Projects 1951 chevy truck build, as i go

well i'm still taking things apart, but i'm also putting things together. as of now i have the body torn down and the inside of the cab gutted and sitting on the frame (it's an s10 frame that was to long and was cut down to a 114" wheel base), the cab is sitting on some 4x4's right now. i have the engine mounted (i'm using a 307 sbc) and i have a borg warnner 5 speed atatched to it.
yesterday i picked up a s/b bed, running boards, and rear fenders for $150 and they are in good shape.

 

here are some pic's of what i have got goin on

 

lookin good. i am in the process of rebuilding mine after an accident. i did the s10 frame swap in 2006.

 

that bed was one hell of a deal keep plugin away Nick

 

NIce truck! i have a 48' chevy my self, i just finished a 2.5" body section. i just wish i would have started with a nicer cab! the floors are shot, and rot on the lower corners.

 

well i don't think that my cab is in the greatest condition, but i'm sure that it could be worse. i need to replace all the corners and the passenger side floor.

 

well i just put in my power booster and pedal assembaly. here are are some pictures.

first i set my pedal assembaly on the firewall and marked where i wanted the hole at. then i drilled them out.

second i got a piece of cardboard and marked the holes from the pedal assembaly and then i centered the shaft from the power booster.

last i marked it on the fire wall and i cut out the center hole, and put it all together.

 

just a couple other pics.

 

might want to do some bracing on that firewall for the booster mount. Those firewalls weren't designed to take the force of working a brake cylinder. I have seen firewalls with stress cracks in them when a master cylinder had been installed without proper bracing.

Looks good. Wish I was making some progress on my 52.

 

Sweet truck man, I think my next project will be a 50's truck.

 

The truck looks good I read the s-10 swap thread, but I was curious how hard it accually is? I have a 54 and I am thinking about making the swap.

 

Go Niick Go You need to brace the firewall to the top of the cowl it dose need the strenth

 

Thats a nice roadster in the corner

 

By the looks of the brake & clutch pedal location it is going to be awkward to drive. You might want to think about moving them over to the right. And as the others have said brace the pedal assembly with a bracket to the lower dash.

 

that thing will be gone soon if not sold it'll be in that rain if you keep that up.

 

well this is my first time ever building a hotrod and so far i think that it really hasn't been that hard, but from what i've read on other threds if you have the money it might be easier to use a mustang 2 front end. the hardest part that i've ran into is making the mounts for everything. but there is a kit at i think ad eng. that you can get for an s10 swap. good luck with your build.

 

I think you are OK with the bracket you've got and the positioning, believe it or not. I used the S10 swing assembly, it has the bracket from the dash to the firewall all as one unit. The brakes bolt to it through the firewall.

I lined the left hole up with the left original steering hole, looks like you did, and the wheel came out just fine in my son's '54. I've seen many done this way and no reinforcement was required.

54Earl, there are differences with the '54 over the 47-53. My son's truck build shows some of them,http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=137385.

 

Thanks fellas

 

I know that it's been a while but space has been limited and so has the money. But now I have the space and I got some money for x-mas to get things that I need for the truck. So here's whats happened: I found out that I had a T-50 in my truck not a T-5 so I found a T-5 for a $100, and I'm getting ready to put that in some time this week. I finally got around to welding on the cab mounts this last month (missing one of the original rear mounts, cleaned up and still can't find it.) Fabed up some suports for the front end, now the hood closes all the way and is all lined up (until i take it off for paint.) And i guess last of all No_Respect found a seat that works real well in the truck, with some minor fab work it will fit just right. Now I'm a Chevy guy and I'm sorry to say that it is a ford seat.

 

well I got my rear end today for $75. I was going to go to the pull a part and get one but I saw an ad on craigslist, "parting out an '87 s10 4x4, i'll beat pull a part prices." That was good enough for me. I think the best part is, the leaf springs were already gone, I just had to cut the break lines and load it up.

 

Good to see you moving along. If you can't find that mount, let me know. I've saved a set just in case!

 

Danimal, after reading your post I went out to look again. Looked in the same spots again and moved the same glove box again but this time I found (or saw) it. I'm so stoked. I know what I'm doing tomorrow.

 

Glad to hear. Now, mount that sucker so you don't lose it again!

 

Consider it done!

 

Just checking on the progress. Keep rolling along

 

Today I put the shackle mount on, and I started to swap out the rear end. I got the old 2wd rear out, then my wife needed me to come in and help with our kid so I wasn't able to put the new rear in. I'll have something to do next weekend, along with finishing mounting the bed.

 

I forgot to mention what I had to do with my bed. Well since i had to shorten my frame, instead of making it 116" wheel base I made it 114 1/4". So this last week I shortened the bed rails. I think the worst part of it was drilling out all the spot welds. I was happy with how it turned out. Like I said I'm still working on making mounts and mounting the bed.

 

What made you go to 114 1/4"? We went to 116 1/2" on ours and everything lined up pretty well.

 

I have no idea! I think that it was just easiest at the time when I was doing it. Ya I really don't know why. I guess I just wanted to make it hard on myself, so next time it will be really easy and take me like 10 min to have a finished truck.

 

Just wondering. I didn't know if it was something you were trying to do or not. Some folks move the front end around to do something different with the way it fits in the opening when bags are up or down (I didn't do bags). I just figured the 116" was supposed to be stock and I couldn't get that last 1/2" out. It wanted to jump one way or the other. I ended up putting scissors jacks on exhaust pipe between some points to push while I used comealongs in other areas to pull. Once it was in a 'bind' we tacked it in place.

Next time, I'm going to look for the LWB truck instead of finding a 'cheap' X cab frame! Or maybe not...

I just used 3/4" x 6' angle iron lengths and put the first fender bolt through them (lost about 1" of depth) and ran 1" x 2" square tubing from one side to the other (50" long I think?). I bolted the square tubing to the frame using the one set of bed mounts at the front (about 18" back from the face of the bed) and another laying at about 6" from the rear of the frame. I think I'm going to put rubber spacers underneath to keep vibration down, though. I also don't know what I'm doing with the bed floor, we ran a Blazer tank in the rear.

I'll watch what you are doing because I really have no clue!