Red's 1950

[RedneckRodder]

Figured I oughta start a build thread. I've taken, and lost, so many pictures of this project due to broken/lost phones and cameras that it just makes more sense to start a thread and have them all in one place.

Many of my first posts in this thread won't be in any kind of order or follow the timeline at all, but I will try to get up to speed quickly to where I am and make regular updates from there.

Here is the truck the day I mounted the sheet metal to the S-10 frame. Cab was already mounted in this pick, mocking up the bed to build new mounts.


The bed is a 55 1st series with flat tops and embossed bed sides. I liked that this was original sheet metal, but still a custom touch that will go mostly unnoticed. I'll go into further detail on the bed mods soon.

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[jmsaunders]

Welcome Redneck. What are your plans for your build?

[RedneckRodder]

For now the plan is to get everything cleaned up, mocked up and moving safely under its own power. I'm pretty close to that now, as I started rebuilding the engine yesterday.

The overall end result, for now, is to have an old skool hot rod. White whites, red steel rims with chrome rings and caps, gloss black paint, oxblood leather seat and matching interior. Pretty run of the mill stuff, but with minor custom touches here and there to suit my like and needs. When its done it will be my daily driver.
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[RedneckRodder]

Here is an outside view of my shop, not much room to move around inside with the truck and all my tools in there. But we've managed to make it work so far.

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[jmsaunders]

Cool. I'll be watching your thread. I plan for mine to be a daily driver also with what I call subtle mods.

[RedneckRodder]

So here are some pics of the mods we made to the bed:

I had a full, unassembled aftermarket '47-'53 long bed that I purchased because the price was right, but I liked the look of the '55 bed I had out in the barn, so I combined the two out of nessecity.

The front panel of the 55 bed was damaged, and using the S-10 frame required that I raise the bed floor up. This is what we came up with:

We used the '47-'53 front panel and tailgate because they're shorter than the '54-'55 are. To mount the front of the bed to the S-10 frame I built stanchions on the frame and used a reproduction rear cross sill I had. I welded it to the front panel where I wanted it, welded the panel to the bed, located the bed exactly where I wanted it and built the stanchions. My bed floor was raised by about 6.25" to clear the rails, creating a gap inside the tailgate, so the shorter tailgate made this gap much smaller.


The older style tailgate required the older style hinges, and I wanted to clean up the rear of the bed anyways, so I added caps to the end of the rails, made a rear pan to blend the tailgate to the bed better, replaced the bent metal where the tailgate mounts with 1/8" plate and mounted the older hinges for the tailgate with hidden nuts. You can also see the new support I welded in for the bed wood.
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Here's a side pic of the rear.

[RedneckRodder]

The tailgate is far from original. I liked the Chevrolet script from the '55 tailgate, so I cut it out and welded it into the tailgate I'm using on the truck. I also filled the original chain openings and installed the spring loaded hidden latches.


I also decided I wanted to use the stock S-10 gas tank I had,so that required a gas door be cut into the bed side. Here's the new gas door


And for the hinge I used a Toyota pickup gas door hinge and made my own C-bracket from sheet metal

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[jmsaunders]

You're off to an awesome start. I'm still debating on rather to raise my bed floor or not. I plan to use an under bed fuel tank but really don't want it showing from the rear. Just not sure if it'll be worth all the effort to raise the floor just to make it less noticeable. However, I'm far from that part of the build and like most things I'm sure the decision will be made by the truck as it tells me what will work and what won't lol.

[RedneckRodder]

The floor pans were kinda thin, so they were cut out and replaced with new metal. A tranny tunnel was also fabbed because the cab is mounted so close to the frame.


I tried to replace the floors and make room for the transmission without sacrificing too much foot room. I think I managed to blend the floors to the original firewall pretty well. Not professional grade, but it works for this guy!
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[RedneckRodder]

Not the best pic, but this is how the rear of the bed is mounted. We used the original '55 bed's rear cross will and made hangers off the rear frame horns using 1/8" plate and some 1x2" tubing in between plates.

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Here's the front stake pockets after filling, the bed panel will have a piece of angle welded in to finish off the part that looks unfinished.

[jmsaunders]

I like the way you're using what you have at hand. I'd love to do that but my fab skills are still under development lol. I keep practicing and getting better slowly but surely.

[RedneckRodder]

Originally Posted by jmsaunders

I like the way you're using what you have at hand. I'd love to do that but my fab skills are still under development lol. I keep practicing and getting better slowly but surely.

I've been learning on this truck, I have to keep reminding myself of what I'm sure I can make work and what might be too much for me to accomplish properly. It just take time to figure it out, and a lot of support from friends and family. But if you want to do something, I say give it a shot. Worst thing you can do is force yourself to start over, which sucks, but you never truly learn to do something right until you've done it wrong enough times.
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[jmsaunders]

Yep and that'show tend to learn. Fortunately I have learn metal is forgiving.

[RedneckRodder]

Well, after looking through your build so far I can reason that you've seen where doing it wrong can ultimately get you. Not dogging your skills, or your ride, but some of the work from the PO's you've been correcting is crazy. It amazes me how bondo is some people's answer to everything. Lol.

Mine hadn't been touched in years before I got it, so it seems bondo wasn't available to them, although there were some spots where lead had been used.
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[jmsaunders]

So true about the PO. What is really confusing me is that from looking at the cab from the inside and at the metal beneath the part I'm cutting away it appears to only be surface rust. It would have been quicker, easier and less expensive for them to blast the cab, shave the firewall or install one of the after market firewalls.
Fortunately, it does look like something that I can correct and should be a great learning experience for my next build lol.

[RedneckRodder]

Back to the gas tank:

I used the stock S-10 gas tank, because this will be my daily driver and I wanted to keep the spare tire carrier. With the cab being mounted just an inch off the frame, using the stock S-10 tank hangers wasn't really an option. I decided to keep the tank where it was designed to be, but I dropped it 2 1/4" to clear the cab.

I used 1"x1" square tubing to make the drop under the cross member, and the same tubing was welded to the driver side bed stanchion to act as a hanger for the front of the tank. 18G sheet was cut into 1" strips to form the tank straps.
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[RedneckRodder]

Alright, so now we're pretty close to where I am now, so I think I'll just start updating from here.

I have a 5.3 and 4L60E sitting in the corner of the shop, but my buddy Dan talked me into a straight 6. Coincidentally, I keep saying "we did this" or "we did that". Just about any time I say "we" I mean Dan and I. He's a great guy, good at most of the things I'm not good with, and good at calming me down when I bust my knuckles, or handing me a beer just when I need it. I probably would have lost motivation a long time ago if he didn't keep pushing me to get this thing going. There's a lot to be said for real friends, especially in this hobby.

Alright, now that I'm done making Dan feel special, how about some current pics!
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[RedneckRodder]

This is the doner vehicle: a rusted out, very abused 1976 Chevy 2wd pickup

It was last tabbed in 1999, and had been parked in the woods on out property after the owner had passed away. A tree had grown up right beside the driver door, and the underbrush had basically started reclaiming this hulk back into the earth. Took 2 hours of reefing on it with the Cummins to get it free and out of the woods.
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[RedneckRodder]

I don't have any pics of the engine before cleaning it up, but this is the bare block after cleaning and a fresh coat of paint.

And the other side


And here's a the first pic of the engine in it's new home! (Mocking up mounts)

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[RedneckRodder]

I was able to combined the '76 upper motor mounts with the S-10 lower mounts to come up with this: just have to weld on some spacers to take up the gaps and move on to the next thing. Easiest mod I've ever done!

Best part about this: no new holes to drill, and basically no time burned up making ANYTHING!


Passenger side

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[RedneckRodder]

Been a while since I updated, this weekend we finished the engine and got it installed. Still need to fab a tranny mount, but its in!



Ended up not using the S-10 mounts from the previous pics, I had some older S-10 mounts in the shed that had the resilient rubber built in. Pics don't really show them well, but using them solved the issue I had needing spacers between the mounts and the block.



Pics show a lot of extra wires and hoses. This was our attempt at test firing the engine. Its wouldn't fire, unfortunately, but that was tracked down to be a bad coil. It did turn over well, and has great compression, so with a new coil it should light off.

[RedneckRodder]

We also got the master cylinder installed, you can see in the pics. We used the brake bracket, master cylinder and pedals from the '76. It took some modifications to make it all work, I'll post pics of that later.
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[jmsaunders]

I love the inline. I have a 292 that I plan to build and put in my 72 when I get to that truck. Awesome progress and keep up the great work.
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[mknittle]

Kinda looks like your engine sits too far to the front. from the measurements on my 52 GMC the head has to be pretty close to the firewall for the core support and fenders to fit.

[RedneckRodder]

Originally Posted by mknittle

Kinda looks like your engine sits too far to the front. from the measurements on my 52 GMC the head has to be pretty close to the firewall for the core support and fenders to fit.

Yeah, I thought so too at first. We mocked the fenders up on it, the core support will be close, but it should clear. I'll have to mount the radiator on the front side though, and electric fans are gonna replace the water pump mounted fan.
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