norms 55 chevy pu build

[daveshilling]

Originally Posted by dsraven

for a heat shield under the box a lot of guys use a simple sheet metal shield spaced off the wood a half inch or so. easy to screw onto the wood and they make a big difference. stock trucks had them I believe.

Yeah when I first saw one, albeit on a truck with non-stock exhaust, I was like "why is there a random piece of metal stuck underneath this truck?"

[washington blue]

This is how much room I have between floor and exhaust. If the wrap doesn't work I'll try a sheet metal shield. finding out is hundreds of hours away yet tho I think.

[washington blue]

Started working on a gas fill, I think this will work well. OKGMC4 recently did it to his which is where I got the idea.

[dsraven]

that pipe is real close to the wood there. is there a way to drop the pipe some? maybe a piece of metal spaced away from the wood a little would fit then? would hate to see that cause a truck fire. cheaper to redo a length of exhaust than start over. a piece of oval pipe maybe?

[dsraven]

nice job on the tank fill.

[dsraven]

you may also consider a heat shield on your fuel lines and filter etc, they are also close in the heat zone. how close is the exhaust to the fuel tank?

[washington blue]

Best pics I could find of the tail pipes near the tank. The pipes are along the outer edge of the frame and the tank is in from the frame about an inch. Lowering the rear of the exhaust would be easy as it drops straight down behind the axle. In front of the axle the 45 degree angle would be tough, slices or wedge type of cutting would be required. Might have to do that. I'll study some more. The other picture shows the fuel setup, you can see in the pics. it is behind the stock crossmember and the exhaust is in front of it. What would be good to wrap the fuel lines with? Sure would have been easy to run the exhaust out in front of the wheels, lol.

[washington blue]

PS, I made sure to clean both sides of the metal before I welded the gas filler in.

[dsraven]

good idea to clean off both sides of the panel when welding. the puddle can draw contaminants from the back side otherwise.
if possible to fab up some heat shields I would def do that. some light aluminum is all thats needed really. since the truck is fairly low it will hold heat under there especially when stopped at a light etc. stuff like rubber park brake cables, rubber or braided brake flex hoses, fuel lines etc. even the brake lines as they will heat up the brake fluid and cause premature breakdown (one of the reasons they say to flush the brake fluid every year). maybe for the part of the pipe that is close to the bed wood you could use a length of oval pipe to allow a heat shield under the wood. if you had time you may find a preformed heat shield that would work at pick n pull.something from above a resonator maybe as they are usually smaller than a catalytic converter or muffler.
anyway, it is your truck so you decide if you want a heat shield or not, just giving my opinion. as a proffessional firefighter (retired) I have been to lots of vehicle fires, never good. as a lic'd mechanic I have seen melted/charred carpet above missing heat shields.

[Jason 56]

The gas filler looks good. Did you file the cap flat? Mine was convex so I placed it closer to the rounded corner to blend better.

[washington blue]

Thanks ds, I really appreciate your input. You are very knowledgeable. The main reason I put my build on the internet is to get input exactly like what you give me. I farm and repair farm machines and drive farm machines. That is my main area of knowledge, so when I'm working on a hot rod I like all the input I can get. No such thing as too much info, lol.
I am studying my exhaust and am trying to see if I can lower it about 1/2 inch which would give me 3/4 inch from the insulated wrap to the wood. I believe I could fab a piece of metal to slip in between the wrap and wood if I get that done. I believe metal shields would create an air gap of roughly 1/2 inch between the wood and the shield. Thanks again, and ds and everyone else too, keep the input coming, I appreciate it all.

[washington blue]

I have not done anything with the cap, that's a good idea to file it. I'll have to check how thick it is, thanks for the idea.

[washington blue]

The gas cap does not fit quite flush, I would have to remove quite a bit of aluminum to get it flush. I don't really have tools to work aluminum so I may have to leave it.

[Father&son56project]

You did a nice job on that gas filler. As for that ever-so-slight raise of the cap, I don't think its an issue at all. The only person on earth who will ever notice that is you!

[washington blue]

Originally Posted by Father&son56project

You did a nice job on that gas filler. As for that ever-so-slight raise of the cap, I don't think its an issue at all. The only person on earth who will ever notice that is you!

Thanks, yeah it's true that I'll probably be one of few to notice it once I paint it to match the fender. I don't really have any way to remove aluminum, it tends to plug files and grinders. High detail car guys might notice, and that's cool. I'm not building a car show machine, just a nice driver anyways.

[washington blue]

I decided to attack the exhaust to wood clearance problem. I tore off the gas line and the brake line and the exhaust forward to the mufflers. I now have the gas and brake lines outside of the frame, nice fit there too, in a way they are better than the inside the frame way I had before, away from hot exhaust too.

[washington blue]

I cut roughly 3/4 inch from both the front of the axle inclining, and also the rear of the axle declining exhaust pipes, you can see the front cut clearly in the photo. Since I tend to over build just a little I had the pipes shoved into the mufflers almost 3 inches so now they are in the mufflers about 2 1/2 inches after my "shortening" project, lol. Plenty for clamping, glad I did that, saved me from having to splice in some short pieces. I put a socket in above the exhaust and the socket measures 15/16 so I have about an inch of room between wood and pipe. Should have plenty of room to have a heat shield halfway between the two things now. That's my next job I guess. Thanks for the input everyone, this was definitely the thing to do.

[Jason 56]

Nice work

[oldman3]

That should work great...Jim

[washington blue]

Made a couple heat shields. I made and welded on a couple tabs onto the wood floor mount to bolt the shields too.

[washington blue]

Drilled a couple holes in the crossmember and put shields on. I rounded the edges of the 2 pieces on both sides so they stay rigid. The rounded edges make it kind of hard to see but there is about equal distance between the pipe/shield and the shield/wood. Hope this works. I did not try to make the shields pretty because other than you guys no one will ever see them, lol, so don't tell anybody.

[dsraven]

that looks a lot better. nice job. I think stock trucks simply screwed the shield to the wood on the under side. I am glad you did the extra work to make it safer.

[dsraven]

maybe some rubber under the fuel line where it rubs the frame? I know, overboard.
a bicycle inner tube, cut to length and split so it can slip around the hose, then cable tied back together in a few spots. done.

[washington blue]

thanks ds, inner tube where it crosses over the frame is a good idea, I think I might have one laying around to use.

[washington blue]

inner tube around fuel line.