Projects 1955 Chevy Truck Project -- PHOTOSGALORE

Sweet, appreciate all the positive responses to this build so far. Air ride is the latest and greatest technology for being able to get that low stance and still drive your wheels. I dont think the intention of this truck is to "hop" or "pull 3 wheel" or even to "spark it" down the boulevard. Its a concession to low stance and good ride. Vince had made mention this might be his new daily when its finished

And hell yeah fellas....be at the shop tonight. Unfortunately its gonna be a house keeping night. Time to wrangle up tools that have dispappeared, throw out the beer cans, and sweep sweep sweep. More disassembly after we got some cleaning done.

Keep the comments coming and Ill keep the photos. More in the next few days.

 

Looking awesome!! These trucks look great down in the weeds. Mine may not get THAT low, but that's because I'm doing her old school with the straight front axle. It just shows that there are dozens of different approaches to building these beauties. I'm likely going to go for either red/white paint combo or red/black paint combo. Mine is a '56 custom cab and I'll do the rear big window insert in the secondary color and the rest of the truck either ALL black or ALL red. Keep the pics coming...I love seeing new ideas and progress. As soon as I can I'll start a thread on mine...

 

bag it and drive the shit out of it! who cares, have fun! hey Dru, Mizz Moonshine has started her transformation. Rat Pink will post pics of the progress while I am otherwise unavailable. He is going to unvail her at Paso Maria next year as I will still be in Assghanistan.

 

Oh and the yellow is pimp!

 

I love the Tri-5 pick-ups... they have such a sweet look with the headlights & brows. I love pick-ups crazy low as well, so your hearts in the right place, but the air bags aren't my bag... huh haaa! But if you want to be stupid-low, they are pretty much the only way. And stupid-low is bitchin'.
As for the WWW's- they look good on anything. So I have no beefs with them on this ride. As long as they are bias ply, it's good to go in my book.
You guys are rippin' on that thing. I am looking forward to seeing it at the Mass. Keep up the good work.

 

btt

 

i wish i was working anywhere near as fast as you guys! three years now and still havent moved her under her own power, but have heard her alot and scared the neighbors a bit

 

No air ride, just sitting low and painted yellow, here is my truck. I opted for a raked stance on mine.

 

What rear suspension is on it now?just curious.

 

that is Awesome looking! holy crap that couldnt sit any better at all, hows the ride at that height?

 

hey guys...my dell at home took a shit on my so i had to borrow another laptop.

We hit it hard last night...from about 8pm till 3am. Got the bed unloaded and off. We also got started on the rear suspension.

As usual I took a bunch of photos but I can upload till I get my computer going again. The rear suspension right now is an abortion. The PO had good intentions of gettin it low but basically tacked the axle tubes to a shitty notch. We already built new notches for the back that will lower it another 2 inches. I got the photos and they will be up ASAP.

Thanks again to everyone checkin this out. Also thanks to all the fellas that come by the shop and lend a hand. Last night I think we had 8 people in there. Rick brought all the air ride stuff over, Jesse helped move heavy shit and got some sanding done on the interior and front grille, Jerry sanded and was Jerry, Rog and Vince got that notch pounded out, Chris helped with ideas and measuring, and good ole Vern Lowick threw ideas out and helped get things in order.

Like I said I got some more pics of progress but Dude, I got a Dell (and its a POS).

Our little shop/clubhouse we work out of was built sometime in the early 40's based on the area of town and construction. Its maybe 1000 sq ft but it works for us. The power coming into the shop though is another story. Last night we had to kill 1/2 the flourescents, turn the fan and radio off, and stand by the breaker to run the chop saw. I think we flipped the breaker 10 times cutting that notch up. Oh well, thats hot roddin.

Tonight is a promise of more mad fabricatin' (hope thats not copyrighted).

And again, I know all of this is useless without pics. Hopefully it will be online Saturday.

DREW

EDIT: anyone in the area that wants to come by and check it out send me a PM and ill get you directions and when we are gonna be around.

 

So what time tonight Dru? I hope we can get the notches in I can't wait to see it all welded up the rear 4-bar in!

 

Alright, $100 trip to Best Buy and I am back in business. Power cord for the battery charger frayed where it plugs in and the wires broke. Oh well. Heres those pics I promised....



When we last left the truck the bed and cab looked something like this....full of random parts and rusted crap that may or may not get used.


Jesse (Inked) and I jumped in before everyone got there and cleared out the parts. We tried to lay them out on the floor in an organized manner. There were all the brake pads, air ride parts, chunks of frames with mounts, 2 fuel tanks, a tilt column, bumpers, grills....the list goes on.




Once all them parts and pieces was out we could see what we were actually working with. The muscle arrived and off came the bed.



Strong backs and weak minds.





New home for the tins... for now.

 

Once the bed and fenders were off we got a good look at was goin on with the frame. It looks like someone C notched the frame at one point. They used a notch that was the height of the frame with out building any kind of bridge. They welded 2 pieces of steel across the top like some kinda mohawk. The axle was just tacked in place.




After deciding the notch needed to go, the 4 link was thrown on to see where everything was gonna fall. The frame is gonna need some plating to make it easier to set up the links. Ideas are still gettin tossed around on if a wishbone style or this way would be better.



There was about an hour or so of this. Measure, mark with soap stone, remeasure, mark it again, re measure, and then measure it again. Based on running a 15 inch wheel with a G78 tire....the tire/wheel combo would be 2 inches taller than the current set up with the Astros. A little debate about how much clearance was needed and some numbers were reached. The final notch height was decided by how much scrap steel we had laying around the shop.



The cross member right behind the rearend (with the shock mounts) need to come out to make room for the new notch. A couple or minutes of work with the grinder on the rivets and it slid right out.




Once that crossmember was outta the way the uprights were C clamped into place. By just squaring it up with the bottom of the frame and getting as much height as possible the final height was reached.

 

POORBOYBRUCE,...you'll notice Vince is wearing the appropriate shoes for today. Vince will defend his decision to wear sandals though. He said, " Sometimes when its hot you just gotta risk taking a burn or two."

Either way...he was ready to do some damn work on his truck tonight.


Once the soapstone marks were where they needed to be,...old trustworthy the chop saw was broke out and the cutting began.

It might just be me but I love the smell in the shop when the sparks are flying.




Like I mentioned above, the power kept shittin out on us. Heres Vince cutting steel in the semi-lit shop. 1/2 the flourescents were turned off here to keep the breaker from flipping.




Roger (Used Up Junk) has never built a notch like this before,....but he did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night. Always good to have an extra set of eyes. Vince and Roger worked well together bouncing ideas back and forth to get those notches built.

 

Looking good, and I still think it is so cool you all work together on these projects.

One question.. so when everyone is lifting, grinding, lifting, sanding, welding and did I mention lifting... you are the one taking pictures right?. so that woud make you the smart one...I used to work in a factory and some of the other guys would laugh that I always got stuck driving the fork lift..... while they were lifting.

anyway... Great job you guys, all of you, at the rate you are going you might make it to Sonic in July..

Roger stayed in the Holiday Inn Express a lot in '07 & '08, so him is plenty smart mechnic.

 

Double Looking Good! is that cab still on the frame in those pictures? Damn its is low as hell already if so..

 

Jerry (GeBo49) and Jesse (Inked) got caught standing around.

They jumped in and started helping by sanding the grill and some interior pieces. At this point everything helps and everything needs to be done.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the shop it was tack tack tack...all cuts made and the first welds getting thrown down.





Here it is. And you can see how much taller it is than the previous one. It should allow for a nice low ride height and have plenty of room for the arc-movement of the axle tube. A little more welding and some plating and it should look pretty bad ass.





More to come. These are all from Thursday night. I am posting them on...well I guess its Saturday morning and they are still down there. I had a date night with the wife so I didnt get to go play. They did send a few cell phone photos and Ill see if I can get those up right now.

 

sweet truck! i definitely want to see this done. keep it up!

 

Sweet, Rog just sent me a photo or two. Talk about hot rodding in "real time". Heres where the notch is as of a few minutes ago.



Looks like they have that old mess cut out and the new bridge in. Damn I wish i was there.

Heres another one :

 

1) Yeah guys. The cab is on the frame in those photos. See the sport truck photo for the ultimate goal. She low.

2) Thanks Jim. Next time Rog comes over swing by. We dont mind visitors,....just dont get caught standing idle or we will stick you on that grill with Jerry and some paper.

3) Did I mention, she gonna be low? I know this is a traditional website and some might view this as a little to modern, but I think its in the spirit of the original customizers. Get it low....use adjustable suspension if available. Agree, Disagree?

 

Just got back from the shop and ran through the shower (why does everything still smell like steel?) both notches are in and the old stuff is cut out we still have a lot of welding and plating to do but the hard stuff is done. We're gonna cap off the ends of the tubes and clean everything up so it should look pretty good when it's all done. I think it turned out pretty nice and it was all pretty much made out of steel we had laying around! Stay tuned boys and girls next time it's four bars and bag mounts!

 

By the way i know the notches look deep but like Dru said Vince is gonna run a WAAAYYY taller tire in the back so we needed a lot of clearance. Ok that's enough outa me it's way way way past my bed time.

 

lookin good, kepp up the hard work, shell be done in no time

 

Looks good

 

Surprisingly it rides quite nice, just have to keep a close eye out for pot holes and speed bumps, gotta love Michigan roads.

 

Really good progress last night guys. That rear suspension should be all tied up by the end of this weekend. Right on schedule!

 

lots of great work in no time at all. great stuff.

 

This is a really good DIY post you have going, with lots of pics and comments. Taking the time to tell every step, with photos, I'm sure will be of help to future HAMBers. You guys are doing a great job, looks like you'll meet your deadline at this pace.

I'm glad Vince had on the proper footwear, safety first you know, regardless of weather.

 

new shop name . ALL NIGHT KUSTOMS !!!!!