58 GMC Fleetside Beulah

[dubie]

Some of the older members may remember this truck from years back when we bought it. A local guy had this "56" Chevy pickup for sale so I went to check it out. I pull up, it has no front fenders on it, half buried in snow, the body looked pretty straight so we started to deal. I asked it if ran he said " i'm not sure, it hasn't been started in a couple years as far as I know" See, the guy i bought it from is a local used car guy that buys and sells. Fortunately I knew one of the previous owners, the guy that built the truck and drove it year round for 15 years. So the guy wanted $1500 and I immediately hit him at $750. We ended up settling at $900 and it was in our shop within 2 hours. We let it thaw, charged the battery over night and poured a little gas in the carb and cranked it over until she fired. It was a turn key driver indeed and a score at $900. We started to tear it down and then I accepted a transfer with the company I was working for and the truck got left behind for a few years. We came back and brought the truck home but it still hadn't had much done with it. Well now it's time

The plan is to mount the body to an S10 chassis and get it good and low. The reason for the swap is it already has a Nova clip welded in it, but it was done poorly and the frame was cut in the wrong spot. Instead of messing with someone else's crap, we're going to start fresh. It'll run a nicely built up 350 paired to a 700R4 and the rear end is a 3:73 posi. The can needs some love on the floor pans because years ago when the floors were bad and there weren't patch panels available, the owner made panels out of fiberglass. Well 25 years later, it all has to come out and be replaced with some metal. We lucked out and scored a beautiful straight rust free bondo free short fleetside bed from a guy in Alberta and we grabbed a set of original 58 fenders that need a small amount of attention. If all goes well, we should have the frame ready to go in the spring.

[Kim57]

Cool.
Kim

[ricott]

Loved your earlier build! Have you thought about using a Trailblazer frame? I'm about to start a 55 rebuild and will go in that direction using Dug's information. Is this truck going to be in the style of your currrent truck"?

[OrrieG]

Looks good, keepin' the gold trim???? >8^))

[_Ogre]

go dubie go

[dubie]

this build will be different from the shop truck. The body will be straight , the paint will be classy and the ride will be smooth. And no, that special edition gold trimming will be the first thing gone. My wifes favorite color for this truck is chrome so it'll all be heading off to the platers to get shined up

[meter swinger]

I don't know of a cooler truck than a 58-59 fleetside jimmy. Very sweet.

[dubie]

we have shifted our plan with this build. After much research, we are going to mount the body on the chassis of a 1995 Caprice. It will allow us to gain the stance and ride quality we are after and the cost is right. We should be ready to drag everything into the shop in September and get it the body mounts built and get the frame painted. We have some floor pans and steps to weld into the floor of the cab and a couple patches on the front fenders.

[daveshilling]

Originally Posted by dubie

we have shifted our plan with this build. After much research, we are going to mount the body on the chassis of a 1995 Caprice. It will allow us to gain the stance and ride quality we are after and the cost is right. We should be ready to drag everything into the shop in September and get it the body mounts built and get the frame painted. We have some floor pans and steps to weld into the floor of the cab and a couple patches on the front fenders.

Awesome, looking forward to it!

[ChuckDriver]

Very cool, I want to see how this swap works!

[Kim57]

Be sure and post lots of pics on the build.
Kim

[dubie]

Just located a frame and will be going to check it out tonight. It's a complete 93 Caprice wagon from the local wrecker that's going to cost me a whopping $300

[JML55]

Good luck with the new plans.

[dubie]

thanks bud. The wife would prefer to have a full chassis rather than a welded in clip under her truck. So after a lot of research and reading, I found a decent donor chassis that will ride and handle like a car, the way she wanted it.
I may end up still needing that chassis of yours. I'll be making that call before September. I have a Nova clip that I was thinking of cutting another frame and welding the clip into and building a donor chassis for my truck. Kind of how you did yours, build the chassis and then transfer the parts over

[Billys68SS]

I'm curious how that chassis is gonna fit with the turn out and perimeter frame. My buddy was thinking of using a 84 Monte Carlo frame under his 56 3100. But changed his mind. Don't really know what he ever determined.

[dubie]

The cab needs to be channeled to fit the frame but we have to replace some of the floor pans already so I'll just cut that out while I'm in there. The cab corners will need to be trimmed to fit as well

[_Ogre]

interesting frame swap, post up a pic of the bare frame
and document everything you do here too

[Spblack]

looks like you got the rear bag and notch ready to install with that frame. I like it.

[Kingmike]

I'm subscribed!
I'm running '92 Buick Roadmaster frame, we should have similar speed bumps!

[dubie]

Well the 93 chassis has sat in the dirt to damn long so we ended up buying a running driving 86 that will be getting delivered next week

[ChuckDriver]

Got any updates?

[dubie]

nothing as of yet. It was a busy past 2 weeks trying to finish up some other projects and get my daughter moved into her apartment. There should be some progress to report in the coming weeks, but thanks for checking back in

[dubie]

We officially start the tear down process tomorrow. We will wreck out the 58 and inventory all of the good parts and scrap the rest. Within the next 2 weeks we'll get the donor car here, wreck it out and get started on mocking up the body on the frame and get to fabricating some body mounts

[dubie]

Stripped

[ricott]

Tim , I love your truck, and can't wait to see how this one goes. Did you do the truck in post 16? I would like to see some more pictures of how that was done. I'm using a Trailblazer frame, and it would be easier if I made the steps not as deep.

Ricky