My 1958 Fleetside project

[Kim57]

Every thing is looking real nice.
Kim

[fabguy]

Originally Posted by Kim57

Every thing is looking real nice.
Kim

Thank you Kim

[fabguy]

I mounted most of my engine components (valve covers that the wifey had color filled the bow tie blue, new alternator bracket, rebuilt & mounted the carb, polished the intake, mounted mt trans dip stick) then went onto wet sand the front end w/ 1000, 1200, then 1500 now i just have to sand it one more time with 2000 grit, then I get to buff and polish it out.
I looked into why I had to shim my bed up 1 1/4" in the rear and found that some how my rear frame pulled when I C nothed it. Now i have to slice the frame and pull it back up then fill and weld it again. OH the set backs are depressing, good thing I have the wife pushing me to get it done. ( sometimes i think, she wants it done so I will give her the attention as i have the truck lately) she also wants me to start her 55 Burban next as I promised her once the truck is done. She has already picked out a color for the paint, and seats, she will leave the carpet and dash replacement up to me. If all goes as planned I will be starting her Suburban this July / August if i can find a stock swb truck, panel, or suburban frame to mate under the burban.

[fabguy]

Almost forgot, wife put the 3rd coat of clear on the bed wood yesterday and we are almost done with it. She says 1 more coat and we are done since we still have material left. Then a week to dry then will be ready for install into the truck. My twins are excited to help with the bed wood install.

[Kim57]

Sounds like some nice progress.
Where are the pics?
Kim

[OrrieG]

Dang I wish I would have looked at you wood pics earlier. If you are going to just show and shine the truck ignore the next sentence. If you are going to every be getting the bed wet consider cutting out a few notchs perpendicular from the deep groove thru the outer dado. If you think about it, any water that gets in that lower groove has to run to the front or back sills and maybe gets out. In all likelyhood it will sit and either rust the sill out or work on the wood. It is not in a exposed area so you could do it and touch it up with your clear without affecting the part you will see.

I looked at an old picnic table made of the same wood as your bed, do not know how it got to Idaho, usually a Southern thing. Gut said it was over 50 years old and was in surprisingly good shape except for a few boards. I thought it was teak at first.

[fabguy]

Originally Posted by OrrieG

Dang I wish I would have looked at you wood pics earlier. If you are going to just show and shine the truck ignore the next sentence. If you are going to every be getting the bed wet consider cutting out a few notchs perpendicular from the deep groove thru the outer dado. If you think about it, any water that gets in that lower groove has to run to the front or back sills and maybe gets out. In all likelyhood it will sit and either rust the sill out or work on the wood. It is not in a exposed area so you could do it and touch it up with your clear without affecting the part you will see.

I looked at an old picnic table made of the same wood as your bed, do not know how it got to Idaho, usually a Southern thing. Gut said it was over 50 years old and was in surprisingly good shape except for a few boards. I thought it was teak at first.

KIM57 : Thank you, it is coming along alot quicker since it has become a group effort with the family. I will post alot more pics this week.


OrrieG: Thank you for your advise, and my truck will be a show & shine, and a "Honey, the kids are gone! Let's go cruizing" truck. I will probably end up going through a set of tires when I 1 st get it back on the road .
As for the drainage I know what you are talking about, that is why I wasn't bothered with the fact that my repop front bed panel sits about 1/8" - 3/16" lower than my cross bed sill and will allow for water drianage along the entire front edge. I plan to use nylock nuts to secure the bed strips along that edge, other wise it will try to pull that small section down. All my bed wood was cut 1/8" shallower than the depth of the bed to allow a small gap at the front edge, plus it was an unforseen luck that the way it sits with the airbags deflated will also help with drainage.
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[fabguy]

Ok here are a few pictures. I am sorry if they are duplicates.

My bedwood after the 3rd coat of clear.




This is one of my favorites of the dash




this was taken before we started the engine,




This was taken a few days ago once the front end was mocked up.









.

[Rods57]

Originally Posted by fabguy

Ok here are a few pictures. I am sorry if they are duplicates.

My bedwood after the 3rd coat of clear.

Wood looks great, what did you use for the clear?

[fabguy]

Originally Posted by Rods57

Wood looks great, what did you use for the clear?

Thank you,

We used: Man O War, it is a marine varnish. I used the Gloss finish. Sanded with 320 between coats.
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[Rods57]

Originally Posted by fabguy

Thank you,

We used: Man O War, it is a marine varnish. I used the Gloss finish. Sanded with 320 between coats.
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Thanks,

[fabguy]

Here is a pic of the crossmember I made for the tranny. It has the offset due to the master cylinder under the floor

[fabguy]

Tell me what you all think of these. My wife color filled the bowtie. Little things like this are what make me happy that everyone has been helping.






So today I was at the shop for a bit after work and was able to wetsand the roof down to 2K grit. Tomorrow will be the drivers door, unless my little brother shows up to help me, and then it will be drilling and running the electrical, and airlines for the bags.


.

[Kim57]

Looking good.
The rocker covers came out real nice.
Kim

[fabguy]

Thank you Kim57
I am undesided about putting roller rockers on the engine. I found a set of 1.5 aluminum roller rockers in a bag that I had gotten in a parts swap years ago and happen to stumble upon them while looking for some brackets and misc. I have all 16 and all the rocker nuts for them but like I said I am undesided as I already have adjusted the current ones and would mean another day of delay getting the truck on the road. Do they add alot of horsepower? My brother seems to think about 8 - 12 HP but that seems high to me.
as for a horn, I might just put my town & country horn from my 39 2 dr sedan since it is in parts and awaiting restoration also.
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[fabguy]

Well we have R & R ed the bed and I have built some spacers for the bed to get it level. We had straightened the rear tail section of frame as it was out about 1/4". Exhaust brackets are built and painted and will be installed later today. I need to reinstall the fuel tank and connect everything again.
We straightlined the body lines and shimmed where needed to get everything just right. Once the bed is tightened down i can move back to the cab area and get it all tightened down and then I am ready to finish pulling wire, then it is onto the the rest of the color sanding, buffing and polishing(I am not looking forward to days of sanding) then I should be ready to take her home to finish her up. Ohhh. Soooo close. WOO HOO

[_Ogre]

bed wood looks great
can't wait to see it in the truck

[fabguy]

Originally Posted by _Ogre

bed wood looks great
can't wait to see it in the truck

Thank you Ogre, i will hopefully have it in soon.

[fabguy]

Ok so today we used plumb line to align and set body lines on Cab, Bed, and front end. In the end what we did was add almost a 1/4" to the front of the cab to get it to aling correctly with everything else. I still need to shift the rear of the cab to the frivers side almost an 1/8" to get it exactly right. Here are a few pics from todays little build party lol

This is a picture of the bumper mocked up, then we pulled the bumper and I proceeded to start sanding the cab down to 2K grit and then went onto to Buff, polish, and hand glaze the body. as you can see in the pic, there is the plumb line still attached to the headlight bucket opening.




This is picture is of the bumper finally installed after the polishing.

[Kim57]

That sure is looking real nice.
Kim

[fabguy]

Originally Posted by Kim57

That sure is looking real nice.
Kim

Thank you very much

[fabguy]

This is of the top of the dash after it was polished up all pretty. I just have to remove all the dash components and do the same to the lower part of the dash now. UHG!




These are a couple of group shots we took once we were about to call it a day, see my lonely suburban in the back ground she looks sad cause she knows she will be going in for surgery soon. (lol)







I know that panel looks BADD ARSE doesn't it? It belongs to my close buddy, who I consider the GURU of AD & Task Force vehicles like alot of people on here. He has had his panel for about 25 yrs now.
I have known him for almost 25 yrs or so and he has been a part of my wifes family since she was about 2 yrs old. He has helped me on numerous projects of mine and I owe him alot for taking time out to help me as he has done SOO many times. He is one of the greatest guys you could ever meet, and he also has a girlfriend to match that kindness. They are both great people.

Tomorrow I have to stay home with the family so we are all going to sand down the bed wood one more time. and get it ready for another clear coat.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by fabguy

fabguy, Can you ask your buddy what color his panel is? It kinda looks like Porsche Guards Red.

Also, since I'm bugging you anyway can you snap a couple photos of the interior and dash?

[mknittle]

Sounds like a really nice day. And the truck looks great!

[fabguy]

Originally Posted by mknittle

Sounds like a really nice day. And the truck looks great!

It was, and thank you mknittle.