My 55 Chevy 4X4

[Truck Guy99]

Originally Posted by marc55

Not much to report this week but I have a good excuse. The best girlfriend ever took me to Maui for my birthday. I am thinking though going to work on the sway bar when I get back. Until then aloha.

Attachment 1318735

You poor thing..... You must be suffering

[marc55]

Vacation is over. I did upgrade the girlfriend to fiancee. It has rained for 2 weeks straight and now it is 32 degrees. I have been back for 1 1/2 week and just now getting back to the truck. I am playing with the sway bar I decided to try this and tuck it under the bed. I only have 3 inches of suspension compression before it will hit the bottom of the bed I may have to shorten the links.

[marc55]

Happy thanksgiving everyone. Doing a quick dinning room remodel the week before thanksgiving took up a lot of my time and not the best idea.


I was able to sneak out to the garage and finish my sway bar. I am happy with the way it came out. Everything clears under full suspension cycle. Sorry about the pics.

[Purcell69]

Nice build you have going Marc. Since you are planning on this being a daily driver, the LS motor would probably be a better choice. You should see better mpg than a TBI 350 or 383, and the LS should make more power when properly setup. Keep up the good work!

-Joe

[marc55]

Thanks for the comments. I have done the jeep thing for a while. I would use the disconnects if I was going to off road but this is going to be a pavement princess. The only time the 4 wheel drive is going to see any action is the 2 days a year we see snow here and the sad part about that is my fiancees Subaru does 10 times better than any 4x4 I have owned.

I am defiantly going to do the LS. Cold starts, good idle, no oil leaks and and engine that can goo 200K+ all makes sense. I have started looking for an engine and hope to have something in the next 3 months. I have a 68 Firebird I want to put an LS in and this will be a good test run for me.

[OrrieG]

Originally Posted by marc55

the sad part about that is my fiancees Subaru does 10 times better than any 4x4 I have owned.

I understand that, my wifes 4WD CR-V is the best all weather rig we have had for around town and road trips, modern ABS with collision avoidance system is nice.

[marc55]

Not much going on. Holidays take up a lot of time. Just pulling some dents out of the cab. There is only 3 dents so not much work. Need to start on a couple small patch panels in the floor.


My friends truck was rear ended they totaled out the hitch because of a scratch. Got to love insurance companies. so he gave it to me. Just need to narrow it a little.

[dyno]

Hey Marc, enjoying your build details. Welcome to the classic 4x4 brotherhood. I'm winding down on my '58 4x4 build. There is light at the end of the tunnel!

[bajabob]

sweet build... watching how it comes out !!!!

[marc55]

Thanks. dyno I have read your blog and you have done a lot of work in a short time. My goal was 2 years but I don't think I will make that. When I get to a point where I am going to have to spend some big money I drag my feet. My goal is to have the engine, trans in and running by May with all the sheet metal in epoxy primer and hung. I have Painted all my own project cars to this point but what I want to do with this one is out of my comfort zone. I have spent months going back and forth if I was going to paint the truck or not. Right now I am leaning towards getting it painted but that is a huge bite out of my budget.

[dyno]

I hear ya Marc. I took me 9 months to to all the rust restoration and paint. Then the stress on top of all of it trying to do a good job shooting it without problems!

[marc55]

Made a couple patch panels for the floor. Other than the hinge pocket this was the only rust in the cab.

[marc55]

Finished my floor patches and started filling some of the holes in the firewall. Not sure if I am going to do the bigger ones.

[rgunlock]

Your patch work looks good. How'd you form the round groove down the middle of the patches? I've tried similar but they didn't turn out looking that nice. Happy holidays!

[marc55]

When I bought the truck it actually came with that panel from an original dash. I think I am going to use a hidden stereo. I might smooth out the dash or at least get rid of the ash tray. I am going to experiment with making a storage pocket. I want to make a fake grill that looks like an AC vent that will pivot up where a pocket will be. If that doesn't work then back to original.

[marc55]

I finished my patch panel and started cutting out the dash.

[marc55]

Hopefully today the cab goes on the frame I added some gussets to the front cab mounts.

Also started on the dash pocket. I made a 2" lip that I will weld to the dash and make the rest of the box a sleeve that bolts to the lip.
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[marc55]

What I thought was going to be a 2 hour job turned into an all day event. After getting the cab on the frame it did not look right. The front of the cab was way Higher then the rear. Not knowing what was going on I had to put the bed on. The cab and the bed were not parallel. I think I forgot to account for the bushing thickness on the front mounts. I cut the the front mounts and got the cab and bed lined up. Side to side height is within 1/8" and the cab is about 1" high in the front but the engine should level it out. If not I will adjust the height up/down by rear suspension. I swear I had everything dialed in before I took it all apart. Now I am going to have to redo the core support mounts. Just one giant domino affect.


I also started welding in the sleeve for the dash pocket.

[marc55]

I finished the face of the dash pocket. I also hung the front sheet metal mostly to get it out of my way.


I am going to work my way from the back forward. I narrowed the hitch my friend gave me. Next I will get the rest of the bed stripped and in primer then work on the bed floor, tailgate, and tail lights. My goal is by mid March to have the bed all finished.

[twinsemi]

Great work on the truck and an awesome thread. I ran into it today looking for ideas on sway bar mounting. So I have only read it from your rear bar mounting concepts up to now. I still need to look at your front bar postings, because my rear bar is done. I will probably steal your bed and storage box ideas. So this post should qualify as full disclosure. I wanted to do something like your console, but my ECU is mounted on the firewall hump and it hinges back from there. My gauges wanted to go there for a while. Also, my Vintage Air center outlet is going in there too. It is a popular place. I really want to see how your windows turn out. I have some replacement trim for mine, but the vent window question has me on the fence. When they stopped making them in the 60's I was bummed. But thieves like them too. Good luck.

[marc55]

Thanks, As for the door The only skin I could find was from the bottom up about 10 inches. The inner brace is bent and when I replaced the skin it still took on the shape of the upper part of the door. I need to do some serous tweeking on the inner brace to pop it out. When I put the seat in the other day my console was perfect easy to reach the radio and I really want a little pocket for my phone and wallet you dont realize how usefull they are untill they are missing. The good part is the console bolts on so I can alwys remove it. I will probabally put some ac vent in the dash where the radio is supose to go if not I will just smooth it out. One piece windows look good but the vent window is the front track for the window and I have read they get floppy and don't roll up and down good. I am going to try to talk to people at car shows that have the one piece see how they like them but I still think I like the look of the wing window.

[marc55]

Finished my outer bumper mounts and did some body work.

I would like to say I planned it this way but I got lucky. A little tweak in the press
and a spacer on the core support and the bracket fit perfect.

[marc55]

Nice to see they did some things right 60 years ago. The bumper is cleaning up nice. I would take an old one any day over a new Chinese one any day.

[marc55]

Just working on odds and ends until I start on my fuel system and front steering. I ordered all the felt and rubber for my door windows. I did not have a good before pic of the driver fender but it was pretty bad by the wheel well and rocker. I was able to straighten it out. I have read about shrink disks and it worked great to take all the little high and lows out from the hammer and doll work. I also got the hood to sit better with some big hammer love and moving the front hood brace.

[6BT 56]

Looking good . What's your plan for e brake with the disk rear? I have been wanting to do mine for some time but haven't found a affordable e brake solution . Too bad abt needing new rims . I think those gm factory truck rallys just look like they belong on these trucks.

Keep up the great work .