47-55.1 Project "Bickle" 1948 1/2 ton 4.3 4l60e

[joedoh]

yeah travis is crazy talented, I saw him do a swap with a 69 GMC long bed and a 91 c1500 shortbed in a weekend, tbi and shortened the bed, everything.

had to get the old wood out of whoa black beddy. if you havent done this before, it sucks. the bed wood is put in with perimeter bolts and angle strips, and lots of extra bolts in the cross sills. you can go ham and cut the wood straight across, through the bed strips, but that ruins the bed strips if you were planning to reuse them.

if you want to save them, dont bother trying to take off 70 year old nuts, they wont budge with a gallon of penetrant on them, and why would you want to save old hardware like that anyway. what I do is use a long (9") sawzall bimetal blade and slide it in between the wood and the cross sills. the long blade will flex. then a quick cutoff wheel on the side bolts, and for that stubborn front cross sill that is bolted both horizontally and vertically, I just get a 7/16 socket on my impact and a 7/16 box wrench and tighten. snap snap snap.



everything will just kind of fall out when you get all the perimeter bolts out. viola! strips and cross sills intact.



the angle strips are spot welded to the sides, so I take a screwdriver and pry till I can see the spots and then I use an air chisel to pop them. easy peasy



clearance for tires.



put the s10 bed floor on the frame, had to do a LOT of trimming. my friend wanted the bed sides for his roadster blazer (to cap the sides with the bed rails) and so I told him where to cut. he did ok but some spots were wavier than ruffles. I got it all sanded smooth though




more next post

[joedoh]

needed the yellow fenders from the storage, same drill (ha, get it? drill). 1/2 inch socket in my impact drill set to tighten, snap snap snap. I threatened it with TWO cutoff wheels but didnt need either.



picked up these lights on marketplace. I have been needing to replace the sidewalk light pole (never made it back up after the retaining wall replacements) and the light pole at the bottom of the drive (a victim of over exuberant mowing). forget the old gas light style fixture with the yellow bug light, how about some 400W HID?



all 4 lights, $60. I think the steelers will be able to play night away games in the front yard this year.

I was tired when I got back so I just shot pictures of the truck outside.




hows that fender alignment now?



I should throw the spacers and the 20s on for a look but I think I will put the bed and running boards on first.

more to come!

[mongocanfly]

Looking good Russ....

[oldman3]

Russ, looks like everything is lining up good...Jim

[OutlawDrifter]

In your area, you might want to be careful with those lights, might have some aircraft circling looking to set down!

[joedoh]

haha did you hear about the cargo plane that landed at jabara instead of mcconnell about 7 years ago?

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/...jabara-airport

they had to empty it so it could take off on the short (comparatively) runway.

[OutlawDrifter]

Originally Posted by joedoh

haha did you hear about the cargo plane that landed at jabara instead of mcconnell about 7 years ago?

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/...jabara-airport

they had to empty it so it could take off on the short (comparatively) runway.

Yes that was quite a snafu. I remember laughing about it with my granddad who was a WWII Naval Aviation Vet. He had some of the best flying stories!

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by OutlawDrifter

Yes that was quite a snafu. I remember laughing about it with my granddad who was a WWII Naval Aviation Vet. He had some of the best flying stories!

oh man, what a time that must have been, when flying was all about the large piston aircraft. the movie Fury sure got the airplanes flyovers just right for a mediocre tank movie.

oh by the way, my new shop is literally across the road from the jabara approach light array, parallel to the runway.

popped the bed on before it got hot. its hard to see in the resizing that the forum does (by the way WHY does the forum resize pictures to 640x480?! is it 1995 again?) but the center fender bolt is dead on the center of the axle, and the bed is only 3/8" away from the cab at the center.



eagle eyed readers will remember I shortened the frame 6.5", the extra 0.5 to close the bed gap. I may never go back to longbed donors.

I have to trim the front panel and bend it down, the shortbed s10 bed floor is about 3" shorter than the AD shortbed.



once I have that measurement I will lock it away too.

it got pretty hot in the driveway so I took a break to shorten the bench seat height. I always MEAN to do this, and never have. on this one the steering column is 0.25" lower than previous trucks (thickness of the bracket) so it had to be done. let me tell you, it makes a huge difference. I used 2" tape to mark my cuts, then welded it back together. that overbite you see is in the back so I just patched it in for strength and called it good.



mrs joedoh always complains about the seat height when the trucks are done so I had her test this one. shes very shy but I snapped a pic when she wasnt looking, better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, right?



she said it was light years better than any previous truck, so now I can send it out to be recovered. still deciding between black upholstery on the seat or matching the dash champagne mist. guess I will decide when I see how close he can get...

mocked up the running boards to set the bed depth and tacked the floor in. woop woop!



tomorrow I will pull it all apart and weld things up. I need a driveshaft still. I got some ribbon cable to extend the gauges. things are going well!

[oldman3]

Nice...Jim

[8man]

Nice job.

[joedoh]

thank you jim and robert!

had to do an old school repair to the bed side, the drivers rear was way out of whack, wagged out like 4 inches and the angle part jacked up. a cclamp and ratchet strap (my new son in law) fixed er up.



that was after tacking the bed floor in place. I used a chisel and cut a neat 3/8" strip of the bed liner out, when I am done tacking it in I can fill it back with seam sealer and NO ONE WILL EVER BE THE WISER

blew it all apart, finish welded everything and squirted some black satin paint on it



it was hot as heck today, I looked like I took a shower after taking the cab and bed and front end off then shoving them around. I put the cab on that heavy duty cart I bought earlier this year and regretted it because it looked too tall to roll in the garage. I tried and sure enough, it hit the clearance lights (isnt that what they are for anyway). a couple minutes with a grinder and it literally left a rust mark where it dragged the roof on the header. doesnt matter, fit.



found all the parts I need to weld in and shot a little champagne mist on the piece I will be cutting out (to check the color)



more to come, jeremy is bringing his frame saturday so I need to have this rolling again by then

[OutlawDrifter]

Russ I had to do some work outside when I got home from my "day job" ended up in the same condition.

Initial thoughts on the color?

[28TudorAZ]

Truck is looking geat!!! I love the seat idea. I may have to do it. Can you really tell a big difference?

[mobileortho]

That bed floor turned out great!

[joedoh]

28TAZ its a HUGE difference. YUGE. so much more comfortable, and only took about an hour.

Marc its an ok color. one thing I have learned is even though I have impeccable taste (guffaw) sometimes it aint just about what I like. I still havent decided on a seat color.

mobile thanks, using the ext cab bed is really nice, sssssuuuuuper strong because it has all 8 bed bolts. with a longbed bed, you cut off the very front and lose the very rear. the ext cab is just a couple inches short of filling the AD bed, but if you save the front panel of the s10 bed (leave it attached to the floor) you can fold it down and make up the couple inches in front.


got the HVAC panel welded in 100%, not only was I able to work inside (its reeeeally hot right now) but that cart I picked up holds it high enough that I can sit on a stool to weld the bottom side of the firewall and stand up to weld the top. 10/10 would buy again.



sorry, not many in process shots. I actually lined it up using an old photo of wamego haha.

I braved the heat and put the cab back on the fresh painted frame, then the bed. and rolled the front clip in on the same cart.




for anyone wondering how to move big parts like this around on your own, my secret is two things: balance and leverage. I use the balance of heavy things like beds, standing them on end and "walking" them to where I need, then using leverage of the bed balanced on the frame to let me lift it by the corners into place.

on the front clip, tonight I noticed that if I lifted it by the bar I welded at the bottom of the core support, it was perfectly balanced and actually light enough that I could carry it in the garage!


got another potential real estate deal in the works, maybe update monday.

[OutlawDrifter]

Russ, hot for sure 104° heat index today.

I cut my Astro/Safari rear rear seat down too. Can't remember how far, but it was totally necessary.

Having a comfortable welding position makes all the difference!

[joedoh]

marc it was surface of the sun hot today. I am getting worried about the rental, it hits 80 in there and the AC runs alll day.


today I did other peoples stuff. my daughters friends came over early and we set up the waterslide for them. my neighbor came by, he said last week he wanted to build a kayak holder for a trailer and needed some scrap for gussets. I pointed to my scrap pile of table pieces that still had gusset sized areas in them. todaay he said he had designed the gusset and could I cut them? his gussets were 10x10, and he needed 10. double gulp. he brought me a 2x4 sheet of 1/8 though, after I told him it was a 100 linear inch job, and I programmed the CAD and the CAM and cut his stuff.

then a very patient jeremy came over and even though he was early waited until I finished the neighbors job and did all the honey dos with the kids. he had bought a longbed s10 frame, or so he thought at first, I told him it was an ext cab frame by the third cab mount in the middle.




so I offered to help him shorten it and we quickly went from 123 to 116.5, about 2.5 hours! including the stupid early s10 fuel lines that run through the frame.







as payment, he left with my spare roller set of s10 swirls and I got some deep offset slots.





not my favorite but looking around, slots an RWL tires are just white hot right now. the plan so far is to keep them handy and when the inevitable hagglers come for bickle they will be the bargaining chip to keep the 20s. I didnt pay a lot for the 20s, but they have brand new tires too.


back on bickle tomorrow.

[oldman3]

Russ, as if you weren't busy enough, now the neighbors are seeking you out. Your a good man...Jim

[mobileortho]

Really like the bed floor. I was thinking about doing the same thing.

[joedoh]

thanks jim, and mobile I LOVE using the steel floor. with the shortened ext cab frame it retains all 8 bed bolts and is SUPER strong. I usually put bed wood and strips over top of the steel.

while I was working on my neighbors parts I also popped out a lower rad mount. normally I cut these by hand with some snips but liked the idea of repeatability so I designed it in cad and cut it on the table. unfortunately I forgot about the bend line cuts so they needed some technical tapping with a hammer. not great.



luckily I had my head up my butt and made two "rights", so I went back and added the bend cuts in the design and popped out two more, bending a left and a right this time.



I thought that worked well so I did the closeout panels on the table too, and started fitting them.




I had to stop because it was threatening to rain, the truck has been languishing outside in the sun this last week but cant get wet yet. I hope to have this rad mount done tomorrow and the front end put back together.


on the real estate front: we wanted to talk to the guy who owned the land next to the shop, and I finally caught him mowing. under no circumstance could he be persuaded to sell, which was a bummer. then a 2 acre lot around the corner came up for sale, and we considered it but the realtor never called back. after looking some more, it backed up to some tract homes and I didnt like that. I told my wife maybe something closer might pop up.

then I got a call, a woman in the neighborhood heard I was looking, and asked would I be interested in the place across the street?. why yes, yes I would. she stated her price and I agreed. its an older double wide manufactured home on a foundation and has an attached 24x24 garage with 11ft ceilings. its in great shape, and hits all my buttons, side load garage, treed lot, house number is 4 3 2 1. we close in three weeks so its all over but the shouting. I am trying to convince my wife to rent our current house and live there, that neighborhood is so quiet and I would be across the street from my shop. no luck yet haha. the plan is to build a house on the lot eventually.

[oldman3]

Russ, nice job on the parts, congats on the property...Jim

[reaper71]

Nice progress

[8man]

Those brackets are nice. Looking good.

[joedoh]

thanks all, the weather was cool but the sun was relentless and I was able to get them patched in. they are only welded where they touch the inner fender, they are screwed to the core support and not welded to the fender fender. this is so it can all still be taken apart like factory.



this is another part I will be delighted to just pop out and have ready in a couple minutes. I will add the radiator mounting holes (it sits in rubber mounts and gets clamped from the top) but I need to get it lined up first. the condenser core gets sandwiched between the core support and the rad, so the rad is offset to the drivers side for the lines. here is a test fit to make sure it lines up.




today I will put the front clip back on, line everything up, and get the cab and front clip bolted down for real. I have a couple last things to cut on the table so while the truck is rolled out I will do that too, like a final brake pedal bracket, seems that lowering the seat exposed how the pedal could move towards the firewall just an inch. I dont want to touch the designs after they are 1000% right, so this current pedal bracket will go on the wall and 6.3 should be the last version. I also need to cut the reinforcing plates for the bottom of the cab, this is a 48 center mount so there is only a single layer of sheetmetal above the rear cab mount.

[OutlawDrifter]

Russ, that is a super clean execution. I like it!