Customs '56 Chevy 3100 project - hard time choosing paint color... See RENDERING:

It's a rad truck and you'll have fun driving it, which fulfills two of the points of this whole deal...fun & driving.

Don't waste time feeling guilty for not reaching some arbitrary goal. A vision of "perfect" is a great motivator to keep to your standards, but very few projects are without a million invisible compromises. Invisible, that is, to the rest of mankind who never saw the perfected vision swirling in your head.

Besides, once something is perfect, there is only one direction it can go.

Enjoy your truck.

 

the toughest thing about building these trucks, is keeping on task. I started to sway on the body work on mine and was on the path of stripping the entire body to bare metal and restoring it completely, but that wasn't part of the plan. It took a quick head shake to get me back on the build plan I had made for this particular project. All my time and money would go into the chassis, suspension, steering and power train and the body would have the rust rot cut out of "most " spots and replaced and give the metal a weathered paint treatment.

You're doing an outstanding job on the progress bud. You're paying attention to details in all the right places. Get this thing on the road and enjoy it. You can always pick away at the little things on evenings and weekends

 

Having an issue with the passenger headlight opening....the top outermost corner is too square and leaves a gap when the headlight ring is installed. It's hard to see it in this pic, but I'm going to have to reshape it a bit since it's pretty noticeable. This fender is pretty much junk, I'm just trying to make it look as decent as possible until I replace it so anything I do to it isn't going to be perfect. I'm also going to fill the '57 grill mounting hole while I'm at it.

 

Man, the truck is looking great. I love green.

Have you tried loosening the mounting screws for the headlamp itself and repositioning the whole unit? I had a heck of a time on a Pontiac I was working on and it helped align things a lot. It doesn't take much movement to make a big difference.

Keep at it!

Mike

 

I might try that...I did notice that the j-nuts that hold the headlight tub on were a little off from each other when I screwed the tub on. The problem with the fender though, is that the eyebrow took a good whack and even though I pushed the metal back out from the inside, it was still out of shape.

Thanks for the compliment on the truck.

 

holy crap does it ever look low in that pic. NICE!!!

 

Congrats on a sweet build bro, love the whole shabang. These are some of the sweetest body styles ever. Some big grins ahead for you as folks go crazy for this rig!! ~sololobo~

 

Thanks, but that pic is a little deceiving I think. The ground slightly rises just in front of the front tires. The front bumper will still be around 7" off the ground...here it looks more like 4" or 5".

Thanks man...I really can't wait to start driving the wheels off!

 

Been looking for the steel visor online and can't quite tell which one is better than the other. GreenGrenade said his was a couple inches too narrow and I want to avoid that. Anyone know?...

 

Got to work this weekend but didn't have a lot of free time...baby had a fever all weekend and she was really clingy so I spent a bunch of time holding her and trying to help her feel better.

So, wired the ignition, bolted the front bumper on, installed a bunch of ground straps on the front group, installed the hi-low beam switch, ignition cutoff switch, rear bumper, new rear taillights, painted the roof, changed the oil, torqued the u-bolts, installed the beauty rings and long lugnuts, bent the rear fender lips for better clearance, installed the courtesy lights and the door pins to make them work and wired the headlights and marker lights.

Here's how it sits currently:



Here's how low I'd like it to be, and it will be once I install the Posies 3 in drop front springs:

 

A close-up of the wheels and beauty rings. The long chrome lugnuts actually look pretty good. I was looking for long bullet lugnuts, but these will do for now.

 

and what size tires are you running? ANy issues with them hitting the edge of the front fender when turning? This truck came together nicely man!!

 

I like the lug nuts, they are different, I would leave them for now. The bullets would look pretty nifty too.

It looks good overall, are you sure you want to dick with the front any more? Granted it looks mean as hell with the drop, but you are going to have to take note where you can or can't drive because of it.

You are doing a great job with the truck so far, I am really digging it.

Oh and good choice on the beauty rings, they are pretty cool... consider your setup idea stolen for my '64

 

. . I've had a few people tell me classic parts visor need a little tweaking to work I was thinking of trying tuckers but last night a buddy of mine told me bout a local guy sells them if it don't work my return shipping will be a 10 minute drive

 

a set of spider caps would look SICK on these wheels

 

THANKS guys!

Spider caps are the plan, but I got these lugnuts at cost ($38 cents each) and decided that was a lot less damaging to the budget than $160 for a set of spider caps....when I have the extra cash I'm doing spider caps for sure.

This is what I have left for major expenses to get her on the road:

Exhaust install: $200
Windshield install: $150
found out my M22 rear tailshaft seal leaks
M22 tailshaft seal: $25
Registration: $110
Insurance: $168/year

Long term expenses:

Spider caps: $160
Posies 3in drop springs: $365
Bumpers (repop front and rear): $520 (delux chrome) OR $680 (rechrome originals)
New repop fenders and hood: $1820.00

 

I hear what you're saying, and I know there will be times that this will be a PITA, but I know that if I don't lower that front end, I'll look at it and think "man, I should have lowered the front end" every single time I walk up to it, or see it sitting in the driveway. Comfort over style...at least until I get older and only care about comfort, but at that point it will also get bags, an automatic and an IFS.

 

I was in the same boat as you bud. When I started I was going to put the truck at stock ride height and get it driving. Once I got it on the road, I planned on lowering it but then thought " why do it twice?" SO I dropped the entire thing right off the start. It's taking longer to get it all together and driving but I won't have to take it off the road later just to lower it. I would have looked at the truck every day and beat myself up because i didn't do it first.

Your truck really is looking killer, and that lowering gives it some serious attitude.

 

Made some progress these last two weekends. Got the drivers side manifold smoothed out...4 hours of grinding and using an 80 grit flap wheel. Installed the alternator but had to customize the bracket - the tabs on the drivers exhaust manifold changed the offset of the alternator, but for the FIRST TIME since I've owned the truck, the alternator pulley is in perfect alignment with the fan and crank pulleys. Installed some plug-wire hold-downs under the rams horns. Filled the cooling system - found out that I forgot to install the water temp sensor...the hard way. Drained and refilled the oil along with some Lucas Oil Treatment (zinc). Added 10 gallons of gas to the tank along with Seafoam to treat the old 2 gallons that were in there and 107 Octane Boost.

Went to readjust my rear drums and discovered that they weren't hanging up...now my drivers front caliper is the culprit. Those piston cylinders on the old calipers must have been rusted all to hell. Replacing the caliper with a new rebuilt unit tonight.

Also, sand blasted and painted the hood, inside and out. Found that one captive nut where the hinges attach is missing, so I need to cut that corner out of the brace, weld a new captive nut in, and weld that corner back onto the hood brace. On the other side I have a broken bolt, so I need to remove that one as well. Man this hood has been a PITA!

I'm close to firing her up....very close.

 

Finally!! I have been waiting for you to post some progress on it. I am looking forward to it! Always remember the HAMB motto: pics/video or it didn't happen!!!

 

LOL...I'll get some new pics this weekend...and hopefully a video of it firing up too.

I'm still concerned about this hood even fitting. I squared the front end as best as I could, but it didn't square perfectly by any means.

 

I think that pretty much sums it up. It will not be perfect this time around... I am sure you can find a weekend to pull it off in the future and fix it correctly. So don't worry about it bro, get it so it will latch and be done with it.

 

Fired her up:

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The air cleaner cover isn't going to stay, and the valve covers will eventually be replaced by the original finned Corvette valve covers I still need to take the time to polish.

 

it sounds awesome man, nice job. wait... It sounds downright nasty, now take it for a ride!!!

 

Oh damn that sounds nice. What size cam did you put in it? You can hear the lump. It sounds like a 268 Comp cam to me

 

Thanks guys. I'll be taking it for a ride as soon as I route the wires through the column and get the steering wheel on and gas pedal, throttle linkage squared away.

The cam is a 292 Comp cam. My be a little too radical for daily use, but sure is gonna be fun. I may install a milder cam, depending on how manageable it is around town...I'm not planning on bracketing this truck or anything like that.

 

BTW: that's obviously without mufflers - right now it temporarily has 18" of pipe from the 2.5" flange just to get the heat out of the engine bay. I'll have MagnaFlows installed soon here.

 

One of the captive nuts inside the brace on my hood was missing. I had to cut the section out and weld a nut to the backside and weld that section of the brace back in. There really is no other way to do it.

 

Has anyone bought new reproduction hood hinges for the 55-57 Chevy pickups? I'm not sure these old one are going to cut it...

 

I have bought a set for a 58/59... the rivet that they press in there was way more loose than the 50+ year old stock ones that I had. I returned them, got another set that were good, but wound up selling those because I needed the scratch. Are you asking about quality or what?