Chevyrestoguy's '55 build

[yukon ratrod]

im blowen away! dont know what else to say. its stuff like this that never gives me a chance to finish what I start. Trucks looking great and Im glad to see your making great progress. some day I will get back to work on mine I hope. rebuilding a 48 chevy truck for a friend and really fighting with door gaps. cabs been flopped on its lid or something, everything is fighting me and preventing me from getting back to mine. keep up the great work.

[Kabwe]

Looking great man. I'm glad to see you are posting again.

[Kim57]

Very cool stuff.
Kim

[Fat Mike]

That is a heck of a setup! Wow!! Keep up the goog work. I always look forward to new pictures.

[CAL 58 GMC]

Looks cool! Nice job!

[kustombrad]

I need to get out to Mikes and check it out. It looks awesome!

[hotrod1]

I love beautiful metal work. It is a motivation to us all. Keep up the great work.
I am anxious to see where you are now.

[chevyrestoguy]

I'm super-busy at work right now, so I haven't had any opportunities to go to the shop, but Mike has been busy building the bridge that will tie in the forward crossmember, mount the shocks, and secure the fuel cell. here's some progress pictures:



You can see the shock mounts in this shot. The suspension is currently set at the full-up position, so you can see that the shocks are compressed with zip-ties. You will also notice that the old shock crossmember has been removed, as has the old rear crossmember that supported the back of the old fuel tank.


Rear corner shot looking forward


Rear shot looking forward. The tubes have a nice flowing shape, and in this shot you can see the fuel tank cradle. The square section of tubing just aft of the rear axle will house the battery. We've already designed up a cool battery box that will serve some other functions as well.


Here's a shot of the gusset I was telling you about in the earlier post. There will also be a triangular gusset on the forward side as well. It will be smaller to allow the cantilever arm to articulate forward without any interference. The aft side of the arm was also cut away a little more than before to allow sufficient clearance for the arm to travel fully.

The plan is to finish plating and boxing, and do the final welding on Friday. Also, the upper wishbone is going to have some sheetmetal work done at the attach point by the rear axle housing in the next day or two. That will clean up the intersection where the tubes and Uni-Ball meet. You'll like those pictures because Mike's Tig welds are insane....

[W.C. RoDz]

That rearend looks great!..Can't wait to start mine..I needed a boost work has been killing me!

[Tri5Nerd]

That's what a professional does! Wow, great job, I guess you won't have a bed floor since those tubes are arching like that? This is very inspiring.

Tri5

[CAL 58 GMC]

Very nice work!

[chevyrestoguy]

I took yesterday off because we were having some work done on the house (complete septic system changeout........lovely), and after the work was complete, I ran over to the shop and saw that Mike had been a busy boy.


He was welding up all of the chassis, and I was able to grab this one and get some pictures of it while it was still hot. He did a LOT of welding on the cantilever arms.


Another shot of the arms, with this one showing the airbag mount.


Here's the finished wishbone, with the dimple-died sheetmetal plate. It's .125 plate, fully welded. I wanted a curved front edge so it wouldn't look so triangular, and I think it turned out awesome.


Close-up shot of the welds. That piece is now super-strong. My only concern right now is how I'm going to paint (or powdercoat) the chassis without burying all of those bad-ass welds.


Here's a shot showing the finished arm with an airbag (Slam RE-8) installed. The gusset and bag mount have also been welded fully. I ran it through full-up/full-down and it operates perfectly. No binding or squeaking, and zero slop.

The next plan is to bolt everything up, run temporary air lines (I'm plumbing it with stainless hard-line later) and cycle the system.

[Kim57]

Very slick looking stuff.
Kim

[sgtusmc]

You could clear powdercoat the parts.

[chevyrestoguy]

Got to the shop early this morning and finished the temporary plumbing because it was killing me to see the truck on it's wheels and laid out.



I love it. It has a rake to it when it's laid out, and that's exactly the effect I was hoping for. The next plan is to get it back home where I can do some more fab work. I really want to mount the bed and figure out new attach points because all of the original points have been covered up by all of the air-ride set-up. I've got some trick ideas for the bedfloor/tonneau. The days of this truck hauling anything in the bed are over.

It'll go back to Mike's in a month or two to finish the gas tank, air tanks, compressor mounts, and some finish welding on the hydroboost system.

[Fat Mike]

Man that's a nice set up!! Really look forward to seeing more progress. Keep up the excellent work.

[Kabwe]

It looks great man.

[OLDIRON69]

Originally Posted by sgtusmc

You could clear powdercoat the parts.

[kustombrad]

I went out and finally saw the truck in person and WOW!!!! It looks way better in person than in pics! Mikey is a true master of design and fabrication and Alex will have one very nice truck when it gets done!

[nebdrummer]

subscribed... hurry up man! i wanna see more of your awesome work!

should be an awesome truck. you have a great mind for inginuity!

[hotrod1]

I need to learn to weld like that!

[GeorgeVale]

That looks absolutely stunning, real top notch workmanship.

[Fat Mike]

Can you tell me what the lower link bar that the lower shock mounts attack to are? Flat or tube and what size metal is it? In the picture it looks like about 2" flate plate.

[solidaxel]

That is some REAL nice art work !!

When you go to the powercoater ask him about clear powder coat that he uses for candy colors. I did my A arms in clear and they came out really nice

[Panelman55]

Ever thought about a tilt bed? Maybe one that works on air!!! That would let you show off the cool suspension.