1957 Chevy truck re-rebuild

[Kim57]

Very slick.
Kim

[Wheelie]

A lot of cool little details, awesome! I was wondering how well those aluminum spool guns work. I got mine with my MIG, havent even pulled mine out of the box yet but you may have inspired me to try it.

[butchp]

This is such an interesting build. thanks for posting, it is inspiring.

[Stepside Jim]

Hmmmm, 2 posts with the word "inspire", I couldn't be happier.

I have to ask....am I the only who can see the mouth of a shark as the inspiration to the opening of the grill on these trucks.

Here, allow me to post a picture to show what I mean.


I just gotta mess with the front of this truck, I think you can see where I'm going.

[Stepside Jim]

As I mentioned in my last post, the more I looked at the front of this truck I could see the outline of a shark.

To do what I want to do I have to get rid of the front turn signals. My plan is to get a set of the headlights that have the turn signal built into them. I haven't bought them yet, I hope they work as I plan.

Ok, to get rid of the turn signal mounting pads I had to mark and cut.


I didn't follow the line that I made with the sharpie.

I know it's a slow way to use the drill to make the cut, but it creates no heat and the 3/4" rotary brr cleans the edge with no problem.


My goal is to smooth this round corner and get rid of the flat spot that was for the turn signal to mount to. Once I smoothed the hole with the brrr I cut a piece of sheet metal to fill the hole.


More to follow.....

[Kim57]

This should be interesting. I'm real curious to see how it turns out.
Kim

[Stepside Jim]

Originally Posted by Kim57

This should be interesting. I'm real curious to see how it turns out.
Kim

I was very curious myself. For some reason I just had to mess with the front, so here we go.


My first issue was to figure a way to make these gills and have them blend well enough that they don't stand out too much. I know I'm changing the front, I still like the idea when someone looks at it they will take a second look.

They started with the main top plate, then the back plate that does the wrap around. Once I had them all made with consruction paper, I cut the metal pieces.


After the welding and grinding I had my gills.


Then came the marker and trying to figure where I wanted them to be.


Taping them in place gave me a 3D idea of these going to change the view of the front of the truck. I have 2 in this picture, I still have 1 more to add here.


Little bit of a side view here.


I know I'm up against a few issues. The main issue I'm struggling with at this point is welding these in place. I'm gonna have a mess if weld I these in place. The weld bead will fill too much and I'll have alot of fine grinding to do. Either that or I'll loose the detail where the gill meets the fender.

I do have the solution, I just like to throw these thoughts out there so those thinking about doing this kind of work realize some of the process that goes into getting the final result.

[Kim57]

I thought you were going to have the front part of them open and the rear part angled back kinda like louvers. Then you could use them as brake cooling ducts. Just a thought.
Kim

[Stepside Jim]

Originally Posted by Kim57

I thought you were going to have the front part of them open and the rear part angled back kinda like louvers. Then you could use them as brake cooling ducts. Just a thought.
Kim

Oh, I hear ya Kim. I just wanted to get rid of the front turn signals. I know they've been there for 55 years, I just don't think they really fit the theme of the rest of the front of the truck.

If I get rid of the turn signals, I felt I had to replace them with something. My choice was to simply add these accents.

Some reason they seem to strike up peoples imagination. I've had the open louvers, I've had people think they would open and there would be turn signals hidden within. I've had them them think they would flash as turn signals siquentially, like the old rear turn signals of the cougars and T-birds.

Nope, just bits of eye candy, once I get these done I'm pretty well done with body mods. Next spring it'll be priming, blocking and painting, oh, then driving.

[Kim57]

I took my turn signals out and never really thought of putting anything in their place.
It should look nice when you're done.
Kim

[OKGMC4]

Tack weld studs to the inside of the fender, and brackets to the gills. Then you could bolt or unbolt them as needed. Could even make them an accent color. I like them no matter what, it's a totally original idea so far as I know.

[Stepside Jim]

Originally Posted by Kim57

I took my turn signals out and never really thought of putting anything in their place.
It should look nice when you're done.
Kim

Kim, did you have plans on any kind of turn signals when you were done?

[Stepside Jim]

Originally Posted by OKGMC4

Tack weld studs to the inside of the fender, and brackets to the gills. Then you could bolt or unbolt them as needed. Could even make them an accent color. I like them no matter what, it's a totally original idea so far as I know.

Thanks for checking in OKGMC4. I did consider making a bolt in system. One problem I had was the sheet metal from the head light to the bumper not only wraps around the front to the side. The surface is kind of concave. Not having any true straight metal areas left me without a way to have clean edges where the fender metal meets the gill metal.

We are thinking the same on the color also. So far my plan is a two tone paint job. Silver bottom, maroon metallic upper. With the silver bottom that would include the gills. I've never tried air brush, it may be time to learn. I considered at least airbrushing the edges of the gills darker to help bring them out a little more when done.

As for having an original idea......I know what you're saying. It seems everytime I think I'll done something original, grrrrr, I find an image somewhere that is similar to my idea.

As for the truck, I took a picture that shows the difference from the new to the old.


My issue of welding these in place and having was solved by cutting holes that matched the gills. This way I can insert the gills and do the weld from the backside. Sure there is going to bits of grinding to do on the exposed/front side but as for the majority of the weld will be on the backside where I can use the 4 1/2" grinder and smooth the welds.

[butchp]

What about using some of that body glue they repair corvettes with and it also works with metal.

[Ram]

Looks really good so far. Now you've got my stepdad blabbering about building a truck to tow the '36 Keep it up!

[Kim57]

Originally Posted by Stepside Jim

Kim, did you have plans on any kind of turn signals when you were done?

I was trying to find some small round ones like my rears that I can french in or do the ones in the headlights.
The gills are coming out nice.
Kim

[Stepside Jim]

Hey butchp, thanks for checking in, perhaps a good idea, I've done the welding from the backside. Then came the grinding and more grinding, hmmmm, using a glue, might have been alot easier.

Ram, amazing what a couple of pictures can do to perk up some enthusiasm.

Kim57, I'm hoping to get the headlights ordered by end of this week. I haven't seen them other than in the catalog. I hope they help the look of the truck with the way they have a 3 bar look inside them.

The last picture was one side with the new and the other side with the new look. Here's both sides with the holes cut.


Now with the gills taped in place. I have the tape on the backside so the tape doesn't show in the picture.


After this comes a bunch of welding.

[Kim57]

Looks pretty good.
Kim

[63split]

very cool mod ! now you only need a shark teeth grill to finish it off

Sander,

[Stepside Jim]

Originally Posted by 63split

very cool mod ! now you only need a shark teeth grill to finish it off

Sander,

Thank you Sander, I've seen some of your work, fantasic stuff.

Hmmmmm, I was wondering if anyone would bring up the grill.

My situation is... I have a good chromed 55-56 grill, my dad liked it better than the 57 way back in the 1980's so he had it installed. He did have the original painted 57 grill but it's long gone now.

I have no problem with the 55-56 grill, but with the changes I've made on the front, I now crave a more aggressive grill.

I'm imagining a two part grill, top and bottom. I don't want to go too crazy, but I want teeth. I also want an overbite, the top teeth forward slightly than the lower teeth.

I've been messing with images on my computer. I have a image of the front of the truck with the gills in place and with the grill area blank, I've made some drawings but haven't settled on one yet.

I'll post any good ideas as time moves forward.

[OKGMC4]

MMmmm.....teeth. Not sure what this guy used but they look cool. More of a 3D look and not just flat steel.

[Stepside Jim]

Originally Posted by OKGMC4

MMmmm.....teeth. Not sure what this guy used but they look cool. More of a 3D look and not just flat steel.

YIKES, I'd scare all the kids in the neighborhood!!!

Honestly, I've seen that picture, and yes, it is the exact picture that has helped get me thinking about my own grill.

Those teeth are the defintion of agressive, they remind me of a pirona fish.

I'm thinking about going with a tooth that is more of a triangle in shape, then, with the press, bending back the sides to give a 3d effect.

Ha,ha, hard to describe, maybe harder to create, I'll be giving it a try in a couple weeks.

[Russell Ashley]

You have done some beautiful work on this truck but you are kind of loosing me now. I'm not really digging the shark concept but I'll wait to see the end result. Based on what you've done so far I feel sure that you can make it work and look good.

[Stepside Jim]

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

You have done some beautiful work on this truck but you are kind of loosing me now. I'm not really digging the shark concept but I'll wait to see the end result. Based on what you've done so far I feel sure that you can make it work and look good.

Thanks for the compliments, as I'm moving along with the modifications it's easy to second guess if I'm going the right direction.

With the Shark idea, I'm not so much trying to build a Shark image into the front so mach as I am trying to merely enhance the lines that are already there in hopes to bring out more of a Shark image that is already there.


We've all heard the phrase "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder", much of my build is just me expanding my horizon when it comes to building. Much of my build thread is based on how I expanded my horizon, this is why I post not only the finished result but how I got the result.

I've mentioned the welding of the gills, I've decided my best bet is to weld them from the backside, this way I can limit the amount of weld build that I will have to clean up later.

My first step was to fit the gills then tack weld them into place. Once tack welded I was able to grind away most of the excess gill material, basically have a flush surface from the gill edge to the fender material.


Here my biggest concern was to keep from burning through and adding to the amount of fine grinding I will do later. One stitch weld at a time and moving from gill to gill helped keep the heat from getting out of hand.


Here was the goal. By welding from the back side I was able to use the 4 1/2" grinder and do a clean up grinding. The weld beads that are noticable are the ones made when I made the gills. Since this part of the front fenders can be seen in the front wheel well when the truck is done, I will smooth these welds also. This way, when done, these should look nearly factory when finished.

[Kim57]

The inside looks good.
Now lets see the outside.
Kim