Clifford the Big Red Truck~~The Build

[JohnJ@RideTech]

Originally Posted by 1957 Chief

Hey my friend! Thanks for asking. Ole Clifford had to take a back burner. Lately, I have been working on my 1957 Chevy pickup.

I have owned this thing since 1996 and I'm finally on a roll to get it done. The first pic is of when it was on the jig and we were building it. The second was when I unloaded it at my brother's shop to paint it, and the last two are when I rolled it out the other day.

Full cage, 417cu/in of supercharged LS power, six-speed, air conditioning and airbags.

Why have you been hiding this from me??..lol
Nice looking truck man.

[1957 Chief]

Originally Posted by JohnJ@RideTech

Why have you been hiding this from me??..lol
Nice looking truck man.

Thanks, brother. The build is so long that I am kinda glad I didn't start a thread years ago. Haha, It does have a ride pro system on it. Didn't order the leveling sensors at the time cause I didn't like the look. Do yall have something else yet?

In the coming months' Ill switch over to the 47-59 forum and put some info on it there. The truck is built to turn left and right. All steel body from the 50's and I have no idea how it will react with 1000hp.

Here are a few shots of the rear of the truck, and the sheet metal cover. Its a shame all that hard work will be covered up.

Bubba

[Popeye75356]

One more question: Do you have a part number for your trans. cross member? Looks like it provides great clearance that I'm currently lacking.......

[Sik66]

IFS make a similair gearbox crossmember....

[1957 Chief]

Originally Posted by Popeye75356

Did the truck dip stick work with the CTS-V pan? Do you have part numbers for the set up,,,,,,,,, pick up tube, windage tray etc.? I'm suffering from the same problem you had with my 5.3 pan...... FYI LOVE this build the truck looks wicked !

Thanks brother!
I had to use the CTS-V pan, dipstick, tube, and windage tray. Here are the part numbers. I didn't order from Improved Racing, I ordered from my local GM dealer. Was cheaper.
http://www.improvedracing.com/tech/l...dimensions.php

Originally Posted by Popeye75356

One more question: Do you have a part number for your trans. cross member? Looks like it provides great clearance that I'm currently lacking.......

The one I bought:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/h...del/c10-pickup
Here is one that is similar to the one I got.
https://www.motionraceworks.com/stor...ionCrossmember

Bubba

[1957 Chief]

OK folks, bringing this one back up to the top. Finished working on the 1957 truck and now back to the squarebody project. LS Fest is in less than 4 months so I gotta get back to work.

I found a 1986 truck that will have its sheetmetal swapped on the 77 frame. It's a high optioned truck, with a tired motor. Last night we took the old brake pedal assy out and will be installing the clutch/brake pedal assy this evenin.

If you dont want to look through the thread were putting an LS3/TR6060 with the ridetech front and rear coil over suspension, in a squarebody for my son.

Ill scrounge up some pics tonight.

Bubba

[daddyjeep]

Glad to see you are back at it.

[slammed57]

KILLER look . I'll be watchin

[Sik66]

Sweeet!....back into it huh?.....did get the boyds tank fitted or did end up fouling with the 4 link cross bar?...tried body on yet?....plenty clearance for box in tunnel or need to cut?......

[1957 Chief]

Originally Posted by Sik66

Sweeet!....back into it huh?.....did get the boyds tank fitted or did end up fouling with the 4 link cross bar?...tried body on yet?....plenty clearance for box in tunnel or need to cut?......

The Boyds tank is extremely close, but it all worked out.
I will try the body on later this week. and I am hoping I won't need to cut it. But if it's like anything else I deal with, I will have to cut it.

Bubba

[1957 Chief]

Originally Posted by slammed57

KILLER look . I'll be watchin

Thanks brother. Hope I can get it whipped.

Bubba

[1957 Chief]

OK, frame is done. And moved outta the way.

[Advanced Design]

Looks good! What is the truck next to the frame?

[1957 Chief]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Looks good! What is the truck next to the frame?

Thats my grand dad's 1949 Chevy. All old school. I even put an overdrive in it from an old Bel Air. And in the very back, you can see the driver's door for my 1957 truck.

[1957 Chief]

So the last two days we have completely stripped the interior. This truck must have lived on dirt roads for its entire life. Once we got all the guts out, we pressure washed the doors and the floor of the truck. And oh what a difference it made. Will finish disconnecting the cab today from the frame and prepare to swap it on to the new frame Saturday.

[1957 Chief]

Ok so finally got around to swapping the sheet metal around. The frame that we built from nothing, was finally ready. Full Ridetech coil over suspension with an LS3/TR6060.

[JohnJ@RideTech]

Originally Posted by 1957 Chief

Ok so finally got around to swapping the sheet metal around. The frame that we built from nothing, was finally ready. Full Ridetech coil over suspension with an LS3/TR6060.

The install looks awesome man!
Thanks for sharing.

[1957 Chief]

Once we arrived at a friend's house we pulled the cab off. I already removed and cleaned up the threads on the cab bolts so it was relatively quick to get em out.

The biggest issue that we were gonna have is to clearance for the transmission.

[1957 Chief]

After about 6 times of going up and down and measuring we finally got it whipped. Also, we had to cut a hole for the driveshaft. I am running a pretty big one so we went on the side of caution.
Last year I cut a "high hump" floor pan from another truck. Will drag that out and use that to cover up the hole and to get ready for a shifter.

[1957 Chief]

After we got the cab on there and everything squared up, next was the bed. For those of you that have had the privilege of removing the bed bolts from these trucks only to have them spin in the housing, you know how I feel about this. 5 of the 8 had to be cut off.

When we finally got the bed off, we had to notch one of the cross sills in the bed for the c-notch. That wasn't bad. Next up was to bore a hole into the bed for the Boyd's tank filler. Measure 6 times, cut once. Took a 3-inch hole saw and made easy work of that and we were spot on.

The only complaint I have is that the filler neck is too darn short. And of course, you have to pay another 100 bux for an extended filler... Nowhere do they say on their website that the filler is beneath the bed floor by like 2 1/2 inches. Chaps my a$$. So ill have to buy an extension. Enough of the talk, pic below.

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by 1957 Chief

After we got the cab on there and everything squared up, next was the bed. For those of you that have had the privilege of removing the bed bolts from these trucks only to have them spin in the housing, you know how I feel about this. 5 of the 8 had to be cut off.

When we finally got the bed off, we had to notch one of the cross sills in the bed for the c-notch. That wasn't bad. Next up was to bore a hole into the bed for the Boyd's tank filler. Measure 6 times, cut once. Took a 3-inch hole saw and made easy work of that and we were spot on.

The only complaint I have is that the filler neck is too darn short. And of course, you have to pay another 100 bux for an extended filler... Nowhere do they say on their website that the filler is beneath the bed floor by like 2 1/2 inches. Chaps my a$$. So ill have to buy an extension. Enough of the talk, pic below.

My bed support interfered with the filler neck of my boyd tank. Is your filler neck also located directly under the bed support? I had to notch my bed support to make it work. I will also have to drop the tank about 1/2'' because the bed hits the fuel fittings. Any issue with that?

As far as the fuel neck being to short, why dont you use some rubber hose to connect the tank fuel neck to the fuel cap?

[1957 Chief]

After about 6 ours of work we could finally step back and look at what we accomplished.
One would think pulling 12 bolts and reinstalling a cab/bed on another frame would be easy, but not so fast.

[1957 Chief]

So we got the truck all loaded back up and back to our house to finish the build. Still have a long way to go, but target date is early Aug so Chris can get some seat time in the truck before we head to LS fest in BG, Kentucky.

Also, many of you might be wondering why the thread title says "Clifford the Big Red Truck" when this is a black truck. Well, let's just say the red truck didn't make the cut. So we still had this frame built and we finally got around to getting a body on it. The new name is "Blackjack" because it stayed on Blackjack Mountian for about 6 months before we started the project, and because its black.

[1957 Chief]

Ok, so here is what I'm doing in regards to the hyd clutch issues.
As many of you know the 85-6-7 trucks had a hyd clutch system. Well, I was lucky enough to score one off of eBay last year and went ahead and changed the whole pedal assembly out under the dash. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Removing the brake booster, instrument cluster, and steering column, we had it out in less than 30 minutes. The stock C10 clutch master cylinder has a bore of approx .699 inches with a maximum stroke of 1.5 inches. The slave cylinder for the TR6060 has an odd shape that encircles the input shaft and it only needs about .4 inches of travel to engage the clutch (26.8 cc's). I was able to figure out the CC's of fluid volume of the slave cylinder and figured that the stock master cylinder could, in fact, move the slave cylinder with 1.1 inches of travel (29.7 cc's). Now I don't know what the pedal feel will be yet, but I'm going to go ahead and try the stock one. The stock master cylinder takes an odd type of metric external flare for the hose, and the slave has a #4 AN fitting. Shouldn't be hard to make those work.

As soon as I get that system up and running I'll report back. I just couldn't see buying another master cylinder and fabbing up a mount when "potentially" the stock one would work.

Bubba

[LT7A]

New truck is coming along nicely. And precisely. "Clutch master cylinder has a bore of 'approx. .699 inches'." When .699 inches is approximate, you know this thing's going to be put together well. ;)