49' Patina bagged in PA

[FarmerSid]

Hey 99. Looking at your pictures, what idea's do you have for locating the battery? I'm not 100% on any idea's I've seem so far. Don't like under the hood. Not fussy on the drop down tray with floor lid filled in as that would be a pain to get to the battery and since the truck is going to be lowered, may not drop down enough. Kinda leaning towards keeping the battery lid in the floor. Thoughts?

[oldman3]

Hey 99, hope things get better for you bro, hope the new welder gives no problems...Jim

[99 to Life]

4-19 Sat. Sid sorry didn't see your last post. I'm 100% most always going to put battery behind seat. That is another reason why I don't use stock seats, you can't fold them forward. My 51' has bat behind seat, I run a kill switch in the cab (I feel is a must for any rod) then I have a junction box up on firewall (which is convenient but looks dumb, so it will someday get moved into the cab, my 49' will have the exact same set up but i'll have the junction box in cab). I hate bats in the engine bay and prolly hate them more under the cab. Its also nice cause I have some things wired directly to the bat that aren't a part of the wiring harness, so its just all around convenient for me behind the seat.

So I got a replacement eastwood welder, hooked it up, made one tack and boom gas stopped. Sooooooooooooooooooo pissed. Luckily they did send a replacement solenoid from my last welder, so I hooked that up and it works but it seems to leave the gas on waaaay to long after you release the trigger, so its sucking my gas really bad, so now I gotta call and get another one and I'm in process of finding a different/reliable solenoid, but really haven't dug much info on that. eastwood does have decent customer support but man not a happy first time customer. its a good unit but I'd rather have something else for my daily and use this as a back up. Here is a pic of what the valve looks like.

Nothing too exciting on the truck. Started wrapping up the last of my tunneling and make some more floor pieces. I'll prolly wait to weld the whole floor in so I can have some access to exhaust and all the other stuff that runs under the cab.

[FarmerSid]

Thanks 99. I think I'm going to put the battery in the stock location with an enclosed battery box to keep the elements out. Sucks about the welder. Nice cab work.

[TNACUSTOM]

Originally Posted by 99 to Life

4-19 Sat. Sid sorry didn't see your last post. I'm 100% most always going to put battery behind seat. That is another reason why I don't use stock seats, you can't fold them forward. My 51' has bat behind seat, I run a kill switch in the cab (I feel is a must for any rod) then I have a junction box up on firewall (which is convenient but looks dumb, so it will someday get moved into the cab, my 49' will have the exact same set up but i'll have the junction box in cab). I hate bats in the engine bay and prolly hate them more under the cab. Its also nice cause I have some things wired directly to the bat that aren't a part of the wiring harness, so its just all around convenient for me behind the seat.

So I got a replacement eastwood welder, hooked it up, made one tack and boom gas stopped. Sooooooooooooooooooo pissed. Luckily they did send a replacement solenoid from my last welder, so I hooked that up and it works but it seems to leave the gas on waaaay to long after you release the trigger, so its sucking my gas really bad, so now I gotta call and get another one and I'm in process of finding a different/reliable solenoid, but really haven't dug much info on that. eastwood does have decent customer support but man not a happy first time customer. its a good unit but I'd rather have something else for my daily and use this as a back up. Here is a pic of what the valve looks like.

Nothing too exciting on the truck. Started wrapping up the last of my tunneling and make some more floor pieces. I'll prolly wait to weld the whole floor in so I can have some access to exhaust and all the other stuff that runs under the cab.

Eastwood is kind of like Harbor Freight they have things that work and things that only work once. I try to buy things that last. That's why my tool box is SnapOn and the tools are the same. But when you use your tools to make a living its a little different. So if you are going to just use it for one build then it should work fine.

[99 to Life]

I agree that some things you can get away with buying from HF and I wouldn't put EW on their level. From my one time experience its the valves they are using that are going bad. I only bought this because I was in a super pinch, every welder I was finding on CL was getting scooped up and this was a great deal and I could put it on my CC. Its a really good welder, I just need it to last atleast the 3yrs they warranty it for. I wanted a hobart and shoulda just spent a little extra and got one. I'm not afraid to try new things, but I'm getting a little irritated and burnt on this deal. I have far more than one build that I need tools for, so yeah I'll be stepping up as best I can. Takes a long time to shuffle build funds with tool funds with a very limited budget. But I'v only been hunting and gathering for about 4years so in that time I'v come a very long way I feel, gotta keep trying to stay positive.

I got my ARP headbolts so hopefully I can get the engine buttoned up soon, just need a few more things for it. Trying to get my gas tank and radiator so I can finalize my brackets bf I take body off. Gonna be doing the bed frame soon too and shock mounts for the front, then I can grind away at the frame.

[99 to Life]

Friday/Sat 25-26th Only good thing with my girl having no job is I can sneak some extra time in on my truck. So friday I worked on my bed some more. What have going with the truck is almost like channeling. I got the cab about 3.5" off frame and bed sits lower so when laid out, rear fender, running board and front fenders are touching ground, NOT the frame. its a bit of a trade off. biggest upside is I'll have NO fender wells in bed and about 8" or so of bed depth. Mounting this low I have to tunnel the rear of the cab just a bit for driveshaft.

So that being said....I initially mounted the bed, just used some 3" blocks up front with some welded nuts on em, front bed cross sill bolts to that, in the back I welded angle to the frame and that holds up the back of the bed by the factory bed sill. So only 4 bolts holding bed on. this new 1x1 tube frame I built is to house the bed wood that will be all one piece so I can slide it right out and do any maintenance (I use the same setup in my 51' and its a life saver). So all the photos here are of the mounts for that 1x1 frame. I am then going to weld some angle tabs off of the 1x1 and run bolts down to the factory bed trim thats on the sides of the bed. that way the bed is mounted to the frame, then I have a bolt on 1x1 frame that is supported by frame and also will be bolted to actual bedsides to give it some extra support. Its very simple set up and probably sounds more complicated than it is.

P.S I would have gained about 2 more inches of bed depth if I wasn't running disc brakes, those calipers stick out and I had to notch the bed and also raise floor up.

[99 to Life]

Sat 26th did a little more work on bed frame and worked on running board brackets. This is a very overlooked thing on s10 swaps. In the rear you have the spring perch to deal with, up front the frame kicks in and also you have your front cab mount. So this took me way longer than I wanted. but my goal was this.... Not to have welded brackets sticking out that will just get in the way. So I welded up 1.5 tubing to the frame, then bolted the brackets to that which are made up of 1.25 tubing so they slide right up the 1.5, what would have made like so much easier is if I just welded the brackets to the running boards and then bolt it up as one unit. However I just didn't feel that was the route I wanted to go, so I made them so you can bolt the bracket to the running board and the frame. Getting all that stuff to fall into place is alot more work than it appears.

The only stock location on the RBoard was the middle one that I made a bracket off of. It is 28 3/8" from the center of the leaf perch to the center of the bracket. The original RBoard mounts would hit the leaf perch and the cab mount up front, so I made a new mounting point back of the Rboard and on the one up front, I just moved the bracket back so it wouldn't be so close to the front cab mount. again, all this stuff will bolt on and off and I'll cap and final weld everything once body comes off. Lastly so glad I didn't finish welding floor in, really helped reaching from the inside the cab to set brackets, that way I didn't have to deal with raising the whole truck up.

[FarmerSid]

You got a lot done 99. I like the Rboard bracket and bed floor ideas.

[oldman3]

Nice job 99, the welds look good, so does this mean the welder in working OK now???..Jim

[99 to Life]

thanks sid, I'm somewhat on schedule with it. I actually got 31hours in this month, maybe some more on monday. Hoping to tear it down in May, maybe fire engine up too.

Jim, yeah it seemed like the new valve was sucking gas like crazy, so not sure if its that or maybe a bad regulator. I just turned the regulator way down and it seems a little better. So for now yeah it works, crossing fingers.

[skymangs]

Lookin good buddy. those welds are looking sharp... You may beat me on this one yet!

[99 to Life]

thanks sarge, yeah always trying to get my welds as good as I can. Just trying different techniques, practice makes perfect that's for sure. Well we both got our hands full that's for sure. I just posted a comment to someone about being fortunate for what we have. It's def a gift to be able to have a project or work on pieces of history. I'm suppose to be finishing up a 54' panel for "the reserve". Just trying to find the time to shuffle trucks around and get it over here. I wish sleep didn't exist cause I'd much rather work!

[99 to Life]

4-28 Got a little more in today. Finished up driverside running board mounts and started bumper mounts. I cut about 2.25" off the stock bumber bracket because its so long it will hit the sway bar on the dime frame. All I did was take some 1.5" tubing drilled holes in it to match up with the bracket holes and clamped them up to the dime frame. Cool thing is those brackets line up under the dime frame, crazy how versatile these swaps are. All I have to do is tack that tubing to the frame and final weld later.

That's my guard dog Gretta. Again this front clip is just for moch up, though this patina is cool.

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by 99 to Life

I'm 100% most always going to put battery behind seat.

your truck is looking good

i've run my battery behind truk's seat for 5 yrs with no problems
i do need to add a jump post off the starter in case i have a dead battery

[oldman3]

Looks good...Jim

[99 to Life]

thanks guys, Orge, yeah behind the seat just makes the most sense to me too, gotta love having some tools, tie downs and whatever else you need that space for, actually available.

[99 to Life]

5-3 Saturday, got 20g blazer tank for 70 shipped, however I have to find a sending unit for it, since the s10 one I have won't work. I'm going to have a hidden gas gauge and use a 90ohm sending unit, rather than trying to retrofit a 30hm and use the stock gas gauge.

first pic you see I tore out the xmember in the rear that held the spare tire. I added an extremely beefy piece of 2x4 tubing .5" wall. Then I added a couple xmembers 1.5x1.5" that the tank will mount up to. I'll do some more reinforcing in the back as well, waiting on material to build the tank straps and or build the skid plate for it that will hold it up.

My filler tube is actually from the truck, just repurposed. I gotta weld a tap to it and to the bed so it will bolt to the bed and be secure. I like the location of the filler out by the fender, I don't like fender fillers and I really didn't want a bed filler. I'll get a locking cap and paint it black so you won't really see it. I also got to fab up the bed pillar in the back there.

I also finished up my rear cab mounts. I think next weekend I'm tearing body off to start prepping frame, then I got to get back on finalizing the cab.

[FarmerSid]

Nice progress 99.

[99 to Life]

thanks sid, I spent a little time doing some wiring in the garage and organizing. Got a cab cart built so sat I'll prolly pull cab and bed off and start stripping frame. Might leave front clip in place just so I can finalize my radiator which I'm hoping to have for the following weekend.

also found another s10 tank I might be able to get the sending unit out of, I think it might work, so that will save me almost $60.

I'd like to thank "Iwanna49" for purchasing some coffee and tees, as that money has bought most of my gas tank!!

[FarmerSid]

Put up some pics of the cab cart and dimensions. My cab is almost ready to come off and it would be nice to have something prebuilt and ready to go. Have you sent any T shirts to Canada before. I sport some of your swag! LOL!

[IWanna49]

You're welcome Henry! Got the goods in the mail today. Gonna give the mrs the coffee for Mother's Day and I have it hidden under the bed. Guess what I can smell layin' here! The shirts are killer, too.

Glad to help out. Really like where your filler tube comes out and your running board mounts. Great work!

Greg

[99 to Life]

Thanks guys, Sid honestly I was about to build one outta wood, but then I realized I had no where to stash the adjustable metal stands I had saved from the scrap yard, I was going to build a new engine start stand with them, but decided these would be perfect for a cab stand. All I did so far was bolt some angle iron to them, so when I'm done with it I can just take it back apart. I'll get some pics as my phone was all filled up. So right now its only 27"x55" so I think it should be sturdy enough. Gonna pick up some casters for it. I ship shirts anywhere.

greg, yeah you gotta hide that coffee outta the house, it was roasted on wed so its as fresh as you can get. So far I'm def happy with the filler tube, much better setup than on my 51'. At the time I was just really against the tank in the rear, feel its a bit safer
where its at on my 51' but a bit harder to get to. I go some heavy duty bracing on the 49', if it gets rear ended its prolly gonna bend the frame for sure.

[PurdueSD]

Hey, nice tank! Looks familiar!

I was thinking about running my fill on the fender since I don't have a raised bed floor. But, I'm gunna have to double check now after seeing how well yours hides there.

[47 Fasttoys]

Hey 99, I don't know if you have decided on your battery location or not but you may want to consider a third location: in the fender well behind the front tire. That is where I run mine on my '46 and also where I had it on my '54, it fits well and if your charging system is in good order you really don't need battery access that often. For the under floor location I now use that for the jack and other small tools (welded in a box). It's hard to see in the second picture but it's in there. Something to think about.


Rob