Projects 1955 Chevy Truck Project -- PHOTOSGALORE

Awesome, wish I was a little closer to swing by and do something.. Good stuff.

 

MindsEye I am glad we could motor-vate you to get back in the garage. Show us some pics when you get there.

Road Kill **** I'd like to see how yours turned out, present pic or when it was done. Unfortunately on the schedule we are on at this point I think we are just makin sure all holes are filled. And it doesnt matter if you were born in '41 or '81. If you show up at our shop look busy coz you will get put to work.

Kustom7777 Cool brotha - if you ever get out to the west coast give us a shout. I know our metal work isnt quite the same as what you have going on right now but we appreciate you checkin us out.

Shinysideup Its gonna be a fun build but we like driving them more. I've said it before but theres just something cool about rolling into a gas station 3 or 4 cars deep and watching everything grind to a stop because everyone is checkin out the rides.

WA II It should be a pretty sweet ride.

MM This will be nothing compared to what you got going with RatPink.

Bazooka We are in Merced right off the freeway. We work late hours coz of the heat right now but you are more than welcome to cruise in and lend a hand anytime you want.


Its about 100 deg outside right now...and I bet its a helluva lot hotter than that inside the tin roofed shop. we are headed down there once the sun drops. Talked to Vince and he made it by Ace Pipe and Steel and got the stuff to box the frame and lay that 4 link out.

More pics tomorrow.

 

You guys are putting me to shame. It's taken me nearly 4 months to put some parts on my truck, get it reliable, and re-wire it.

 

Alright guys - good news and bad news tonight. First the good news. A few hands on deck tonight made the work go quickly. Bennie and Jesse jumped on finishing the firewall and getting it all stripped.

First the booster came off,....the some sanding. And more sanding.




In this one, Roger is in the back grinding out rivets on the cross member in front of the rear end while the other guys take care of the firewall. Heres how it looked all cleaned up.



Thats the good news.

Now the bad news. Those rivets on that cross member in the back....





yeah,...that big one that seems to be holding the frame nice and square. It needed to come out to box the frame up for the four link brackets. Progress was going along well. There was even another cross member for the ****** about 12 inches in front of the big one. It seemed like it would get held square by that one and the one at the very rear.

The rivets got ground down and the BFH came out. A couple of solid whacks and a loud BOING later the mood in the shop instantly changed.



Well that old son of a ***** cross member was holding alot more together than we thought. After she came loose one frame rail went one way the other one went the other way.

 

Yup, saw that comin! You can square it back up. That happened to me with my A frame when I started taking out crossmembers.

 

All that work in making sure everything was nice and square and was gonna mount up nice flew out the window. Again, a feeling of "oh ****" was haning heavy in the shop.



A couple of ratchets straps were called into service to pull it back to where it was. A lot of head scratching and a few "gawd dammits" later we were still stuck on stupid. It looked like we were gonna have to use all the 1x1 tubing and make all sort of supports across that notch like a jungle jim to hold it in place while a new cross member was made.

Fortunately one of us had our thinking caps on and asked the simple question of " What if we just slid that old cross member back in and use some bolts to hold it in place while we re-aligned it all?"


Back in it went and with just a little strap to pull the p***enger side square all the angles fell back into place. We were able to strap it and put just a little tension on it to make it as good as it was before it was removed.



We eyeballed where things we gonna fall into place but all motivation had gone right out the door at the speed of sound.


Not one of our finest nights at work in the shop but its a learning curve. Guess we wont do that **** again next time. Its still a little bit of a bummer it had to eat up shop time tonight. We were really hoping to have the back end finished up tonight so we could keep truckin and scratch another thing off the list.

Tomorrow Vince is gonna head down and plate up as much as he can on the frame. He bought enough plate to go from the frame at the back of the cab to the front of the notch. That should be in and give him something to start putting 4 link brackets on.

Minor setbacks and baby steps forward. Someone once said,...if you are gonna eat and elephant do it one bite at a time. With our pride a little wounded its time to take another bite and get this thing on the road.

As another modern day hero said, "The dude abides."

 

Yeah that's true but it still ****ed! The sad thing is we all looked at it and thought Hmm....should we brace that up? Then the thought came into all of our minds...Well there is a cross member in front of and behind where we are working so we shold be ok...............DOINGGGGGG............cricket,cricket...................

 

Oh well like Dru said we'll rub a little flexall on our wounded pride and if time allows hit it REALLY hard tomarrow and get the rear suspension finished.

 

being there done that...

best thing to do at that point walk away for some time but keep it coming realy like how fast you guys are working.. Thumbs up!!

 

You know, all the times I have worked on these old cars, I've never had anything like that happen. Yeah, right! That fire wall is looking good as well as every thing else. Keep up the good work and keep us posted.
Later,
****

 

I ran into a problem working on my 57 Sedan yesterday and it zapped my energy for a little while I just took a break for an hour and then went back at it. On my 55 Chevrolet truck I had to add a notch in the center to clear the driveline.

 

I'm not going to say it Dru.....

 

you boys ****....Just kidding. Dru thanks for keeping us UTD on this...looks like it is going well! RatPink said he has started taking pics and taking **** apart and all. My front in is gonna be ultra low when he gets done! keeping the visor and chopping it with the top... can't wait for all to see at Paso Maria next year...I will still be over there though... RP is gonna drive it!! THe truck looks good...keep the pics coming

 

Some pics I took while testing my camera...

 

Joes50, we are planning to build a new crossmember to replace the one we took out and it will have a step in it like you said but thanks for the heads up! Stay tuned in folks this was only a minor setback and yes it took the wind out of our sails but by this point it was like 1AM so we were pretty beat anyways.

 

By the way just so everyone know the "One with their thinking cap on" was Dru. We were all just staring at this thing stuck on stupid and throwing ideas around generally being pissed at ourselves when the cooler head prevailed! We'd likely still be down there staring at it if it wasn't for him lol.... It takes a village to get these things done.

 

this is a great thread,,,,,im really enjoying watching the progress you guys are making,,,,
the pics are great too,,,,,,

 

looks like you guys are having fun. i need to stop by one night soon

 

In the big picture of the whole build for the truck its probably not that big of deal...workin on a timeline to get it rolling for a show means this is eatin into time for something else. Bottom line is it needs to get finished so other stuff can get built.

 

To bad the build shows on tv aren't this cool, hey theres an idea...

Satan's Chauffeurs, Merced CA. the tv show...

Only then you'd need a picture of your "size 12 kickin' someones ****"
and some one running around crying "were never going to make the deadline"... Dru could come in every once in a while cus a bunch and then go home to his mansion and movie star wife...
way too much drama...
Good job guys.

 

Haha. That might work. 'Cept with all the alpha personalities in the shop i think the first threat of a size 12 would result in a response of "do it and see what happens".

There would be blood, teeth, urine, and flesh all over that shop. Oh well...Bennie and I had talked about doing some video on the next build.

 

I think the show is a good idea actually Drew. Theres always the one fat guy sitting in the corner making jokes and drinking beer... cast me for that spot. Hope to get over this weekend but the old lady is making me work at the house.

 

you guys are kicking ***........i'll be happy if my 55 is even DRIVEABLE by NEXT summer , lookin good
FINK

 

Took a day off to do the wife/kids thing. Roger is racing RC cars tonight in Madera. Work week begins tomorrow but hopefully there'll be some update pictures soon.

Give us a few days and we will have some photo updates for you. Thanks.

 

Looks like you guys are having fun, nice work.

Keep the pics coming !

 

say it .... come on say it... lol

 

No pics yet but Vince snuck down to the shop in the cool of the evening and finished boxing one side of the frame. Ill try to get a picture in the next day or so. We got switched to opposite shifts at work so Ill do my best to get photos when I can on the progress.

 

this thread still kicks a$$!!!

 

UPDATE 06/30/09

Heres a few photos. Vince snuck down and got that frame boxed and braced. Ran some 1x1 from notch to notch to hold it all together and out came that fat ******* cross member.




Boxed and plated.



Vince still has to do the p***enger side and then he can start laying out some 4 link parts. I snapped these photos on lunch today and rumor is he has been in since then. I'll post more when they are available.

Dont think nothing has been going on though, Loddy got the motor in the Dodge. Those photos are up now too.

 

Just back from a quick trip to the shop. Loddy workin on the roadster and Vince on the truck. Heres whats being done.



P***enger side boxed in. Some finish welding and a couple little patches to clean it up and it should be ready for some links.

Heres the motor,....painted. I am gonna throw a set of new gaskets in it this week and Vince has some finned valve covers for it.



Cool shot,....truck waiting patiently.




More photos as stuff gets done. Stay tuned.