I haven't got a crew......

[AUSSIE54]

Thanks for the tip Red. When the diff finally made it to me and I discovered that one of the axle tubes had lost grip with the poor factory plug welds and had walked it's way out of the housing by 3/4", I was quite dubious about the whole set up, so have bought a complete set of new bearings and seal to go in it. Mines LSD with a set of 4.11:1 gears in it which should make for interesting highway use! I too are going to run the leafs and all of the crewman brakes etc. I should be onto making the brackets this Friday night to get it hanging off the chassis. Just wondering what pinion you're using in yours? Is it standard commodore? If so, which model?
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[AUSSIE54]

Gday all,
Got the final design sorted for my rear shackle mounts on Friday and picked up some new shackles it. Cut some brackets to suit but not welded yet. No photos sorry. My wheels should have hit Melbourne on Saturday. I should be getting them on this coming Friday. Woo Hoo!! I was hoping to get the chassis' rear end ready for their arrival but it is not to be. It always takes longer to get things done than one would hope.

Regards,

Trently.
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[xpickup]

AUSSIE54, I can not wait to see it setting on the ground with the wheels on it. Keep up the great work.

Shannon

[Red Foreman]

Trent, just curious, do you ship with anyone in particular in Melbourne? Just that I have some goodies coming shipped with classic chev, their due this week also.

[AUSSIE54]

G'day All,

Red, I had some delays in getting the wheels as you know, but they finally turned up today!

I haven't updated for a while but with the impending arrival of the wheels, the first two which I had picked up from Ebay around last August and had then subsequently ordered the front two from Pete at Felten Motors (who had also supplied the rears), I thought I'd better set about sorting out the mounting of the rear end before they got here. Not having used a lathe much and also not having used a mill since high school, I was fortunate enough to get a few pointers from my work mate and then I proceeded to rough up the rear mounts for the leaf spring shackles and a support for them to run through the chassis. Following that, I knocked up the front spring mounts and shot all of that into place on Saturday also getting the diff and front end bolted in ready for the wheels. Picked up the wheels tonight and I gotta say it felt like Christmas all over again! The wheels had been packaged perfectly for their transit to Australia and arrived here in great shape. Thanks again Pete, all of your help in getting the wheels here was fantastic! Got back here to Bendigo and threw the axles, discs and calipers onto the diff and then the wheels for a dummy fit. And then I couldn't stop!!! Too easy to get carried away but I'm extremely happy with the result so far. There still needs to be the inch taken out of the front coils and I'm thinking that the rear springs may be a bit soft or have even been reset by the previous owner and might need to come up an inch or so by the time the weight of the tub goes on. All in all everything has lined up as I have planned so far which says a lot about the old adage of measure twice, cut once...........

Shannon: Well here it is, wait no longer! Although the rear looks a little empty don't you think?


Machined rear shackle mounts:




Front of rear leaf spring mount:




Rear shackles in place:

[AUSSIE54]

Diff in place:


Both front and rear ends in ready for the wheels:


Wheels have finally arrived!:




Quick dummy up:

[AUSSIE54]

More of the dummy up:

[_Ogre]

nice fab work aussie

[VA72C10]

Looking awesome! Great fab work and love the wheels!

[ghettoluxury]

Trently, That rear shackle mount is killer. I would have never thought of doing it like that. I love it!

[duallyjams]

New shoes look good.

[xpickup]

Trently, Looks great. I thought we would just see the wheels not most of the truck together. You have been busy putting all that together. I know how it is seeing it all come together. Wheels look great and love the rear spring mounts and all the fab work. It is always good when your work has all the right tools to get it done (lathe and mill). See nothing too it. At least your high school had those tools. My school did not , I just got lucky to get into it. Great work.

Shannon

[AUSSIE54]

Thanks to all for the positive comments.

Ghettoluxury, I'm guessing that you are meaning the step in the chassis. I did it that way as it best suited the spring/reared set up that I'm using I've been taking measurements from off the Holden crewman ute at work which is the same as what the rear came from.

Shannon, yeah it was good to have the little engineering workshop at school. Seems like such a long time ago. As far as putting it all together, once I had the wheels on I just couldn't stop. It is all only just sitting there though.

Regards,

Trently.
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[ghettoluxury]

Originally Posted by AUSSIE54

Attachment 901570

This is the bracket I was talking about but I do like the step you put into the frame.

[Red Foreman]

Wheels look great, well worth the wait! Some ripper work there mate!!
Btw I spotted something that looks familiar, I always knew we had something in common

[AUSSIE54]

G'day Red, thanks mate. Just wondering if you'd like to throw a photo on of the bracket you made for your shocker mount. Also wondering what shocker you used?
Trently.
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[Red Foreman]

No Probs Trent, all I did was cut off the original rear shock mounts & attach them to the dampner upright on the crewman plates. Shocks are a hand me down off my mates 64 c10, I think by memory they're a 4" drop from ccp.

[AUSSIE54]

G'day All,

After much deliberation on what to do with the rear doors, we finally settled on the one of the original plans which was to run the rear doors suicide style using the factory hinges and keeping both front doors stock. For a while I was contemplating to run slightly lengthened front doors and suicide rears with the 'B' pillar built into the rear door. Although this has been done before by others, the effort and time involved, not to mention it being an extra headache and cost in getting the mods passed by the authorising engineer prior to registration negated that we should maintain our pre project plan of using the K.I.S.S. method.

Keep It Simple Stupid!

So Friday night we set about trimming the door jams from out of one of the spare cabs and after cleaning up the pieces, tacking them into place. Front left jam with hinges went into right rear position and vise versa for the front left. A big thanks to Troy and Skip for all of their help yet again. Thanks fella's, this project wouldn't be the same without your valuable input.

Red: Thank you for the pictures of your shocker mounts. Gives some food for thought.

Here are some pics of the progress.

Regards,

Trently.

[AUSSIE54]

[_Ogre]

looking good aussie
are you running 2 full size doors back to back with a shared b-pillar?
that sounds easy, easy as pie.... (pie that takes 2 years to make )
is the plan to use a rear door frame to shape the rear of the suicide doors?
hopefully 54 doors are plentiful down under

inspiration for you: 6'' stretch in the front doors. 8 doors used total to make 4.

[BLK2K2SILVY]

Awesome project Aussie! Can't wait to see all the sheetmetal on the cab!

[Dinos63]

always top notch work!!

[xpickup]

Trently, Door pillars look great. Your cab will be good and stiff with it like that rather than no pillar. You guys got a lot done. Keep up the great work.

Shannon

[AUSSIE54]

G'day All,

Ogre: I hope it will only be two years! Or less would be best!!
Plans are to use two rear frames to build the doors and two rear upper sections of door jam to make up the rest of the structure. Rear doors will be shortened 4" from stock. Front doors remain the original size. Front doors will cop one piece glass so that they hopefully look slightly longer than the rears. Of course they actually will be, but take into account the visual aspect of the sloping 'A' pillar which will make the front door window look smaller in length. I'm hoping that we'll be able to pull off the right look without having the rear door window looking longer than the front.

That little wagon is one cool looking ride! Wonderfully executed!!

BLK2K2SILVY: thanks mate, I too are looking forward to the sheet work. I'm hanging to get into the rear doors!

Dinos63 and Xpickup: Thankyou guys; yes Shannon, the cab will certainly be much stronger this way. I will be tying the tops of the doors together on each side by laying a piece of 2" x 1" x 14# rectangular tube on the inside of the channel that forms the top of the door jams. That size section slips in nicely and with a length running front to rear should help give the roof strength to no end!
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[shadow1967]

Nice Looking truck! Just read the thread. Nice work and love the engine choice. I'm planning on useing the same motor with a turbo, in a 1938 chevy sedan. Seven main bearings can you say 20lbs. boost! Or more.