norms 55 chevy pu build

[washington blue]

Got some pieces ready to weld.

[washington blue]

Funny how the welds look so much better in person than in the photos

[washington blue]

Been cleaning the frame, dang if that isn't the dirtiest job. the haze in the air is from wire brush, gotta wear respirator and full face shield all the time and I'm black when I'm done. I see pics of guys with spotlessly clean shops and I wonder how they do it. Of course it didn't help that my air hose blew up and snaked around on the dirty floor like a snake on meth,lol.

[washington blue]

I am planning to replace all the moving parts on the front end. Are there places that sell complete sets of all the parts for an 80 Fierbird/camaro? If so how does the cost compare to buying one part at a time from a place like napa.

[dsraven]

please tell me you are not working under the frame suspended like that. you could end up like a pancake if the hoist decided to drop.
yup, wire brushing is gonna make a big mess no matter how you do it. wear coveralls too because those wires are like needles when they fly off the wheel. sandblasting is another way, and some places have do it yourself rates. you gotta be ready to shoot epoxy right away though.
have you tried rock auto for the front end parts?

[joedoh]

i dont have a spotless shop (do my work than cleaning, right?) but what helps keep the dust down is carpet dryer fans, those big scroll fans with the output mouth on the floor. I put one blowing towards the garage door and another with the garage door closed on the mouth of it when its cold, when its not cold I point both out opened garage doors.

[washington blue]

Started taking apart the front end to rebuild all the moving parts on it. Got my parts from a company called PST and they had a kit with everything I needed except for the center link on the steering which I ordered separately from them. $480 bucks for every moving part was not too bad. The weather is a little nicer now so I can carry the smaller parts outside to sandblast and wire brush, much nicer this way.

[dsraven]

what I have done before, to get air movement, is open the window, stick the fan in there blowing in, spaced back a bit from the window opening will allow the fan to draw more air into the flow. use ribbon flags around the opening to ensure you get full coverage, open the shop door as an exit. only works if you have a window I guess. the good part is the fan doesn't get dirty from all the dust being drawn through it. at one point I made a spray booth using a 2x4 frame in the garage door opening, let the door down on it. stapled furnace filters to the frame. installed the blower fan in front of the window with more furnace filters covering the opening to keep bugs out. not a lot of flow but enough to keep the area clear. I wear a supplied air respirator as well.

[washington blue]

I don't have any windows that open. I do have an exhaust fan in the paint room which is what is behind the doors in the picture in post 153. the wooden panels are in the holes where I put my paint room air filters. I could turn the fan on and take a couple panels out but the building would be cold in a minute as the fan is very aggressive, which I love because it keeps the paint room air clean, but it makes the room cold unless I run extra heaters which is what I do when painting in winter. I kinda plan my paint days for the right outside temps and wind direction as I also use a fresh air system and I need the wind to blow fumes away from the building in a certain direction.

[washington blue]

I have finally gotten the front end back together. It has all new parts from PST
with Polly-graphite bushings. It's been a couple years since it was last together. I have not replaced the brake rotors or calipers yet and I have not tightened the nuts on the control arm ends. Need to get weight on it before I do that....I am considering switching the bolt pattern to the same as the Ford on the rear and I don't have any more junk yard wheels with that pattern so the rotors can wait.

[washington blue]

Planning to replace the E brake cables and clean the E brakes and just generally check them over. I have been studying how the 2 cables hook together on this 96 Ford Explorer rear end. It's obvious how the cable pulls the driver wheel brake, it has a vice grip on it in the pic. but the pass side cable is a total mystery to me as to how it works. It seems to clamp onto the cable housing for the driver side and how that pulls the brake is a puzzle. You can see the rusty clamp with the cable coming out of the end of it in the picture. Anyone know about ford E brakes like this? I'm tempted to just scrap the whole thing and get different cables from Lokar.

[washington blue]

Went to the Lokar site and they have cables that fit the Ford rear end and they are 8 feet long with frame mounts and cable ends. They also have cables that go from the pedal or lever down and back which is 6 feet long. the part numbers are EC-81 FU and EC-8001U and the cost is about $275 total. This is more than the Ford cables cost but will work well.

[joedoh]

thats not bad for a front end rebuild!

on the e-brake get a hand ratchet e brake handle assembly from a small fwd car and put it next to the drivers seat on the floor!

[Jason 56]

Looks great so far. Your truck is going to be awesome!

[washington blue]

Thanks guys, putting a ratchet handle on the floor next to the seat is not a bad idea. I'll have to give it some thought.

[Scott2]

My ‘51 3100 has a 9” rear with the Explorer parking brakes. I used Lokar cables from the rear end to one of these:

https://www.controlcables.com/emerge...acket-b-ez200/

Then I put a standard AC Delco park brake pedal under the dash on the left kick panel:

https://www.gmpartsstore.com/oem-par...8aAuLYEALw_wcB

Control Cables made me a cable with the right ends to connect the pedal to the junction bracket. Works fine and the pedal tucks up under the dash.

[dsraven]

You could also use the stock explorer cables right up to the connector and use a stock Chevy pedal, like an S10 pedal.

[washington blue]

Yes a Chevy E brake pedal fits like a glove. I have this one from an 84 Chevy pu. I've had it for quite a while, kinda forgot I had it. The top bolt will go where the lower hood hinge bolt is. I would then have to drill a hole below that and a hole into a dash brace and done. A hole in the toe kick for the cable would finish it. This was $20 at a salvage yard.

[washington blue]

Originally Posted by Jason 56

Looks great so far. Your truck is going to be awesome!

been looking at your build too, it's going to be really neat.

[washington blue]

Got started taking the E-brake apart, the pass. side was quite rusty and the pads were gone. Took a while to get it apart as the dorman was rusted stuck.

[washington blue]

Originally Posted by Scott2

My ‘51 3100 has a 9” rear with the Explorer parking brakes. I used Lokar cables from the rear end to one of these:

https://www.controlcables.com/emerge...acket-b-ez200/

Then I put a standard AC Delco park brake pedal under the dash on the left kick panel:

https://www.gmpartsstore.com/oem-par...8aAuLYEALw_wcB

Control Cables made me a cable with the right ends to connect the pedal to the junction bracket. Works fine and the pedal tucks up under the dash.

Thanks Scott, the junction bracket is very interesting, I have gone ahead and ordered the Lokar cables from Speedway Motors. there will be 2 coming forward from the wheels and hooking to one to go the under dash. I don't know how they will or if they will hook together so I'm glad to know about this. the cables are about $220 through Speedway. Part nos. 9107867 and 491EC8001U120

[washington blue]

Got my parts from Speedway and apparently Lokar has done this a few thousand times as the front and rear cables will fit nicely so done worrying about that. Funny thing is I called the tech line for speedway and the guy I talked to could not tell me if the parts would fit together or not and they were short staffed due to the China bug so he could not have the parts in front of him so he said " kinda looks like they'll fit", can't fault him tho.

[washington blue]

Finished the pass. side and took the drivers side apart. Apparently there is a very slight axle seal leak as everything looked like new on this side and is slightly oily.

[washington blue]

When I had the brakes apart I made sure to put never-seize on the dormans. I used a wire to pull the spring out, then a screwdriver to push it in place. I had the wire hooked around the first coil of the spring, the pic does not show that.

[washington blue]

Happy Easter,,got distracted for a couple days with this.