Hellion Customs 1955 Chevy Truck

[Hellion Customs]

Thought we would post up a build thread on a customers 55 we are building right now. When this project originally came to us it was just a set of rusted fenders needing some metal work. Well one thing led to another... This build is on a extremely tight budget so some of the materials and prosesses are not how we would normally do things or materials we would normally like using. But plans for this one so far are, rust repair & full paint and body while keeping the truck exterior basically stock, full C4 suspension front and rear on coilovers, LS1 & 4l60, one piece power door glass, frame mounted brake booster, tilt, ac, ect...

[Kim57]

Sounds nice.
How about some pics?
Kim

[Hellion Customs]

We removed all the glass, doors, the remainig dash hardware, wiring ect.. Then we blasted the interior surfaces that are to be painted. Then sprayed on a few coats of Epoxy Primer.

[Hellion Customs]

Moving on to some rust repair.. Starting with the cab corners. This one needed both L&R inner and outer corners. We trimmed down both inner and outer patches that we got from Brothers to a more manageable size, then trimmed off enough of the OG metal to fit up the patches for a scribe line, fitting and tacing on the the exterior first as it is critical for all body lines and also to locate the inner panel.

[Hellion Customs]

Cut out inner panel for replacement. We will blast mating surfaces before reinstalling.

[Hellion Customs]

Inner panel fitted and tac welded in.

[The Haberdasher]

Nice

[Hellion Customs]

Inner cab corner patch welded up and metal finished out.

[Hellion Customs]

Outer cab corner welded up and metal finished out.

[Hellion Customs]

Left cab side needed some metal finishing and some old holes from a slide hammer welded up. Also we are relocating the fuel tank so the filler neck hole needs to go.

[Hellion Customs]

Cab corners and sides ready for some epoxy. Next we tackle the steps.

[STOCKISH]

Great work Ray. Rust repair turned out great.

[papastrk]

Nice work. Thanks for posting.

[Kim57]

Nice repairs.
Kim

[Hellion Customs]

Originally Posted by 1972SuperCheyenne

Great work Ray. Rust repair turned out great.

Originally Posted by papastrk

Nice work. Thanks for posting.

Originally Posted by Kim57

Nice repairs.
Kim

Thanks guys!

We have been extremely busy with a few other projects here, but we finally got some time back on the 55. We need to replace or repair a bit of metal here so we came up with a game plan and started with the right side lower hinge pocket since we needed to remount doors to get our lines to replace the steps and rockers.

[Hellion Customs]

Lower hinge pocket in need of rust repair

[Hellion Customs]

Lower hinge pocket welded to A-Pillar and tek screwed to step.

[Hellion Customs]

Right side steps removed and blasted flanges.

[Hellion Customs]

Right side step reinstalled and welded in.

[Hellion Customs]

Now the panel that is between the lower hinge pocket and the step is rusted where the hinge pocket overlapped it and needs replaced but the cab mount/step brace attached to it and the floor at mount bolt location need repair also, so I felt it would just be easier to remove all at once and repair separately on the bench and also to gain access to the kick panel area that is also rusted.

[Hellion Customs]

Cab mount/step brace kick panel area repair

[Hellion Customs]

Cab mount/step brace repair

More pics up tomorrow

[Kim57]

Nice progress.
Kim

[Hellion Customs]

Next thing i needed to fab up and install the panel at the front of step area between the hinge pocket and inside of step.

[Hellion Customs]

Then on to little rust repair on the kick panel/toe board area