-F. The hardwood floors were completed last weekend, and the Dallas commute is done until at least April 1, so the two evenings I have spent drilling out spot welds on the Trailblazer floorpan, and prepping it to fit up the front cab section. Here is where I am on the floor pan:






I’m off tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday is also mine, so I plan to make some serious progress. I’m headed to the salvage yard tomorrow to pick up the firewall from the “parts” 55TF. I plan to use it to fit up to the Trailblazer floorpan as a mock up (thanks BBeep for reminding me you did that). Once I have that done, I will transfer the measurements to the “keeper” cab floor and firewall.

I am also going to show the running total of hours spent building this project. I keep up with them on a tablet each day that I work on the truck, and I thought it might be interesting (depressing?) to show what a project like this takes. I also keep up with the money spent on this project and will post an itemized account of that amount once the truck is further along (don’t need the YOU SPENT HOW MUCH ON THAT??? Questions from the wifey at this time!)

As always, more to come.
Ricky
Total hours spent to date: 38

[Kim57]

Nice floor.
That's some scary fab work you're doing.
Kim

[Bomp]

Your a braver man than me. Wood floor is way to scary to me.
Metal on the other hand. Piece of cake.
Can't wait to see that cab come together.

[ricott]

Friday morning I headed out to my friend's salvage yard where my parts are stored. Here is the cab as I left it two months ago.



First order of business was to pull the doors and then cut the seized bolts that held the front end on. I pulled the front end off in one piece and then cut the seized bolts that held the "firewall" part of my "parts" cab.





I loaded the firewall up to bring home in my trusty S-10 and then turned my attention to the final part of my frame. On the Trailblazer ext frame I purchased, they yard had cut a portion of the frame bracing that held the power steering rack. When I purchased it the front end was disassembled, but all the parts except one wheel hub assembly was there. After I stripped the vehicle, I discovered that some of the structure had been cut. Since I am going to shorten the wheelbase from 129 inches to 123 inches, the yard owner said we would just cut another frame at the splice joint, and I would use that when I shortened the frame. He had a burned 2003 trailblazer that he planned to crush, so that was the victim.



He pulled the body off the frame and then pulled the frame into position for me to cut. It was short work with the sawzall, and now I have everything to make my shortened frame.



I was lazy the rest of the day and hung out at the salvage yard.
As always, more to come.
Ricky

Time spent on Friday 6 hours working.

Total time to date: 44 hours

[ChuckDriver]

What's going to happen with the TF frame in the yard now that you've pulled everything off of it?

[ricott]

Originally Posted by ChuckDriver

What's going to happen with the TF frame in the yard now that you've pulled everything off of it?

Once I get the Trailblazer floorpan and the TF cab merged, I will bring the complete Trailblazer EXT frame and the front frame section from the second Trailblazer home. The Trailblazer frames from the splice joint forward are the same, Chevrolet just made the rear section of the frame longer for the EXT models. The front section of the frame slides into the rear section at the splice joint by approximately 3 inches. I plan to shorten the EXT frame by 6 inches by cutting six inches behind the front of the splice joint. I will then slide the uncut front section in the rear frame section until I get to a frame that has a 123 inch wheelbase. My calculations are as follows: 114 TF wheelbase + 1 inch to move the front wheels forward in the wheel well+ 8 inches to account for the cab stretch = 123 inches. I hope this explanation make sense. If my math is wrong, someone please tell me!

[buggy5872]

Your math looks correct but you might want to mock it up before final welding....

[ricott]

Originally Posted by buggy5872

Your math looks correct but you might want to mock it up before final welding....

You are so right on that! My thought is to "tack up" the Trailblazer floorpan to the TF Cab, "tack up" the frame, put the "doghouse" on the front and tack it up, and then put the Fleetside bed on the truck, verify that it all looks good before doing any final welding on this project. I know that will add "mock up" time to the project, but hopefully it will prevent time consuming redos.

Tomorrow night I will be drilling more of the spot welds on the Trailblazer firewall - but the initial cuts make it look like the Trailblazer firewall/floorpan and the TF cab will work.

Ricky

[BBEEP]

Pics of my template

[ricott]

BBeep, Thanks for the pictures. After you reminded me several weeks ago about using a template, I decided that my "Parts" firewall would make a good template. I am drilling spotwelds, and really resisting getting the Plasma Cutter out and just whacking it up. I hope to fit these parts up this weekend.

Where are you on your build? I have enjoyed following it, and am looking forward to what I'm sure will be a spectacular finished product.

Ricky

[ricott]

Just now catching up with last weekends work. When we last left the story I was leaving the salvage yard with my "parts" firewall.




last Saturday I trimmed the firewall and continued grinding, measuring, and cutting to make the TF firewall and the Trailblazer floor pan work.





Here is the rough mashup of the two parts.





The two parts look like they will match up fairly well. That exercise (and a trip to an "old" junkyard to begin cutting out the dashes) accounted for 8 hours on Saturday and 2 hours on Sunday. As always, more to come.

Ricky

Time spent last weekend: 10 Hours.

Total time: 54 hours

[dug224]

Brain surgery...I like. Man, you have allot of moving parts to tie back together. On the edge of my seat. Dug

[Bomp]

Are you going to tack the whole cab together roughly? floor,firewall,front,back
This thing is seriously over the top!

[ricott]

Originally Posted by dug224

Brain surgery...I like. Man, you have allot of moving parts to tie back together. On the edge of my seat. Dug

Dug, Congratulations on Retirment! There are a number of things to deal with going this way, but cutting up the "parts" cab firewall took a lot of the stress out of this. I now know it will work, and what will need to be cut on the "good" cab to match this up. I probably should have mounted the cab the way you did, but I wanted to get the cab as close to the frame as possible. Based on your measurements, using 29 inch tires, the "static Height" should be close to 8 inches. I hope to cut the trailblazer floorboard where the steps go in this weekend. After that I'm in Dallas preparing for a trial that starts in two weeks in New Orleans, so no more work on the truck until Saturday 4/19.

Originally Posted by Bomp

Are you going to tack the whole cab together roughly? floor,firewall,front,back
This thing is seriously over the top!

The short answer is I plan to fitup and tack the three major parts of the cab together first. The longer answer is I plan to brace the cab as it sits (bolted to the dolly), get the upper and lower structural parts of the two Task Force cab pieces welded together, then fit this part to the Trailblazer floorpan. My thought is that way I will only be working with two parts at one time, which should minimize the chances for me to screw it up.

Ricky

[Low Elco]

Wow, you got bigger stones than me! Nice work so far!

[ricott]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Wow, you got bigger stones than me! Nice work so far!

Thanks for following along. I hope this project isn't ultimately referred to "all b@lls and no brains!"

I said in the last post that I spent part of last Saturday preparing to cut out two dashes. With spring fast approaching, I needed to get these out. One was from a 59 Chevy car and the second was from a 62 chevy truck. It was clear and cold, just the way I like it when messing with this kind of iron.





I cut the windshields out on Saturday, and prepped both to cut out the dashes. I left wotk yesterday ahead of a storm and went to the yard to finish the job. Cutting out the 59 dash.



Here are both dashes





While I have planned to put the Car dash in this truck because its lines look to be in the same vein as the 55 truck body, something about the 62 truck dash is appealing. Its lines are very close to the dash found in the 63-67 corvettes. It is not anywhere near the time to decide, but does anyone have an opinion as to which dash to use, and why? I know this is not a democracy, but I am interested in everyone's opinion. As always, more to come.

Ricky

Time spent 3/27: 2 hours
Total time : 56 hours

[Bomp]

'59 car dash has my vote.

[Baldeagle SR]

59 dash also. I have seen a picture with the 59 dash in an older truck and it look nice.
Rich
my build
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...70#post6599970

[Kim57]

I like the car dash as well.
If I could find one cheap I would do it to my truck.
Kim

[ChuckDriver]

Well ya know I've got to vote for the 59! But the truck dash would look cool too!

[skymangs]

You should DEFINATELY use the truck dash, that car dash is plain ugly... that being said, you can ship me that '59 dash at your earliest convenience!

J/K that '59 dash would be a beautiful swap man.

[buggy5872]

59 car dash....

[Mac the Yankee]

At some point I'll be putting a '59 car dash in my '56 pickup. You'll need to lose about 7 inches in width- I have an idea of how I want to do that, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

The only other bugger about that dash is that the holes for the side gauges aren't a typical size. 2 inch gauges are too small and 2 5/8 are too big... I ws hoping to use some original SW Greenlines that I have, but they don't fit, so I'm still looking for ideas.

Best of luck, Bill