Hopefully your Hypertherm Powermax works out good for you, No reason why it should not.... and I guess with all the Dust through the years can short out your board.... I hope they can fix it for you for a RESALE....:-X22 it's Amazing when you have it you don't realize how necessary it is but when it's gone it makes you feel like :-X13 :-missingt

Just checking in, no updates because I havent been working on the truck! Nice weather is here so been hitting swap meets and working on other smaller projects. Been driving my 47 caddy and needed to notch the dash and raise up the steering column a bit, was too low to be comfortable. Much better now.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...ps9904d58c.jpg

Next is to hook up my ipod to an amp and get some tunes in the thing.

Hypertherm plasma cutter arrived, awesome tool. Will be back on the truck to get some stuff done next week and maybe an update.

Very Cool Looking Dash :-X22

Thanks, with the weather nice now I have been spending time hitting the swap meets and local car shows, my daughter has been waiting all winter to get to go to them with the Caddy and the Buick.
Got some work done yesterday and today, welded up the holes in the dash that were not going to be used and moved the headlight switch hole to the far left. Mounted a plate on the left side for an S10 ebrake pedal and welded up the zillion unneeded holes in the firewall.
Cab leaves tomorrow for my buddies house for final bodywork and a 2 1/2" to chop. In the mean time I will finish up the chassis and get it blown apart for paint.
Big question has been where to mount the battery, no clue where I am going to mount it yet.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...psb773e938.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...psc0f844e3.jpg

Hey Dave,
What color are you going with? That's a sense of accomplishment - just getting the cab done is a ton of work. Why are you painting this one while you left the Buick with patina?

Nice that the weather has finally turned up there in New York.

Ben in Austin
1950 F1

You can always make a Battery Tray on the upper top passenger side of the firewall :-huh and strap it down... Like this... http://i968.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps738fb8b5.jpg

Trying to avoid that if I can, possibly I can cut it into the passenger side inner fender. Underneath would be better but not sure I want it under a running board or not, would be a pain to get to.
Anyone have a picture of a 51-52 with only the inner fenders mouned and no outer fenders? I dont remember how much room there was in the engine compartment related to where the front wheels are.

See below, not a lot of room, depends on tires and ride height too

Thanks Ross, do you have any other "in progress" build pics or an album? My truck was missing so much stuff I am not sure how some of the stuff in the nose went together.
From the looks of that pic I am going to have to wait until the cab comes back and I can mock up the nose to see if there is room to notch the inner fender. My tires are pretty big and the truck will be lower than stock.

also what goes in this hole, is it a hood bumper?

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...ps130bce01.jpg

My location-drop box

May have to do that but on the outside of the frame rail. Are your battery cables long enough to let the battery drop low enough to get to it?

Dave, in a word yes. The design is to drop the battery down to the low stop, disconnect the cables and then drop the case and battery completely down to the ground or shop floor. I think that you will find that the battery will be too low if you have it under the running board since there is insufficient width for the battery outside the frame rail without dropping below the running board. As you can see, make sure that you plan or better still run your exhaust before fixing the location for the battery. Having the crossover X in my exhaust created the space for the battery. Straight dual exhaust would have been a problem.

Yes, the extra hole by the hood hinge is for a bumper.

Hey Ben,
I have built many "painted" cars, mostly muscle cars, over the years. The 37 Buick build and then the 47 Caddy build were done as "patina" cars just to do something different and not be so paranoid about driving them and worrying about damage. Last car I did before the Buick was this 65 442. Fuel injected LT1, T56 6 speed trans. Loved it but I was scared to death of getting a door ding in the thing! So I sold it.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...70ss/002-8.jpg

This truck build has really gone off on a tangent from my original thoughts. This truck was obviously super rough and was not even going to be really restored at all, it was going to be more of a "patina" build to drive to swap meets. Well then my buddy, who is a great body man and savior of beaten panels, wants one of my cars (1952 cadillac 2dr) bad enough to offer to do bodywork on the truck and save me a ton of time. So now everything has been getting straightened nice enough that the truck is actually going to be nicer than planned. No show truck but should be nice. I am still going to use it for swap meet shopping but now I gotta worry about door dings and such again.
Color as of now will be bright red but until the paint is bought it may change, may go similar to your truck as my wifes car is a similar color and she loves it. Who knows. I just know all the additional stuff now planned will be pushing the completion date further into the summer, which is fine with me.

Thanks Bill,
Your setup looks great, but I am running straight duals so no room for the battery on the inside. Probably end up with it somewhere in the engine compartment if possible, wont know until body mock up once everything is in primer.

Dave,
Others have located the battery behind the front seat. IIRC you put the gas tank in the rear, which opens up that area and provides good access to the battery. Placement of the battery will not restrict the full travel back of the front seat. I would have done that if I went with a rear mounted gas tank (I stayed stock on tank/tank location). The rear mounted gas tanks do crowd space for rear exit dual exhaust which I wanted for sound reasons since I am running ss "cherry bombs". There just is no free lunch!

Back at it again, chassis apart for final welding and paint.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...ps7a6fc7c8.jpg

Started cleaning up the frame for paint.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...psab19bab6.jpg

Some jag IFS information for those who are considering doing one. I highly suggest taking the IFS apart after marking the mounting locations and before final install. Reason being is there a common issue with the lower control arm mounting bolts getting rusted into either the crossmember or the control arm bushings. My left side lower control arm came apart no problem but the right side was a major PITA and I had to sacrifice the bolt to get it out.
The bolt is supposed to be driven out towards the steering rack by removing the castle nut on the front side of the bolt and then driving it out the back. The rear side of the bolt has a large hex head on it which is NOT a bolt head, it is actually a hex threaded on the backside of the bolt. Remove it and the bolt is pretty much junk as the hex head is installed at the factory and then swaged on.
In my case the bolt was siezed to the front control arm bushing making it impossible to drive the bolt out the back. I had to burn out the bushing, remove the large hex head which trashed the bolt, and the drive the bolt out towards the front. I got lucky in the case that the bolt was not siezed inside the crossmember. You can see the large hex head removed in the picture below.
I started a thread over on the HAMB about this and there are some pretty bad pictures posted of guys having to just about destroy the crossmember to get these bolts out. So before you do final mounting, especially if you are welding the jag in like I did, I suggest taking the unit apart just to make sure you can!
Bolts are availble new and bushings are cheap so do whatever it takes to get it apart without hurting the crossmember even if you have to trash the bolt and / or bushings.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...psdb1d4ed7.jpg

Dave,
I second your post. I have been there and done what you did including burning out one bushing!

I have the same front end in my 52. How are you going to handle the shock towers? I also left HAMB after they deleted my post. They don't like diesels over there.

Brad

Ok ignore my question about the shock mounts.

Brad

Lookin' good Dave!
Thanks for the info on the crossmember lower a-arm bolts!

Dave I just threw in a pic of my shockmount. Also I noticed you didn't have a swaybar in your pics. Don't forget about the mounts for it. I did...but the brackets fit under the frame rails pretty good. I had to backstep, and cut holes in my boxing plates, to be able to mount my swaybar brackets using nuts inside the frame rails. just food for thought.

sway bar pics.

Thanks Jeff,
Sway bar mounts are there, actually made nut plates that are inside the frame. Pics are somewhere in the thread, same deal I did them after already boxing the rails and had to cut open spots to get back inside the frame rail. Lesson learned, next truck I will do them before boxing the rails.
Have you been working on your truck? It was one of the first builds I checked out before starting this one.

shock mounts look good, nice simple clean design. The only reason I made my shock mounts small is to try and keep them inside the inner fender panels. As long as they are strong enough that is, otherwise I will put a backbone piece on them tied to the frame.
Man all these builds with silver frames make me want to go that way, but I think I will stick with satin black.

Little preview of more work..

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...ps7cf4d498.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...psc06db003.jpg

Are you Chopping the the Top ???}>

yep, 2 1/2" getting taken off the top.

Cool :-X22 That is gonna look pretty good when your done.... with it :-X06 I like to see trucks with Chopped Tops done right... they look NEAT !!!!

Going with the chop just to keep the overall look in line, with the truck being lowered sometimes the stock roof looks like it sticks up too high. Just another money burning "might as well" moment!

Sure :-X22 if it can be done.... By All means :-X10 I Think it will Look really Cool :cool:

LOL forgot all about this thread..nice weather brings other jobs and projects so truck work has slowed down to a crawl. Welded up some unneeded holes on the chassis today and am working on running new air lines in the shop so I can try out a new HF sand blaster.

Totally unmotivated lately, just so many different things going on I sometimes feel overwhelmed!
Spent some time today and cut out some 1/8" steel boxing plates, boxed up the areas behind the rear mounts and the rear crossmember where the gas tank mounts are.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...psad0653c0.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...psf5064987.jpg

Hoping to get some time to blast the inside of the frame and get it in primer soon.

See it as one step closer to being finished :-X10

One more step..had a nice couple of days at memorial day parties, in between finished prepping the frame for paint and finally got it in primer today.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...pscc9bb43c.jpg

sorry wrong thread

back at it today, frame painted satin black

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...ps3cb9a32e.jpg

Also cut the front jag springs 1 coil before getting ready for paint. With the engine in the chassis the suspension was barely off the bump stops and I needed another 2" in drop to get the suspension where it should be. There was 1/4" in plastic spring spacers that were removed and with this one coil removed it should do the trick. Actual thickness of the 1 coil is 1" since most of it was flat.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...psf533266d.jpg

More painting and then chassis assembly on the way!

Looks great. Keep at it.