check with your local glass shop,they should be able to cut you one for cheap.im also building a 50ish truck now.looking good,keep us posted
Here's an illustration I just did for a guy who's doing a VERY nice frame-up redo of his 56 f100, so he could see how it would look finished. Should be cool!
I was going to use some 3/4" plywood in the back of my low buck truck (hey, it's still a truck!) Any ideas how to make it hold up to the weather real good?
....I always use treated plywood in the beds of my old trucks; you can treat it with somethin like Thompson's Water Seal once or twice a year; it'll hold up well. If you really beat up your bed, use a cover sheet that screws over the base so you can change it out easily. I don't put skid strips on the plywood. Your Nova tank will/should fit like a glove, I use em all the time. First 3 years of Camaro/F-Bird are the same. I just bolt/weld in an angle iron crossmember or 2 and bolt it in with straps. They fill in the center at the rear so I just notch the rear sill x-member for neck access and use a flip-down plate to hide it. ...AutoMeter makes guages compatible with the Nova sending unit so you don't have to mess with changin the sending unit. ...here's a pic of the flip-down plate.
Keep em coming this is getting better everyday. If you cant find glass let me know, its a little cold here but if your not in a hurry i have a drivers door on my spare truck with good glass, (good for being 50 years old). It might be hard to ship to you from IA and keep it in one piece and on the cheap though.
Let me know what you want for the window. If nothing turns up in the next couple months, I may hit you up. I'm diggin' the all white look of your truck. Do you drive it much?
Great pickup! It's like you understand how an old hot rod truck should look er sumthin'! hahaha Bitchin' simple truck. Keep at it!
there is more than 6" of snow on the ground here. I havent drove it since Oct, or even touched it. I plan on driving it all summer long though. We'll PM about the window. I need to get my buddies race truck out of my extra garage stall to get my other truck back to my house and get the window out. I have some pics in my profile folder if your interested. Thanks for the compliment. I do plan on redoing my plywood bed this spring also with some nice wood planks. JC
negative my fine sir. I thought I had but the guy turned out to be a deadbeat and wouldnt pay. I am going to drive the hell out of it this year and I have a line on another one so I can have a cool project. I have some crazy mental ideas for it also!!! The next one, if I actually do it will take many years... I really need a chevy car though its tough to drive with a baby seat between the wife and me.
Sorry about the being side tracked...Here goes some more. Starting with a 68-72 Nova fuel tank ( I think this was a 70). I used a couple of pieces of angle iron (1 1/2" back, 1 1/4" front) because I figured it would be lightweight and somewhat easy to fab into the mount I needed. I also used some 1 1/4"x1/8" strap for the top as a containment area for the tank. After figuring how far I wanted it back (to clear exhaust) I made my marks and started drilling. On the front piece I used (2) 5/16"x2" eyebolts for the front hooks of the stock tank straps to hook on to. On the back I used The bolts that were on the stock straps ( I'll put new ones on) and in a little over an hour the tank was mounted.
I used a steering column from a '70 GMC pickup I found on Craigslist for $30! (he sold me another one that the blinker arm didn't work on for an extra $!0!!!! I so scored!!!) I used the stock lower bracket and the original '49 upper bracket. After figuring out the right bolt length ( I used 4 1/2" bolts), I found some 1" long sleeves to drop the column down to where it needed to be. Now I need to trim all the floor area that the previous owner cut with a torch and make a nice filler panel that goes around the column.
On the outside, I had a game plan to mate the box and column together. I took the steering shaft that I got with the column, drilled out the plastic plugs and knocked the male and female pieces apart. I did the same with the wagon box' shaft. I then slid the 2 pieces together to make them work as one. After pulling them to the length I figured would be about right, I drilled an 1/8" hole using the female shafts original holes (where I drilled out the plastic) just deep enough for a couple of aluminum rivets. I have about 3/8" clearance at the header, so I'm ok. As soon as I get the brakes done, I can blow this thing apart to sandblast and paint. I'm getting excited now... I still want the column to collapse in an accident, so those should work.
I made a filler panel for the firewall out of .060. After cleaning up the torch cut ragged hole with a cutoff wheel, I measured out a template and fit this in place. I'll use seam sealer once it's going back together for the final time. I need to find a big o-ring or something like it to seal the steering shaft.
Now the seat was a little different, but it seems to work well. I scored a middle seat out of an Astro van on it's way to the wrecking yard (FREE!) after someone on the HAMB said it was the right size. Good call, it fits very nice! After setting it inside to see the height of it, I knew it had to come down. I measured from the bottom of the seat cushion itself to the top of the facory mount and took around 3 1/2" off all the way around with a sawzall. Now the bracket sits flat on the floor, cushion resting on the factory mount. I used a piece of 1/8"x2" angle iron and after drilling 3 holes for the grade 8 7/16" bolts, we welded the angle in everyspot we could to the bottom of the seat bracket. After it was centered and holes drilled in the floor, I took the seat out and using a 4" cutoff wheel, I removed the facory bracket. After grinding it smooth, it should look fine with some carpet covering everything up. I'll use a piece of 1/8"x 2" strap the length of the seat bracket underneath to bolt it to the floor. I'm 5'11" and I'm comfortable with the layout so far.
I put this on Sunday Afternoon to keep myself motivated. I'm feeling it now! Can't wait to cruise this thing out to El Mirage and Bonneville...
Here's what I did with the brakes. Starting with unbolting the factory bracket (sorry about the bad pic. I had to find one oneline 'cuz I forgot to get a pic.) I put the pedals off to the side and after sandblasting it clean, I mocked up the bracket with a late 60's Corvette Manual brakes master cylinder ($40-45). I set it up so the master cylinder was about an 1/8" lower, because I wanted to drill the hole on the pedal rod lower to have a bit less brake pedal travel. I hope that makes sense. I wanted the pedal closer to the floor after it's all set up, instead of sticking out a foot. After cutting up the bracket, fit it with all my 3/16" metal plates and gussets, (I moved the master cylinder 1 1/2" closer to the frame than stock) I tacked them up and then had a friend of mine TIG it all together (I wanted it welded really well!) and then bolted the master cylinder up so I could fit it in place. Now I did something a bit different with the pedals, because of how I ran my exhaust. I ran it up high because I knew the truck was going to be slammed, but mounting the master cylinder in the stock location made it a bit to close to heat for my taste. I cut the upper part of the clutch arm off and lined both lower push arms up. I beveled the edges of both pivot parts (after sandblasing clean) and TIG'd both of those together as well also re welded the original stuff because after 50 years I figured I'd add a little insurance. I did this because I mounted the master cylinder an 1 1/2" closer to the frame and figured I would just re-engineer the original pieces to work for me. After I drill my hole in the clutch part of the lever that's a bit lower down than stock on the other side, I'll cut the old bracket off so it looks clean. Now I have my brakes like I need and still kept it cheap!!!
Just finished my shifter rod from the column to the lower linkage. The linkage I started with was from a 72 Camino. After getting the the pivot positioned and the bracket on the frame side connected, I needed to figure out the rod from the column to the lower bracket. The rod that I had from the camino wasn't close enough to work, so I bought a 3' piece of 3/8" cold rolled. I used a piece of welding rod for my template and had to make it clear the the brake pedal when in was in low gear. Column in Park Column in Low gear It shifts smoothly and clears the brake lever by 1/2"! Just need to put my 2 clips up top where I drilled a 1/16" hole on each side of the column to hold the rod in place.
While I was inside the truck messing with the brakes, I took a break and fabbed up my throttle pedal & bracket. Cool, huh?!!
Looks like you had a little better luck with your shift linkage than me. I spent two hous hooking up my three on tree linkage on my pickup. I pulled the linage from the same year of truck and pulled the steering column to use with it, and I had to re bend both shift rods. And then I couldn't remember which way to bend it once I got out from under the truck......... Frustrating..... Then after I was done I remembered I couldv'e used wire as a pattern, Oh well. Good Luck with the project, Nice pedal
I'm always trying to make sure I work on this thing a little every day. That way, I stay motivated and it will get done! Last weekend I was going to start taking the truck apart to start sandblasting and painting all the underneath stuff, but since I had no help with lifting the cab or bed off (everyone was busy) I decided to keep moving forward and knock one more thing off the list. STRIPING & LETTERING!!!! I knew once I started this, it was going to change the whole look of the truck, so I got busy. I washed the truck with a sponge and Comet to clean all the oxidation off the 40 yr. old paint job. Once it was rinsed off, I started laying it out. I knew it needed to be an old "Speed Shop" truck, so I followed that whole motife... Starting on the doors, I made a pattern and pounced it on so both sides would be the same. A little silver paint and some varigated gold leaf was the base. a little red and it's looking like I wanted Doors are done! Now to the tailgate... using varigated gold as a base outlined and striped! I kept the paint thin and transparent for the old look! More lettering Yeah I know the bald spots glare makes it tough to see the pic! The truck all striped and lettered Now I'll sand the stuff I just put on with 2000 grit and rub it out to make it look like it's 40 years old too! This weekend the body comes off and it gets stripped!!!
I was working on figuring out a low buck wiper setup for my 49 Chevy truck and came up with a simple solution. I worked on my wiper system yesterday and it works great! I'll post pics shortly and show everyone how a Blazer rear hatch wiper motor works great! I designed the whole setup with simplicity in mind and keeping it easy to work on.
The Jalopy Journal
