It's been six long months since I drug my '54 Chevy truck into Chopolds' shop to "work out a few bugs". Well, you all know how that goes. It started out as an engine rebuild, but one thing led to the next and the truck was soon dis***embled from the firewall forward. Here's a summary of what I've done so far: - Rebuilt 350 (010 block) w/ 492 heads (ported, stainless valves), xe268 cam, eddy perf rpm intake, holley vac sec carb, etc - Rebuilt G-body front clip w/ PST kit, new IROC Camaro springs, drop spindles - Replaced the TH350 w/ a 700R4 using a BTO kit (haha, I get to keep the 4.11's) - Reworked the crossmembers to gain a few more inches of ground clearance - Cleaned and detailed frame and suspension - Filled a million holes in the firewall and inner fenders - Patched the floors - Second Skin heat/sound deadening paint on firewall and inner fenders - Replaced the kick panels - Custom speaker pockets for 6x9's in the kick panels - Firewall mounted booster & master - Replaced tilt column w/ one from a '55 Chev; replaced rag joint w/ Borgeson U-Joint - Rewired everything - Plymouth bumper on the front - And a lot of little details like adapting in a throttle pedal from a '55 Chevy and making up all the mechanical linkages I expect it to be on the road w/in a month. I still have to finish up the bodywork on the front fenders, finish the radiator support, change out the oil pan gasket, put everything back together, etc. Anyway, there it is. Thanks for reading. Ed PS- Without the help of Chopolds and everyone at his shop, this wouldn't have turned out half as well. Thanks for putting up with me!
I just wanted to say it was exceptional reading! Got a piece of Xhit '54 3100 myself. My 13 year old wants to rebuild it so I'll let him! I'm going to print this off and take it home for him. When you get final shots, let us know!
paint... frame is POR-15 w/ dupont hot rod black on top firewall is HOK epoxy primer w/ dupont hot rod black on top engine is HOK epoxy primer w/ custom mix HOK base & clear detail parts are mostly eastwood cast blast & alumablast body will be HOK epoxy primer w/ tinted primer on top of that once the whole truck is done it'll get glossy paint that's more reply than you asked for! ed
Nice! You should be happy with this. I know that six months is a sacrafice, but it should be well worth the wait. Hopefully it won't have those old "squeeks and rattles" anymore, and that is worth six months of sitting!
Here are some more update shots from the last two Saturdays. I've been working on patching the front fenders... two big holes and a few smaller ones in each fender. Where the fenders were rotted out along the running boards, I cut out the afflicted areas and formed new patches. The patches were first cut out to rough dimensions, a 90° was bent on the brake, and then I used a shrinker-stretcher to match them to the fenders. This got the patches pretty close. I trimmed them out, and by tacked every few inches to get the curvature mostly in place. The rest was dialed in with a hammer and dolly. The egde formed by the brake was a little too sharp, so I hammered out a gentler radius using a hammer and dolly. For the tight parts, I made my own dolly using the shoulder of a cut down bolt. Use whatever it takes! The front patches required 3/8 tubing to be bent to shape to form the rolled lip at the bottom of the fender. The curve was formed over a propane tank and the welding gas bottle and later tweaked with heat and a hammer. Again, use whatever it takes! Once they were formed, the sheetmetal was hammered out on a sandbag and then smoothed on the english wheel. I have to thank Chopolds and Ron the Wheel for thier help -- I'm very much a novice with metal work and it would have turned out terrible without them. Chopolds told me what to do and helped me out whenever I got stuck. This weekend I hope to have the fenders finished and primed. I also threw in a picture of my sneaky PCV setup. There's a 1/4 NPT hole tapped into the valley of the intake. That goes to a 90° elbow which connects to a '65 Corvette screw-in PCV valve which in turn connects thru a hose to an intake runner a few inches away. PCV can be pretty simple. Thanks for reading.
Thanks for the compliments and encouragement, guys. I don't think I'm giving Chopolds enough credit for his help with this project. Not only is he teaching me how to do all this stuff, he's letting me use his shop and tools to do it.
I like the look of the wide whites and black steel wheels. That truck is starting to turn out real nice.
Ouch. Thats harsh. No need for it here. If it was / is a big deal why don't you tell him to his face instead of dragging that **** out here.
digging up the dead here, but are you still working on the 54? I looked through some of your posts hoping to find some updates, but never did... Cool truck!
The Jalopy Journal
