1957 Chevy truck re-rebuild

[lynx5653]

awesome craftmanship

[tbrown5079]

Great testimony Jim. I too appreciate the comments on my build and we are in similar periods of our builds. I don't have much expreience fabricating on my own but have had help from some great friends ( and made a few along the way ) and have amazed myself with what I have accomplished. You have raised the bar though as your build is awesome. Keep on posting!
tbrown

[Russell Ashley]

Great testimony Jim, thank you for it. Obviously you have been blessed with great skills.

[Stepside Jim]

Hi guys, I wanted to reply earlier but I was about maxed out on my bites for the month.

tbrown5079, I didn't get a chance to go deep into your build but I did notice two things. 1) you've come a long ways to get where you are now. 2) yes we are close in completion. I wonder if there is some graduate ceremony we get once we complete a project.

If everybody thinks the way I do..... Do we ever really finish the project?

Thanks Russell Ashley and lynx5653for the support.

Otherwise I'm still fitting pieces and parts for the time being. I'm near the time of starting the wiring. I know once I start that, I will need to be focused for a while so I wanted to assemble some of the truck just so when I walk in the shop I can be motivated each time just by looking at the truck.

Just for a visual, a side shot. I still have the rear bumper, bed wood and tail gate to install, I hope these will lower the rear just a bit more and I'll be happy with the stance.


Hood and bumper is missing here but I did get the fender inner flaps painted black behind the grill. Otherwise I'm absolutely pleased with the personality that the front has taken on.


The extra time I took during the build and during the tear down, is showing now during the reassembly. Cross my fingers so far but no fighting to get things to fit back together again.

Jim

[oldman3]

Truck looks super, you should be proud (I know you are) of the work you have done. Just a great looking ride, even without the rest of the paint and parts....Jim

[Kim57]

Your truck is looking great.
Kim

[ChuckDriver]

Wow, that's something to be thankful for!!

[Stepside Jim]

Let's get this updated... Proud is the perfect word, I still have to stop in the shop unnecessarily to get look at how it's turning out.

I had the hood all painted top and bottom, yup, I even cut and buffed most of the underside of the hood too. lol.

I had an urge to install the hood last Monday, only I was alone. Then I remembered Ogre mentioned something about the hood on the 55 -57 mounting to the firewall, hmmmmmmm I thought, I haven't installed the inner fender panels yet. So, I got the hood hinges, removed the springs and bolted the hinges to the firewall. Then removed the wheels and put sheets around the fenders and put the hood in place. I bolted the front bolts of the hinges to the hood then opened the hood and installed the rear bolts. Opened the hood all the way and installed the springs. One man hood install completed.


I'm still deciding on what I want to do with an outside mirror. I'm not sure where I want to go with it yet.

I did all the buffing on the firewall to get a good reflection of the engine, plan worked well.


I got rid of the chrome dual feed line and went with all steel braided line, I was looking for a tough look.


Otherwise I'm working on the vent windows. Slow going.... I ordered the window setting rubber tape from the common parts suppliers. I need 1/32" for the vent window, they keep sending 1/16". I just ordered 1/32" off e-bay, hopefully it'll be right and I can move forward once again.

I began the window tinting only to find the roll had small wrinkles from manufacturing and had to order another roll.

Oh well, nobody said it was gonna be easy or fast.

[oldman3]

Looking great Jim, nice job with the hood....Jim

[Kim57]

Looks great.
Kim

[Clarance J]

Jim it looks absolutely GREAT. I can almost see your smile on your face when you go out on your first run. I know that you'll be looking at those big store glass reflections going down the street. Great work.

Earl

[ChuckDriver]

Man that looks awesome!

Do you have any concern that the cylinder head might transfer heat to the fuel filter?

[bowt1ed]

Hey Jim, what booster/master cylinder did you go with, and brakes? As always - looks fantastic! Jim

[Stepside Jim]

Thanks all, I'm really pleased with the outcome so far. I will better know the finished result as I roll through town, looking at my reflection .Clarance J

ChuckDriver, the space between the head and the filter is something I do think about, good observation. The picture makes it look closer than it is, the space is a little over an inch. I would prefer more space but I have the upper heater hose fitting on top, no problem. The lower heater hose coming out of the water pump is only allowing me to be where I am or move drastically further out, I settled on this location. It is a 2 inch filter, they have smaller diameter of this style but the smaller ones use a simple screen, sure it'll filter ok but it won't hold much dirt before it restricts the flow. This one has a true filter that will catch much more dirt before it restricts flow.

bowt1ed, I went with a Stainless Steel brakes chrome 9" booster and used a new Camaro cylinder. I cleaned the outside of the cylinder and sprayed one coat of epoxy and 3 coats of gloss black urethane paint. Then ordered a chrome cover from Summit. I'll be using silicone brake fluid which won't attack the black paint like regular DOT 3 fluid would.

As for the brakes I kept the original '79 Camaro setup. I used Hawk Performance front pads and Napa's premium rear shoes. Sure sure I could have upgraded to aftermarket four wheel disc brakes but I figure I can drive this for a while and since the upgrade is a bolt on process I can do that later down the road.

I'll be using a radical camshaft which will have low vacuum, too low for the booster to work properly. I purchased an electric vacuum pump and have made a bracket that mounts the pump on the frame under the cab. I also like this because it is one less hose that has to clutter the engine bay, the vacuum hose will go directly down and through the inner fender panel and disappear.

Thanks for checking in, Jim

[corvettruck]

Great truck Jim, thanks for posting so many photos and explaining the work you do, it is an unbelievable great help for me working through the challenges of building mine. Your attention to detail is off the charts !!

[Stepside Jim]

Originally Posted by corvettruck

Great truck Jim, thanks for posting so many photos and explaining the work you do, it is an unbelievable great help for me working through the challenges of building mine. Your attention to detail is off the charts !!

You're welcome, a couple of years ago I started a thread on work I did on my '50 Willys truck. I soon learned that the people who were following my thread were hungry to not only see the before and after pictures, also liked the how-to pictures along with the explanations. Now it's natural for me to post in an instructive manner.

Thanks for checking in, Jim

[Andrew S]

Jim-
Could you please post a link to your Willys build? I'd love to read that as well as your '57 Chevrolet here.

Andrew

[Stepside Jim]

Originally Posted by Andrew S

Jim-
Could you please post a link to your Willys build? I'd love to read that as well as your '57 Chevrolet here.

Andrew

Sure, let's see if this works.....
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f22/1...build-1235210/

If you like fabrication and seeing the inside of axles. transmissions, brakes, carbs, ect, you'll be busy for quite some time. You'll see where I stopped on the Willys and began the Chevy build. Although it is a Jeep forum I was asked to continue showing what ever I was building so I have been posting there also. I get many compliments of guys who have raised their own bar because they've been influenced by what I post. It don't get any better than that.

While I'm here... I got to weld a bit this weekend. All this detail stuff gets old and I need to do some good old fashion fabrication. I needed a good heater hose fender support bracket.

Welding and grinding, as Tim Allen would say, arrrrgggg arrrghhhh. Well something like that, it was just good getting back to throwing sparks again.

Started with a piece of iron pipe, then cut it lengthwise.


Then hack sawed the inner other side to bend it open.


Ahhh, I see where this is going now.


After welding and grinding. Then drilling and cutting to length some stainless rod I have all my bracket pieces.



I knew it would be a pain to hold the nuts and washers in place once the fender is back in place so I made a nut retainer thingy.


Now the hoses are firmly in place.


It still needs paint and polish but that'll all be done in springtime.

I had two choices, I could build a bracket off the engine but the hoses would be closer to the valve cover. Not a problem til I want to remove the valve cover or spark plugs. This way everything is still accessible without dealing with hoses.

[Kim57]

That's very cool.
Kim

[Dan in Pasadena]

Jim, Jus went back and rad through the last 5 or 6 pages and once again I'm truly impressed with all your hard work and how great everything has come out.

I'm capable of hardwork but I doubt my best efforts would be anywhere near your results. Truly impressed!

[ChuckDriver]

Very nice!

[bajabob]

wow is about all I can say !!! Very nice, wish I had fab skills like that.

[Rc4mike]

Originally Posted by Stepside Jim

Sure, let's see if this works.....
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f22/1...build-1235210/

If you like fabrication and seeing the inside of axles. transmissions, brakes, carbs, ect, you'll be busy for quite some time. You'll see where I stopped on the Willys and began the Chevy build. Although it is a Jeep forum I was asked to continue showing what ever I was building so I have been posting there also. I get many compliments of guys who have raised their own bar because they've been influenced by what I post. It don't get any better than that.

While I'm here... I got to weld a bit this weekend. All this detail stuff gets old and I need to do some good old fashion fabrication. I needed a good heater hose fender support bracket.



Welding and grinding, as Tim Allen would say, arrrrgggg arrrghhhh. Well something like that, it was just good getting back to throwing sparks again.

Started with a piece of iron pipe, then cut it lengthwise.


Then hack sawed the inner other side to bend it open.


Ahhh, I see where this is going now.


After welding and grinding. Then drilling and cutting to length some stainless rod I have all my bracket pieces.



I knew it would be a pain to hold the nuts and washers in place once the fender is back in place so I made a nut retainer thingy.


Now the hoses are firmly in place.


It still needs paint and polish but that'll all be done in springtime.

I had two choices, I could build a bracket off the engine but the hoses would be closer to the valve cover. Not a problem til I want to remove the valve cover or spark plugs. This way everything is still accessible without dealing with hoses.

Jim...small world. I followed your build of the willys on the jeep forum while I built my 56 willys pickup...now I'm doing the same here while I build my 59 apache! Good minds think alike!

[Stepside Jim]

Thanks Kim and Chuckdriver.

Dan, hard work is a definite. Sometimes the pictures and write-ups make it look easy but I do have to admit one word I use quite often.....Unacceptable.

I learned to have no problem building and fabricating, then getting to a point where it is not the right size, shape, contour, fit, ect. I look at it and say.... Unacceptable, and toss it aside and start again. So much of this work is hand crafted pieces, there is no book, there is no written design, so it takes a couple of errors before you get what you're after.

Know that every piece you hand craft or assemble is another skill you now have, a skill you wouldn't have if you didn't step out beyond your normal capability.

bajabob, pay attention to what I wrote above. And Thank you.

Rc4mike, fantastic to have you aboard, some time back I skimmed over your thread, eeek, that's a fine bit of craftsmanship you have going on there.

And yes, a small world it is, many have mentioned the amount of viewers I have had and will still get on the Willys truck build. I never imagined when I started that build thread how many would be impacted or change their view when working on a project, I am humbled each time someone posts in public how they have raised their own bar now.

Someday I hope/need to get back on that project, but not til this Chevy is finished.

Otherwise I've been working on the windows for the doors. Slow going since someone has been into the wing window mechanism before and I had to make some slotted washers and such. Also had major issues getting the right window setting tape, no luck with LMC and Classic parts on that, had to go e-bay. I should have some pictures soon.

[franken]

Whoa.
I just looked at every page and opened the Jeep link in another tab to look at later.
The skills and tools (torchmate and lathe at least) outclass my sticks and stone tools (before this I thought I had good ones). I wonder what Jim's profession is. I see a lot of consistently pretty welds of different thickness metal...
My taste runs to less shiny things but there's a lot to love on this truck.
I think I would have made a hardwood form and hammered/pressed the hose clamp. Maybe make it from aluminum.