I've been working on a 50 Fleetline on and off for almost year. Decided today to try and start a build thread. I'll be experimenting and trying to learn as I go with both the car and this build thread. Started by removing all the front end sheet metal and, engine and trans. I ordered a MII front suspension from Speedway. The original front suspension was not only worn bad but, broken and poorly welded. I added addtional support brackets to the rear of the lower control arms. I've read that is a weak point.
Brerhair, been watching your build threat for quite some time. I have learned from you. Ems, Thanks! robertsregal, good to see someone else from MN. I've always liked the 57 Buick & Olds with the split rear windows! 50 Fastback, Thanks for the pics. I hope you start a build thread too. I'm always interested in other builds, especially the 49-52 Chevs,,for obvious reasons.
Pics of the 95 Blazer rear end install. I seem to be having a problem uploading the pictures I want show. But, for now a few more pics. 1. front spring mount from the Blazer installed. 2. Used a hole saw to cut a hole for rear spring mounts. The rear spring mount installed, doesn't show up after up loading? 3. Rear end with Blazer shocks installed. I had to cut off the spring pads on the Blazer rear end and move them out. I used two of the five leaf springs on each side from the Blazer. Rear of the car is still to high for me but, it's only about a 1/2 inch higher then stock, I'm hoping this will work.
Frame rust! A combination of North Dakota dirt road dust and mouse nests. I've cleaned a lot of dirt and mouse nests out of the body and frame. It almost seems like that's the only reason there is rust on this car. Except the floor in the front. I think a leaky windshield with a rubber floor mat did a lot of rust damage.
Cool man, I like the 49-50 fleetlines more than the 51-52. What are your overall plans with it? By the way its lookin' good & good luck. SN
I have a 350 TBI, 700R4, and a Blazer rear diff. for it. So, hopefully it will be more of a street rod then anything else. I had some of the work done before starting this thread so, I have to get this thread update to date with the build. The build will seem faster then it actually is until then.
Fitting the 350 TBI and 700R4 trans. Made my own motor mounts and, used the trans crossmember from the 88 truck donor vehicle
Removed the steering column for the 88 donor truck and, shorten it to fit in the Fleetline. One picture shows the box of parts that had to go back in the column, it was a challenge but, there was no extra parts left over. I now have a tilt column, turn signals and, ignition switch.
Converted the gas tank to electric fuel pump and fuel injection. Ran all the 1988 stock fuel lines. It runs!
Those late tanks have some baffles in them to keep fuel from flowing away from the pump, does the old tank have that and if not, did you try to rig anything up to take the place of them?
I haven't rigged anything up yet for a baffle. I wanted to make sure I could get this to work first. I've seen some pics where people have made a tray like baffle and mounted it to the fuel pump/ sending unit. I thought if this all works well that's what I would do. So far so good!
Used parts of the floor from the donor pickup to fix my floor. Some of the pickup floor was heavier gauge metal. No "oil cans" in the floor!
Decided to spray some "temporary" paint on the firewall. As long as I had the engine and trans back out to weld the floor, I decided to remove everythng else and do some painting to cover the primer and bare metal.
If that trans is an electric speedo output, I think you can cheat in the '50 cluster with a speedo from a 91 Suburban or 91-95 van. They're also round, pull it out of the cluster and adapt it to fit where the stock one was, maybe do an overlay on it to change the face color. I don't remember if the Blazer one would be round or not, but if it is, that could work too.
Thanks, I'll have to look into that. I do have electric speedo output and, was wondering what to do about a speedometer. I don't want to hack up the dash. The old speedometer wouldn't be accurate anyway, if it would even work so, replacing it is with an electric one is the goal.
Since I had the complete donor S10 Blazer, I removed the harness from it too. I used that harness and the motor to convert to power windows. Drivers door is done! Also since my door latches were wore out I used them too. That led to changing the original outer door handle to the flush Blazer door handle.
Had to do something with the inner fender skirt. Apparently, years ago the dead battery froze, cracked and then leaked battery acid. The battery box was gone and the skirt had a major rust hole in it. Also. I had to do something with the front splash pan. I installed a new cross flow radiator and the pan was a few inches higher then the bottom of the radiator. That blocked air flow to that area of the radiator. More work! Well anyway now the bottome of the radiator gets air flow.
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