Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Also got the drive shaft shortened and installed. The guys and Clutch Products here in Mobile did a great job. They even polished the aluminum tube a bit for me.

A few misc. shots of road trip....

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Awesome!! Love the stance and the blackout headlight effect is really cool!

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Installed the passenger seat. After I got it installed, I realized the center seam is sewn in an arc rather than straight like the driver seat. Provides the illusion that the seat is in at an angle. Welded nuts flush in the top of the floor beam and bolted them in. I will probably remount these using a piece of 1/8" plate the width of the seat on top of the floor beam. Not real comfortable with how the are currently mounted with regard to pullout during a wreck. Note the passenger seat bracket at the driveshaft is hovering in space where the transmission tunnel belongs. Will have to bend and mount it once the tunnel is in place.

Received my Corvette (fits '08 to '11) radiator tonight. Got it on Ebay for $109 including shipping. Trimmed the four condenser mounting brackets off of the tanks using a wood coping saw and slid it into place. Radiator fits nicely between body mounts and flush on the face of the core support, however, I will have to trim the passenger side mount 1/4" more so the radiator is centered in the core support opening. I have 3-3/8" from the radiator core to the tip of the threaded end on the pulley. That's good news. May even be able to use the Corvette cooling fan. If not, I can always use an aftermarket thin unit. Will purchase radiator hoses next.

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Looking good. That's cool that the radiator fit.
Kim

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Fabricated the bottom radiator mounts and got them tacked in place. Used old bed rails. Gotta get some fresh scrape metal. Fabricated one of the top mounts and bolted it in place. Bolts go through the sheetmetal that covers the core support and the top angle iron of the core support. When I tightened it, the sheetmetal distorted so I will have to do some additional work. Factory rubber mounts used for the bottom and a pair of off the shelf grommets used for the top. Radiator is good and tight. Not sure but it may be a bit too tight. Passenger side of the radiator is about 1/8" from the body mount. May trim it a bit next time it is off.

Hitting the wrecking yards trying to find a radiator filler cap assembly and overflow tank. Grabbed a number of old GM hoses and began chopping them up to get cleanest installation. The top hose will be a bit complicated but the bottom one is not.

After the gravity run the other day, I have been distracted by the thought of tacking the bed together and putting it on just to see how it looks. What I really need to do is pull the engine and transmission since, in my hurry to get started, I chose not to install the torque converter or new engine mounts. It will give me the opportunity to finish some of the welds that are currently just tack welds.

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Looking great man, looking really great. Good work.

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

great progress. Those seats are going to be killer comfortable

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

COming along great! I love the maiden voyage. lol

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Pulled the front clip, engine and transmission so I could install the new motor mounts and torque converter. While I have it apart, I will catch on some blasting and welding.

Fired up the new 110 lb H.F. sandblaster and blasted the core support. Had to buy a deadman for it to turn it into something reliable. Went to the local supply house to buy sand. They don't sell it anymore so I bought some black blast (coal...really). $9 for a 100 lb bag. Had to screen it to get it thru the blaster which took out about 30% of the bag. Used the entire bag on the core support and still had chunks that stopped up the deadman. Got to find something easier to use. Leaves quite a texture which I have not decided is good or bad...yet. Paint will have not problem grabbing on.

Core Support...removed the cross bracing and added an angle iron at the bottom of the verticals. Filled holes and finished many of the welds. Also cleaned up and welded the sway bar gussets to the ends of the frame horns. Remember, I took 12.5" off the ends of the frame horns many months ago. The sway bar on this thing is massive hence the flat cornering in the gravity video.

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Looking good.
Kim

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

I just finished ( mostly ) my 58 with a LS 2.....And had it out yesturday for a drive...and nothing but nothing says loving like a LS ....

Great build keep up the great work...

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Just went thru all 7 pages of your build Dug. I'm definitely impressed. You got some pretty clean work going on. Gonna be checking this one out on the regular!!

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Thanks guys. So, I have been able to log in a bunch of hours. Got the core support finished. With the encouragement of my buddy Jim, I have decided to go a good bit further backwards and get things done that I would have been putting off in my quest to drive it around the neighborhood this winter.

Engine (with new mounts and all accessories) and transmission (with torque converter) are now installed and mounted back in the frame. I picked up two 5 gallon buckets of metric nuts/bolts from my friends at Autoworld here in Mobile. By the way, pretty heavy. I was metric bolt challenged until then. Being able to match sets of bolts has been a life saver. Note the handy hole through the oil pan for tie down purposes. One size fits all in the Trailblazer platform. They appear to all be setup for 2WD and 4WD. The Trailblazer 5.3 is all aluminum and the key difference I believe between it and the truck aluminum LS is the oil pan. I looked back at my receipts. I paid $600 for the engine and $400 for the transmission and they have 60k miles on them. They came out of the same vehicle and I got all of the parts that came on it(including the computer) except the alternator. I did not get the drive by wire gas pedal which I believe I have successfully found and installed. Won't really know until I get the wiring done.

Using the chain mounted to the floor to get the cab off worked well except I did not use enough chain. The hook needs to be further from the floor to keep it from being top heavy. Got a little dicey with it trying to roll over. I ran out of hands doing it myself.

Started on the firewall. Counted over 50 holes, tears, gouges, etc. to fill. Cut the master cylinder plate out of the old '59 frame. The good news is that I get to cover up the hole I cut in the firewall from under the dash for the master cylinder. Was not a pretty hole. The nuts you see are for my pedal assembly struts. The plate and nuts are now welded in place. Since my arms aren't long enough to reach the back of the firewall with my handy copper backer tool, I took one of my H.F. red magnets and filed the edge off to install a piece of flattened 1/2" copper pipe. Bent it into an "L" shape and put a bolt through it to attach it to the magnet. Will use it today and photograph it if it works.

So far, based on some advice from an old timer, I have used wood cutting hole saws to cut several holes in some pretty heavy plate. Mounted the plate to a piece of wood that is in the vice mounted on the drill press table. Used alot of oil and have been able to reuse the blade more than once. I have a drawer full of them (for 20 years) from my Dad's estate so I had nothing to lose.

Ended up with 6 bags of glass beads for my blaster. Got two bags for free since they were torn and paid $10 each for the other 50 lb bags since they did not have the proper markings on the bag for retail to businesses. They are said to retail for $27 per bag. Will attempt to collect it and rescreen it if I can bring myself to use it. Also dried and screened a bunch of Home Depot playground sand I had laying around.

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Wow! Your making a lot of headway. Keep it going!

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Nice progress. The radiator came out nice.
Kim

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Shot a picture of the welding magnet modified to hold a piece of smashed copper pipe. Works great provided the hole you are trying fill is flat and in a place that has enough area for the magnet to grab. Note that I had to grind a bit of the magnet frame so the copper is flush with the edge of the magnet frame.

The 5.3 looks like a pretty big engine when all the sheetmetal is removed.

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Just took a quick cruise back over your thread. You opted for a new engine wiring harness. I did not pick up on why you bailed out on reusing the original harness. ?? Also, made the mistake of rereading your bad day thread when the bed got damaged. That was horrible. Hopefully you got that rectified.

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Thanks. Love the Iphone app art work. Will be looking into this. dug

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Good idea on the magnet.
the frame looks good.
Kim

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Kim: Thanks...did you wire your LS yet? Do you plan on stripping the OEM harness or are you buying a fresh one? Thx Dug

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

You've got a nice build going on there. Subscribed.

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

I got a fresh one from PSI. I had them flash my computers also.
Kim

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Last day for the truck for a week. Yesterday I sand blasted the firewall using screened playground sand. Went pretty quickly until I hit the undercoating. Will have to find another way to take it off. Recovered about 80% of the sand and rescreened. Will put a trarp down next time.

Got the cab mounts on the driver side finished. Cut the top off flush with the top of the frame and cut out a plate to fill it. The small corner cut is for the front of the cab step. Ground down the welds on the frame where the old mounts were located. Discovered that the front mount was an integral part of the frame. By the time I finished grinding the welds, there were two vertical openings (1/16" wide) in the frame from top to bottom. Welded them up and hit it with a wire brush and paint.

Finished the day by cramming everything on one side of the garage to get the wifes car back in. dug

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Got the four cab body mounts boxed and painted. Cut out the area behind the old battery and the area where the steering column went through and replaced. Filled all but three of the remaining holes in the firewall. The nail trick (thanks Kabwe) came in very handy. Much grinding to do. Still a welding hack but improving.

May go ahead and replace the rotten passenger floor while I have the cab off. The water that got in that rotted the floor came through a hole somebody drilled from inside the cab through the cowel. Everytime it rained, it drained into the cab. Note the repair in the top left of the firewall photos. dug

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Looking good.
Kim

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

What Kim said, I'm really enjoying this build!

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Tossed the cab back on the frame and reinstalled the steering column and pedal assembly so I could cut the hole for the steering shaft and get the trans tunnel started. Patched the top left triangular piece that I got carried away with when doing my initial trans cut. Ordered cab corners, passenger floor and both steps with integral rockers so I can get started on the sheet metal.

Did a preliminary 10 minute mockup of the trans tunnel. Shorter but wider than I envisioned. Will push it to the right to get a little more clearance right of the gas pedal. Remember, the trans is 1"+ off center to the right. Cleaned up the donor shifter and e-brake units and took a look. Top is currently rectangular. May tapper it on the next mockup and see how it looks. Fortunately, when I removed the e-brake from the Ranier donor, I drilled out and removed the bracket it mounts to. The bracket comes with the mounting points for the cables under the vehicle.

Also, cut the long piece of steel (you can see it in the 3rd photo) to begin fabricating the beam that that the fronts of the seats mount to. Decided to abandon my initial approach which simply bolted seats to the existing beam and create this long piece with nuts welded to the bottom. Once fabricated, I will weld to the front and top of the existing beam. This piece will also bridge the structural beam I cut out for the trans/driveshaft clearance. The bridge will get a couple of pieces on top to replace what I cut out below and will be under the trans tunnel and out of site.

Question: Does anyone know what the third hole in the firewall is for under the hing mounting holes? You can see it in the top left of the first photo below. Could not determine what it was for so I was not brave enough to weld it closed. It is under the fender liner. thx dug

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Looking good.
I have no idea about the hole.
Kim

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

photo is cropped this might help.

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Thanks Kim.

OrrieG: I don't see it on your drawing. Worst case scenario is that I leave it open and, if not ultimately used, I put a nut and bolt through it. One of our fellow bloggers will be bringing his '58 Fleetside by soon. I will take a look at his. Thx for the drawing. dug.

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Antenna wire hole?

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

I will give that some thought. Took a look at your build. Now THAT's a project. One of my buddies had a Travelall back in High School. Was amazing what we could fit in that thing. dug

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Well one of the reasons i bailed on the factory harness was the amount of time it was going to take for me to do ....a few other reasons were the guy that was supposed to give me a hand pulled a no show a couple of times...and to send it out and wait....well it was easier to just buy a harness and fly at it. That was my first LS build so if i would have been on it earlier it might have been differnt...........But since then I started my low and go 66 short box that is getting a 6.2 ltr supercharged LSA set up and I think i will use more of the cars options and harness.......see how that rolls so to speak. I see your making progress....trucks looking great...going to be a great ride

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Got the trans tunnel bent and installed thanks to my buddy Jim. He dragged some steel over and set up a short metal brake. Matched the template on the first try but my cardboard template was not as accurate as it could have been. Had to add some steel here and there to get the welding done. Did not weld the passenger side since that floor will be replaced when I take it back off of the frame. Learned alot about warping on this weld. Had to slow down and space out the tacks. Jim also provided the piece of sheetmetal. It came from his dead packaged AC unit.

Before the tunnel went in, I fabricated the front seat mounting plate. It also acted as the bridge over the driveshaft to replace the portion I had to cut to clear the driveshaft. Welded the entire perimeter and added some support over the driveshaft.

Next move is to fabricate the trans tunnel between the seats. It will be the mounting point for the E-Brake and I will utilize the sheetmetal I took out of the donor that has all the mounting points. Right now, the shifter feels good left of center and the e-brake to the right of center. Note the that the centerline of the tunnel ended up 5/8" to the right of the center of the cab.

Started looking for a welder so I can Jim's back to him. I have my eye on a Millermatic 211. Factory is offering a 15% rebate. Any comments and recommendations would be appreciated.

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Looks good but you might consider making it removable. Make getting to shift stuff, transmission bolts, etc. easier. My transfercase is a B to align and mount from the bottom only too. Look at the photo in your post 187 to see all the stuff on the top of the tranny that is impossible to get to from the bottom.

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Looking good.
As far as welders I've been using my Lincoln for over 15 years without any problems at all.
I'm sure the Miller is a good unit also.
Kim

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

You are right...future maintenance would have been enhanced with it being removable and I did not do myself any favors keeping the tunnel smallish. Too late....it is officially welded in place. I guess I could add some access doors for the plug and the shift linkage. No telling what I will do if I can decide to pull the trigger on the new welder. Thx..dug

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

I can buy 2.5 H.F. disposable welders for what the dual voltage Miller costs but I intend to keep it for a while. The Miller 211 has an autoset control option which may be nice for a guy like me. The dual voltage makes it more portable than the 220V only models. The one I have been using is a Linde 100 and we think it is over 25 years old. It hadn't been used for years and it fired right up and ran good after I changed out the wire. I seem to be using alot of shielding gas. I leak tested everthing I can get to. I have it dialed down as low as it will go and still give me good welds. May have a leak somewhere or maybe I am just welding a bunch. Thx dug

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

Check where the gas tubing feeds into the stinger section there at the welder. This is a common area for leak. Maybe the stinger is not fully seated into it's housing or whatever seal/o ring that they use is not there or leaking.

Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
 

I've got a 211. They are great.
Smart weld capability, 110-220 with a switch of a pig tail end. You can use a spool gun if you have one. I use .030 wire in this machine.

For sheet metal though nothing beats my little Lincoln sp-100 with .023 wire.

Your work is coming along great.