A little over 18 years ago, I asked a local car guy if he would consider selling me his 1956 Chevy step side that was sitting in his driveway. I got the typical answer, "nope, I'm going to restore it one day." I kept driving past it over the years and it gathered more junk and more junk and nothing was ever done with it. Fast forward to last year when this same guy came to me to have his Harley airbrushed. He pitched an idea at me and then asked what it would cost him. I didn't even have to thin about it, I said " that 56 pickup sitting in your driveway" He thought about it over night, and even asked his wife about the deal. Her answer was " can he come pick it up tomorrow?" So a deal was made, he got his bike painted and I got the truck I have been after for so many years. When I got it, it was sitting on an 81 short bed chassis. I had done some research and asked around a few places and found a kit that would work to mount this body to that chassis. Only thing is, it wouldn't sit as low as I wanted it to. So I sold the 81 chassis and picked up a complete 56 from the local wrecker for a couple hundred bucks and stripped it for the stock chassis. This is the beginning of a long awaited story. I hope to have this truck completed by the spring of 2013, so please, stay tuned for more Here is what it looked like when it came to me, sitting on the 81 frame This was soon after we stripped the body off and rolled the frame outside, waiting for it's new owner to pick it up All that was left in the shop was the cab and the doors which I took an orbital sander to, just so I could see what was underneath the primer. I found the factory blue paint and also found no rust. There are 3 small pin holes in the floor and that's it. I purchased an entire 82 GMC from a hot rod buddy of mine that he had rebuilt the engine 7000kms ago and the tranny was rebuilt 1000 kms ago. Bought the entire truck for $1000, kept the power train and sold off the rest. A good way to fund the build And then came the parts truck. There wasn't much that was salvageable on this thing. It had been sitting in the bush for over 20 years and had a REALLY hard life before that. I kept the frame and a few interior pieces and the rest went back to the wrecker I took a couple days off of work and wrecked it out in the driveway And then wheeled the rolling chassis into the shop. I need a bit of help seeing how a couple of the wheel were damn near seized. There a little frame rot so I cut it out and bent a pice of channel to weld back in And this is where I am with it as of today. With the help of my gear head wife, we painted the frame over the weekend. Now I sit and wait for my dropped axle, mono leafs and power disc brake kit arrives
Damn that parts truck would of been a keeper in this part of the rusty north. Keep the pictures a comin.
The sheet metal is surprisingly in incredible shape for up here. My buddy is kicking himself in the ass for giving it up now that he sees it being turned into something. I'll be sure to take him for a rip in it once it's done. I forgot to mention, when I brought it home, my teenagers looked at it and said " what a dirtbag looking truck" SO I decided to make a shop truck out of it called Dirtbag Kustoms.
I'm still waiting for my mono leafs, disc brake kit and dropped axle to arrive. But I couldn't sit still and twiddle my thumbs. I decided to sand down the cab and get it painted. I'm building a set of rolling dollies that I can mock up the entire body on while I wait, so I can paint the truck. Then once the chassis parts arrive, I'll have a painted body to install. A couple progress shots. Thanks for checking back in
Not much new to report. I flipped the cab up on it's firewall so I could clean up and under coat the under side of the floor. Then today I brought in the other body panels and started mocking it up. I'll be getting the entire thing up on blocking to raise it another 12 inches so I can get to popping the dents and get this thing painted.
The entire truck will come up by 6" for the final stance. I'll have to size down my tires as well. These are 255 60 R15's and they rub in the wheel wells. I have a pair of 275's that I tried first and there was no way I could even shoe horn them in.
well my parts finally arrived, well some o them. The mono leafs and tranny cross member will be here tomorrow. They seemed to get detoured along the way. SO this morning I got to work. The dropped axle is primed and painted. I pounded out the king pin bushings, cleaned up and painted the spindles and moved onto installing the power brake booster. As soon as the leafs are here, I'll get them cleaned up, painted and installed so I can get the steering and disc brake set up done. Within a coupe weeks, I should have myself a rolling chassis again.
Thanks, it's nice to see things finally coming together. Now that the mono leafs have arrived, I'll be hanging them tomorrow night and then I'll get the spindles installed so I can hang the axle. I fall goes as planned, I'll get some time to work on the rear end as well this week. It would be nice to get it painted and hung from the leafs
Some minor progress. I was headed to the shop to hang these mono leafs when I opened the box, they didn't ship the new shackles along with the springs. SO now I'm on hold for another week while I await new shackles along with new bushing and pin its. In the mean time, I got everything painted, welded up the multiple mirror holes in the drivers door and will be installing the spindles on the dropped axle today.
Just came across this thread and I'm glad I did. Always like this body style and it looks like you'll have a pretty cool driver when you're done. Subscribed.
The Jalopy Journal
