Plus Five

[84blaze]

Good God you do nice work

[Flysocal]

you are one talented fabricator. I wish I had half your skill.

Can I get some info on your fuel door on the rear fender? I've been going back and forth with grafting a fuel door or using a motorcycle pop up gas cap.

[donandal]

Originally Posted by Flysocal

you are one talented fabricator. I wish I had half your skill.

Can I get some info on your fuel door on the rear fender? I've been going back and forth with grafting a fuel door or using a motorcycle pop up gas cap.

I made the fuel door from flat stock, and hand formed it on a bean bag.
I couldn't find a donor fuel door shape that I liked.
Plus, I wanted the finger pull to stick in, not out like a lot of cars.

The hinge mechanism and latch are custom also.

If i did it again, I'd try harder to find a donor. It was a lot of work
for such a minor part.

[mongocanfly]

Chip Foose..is donanal really your alias?..come on..you can tell us..ha ha

[Nut Case]

All hale "Grand Don" you sir are the best in our little world, you might consider building rides or customers, your that good. This build has given me about a dozen photos for me to pirate them away. Wow Wow, and Wow. Just a simple the "7/8" tapered in the rear cab, what is that for? Thanks for sharing ALL This information. Gets me wanting to get moved and set up to continue my 57 Jimmy 1/2 shorty. you sir are a natural, please keep building and posting you stuff, its out site. Keep on Keepin on Nut Case

[mongocanfly]

Nut case that 7/8 in the back is to account for the small ammount of taper the cab has.

[MIKESAD50]

Wow! this truck is looking great. Very nice work and look forward to seeing it complete.

[donandal]

Thanks every one, I'm really thankful for your comments.

Today was a big day!

I had friends, an uncle, a son, and a brother up to help put the
cab on the chassis. It went perfectly without a scratch.

I had previously made alignment pins from 5/16 round stainless steel
that mated cab to chassis, so the alignment should be exactly as it
came off. I lifted it on with an engine hoist. The guys had to balance
and guide it on.

[Advanced Design]

Very nice! I would be all smiles too.

[donandal]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Very nice! I would be all smiles too.

The young man leaning in the driver side door opening is my son.
My brother is far left. Two friends in the middle, and my
Uncle next to the other door.

They didn't get any pictures of me...

But I was smiling and relieved!

[Flysocal]

Fabricating is not short of amazing. I can't make my own fuel door. Since my truck will have Camaro drivetrain I'm gonna try and graft a late 90s Camaro fuel door. The finger tab sticks out and there is plastic involved (yuk) but the shape looks close (in pictures).

[Flysocal]

BTW the more you post the better. Many of us will benefit from it.

[donandal]

installed the skid plate,

[donandal]

I read in my instructions that they included bolts that go into
the transmission housing to hold heat shields.

The heat shields protect the transmission pan area from heat
coming off the cat. converters.

My kit didn't come with any heat shields, so I browsed the web
then made up some of my own.

.060 aluminum shields and stainless steel brackets riveted together
with solid round head aluminum rivets.

[Advanced Design]

Inspiring work donandal. Many good ideas well executed including the skid plate. How did you do the dimples? Guessing made a press die like you did with the stake pocket extensions?

[donandal]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Inspiring work donandal. Many good ideas well executed including the skid plate. How did you do the dimples? Guessing made a press die like you did with the stake pocket extensions?

Thanks,

Yeah, I made a simple dimple die for that skid plate.
I just drill a 1/4 inch hole where you need it, the press it in.
I pressed them in on a cheap harbor freight H-frame press.

[donandal]

I am going to finish up the fuel and emissions lines next,
then on to the brakes. I bent up some 3/8 inch poly armor
for the fuel line. I'll have braided fuel hose for each end.
I made up the clamps from 1/2 x 1 inch aluminum bar stock.

The hard line bends pretty easy and flares easy too. I'll
paint it black before final installation.

[donandal]

So I am back at it.
I made a distribution block for the Tee on the rear axle. I know you can buy those brass Tee fittings, but I've never been happy with the depth of threads that the have. Hopefully these steel AN fittings will be more secure.

This is 6061 aluminum with 1/8 pipe tape to AN-3 and AN-4 fittings. The AN-4 is the feed line from the front and uses 1/4 inch steel tubing and the two side fittings are AN-3 and 3/16 tube.

The block also supports the parking brake cable. I need to finish the front hard lines and then order the flex lines.

[donandal]

I also finished mounting the parking brake cables.

I made a center console frame that holds the parking brake handle and a bell crank setup that drops thru the floor. I threaded a stainless steel rod that connects to this pivot yoke that pulls both parking brake cables.

I'll post up the bell crank setup as the interior goes back in.

[donandal]

I finished the brackets for the front brakes and installed the flex lines.

I used two holes in the original frame and put rivnuts in there to hold
the brackets. They are made from stainless steel 1/8th thick.

Next I need to mount the inner fenders and brake pedal, booster and
master cylinder so I can make up the last brake lines.

[donandal]

I made a custom console that mounts below the dash that will hold the A/C duct work and some switches. Because that console runs full width, it interfered with the lever that opens the cowl vent.

I took an old power window motor and mechanism and powered the cowl vent.
I'll post pictures of the console later, but for now here's the cowl mechanism.

[Advanced Design]

Nice details! That is a very creative solution for cowl vent power. Great execution.

[Coach529]

Wow.....great stuff

[donandal]

Thanks everyone,

This setup took a little thinking but it works nice, the motor is easy to
replace, and it is fairly narrow.

Just this side of the cowl motor setup you can see some tabs that I added
to hold the wiper mechanism. It is a custom setup also, with a more modern
GM motor and custom linkage with late model wiper arms. I'll post that up
soon.

In the thru the dash photo, on the right is a tab welded to the tube
that runs to the firewall. That tube bracket also holds the left side of
the vintage air setup and the right side of the wiper setup. The tube has
a bend in the middle and is just thin wall conduit to help it collapse in a
wreck....heaven forbid!

All of this is just narrow enough to still have a radio in the normal spot.

[RockinKees]

Very nice touch!!
You get creative to overcome some problems