Projects Jay's Hot Rod: AV8 Pickup Build Thread

flat out flippin cool............ i think id toss in a milk crate and a radiator and welll............... id be cruisin the farm and the access road enjoing it from the inside till its too dark to see . then staring at the outside of it in the glow from an open shop door with a sixer and a lawnchair

 

I dig it.

 

Looks great!!

 

Ha! Well it won't be traveling any side roads for a while...but the sixer and a lawnchair part is already underway.

 

Looking great!

 

Your little pickup is going to be one Sweet build...those guys down in Austin are just Awesome.

 

Me too, Just cant beat the mock up stages, when its in the raw....

Great looking pickup!

 

sweet little pickup! can't wait for more updates

 

The proportions of your pickup are perfection ! will be watching your progress for sure.


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Glad to hear all the positive responses about the proportions.

Ever since I decided to put this pickup on '32 rails, I had it in my head that I was going to have to do some serious surgery on the model A bed to make it look right since A's have a 103.5' wheel base and '32s are 106".

With that in mind, I figured I would slice the bed between the cab and rear wheel reveal and splice in a 2-3" strip to make up the difference. That 2-3" strip was going to come from the rear section of the bed since I was going to shorten it anyway. But...now I am thinking maybe I don't need to do any of it.

We pushed the cab back about 1-1/2" inches and cheated the bed forward about 1/2". This gives now gives me some needed room between the flatty and the firewall, gains some clearance in the cab since the steering wheel is now 1-1/2" closer to the dash, and the rear wheel visually still looks centered in the bead line of the bed when you look at it straight on (although it isn't quite.) This is the max I can move the cab and bed but still leaves me with about a 1" gap between the two of them at the top.

Also, I'm now thinking the bed length in back looks pretty good too..leaning towards not shortening it. Maybe a 2" chop on the cab and call it done. What do you guys think?....

 

A mild chop would look good on it, I agree.

I love seeing the long beds. It preserves the utilitarian purpose of these trucks. If I could, I would drive an old A truck everyday and chase old parts in my free time.


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Now there's a man with his priorities well sorted !




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That is one sweet little truck! I hope my '29 turns out half as good. Keep posting progress.

 

I am building an a pickup myself Id say leave it the way it is too many people chop everything its already cool and different then everything else out there why not make it even more different and cooler and leave the sheetmetal stock why try and reinvent the wheel way cool keep it up just my opinion

 

This is awesome! I don't remember the last time I saw a 30-31 truck on 32 rails, let alone a late wide-bed one!

My opinion is if you keep the cab stock keep the bed stock. If you chop the cab shorten the bed.

 

Thanks Dennis! BTW - I'm using one of your Early V8 Garage '32 pedal kits on this project. Nice kit. I'll post some pics when I get to that point.

 

Looking great!!

I agree with Dennis. Proportionally, it seems like a chopped cab would look better with a shortened bed.

The first pickup that came to mind is Eric Black's '28. While it is a different body style, the proportions seem right on... Photos here:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=748163
(except I wouldn't shortened your bed nearly that much)

 

I thought I saw the top of our pedal lever in one of your mock-up pictures. With the added rear "legs" to the k-member I wasn't sure if the master cylinder bracket would fit or not. That's cool that it does! Glad you like the kit.

 

leave the bed long, leave the cab un chopped, rework the back of the cab to resemble the back of a 32. doing this will rid the gap between the cab and bed.

drive it awhile and then decide later on chopping it.

 

Thanks again for all the comments guys...

The more hours I spend in the shop, the more I realize that many of the preconceived ideas I had about what I wanted to do to this pickup are just wrong. It's kinda like the pickup is telling me what it wants to be as we go along....(or maybe I'm just going mad..my wife thinks so anyway)

Last night it told me it didn't want to be chopped or have its ass-end shortened. I really don't think a chop would improve the look and I'm 6'-1".. I need all the headroom I can get.

Along those same lines, I'm now thinking this truck needs lever shocks instead of the tube shocks I was planning to use. I mocked up some Model A shocks on the front and since I have a set of rebuilt ones anyway..well, here we go..





I tried the front backing plates on last night too...needs more holes drilled around the perimeter...

 

Think I'm going to leave that gap alone...just like Henry did it..

 

It's looking real good!
Listen to the truck,
it won't steer you wrong.

 

I noticed that in both of those pictures, the grills like the comercial trucks were painted rather then chrome. are you going to paint your grill a different color than the body color?

 

Sweet. Keep the bed long. I really like the Wide 5s & commercial grill.

 

I think all the '31's had black grille shells from the factory regardless of body color.

The '32 grille on our pickup will be the same color as the body...black. The bars will be antique white similar to the one on the green pickup below.

Jay has always wanted the truck to be painted black but I wasn't so sure. When we took the frame parts to A.S.S. there was a black '32 5W setting in the shop. That car decided the color of the pickup for us. Satin black body with gloss black suspension...antique white firewall, grille bars, and pinstripe...and just enough chrome to make it all pop.

 

Very cool shop...

 

I really dig the look of it as it is right now. I wouldn't chop or shorten it at all. I think it has great proportions as it sits.

 

I've been finishing up some work on the bed lately. It might seem a little backwards working on the bed first, but I wanted to get the bed mounted with the body lines centered over the rear wheels before I finalize where the cab is going to set.

Like most of these old trucks, this one had been worked pretty hard back in the day and was pretty beat up.




The front panel was beat forward about 1-1/2" in the center and the bottom was rotted out. This panel was my first crack at hammer and dolly work and the first of many patch panels to come.




The stake pockets were rotted out at the bottom so I grafted new bottom sections on.


The biggest challenge was the drivers bed side. I tried to straighten it but it was so bent and stretched I ended up cutting the top off the bed ....


and off of a donor bed.......


....and grafted it on.


The bed is eventually going to have a wood floor. When I cut the original metal floor out of the bed, I left about 1" of it around the perimeter. I made a new piece for the front panel and riveted it in place. The new wood floor will set under this perimeter frame when it is done.


With the bed in place it looks like the wood will just clear the highest point of the frame.


Once I got the bed where I wanted it on the chassis, I made the front bed mounts.


With the front mounts in place, I'm done working on the bed for a while. Without the other mounts in place I can raise or lower the rear of the bed a little so I want to wait to add the other mounts and crossmembers when the cab location is finalized so I can make sure the body lines look right.


Time to start work on the cab....

 

wont your a crossmember be sticking above the wood?

 

The top of the crossmember will be 2" higher than the wood floor. There will be a hump in the bed kinda like this one...