Hello all. Havent been very active the last year or so. Weve been busy with the new baby and everything and the truck is on the back burner.

I've got it stripped down to a frame now and powder coated black. The kingpins and pitmanarms etc are all in great shape so that just got bolted back on with new bushings in the springs etc.

I've stripped down my 9" rear end and painted that as well. Also got my disk brake conversion bolted in and bought the under floor power brake booster as well as the toyota power steering conversion.

Hope all is well with everyone here and that your trucks are all getting closer to being a driver!
















Everything is painted and pretty now. I just need the Y hangers for the rear end to hang the 9" axle. go through the engine with new seals/gaskets, do all the body work and interior then start driving. Not much to do right? lol

 

Looking good. Won't be long before you have a rolling chassis.

 

got the toyota power steering setup installed today.

bolted the mid fifty bracket to the unit first. the steering box has two parts of the casting that stick out from the bracket a little bit and wont let it sit flush to the frame. they need to be ground off flush with the bracket.


the oem hole in the frame needs to ovaled out towards the front of the vehicle and down a bit


its a really nice kit and the bracket fit perfectly in the frame with the box


the new pitman arm was well built with thick welds and thick steel



looks great when its done. everything fit like it should excepting the bolts that go through the frame needed to be shortened a hair to snug up the way I wanted.

 

For being on the back burner you have got a alot of work done, nice clean work that you can be proud of. Like Jack said youll have a rolling chassies b4 you know it. My Son is 30 now, but I cant imagine getting anything done when He was a infant/todler, congrats.

 

the truck was on the back burner for 3 years or so and this is the first work I've been ablge to do on it. Ethan is 7 mo. now and helping me in the garage already. I stick him in a baby bjorn and go to town.

I've got some Y hangers for the rear on teh way from mid fifty and should be able to hang the rear axle soon.

 

got the brake bracket mounted in and ready to receive the power brakes kit from ccp.

cleaned and painted the bracket after letting it sit for two days in carb cleaner.


and bolted it in using all grade 8 bolts. I dont want my brakes going anywhere!



the little man even helped me out with this one too!

 

Good looking project! The frame is turning out nice.
Did you sand it down or did the powder coat guys do it?

 

lots of scraping/grinding/wirewheeling/sanding etc.

 

started bolting up the cpp brake booster and master cylinder and for the most part everything seemed to line up.




Three holes need to be drilled into the frame to fit the kit. Two holes in the back for the bracket and one on the bottom of the frame just in front of the brake bracket.

the one issue I am having with this kit is the angular brace that sticks out the front of the bracket


This is supposed to sit flush against the bottom of the frame but is resting at about a 45 degree angle. Called mid fifty and they said they remembered something about this when they were test fitting them and that the figured out how to make it work but couldnt remember at the time but the person who would know will be in tomorrow morning. Hopefully I'll get a call and can finish this install.

has anyone run into this with this install before?

 

That moment when you realize that you just spent hours de-greasing, cleaning, stripping, painting, and then replacing eye bushings on 1954 springs for your 1956...



What a pain. I guess I just cleaned them up real nice for someone on craigslist then...

 

If they are in great shape you may be able to drill holes and move the brackets forward orthe fron ones back.

 

Hey David,
Love that pic with your little one! Your suspension & steering is looking great! We all have setbacks along the way - keep moving forward on those front springs. (I've got to buy completely new front wheels & tires as my 18 inchers just won't really fit under our 1950 F1 - crap that stings).

Hang in there.

Ben in Austin

 

Good Work and good luck making more progress with the help of the little one.

 

Regarding the booster/cylinder bracket. I recently got one a few months back. Same story, the front bar which appears like it should mount to the bottom of the frame, doesn't reach. When I first got it I ended up taking it right back off due to a cab clearance issue. I just figured Id come up with something when I had the cab off.

Dianne at midfifty is pretty wise on these things maybe she has an answer?

 

Diane spent a couple days running it down for me. This is the response she got from the CPP guys

"OK. The only suggestion I have is that he loosen the bolt where it attaches to the booster and just mount it to the frame. Then he can tighten the other bolt. If it off a little bit like the it won’t hurt anything."

It sits at a pretty funkey angle and I'm slathering red locktight on that sucker. Not what I expected from a part that is supposed to be purpose built for this application.