Txrdnek's 49 build

[txrdnek]

Howdy Yall, been on this site for a couple of years now and posted a few things here and there, now after almost a year letting my girl rust up again I guess I'll start a thread so's I can maybe keep up with my progress and get this girl back on the road.

My truck is a 1949 3600. I have been searching for an ad truck for many years that I could make into a cruiser. So after a long search and money being right I got this truck








As you can see, she was pretty rough. She was rusted in three of the the cab courners but not all four believe it or not, and the bed had a bad rust spot on the drivers side because somebody decided to put plywood in her floor over the top of the existing wood floor. But is seams they didn't treat the plywood and it held water right there and rusted out the panel. A look into the trucks life, she started her life as a county work truck still had the county truck number on the dash and about three inches of tar on her underside, engine, tranny, and rear end, then was sold to some sort of orchard, later she was sold at auction to a guy who put her out to pasture for a while until the PO I got her from rescued her but never did anything with her and thankfully sold her to me.

My plans for her are to put her on an s-10 frame, cause while I like the look of the old trucks, I don't like the I-beam ride of them and this is an easy, inexpensive and quick way to get IFS, install a v-8, that 216 and granny four speed just don't get her done anymore, and i got rid of that awful rust and paint. Please, don't say she has patina, patina to me is another word for dung, and we all know what you get when you polish dung. Why a person would spend all that effort and money to rebuild a truck and let it look like that is beyond me but to each his/her own.

A little back story on me, I grew up in the minitrucking scene, I built a lowered and v8 powered s-10 when I was 18 that won runner up at the local show, yes I know second is the first looser, but the judges gave me a trophy for my efforts. That led to a couple of other trucks I built witch were 1969 chevy lwb, and 1979 chevy c20 van, and a 1978 chevy stepside (my baby, wished I had that one back). But this project is deffinetly the most involved I have ever done.

I have already made alot of progress on the truck so I will make some quick posts to show my progress so far and I hope the pictures uploaded ok, been having trouble with my internet provider so if the don't show let me know and I will try again to upload the pics.

[txrdnek]

Traded for the chevy 350 and 700r4, pic is with the body on and mocking the engine into place. Found some all aluminum valve covers at the local pick and pull for twentyfive bucks.



Went the cheap route and reused the s-10 body mounts for the front mounts then boxed them in for strength and reused the original rear cab mounts from the 49, made my own boxes for the mounts of the front of the bed




Stripped down the frame and painted it. Wow there was some surface rust on that frame. Reused the old running board mounts. And got some new shoes for the old girl.



Now while I like the longer bed better on the AD trucks, I think that the 3600 bed is to long, I had to cut two inches out of the front to get proper placement over the wheel wells, I also cut three inches out of the back of the bed to shorten the bed to 85 1/2 inches, so this truck is not a short bed or a long bed, its a medium bed. Here is everything mocked up so I can fab the mounts for the radiator and front fenders



Thats were I am at right know, if the pictures seam a little out of order thats because they kinda are, lost all my pics when I lost my phone and had to get make some more for this post, I have the front end off the truck waiting on some new bushings.

[dmack91]

Looks good. How long did it take you to get to this point?

[txrdnek]

I've been working on the truck for lets say 2 years now, but I have taken off from working on it since the past January because of some perosonal reasons. and after I completed a honey-do project for the wife that was pretty intense, I got to go back to working on this truck. I'm kinda quirky, I plan and plan and plan some more when I'm about to do a different thing, Took me a week of just studying and studying about how i wanted to mount the cab, and I dont mean I am just careful, I look at every angle, measure fifty times, well before I make any cuts, almost obsessive compulsive about it, which makes it seam like I aint getting anything done. Its taken over six months just to install the second bear claw latch, because the door I found out isn't straight at the door jamb.

[oldman3]

Truck is looking good...Jim

[txrdnek]

Was working on the truck this morning and that sneaky UPS guy came by and left some presents, that is the quietest UPS guy I think I've ever seen, guy has snuck up to the house and left with nobody hearing seeing or knowing he was ever there. Anyway he came bering gifts so I guess I will forgive him:

new drop spindles



and new bump stops



Now if I could just get him to bring those control arm bushings I could get this frame back together and make it a roller again and roll it out of my shop so I can work on the body some more

[txrdnek]

Still waiting on those control arm bushings, so on to other things, pulled the gas tank out and painted it so it would at least look nice sitting under the truck even though there shouldn't be anybody but me that see's it.

before:


after:


and in the frame again:


before I put the tank back in I pulled the fuel and brake lines and shined them up and good thing to the return line was plugged with something in it, probably rust but never saw what it was when the line finally unclogged, but this is what they looked like when I put them back in the truck, I think its an improvement, they look almost new again:


Well the control arm bushings finally showed up, thank you mr ups man

[txrdnek]

Also stripped the motor down to the block so I could get that chevy orange paint off it, this is gonna be the color of the body so thought I'd paint the motor to match, the color might look black but its actually a forest green.
And check out those $25 moroso aluminum valve covers, I'm still proud of that find.

[oldman3]

Taking shape, nice job...Jim

[txrdnek]

Thank you jim, I am using your truck as a somewhat guide to what I what I want to do, btw congratulations on making it into a mag, don't see to many home built rides in mags.

[oldman3]

Originally Posted by txrdnek

Thank you jim, I am using your truck as a somewhat guide to what I what I want to do, btw congratulations on making it into a mag, don't see to many home built rides in mags.

Thanks, appreciate the kind words...Jim

[BILL48]

just want to say i think you are doing an awesome job so far, i too am building a truck i have had for a while but just started working on, it took me a year and a bit just to get it stripped down haha. but now i'm on my way, keep up the good work and i will be looking forward to watching your progress.....Bill

my build thread
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=550025

[txrdnek]

Thank you bill, I've been following your build as well, I love the clip job you did. I've been out of town lately and gonna be going back out of town so haven't been able to do any work on the truck.

[BILL48]

Thanks txrdnek the clip did turn out nice i used project49nobucks build here on this site to do my clip the same way, so i can;t take the credit for originality, i did just get my rear spring kit installed and it turned out really well. looking forward to more of your progress.....Bill

[txrdnek]

Clay54, Here are the pics I said I'd post about the running board supports, yes I know the welds are sloppy but they are stron and they are hidden by the running boards and nobody will ever see them but me, this is a cruiser not a show truck.



Shows how low off the front of the frame the support hung and if you look closely you can see the angle iron I added for extra support.

another pic of the front bracket.


pic of the other supports and how the lined up on the frame. Hope this helps you in your endeavors.

[Clay54]

Thanks Txrdnek's - you did good. Clay

[1952ssr]

Your truck and mine could have passed for twins.

[BILL48]

We could even say triplets lol

[txrdnek]

Originally Posted by 1952ssr

Your truck and mine could have passed for twins.

Yes sir, except mine wasn't originally red, it was forest green, then somebody painted light green, then the red, orange and grey was some faux paint the PO decided to make it to match a business card she made long before she bought a truck to model it after.

[txrdnek]

Originally Posted by BILL48

We could even say triplets lol

yours looks like a 3100 though bill ours are 3600's just an observation, color wise yes

[txrdnek]

Well been working on the truck since thanksgiving, finally got the frame finished and the front end back together with the two inch drop spindles, just had to get the motor painted and decided to paint the tranny as well, I think the color is awesome and will look swwwwweeeet with the all the chrome and polished aluminum I plan on putting in on it:




I am putting a remote tranny cooler on it because I just dont have any room up front so I found this spot here where the tailpipe used to hang:


and it looked like a darn good spot for the tranny cooler


Feels good making something that's starting to resemble a truck, now if I can get past the body work on the cab and fenders, I'll make a truck for sure.

[oldman3]

Nice progress....Jim

[1952ssr]

Originally Posted by txrdnek

Yes sir, except mine wasn't originally red, it was forest green, then somebody painted light green, then the red, orange and grey was some faux paint the PO decided to make it to match a business card she made long before she bought a truck to model it after.

Mine wasn't either it also was originally forest green, too funny.

[txrdnek]

Originally Posted by 1952ssr

Mine wasn't either it also was originally forest green, too funny.

Now thats funny, lets see... was yours built in San Diego? Maybe we do have sister trucks, but yours is the younger sister since I assume by your screenname yours is a 52

[txrdnek]

Question folks, been finishing up on some welding Ive been putting off for a while like shaving the driprails, and getting rid of the off center steering v, and I have a question, I sanded the primer down to bare metal yesterday and welded up the drip rail, today I went out there and the metal has literally rusted up over night, I sanded it down again today and in an hour's time it has rusted up again, I sanded it down once again and put WD-40 on the bare metal to maybe stop the rust but this didn't help, it just slowed the process down a little, anybody know what I can put on bare metal to stop the rusting process while I work with the bare metal. This rusting process has kind of surprised me because we've been having record temperatures and the humidity has been rather low since it hasn't rained here since about august. Any tips or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.