My 57 Pro Street

[ChuckDriver]

Nice work!!!

[JML55]

Nice work.

[Rude Dude]

Excellant work looking good!!

[Kim57]

Thanks for the compliments guys.

Originally Posted by Tri5Nerd

Doing great Kim, don't stop. Did you mount your hydroboost?

Tri5

Still not mounted yet. I need to get some more work done to the cab before I take it off the frame. It's just to hard for me to try and crawl around under it to do the fab work.
Hope to get to that point in the next couple of weeks.
Kim

[Bigblue29]

I am impressed. Your work looks great!

[OrrieG]

Originally Posted by Kim57

I welded a small tab to give the jamb more support in the future.

Just getting around to reading your recent progress. That is a really good idea. Also, I have used double stick tape or that sticky putty stuff for sticking posters to walls to hold hidden nuts like you had for your cage nut situation. Great progress and lots of detail for us a few steps behind you!

[jjjmm56]

And again more great ideas!

[Tri5Nerd]

Originally Posted by Kim57

Thanks for the compliments guys.




Still not mounted yet. I need to get some more work done to the cab before I take it off the frame. It's just to hard for me to try and crawl around under it to do the fab work.
Hope to get to that point in the next couple of weeks.
Kim

I need to break mine down and get the big nut off the front then I can mount mine.

Tri5

[ambryatim]

AWESOME!!!! Truck Kim...

Hey Kim it looks like you are going to radius the upper left corner on that door.....am I right??? If you do as always PICS please...

I am thinking of radiusing the corners on my doors, but dont know yet.

[OrrieG]

Originally Posted by ambryatim

AWESOME!!!! Truck Kim...

Hey Kim it looks like you are going to radius the upper left corner on that door.....am I right??? If you do as always PICS please...

I am thinking of radiusing the corners on my doors, but dont know yet.

There was a detailed post a couple of months ago by another member on that procedure. He broke it out as a separate thread after someone ask the same question as you in his build thread. Can't remember who it was, search might turn it up.

[my67chevytruck]

looking good!

[Kim57]

Originally Posted by ambryatim

AWESOME!!!! Truck Kim...

Hey Kim it looks like you are going to radius the upper left corner on that door.....am I right??? If you do as always PICS please...

I am thinking of radiusing the corners on my doors, but dont know yet.

I've already started to do them. I will post pics on how I am doing it.
Kim

[Kim57]

I removed the drip rail from the cab.
It was a bit of a pain for me as the roof skin was slightly off from one side to the other. I didn't want to remove and replace the whole top so I had to compromise on the look I wanted.
The pics are kinda boring but here they are.
Kim

[Kim57]

Now for some more door fun.
These pics show the radius I came up with for the corners and how they look on the truck.
Kim

[Kim57]

These pics show how bad the door fits in the opening.
The drip rail hid some of the poor factory gaps but now that its gone I will have to do quit a bit of work to fix them.
Kim

[Kim57]

Not sure if this is a common problem with others trucks and I haven't checked the passenger door yet.
This pic shows how the door lines up O.K. with the cowl but curves in at the A pillar. What you cant see is the cowl lines up with the fender in the rear but is low at the front. When I removed the paint there was almost a 1/4 inch of bondo to make the fender and cowl line up. I may have to cut a slice in it and raise the front of the cowl.
Has anyone elase had this problem?
Kim

[CAL 58 GMC]

Nice fab work Kim!

[hotrodsbyray]

Kim,
I have exactly the same alignment problem - don't exactly know how to properly correct it. I currently am experimenting with shims, dropping the front fenders / grille / radiator assembly, adding metal, or just brunt major movements with applied pressure devices (sledge hammer and short losses of temper!)
I wonder if raising the rear until it is level then bolting or attaching it to the cowl some way, then dropping the front might do it. Not much help but if something suddenly and magically works I'll let you know.
The other problem I see is that when the fender to cowl areas seem to get close to fitting, then the hood is all "wanker-jawed" as my granddaddy used to say.

[hammerdog57]

Looks like you are going to have to weld some metal bar stock in places to get the body lines to look good. I think i would have all front sheet metal including the hood in place and adjusted as close as possible before i added or cut anything.

[Kim57]

Originally Posted by hotrodsbyray

Kim,
I have exactly the same alignment problem - don't exactly know how to properly correct it. I currently am experimenting with shims, dropping the front fenders / grille / radiator assembly, adding metal, or just brunt major movements with applied pressure devices (sledge hammer and short losses of temper!)
I wonder if raising the rear until it is level then bolting or attaching it to the cowl some way, then dropping the front might do it. Not much help but if something suddenly and magically works I'll let you know.
The other problem I see is that when the fender to cowl areas seem to get close to fitting, then the hood is all "wanker-jawed" as my granddaddy used to say.

Originally Posted by hammerdog57

Looks like you are going to have to weld some metal bar stock in places to get the body lines to look good. I think i would have all front sheet metal including the hood in place and adjusted as close as possible before i added or cut anything.

Thanks for the info guys.
My biggest concern right now is the fender and cowl alignment. I hate to have a 1/4 inch of body filler at the edge where they meet so I will have to think about how I'm going to tackle it.
The passenger side seems to line up a lot better.
Kim

[OrrieG]

Originally Posted by hammerdog57

Looks like you are going to have to weld some metal bar stock in places to get the body lines to look good. I think i would have all front sheet metal including the hood in place and adjusted as close as possible before i added or cut anything.

Good advice, previous alignment discussion have said to align the cab/hood/radiator support first as the hood is the hardest to get it to sit right when closed. Then work on the doors/cab/fenders. Finally check the bed to make sure the horizontal lines match front to back. When I took my truck apart I photoed and counted shims, washers, etc. at all the connection points and bagged and labeled them. I do not think I found any place that was exactly the same. If you want those perfect door gaps you will have to trim or add to the doors or body, they did not match and were not perfect from the factory, these were working trucks not the family show piece. Good luck.

[jjjmm56]

I had a problem with fender to cowl gap also . Mine was hitting the cab under the fender, theres a raised area right under the curve of the fender.I tapped mine in to get the fender gap closer. I also trimmed the mount on top the fender because it was hitting the cab not allowing the fender gap to close. Then welded a washer in the new location.

[OrrieG]

Originally Posted by jjjmm56

I had a problem with fender to cowl gap also . Mine was hitting the cab under the fender, theres a raised area right under the curve of the fender.I tapped mine in to get the fender gap closer. I also trimmed the mount on top the fender because it was hitting the cab not allowing the fender gap to close. Then welded a washer in the new location.

I posted about that in my build thread. I could not figure out how every 55-59 I saw with the fenders off was beat in that area. My fenders had never been off and one side was hammered a little the other quite a bit. I read somewhere that the inside stamping was drawn and tooled wrong, someone had not taken into consideration interference with the fender brace (or it may have been beefed up during design). Rather than retool they just issued the fender install guys on the line a 2# adjustment tool. So if yours is beat, don't work to hard making it pretty because you will probably just get to pound down your new paint again. Look close at my cab photos and you will see the dents still there on mine.

[bensimmons_05]

you know I have always wondered how those dents got there one both of the trucks I have. It is all very clear now, thanks for the info.

[1Bad62Pro/Street]

Coming along very well Kim!
Haven't touched mine yet.
Just dust it and kick the tires!