Thanks for the compliments guys! Here is a tiny bit of progress. The floor skeleton is temporarily tacked into position and the dents in the cowl are coming out nicely.... But because I have no metal working experience I planished the top too much and sorta wrong so it's alsmost flat. It should be a "reverse curve." I should have shrunk the lows instead of planishing them... doesnt make sense to me but some sheet metal guys are giving me the run down. Here I got the doors ready for temporary hanging. I need new hinges, but I will have to make them later... posibly buy some T hinges from macs and modify them. The screws went into a VINEGAR bath (I hate plain vinegar for some reason) and an hour or so later they were nearly rust free. Then tap-n-die and install.
There was a wood and vinyl top but I think I'm gonna try to make a sort of cap for the top out of steel. Just a suggestion but why not find a car/truck hood roof for your replacement? <!-- / message -->
BOB thats a pretty good idea..... I will start thinkin about what is available here. Thanks! Progress! Not much in reality but it sure feels like a lot! Now that I have something to put a seat in I can finish my steering and pedal placement.
...that is one cool ol truck; a little tall in the hat area...you could chop it about 1/2 would look pretty cool. nice work.
The proportions look off right now, but a 63 3/4" bed should fix that. I'm not really into the bobber bed look.
Haha thanks Smokey. At this point I have some dimensions for the cab so I am going to try to make my steering and pedals. But first I need a proper seat (man's second invention!) made from some leftover plywood and a 2x6.
The bench has been in the family for as long as I can remember, I think it came from a company in El Paso that made iron furnature and fencing. It just fits my ass real good so it's only natural that I take my seat profile from it. This seat temporary .... I will be using the sides as a hammer form to make a permanent seat out of 18 ga cold rolled steel (leaning on the garage door). Then some dom tubing for a hoop on the back rest. I know it looks a little tall.... This cab is real short (front to back) so I need some height if I plan to sit normal. Any suggestions for seatbelts? HAMB vendors? I like somple and no plastic.
I cant help it. Im so excited about this seat I have to share. It finally feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel. I can sit in my truck for the first time in a year and a half!
So, it's been a while. I have been trying to fix the problem I created for my steering by wanting the pitman arm in line with the hair pins and steering arms.... Big mess. So I bought an ugly double U joint and decided to just go ahead even though it's not the greatest looking. I have everything in place at the bottom but the three pice DD shaft out of a vega just looked ugly and the connecting rod with custom copper bearing just didn't make me happy. It was kinda rat roddy too so I decided to go a different route.
There was a '48 ish chevy fleetline/master? woodie out in the woods that I knew of so I went and claimed the steering column out of the rusty carcus. The 3/4 shaft was a little orange, but in good shape. It was a good workout cutting it out with a hack saw, because it's burried past the steering box in mud. The wheel Is beat up, the shaft has no DD end on it but the column shifter will be a nice blinker lever and the column still has decent bearings in it. It was gonna cost me about $37 worth of tooling and a couple weeks wait to get in the machine shop so my plan was to 'machine' my own DD end By hand. The old 3/4 DD shaft was 0.750 in diameter and 0.550 from flat to flat. To take off 100 (thousanths) from each side evenly was going to be interesting but I tried anyway. I started with the old DD and a block of wood. Drill 3/4 hole, cut cut it close with a saw and file the rest of the way with a wood rasp and finish with a fine file till you just barely get the surface of the shaft... and it needs to be a tight fit. Transfer it over to your 3/4 round and scribe a line or three through the cnter of the shaft so when you go to do the other side you know where 180 degrees is.Go slow with the grinder and flap disk to avoid burning your wood (never a good thing). Then finish with a fine file till you just barely start taking wood (on the file) and flipe 'er over. Rinse and repeat, then measure with calipers and file with the guide block on till you are within your tolerances. I got the flat-to-flat between 0.551 and 0.548 inches and the flats are dead parallel.So you don't need a mill to do good work all the time. If you do this, be patient. It took me about 3 hours total for one inch of DD.
Thanks Flowmeister. I'm goin slow lately. A guy offered to trade me a flathead with 500 miles on it for my 302. So I have been at a standstill wondering whether to do it or not. Oh and forgot to mention. I will be using the Chevy wheel and saving the graham steering for hot rod number two. Some day...
I have been following this build since the beginning. I've been impressed with your ingenuity, but really like the way you made the DD shaft end. Can't wait to see the finished project.
Hmmm.. Flathead, less than 100 hp, expensive adapters, unobtanium parts. 302 -has 200+ hp, commonplace parts, and it's already in! Give your head a shake and move forward! I love the truck. Ralph
This truck is gonna be super cool. I really like the way you stretched the cab so a full sized adult will now fit in it and the best part is that almost nobody knows what a Graham truck cab is supposed to look like so most of em' probably won't even know that its been stretched. Also wanted to say that I have to agree with Ralph, leave that flathead for the Ford guys. The truck will be a lot more fun with the extra pep that a decent 302 will provide.
Beware, nobody's saying you have to retrofit anything - but in most states if you install seat belts you can get a ticket for not wearing them! Better safe than sorry and not have them at all. Sent from my Verizon 4G LTE smartphone
Thanks for the input from everyone. I have decided to pass on the flathead sadly... More pictures tomorrow! I was gonna do a tech week post but it has been snowing which makes roofing a lot more tiring. I will just post a million pics here.
A guy here at the museum has it stored. Its not for sale, but trade is a possible option. He doesn't like Chevy, and a good running recently rebuilt ford would be a bargaining tool. Its kinda up in the air because it hasn't been run in 5 years and he is busy in the summer. I don't have his number yet. An 8ba, stock, out of a pickup that was restored and crashed.
No more word on the flatty, so I'm going to try to forget about it... I am going slow because I signed up for two engineering classes this summer and I'm short on money... but here are some updates! Steering column drop progress. It's 18 gauge, formed with only a couple hammers, a dolly, and a ratchet handle. The first pattern was taken from the truck using the creasy hands method. then the second was drawn free hand... no measuring involved!
The Jalopy Journal
