51 Chevy Build

[Hilljack51]

I figured I’d start a build thread to both share my experience and to serve as some sort of journal for myself along the way, and since I’ve finally started working on it (again) I figured now would be as good as a time as ever. I bought this truck back in Michigan at the naive age of 14, and proceeded to strip it down to the frame the following weekend. The truck had a running 250 straight six from a 1956 and the 3 speed, and aside from severe rust the truck was fully intact. Why I didn’t just drive it I’ll never know. I ran into the age old problem of balancing time and money, and at that age I had plenty of time but hardly any money.

Fast forward 14 years, and the truck has survived through high school, moving away to college for 4 years, moving to South Carolina, getting married, buying a house, and the birth of my son, all while being mostly in pieces and untouched, aside from being shoved into garages throughout all of this. Now that I have regained some stability in my life I’ve actually been able to start making some progress again, even if it is slower than I’d like. Throughout the years I was able to get the cab completed and in primer, and collect several various other body panels and parts to help accelerate the process once I get going.

The goal is to build a drivable street rod that is both reliable and fun to drive. The plan is to build it from the ground up, with mustang II IFS and triangulated 4-link in the back with airbags all the way around. Power will be generated by a GM LS V8, through a 4L60E and delivered to the wheels via a posi-trac 10 bolt (subject to change). The body will remain OE aside from the shaved cab vents and gas tank fill neck. Interior will also be pretty much stock aside from a reupholstered seat and updated electronics and sound. Like I said before, the balance between time and money is always a fine line so the progress may vary but I plan on keeping this as updated as possible. Here it is as it sits today.

[jhnpldng]

Cool. I hear ya on the time and money thing. Never seem to have enough of both at the same time. Only one or the other.
The S10 swap seems to be the budget friendly way to go. Gets you power/disc brakes, PS etc and there's plenty of aftermarket stuff for the S10s for V8 upgrades, suspension etc.

[Hilljack51]

Step one in the chassis building process is to install the Mustang II IFS. I was able to mock it up this weekend and finish most of the math involved in hanging the cross member. The crossmember is from Welder Series and is fairly straight forward once you nail down wheel diameter and ride height. Ride height has been "set" at right around 4" at the lowest point on the body with a 13" spindle height, which SHOULD still give me enough movement to make it over most obstacles while still being able lay it out on the running boards with the airbags deflated.

[Advanced Design]

Congratulations on getting to build your truck and it is amazing you held onto it all these years. I will be tagging along.

[oldman3]

Welcome to the group, I'll hang around for the build...Jim

[Hilljack51]

Alright, made a small amount of progress last night by trimming some of the fat off of the front of the frame that isn't needed anymore. The largest section coming from the old motor mount/core support crossmember. Don't mind the misguided cut on the frame rail. It's the result of a misaligned guide on the saw-zaw, or at least that was the excuse I'm using.




I also cut off the small portion of the frame rail that fans out at the bottom to meet the cross member. I squared it off in order to box in the frame, and to clean it up a bit. It still need a few finishing touches to make it look "factory" but it was getting late, and I'm sure the neighbors wouldn't like to hear a grinder put them to sleep. I did finish the boxing panel templates though, and hope to get those cut out and tacked by the end of the week.

[iowaboynca]

Nice start. I used the Welders series too and was happy with it. Don't have it on the road yet but was happy with the install.

[SalvagedSouls]

Subscribed... I too will be using a Welder Series crossmember and will be checking back to see how yours turns out.

[fisherman420]

Will be keeping away on this one while away at work thinking about my project. Mine has also been many years in the making and finally starting to come together (maybe even start a build thread) It will be worth it once you go for that first cruise, good luck!

[Hilljack51]

Fisherman, it's a feat in itself just keeping old trucks around long enough to even start working on them.

[Hilljack51]

Alright, made a good amount of progress this weekend. Boxed in the front of the frame, and installed the Welder Series MII crossmember and spring towers. Had some issues with getting the pieces in place due to the low ride level, but after rereading the instructions and notching out the frame everything is tacked together and is looking really good. Can't say enough about the quality of this Welder Series kit. I paid a little extra to have it pre welded and it was definitely worth it and looks way better than I would've been able to do it as the spring towers are TIG welded and are levels above what me and my little MIG could have done. Sorry to flood everyone with pictures, but I'm pretty excited with the progress.

[oldman3]

Very nice, more pictures the better...Jim

[iowaboynca]

Looks great!

[fisherman420]

My dad always told me "measure twice, cut once" and by the looks of your sharpie marks you've done just that! well done sir, keep it up!

[Hilljack51]

Thanks guys, it's been a lot of fun getting back into this project.

Originally Posted by fisherman420

My dad always told me "measure twice, cut once" and by the looks of your sharpie marks you've done just that! well done sir, keep it up!

I measured 3 or 4 times on this install, and still almost made a mistake! Can't be too careful.

[Hilljack51]

Anyone have a good source for Mustang II control arms? I'd like a set of tubular but am seeing a pretty wide range of prices and would like some recommendations.

Thanks in advance!

[Hilljack51]

Alright, finally back at it after a tough lesson on quality parts. Thought I had found a good deal on control arms only to find out that they were not built correctly as they lower arm kicked back my spindle an inch or so behind my centerline and the uppers made correct alignment virtually impossible. With that said, I finally did what I should've done in the first place and ordered a set from CPP and installed them yesterday. Couldn't be happier with their products. Hope to get the front on the ground this upcoming weekend and make sure I have enough movement without the bags to lay it out and still get over the unnecessarily large curb in my driveway. But for now I need to focus on the rear.



Also made a couple good finds at a swap meet over the weekend and grabbed a set of original running boards in great shape, and a new steering wheel, which I believe is out of a '55 Chevy car.

[Hilljack51]

Moving on to the rear suspension... Got several heavy packages packed full of Welder Series goodies. I ordered their triangulated 4-link for air bags, C-notch kit, and M2 to GM caliper brackets. Once again I am very happy with the quality that is put out by these guys. Great stuff!

[Hilljack51]

Started setting the axle in place to mock up the 4 link. I plan on running the same size wheel and tire combo all the way around so the axle center-line was set at the same 13" that I set the front spindles at. With the frame at ride height I was happy to see that I have a decent amount of clearance between the frame and axle so I won't need a super tall C-notch which will give me more options when it comes to my bed floor.





I've also been playing around with the rear axle center-line point because I want the wheel centered in the rear fender, instead of slightly forward like it was originally. I ended up only adding an inch to the original 116" wheel base and I hope the bed to cab clearance will allow for any fine tuning once I get the bed together.

[Advanced Design]

Too bad about the control arm issues though good you have that sorted out.

A few folks here have made use of Welder series and were pleased.

Moving right along with your project.

[Hilljack51]

Alright, more progress and milestones made this week. It's finally starting to get real to me now, and it's been very motivating to see this thing start to take shape.

The rear suspension was a pretty painless process once the math was figured out with both the extended wheel base and desired ride height. The instructions from Welder Series are a bit vague, but as long as you possess a bit of fabrication skills and suspension knowledge it doesn't take long to get the gist, and I was able to get the exact geometry I was looking for out of their kit by only straying a bit out of their guidelines. The bars are sent without the bushing sleeves on either end so I welded those on earlier in the week to save some time.

Started it all by boxing in the frame, and centering the rear axle in frame with it at ride height, and set the pinion angle and marked and installed the lower bars so that they were parallel with both the axle and the mounts on the frame.



The upper bars were also pretty seamless. The upper frame brackets are universal so they had to be trimmed to sit flush with the frame at the desired angle.



The C-Notch kit is also from Welder Series, and was pretty slick to put together. Just bent and tacked together before marking the radius to cut out to fit flush with the frame. At this point I almost made a rookie mistake by initially planning on centering the notch with the rear axle...at ride height. Luckily I got some sense before tacking them in and did my best to calculate the geometry of the axle during the full range of travel. It turned out that the C-Notch need to sit a full inch and a quarter in front of axle center lie at ride height in order for the axle to be centered with the bags fully deflated. Once the notches were tacked well inside and outside, the moment of no return came, and we cut the original frame out from the center of the notch.



Overall it took me and my dad a solid day to install everything, but a majority of that was cutting out and and installing the boxing plates. We also did a lot of measuring and remeasuring and measuring some more to get everything as perfect as we could. I am really pleased with how it turned out and looking forward to finishing the rest of the suspension. I am holding off on installing the bag mounting plates and upper shock bar until I order the air bags so I know for sure it'll be right.

[Hilljack51]

Here it is on all four wheels and laid out on the running boards. Don't mind the jack stand, I had a flat tire.

[oldman3]

Nice job, looks good...Jim

[joedoh]

outstanding! love it!