I love the direction this truck is headed. Thanks for sharing all your hard work, It's very helpful and inspirational to the rest of us.

 

Well the intermittent rain has really cut in to my roof project. I took this week off to work on it but it has given me spurts of time to get some more done on the truck.

During one of the showers, I decided to tackle to the clutch slave and pushrod install. I decided to stick with the stock ’58 master and slave and fabricate whatever I need to make it for the ’76 FE motor and '76 T98 trans/clutch. I need to go with hydraulic because the steering box is right where the ’76 mechanical linkage mounts. Before today, I had not addressed the clutch at all and was really concerned I would have to pull the transmission to cut and alter the clutch fork. Glad to report I actually had the fabrication figured out and completed in a little over an hour and didn't have to alter the fork..

First I pulled the header to make more room. I forgot about the stock threaded holes in the block where the mechanical linkage was bolted. Made things easy. Once I held the slave in there, I could see that all I had to do was cut a piece of 1/4" plate to mount to the stock holes and hang down so the slave could bolt to it. Made a template out of cardboard, marked the holes, scribed to shape, and then cut it and drilled it. Bolted the slave to it, hung it in place and then cut the pushrod to length. I combined the ‘58 pushrod and the ’76 sleeve. Had to cut about 1.5” but it fits great. Took it apart, cleaned it up and painted it.

Only potential issue I foresee is the heat from the header. I may get a starter sleeve and wrap the slave or maybe wrap the headers. My only other option would be designing some sort of cable system that pulls the fork from the rear.

Anyway, here are some pictures. I’m gonna break up the uploads to 3 posts. Seems less likely to fail that way.



Need to fit the clutch slave cylinder in there. The stock mechanical linkage won't fit because of the steering box.



With the header off it doesn't look so bad. It's gonna be tight against the steering box and I may have to move it again when I upgrade to power steering.



Specialty tools required for this job.



Forgot about the threaded holes in the block from the mechanical linkage. Gonna make this easy.



First step was to cut a piece of cardboard and make a template.



Slave hanging in place on the template.



Template cut to shape with the holes in the right places.



Back on to confirm fit and clearance.



Straight up shot from below.



Clears the headers but the heat may be an issue.



Closer view of the header clearance.



If I wrap the header or maybe the slave itself, I may not have an issue.

 

Second set of pictures for the slave cylinder mod.




[I] Template transferred to the 1/4" plate.



Cut and drilled and checked for fit.



Slave attached to check for fit and alignment with fork.



Using the sleeve from the '76 so it mates with the '76 fork. Slips over the '58 rod that distance to give it room for adjustment. Will have to cut it to length. It



Need to add a second nut to lock it in place once adjusted.



Rod is cut and in place. Straight up from below view.



Plenty of clearance from the steering box.

 

Last set of pictures for the clutch slave mod.



Bead blasted and ready for paint.



Primered and flat black.



Primered and painted the slave too.



Finished product ready to mount. Looks a lot cleaner than I had imagined before I started.



Mounted in place.



View from underneath. Installed an extra nut to lock the adjustment and a spring to keep it together.



View from the bottom.



Straight down from the top view.



Side view of the finished product. Still need to address the heat from the header.

 

Well it appears I missed posting the work I did a couple days ago on the rear hanger/stance and the shocks. Anyway, I played around with the rear shackle hanger and finally decided to keep it flipped. I measured under the bed and I should have enough clearance. It raises the rear frame ears to 1” and the front sits at 13”. Gives me 5” of clearance in the c-notch without the bed on. I also made custom rear shock hangars to bring the bottoms up a tad but ended up cutting them off and combining the ubolt plate with the stock mounts I bought from Bleu.

The biggest issue I ran into is the Monroe Airshocks are spec’ed at 12.75” compressed to 19.5” extended. I put them on and it felt like they were bottomed out when I tried to bounce the back. Emailed Monroe and the tech told me they have a 3” rubber bumpstop in them so they are effectively bottomed out at 15.75”. So keeping the shackle hanger flipped and using the lower stock mounts extends the shock some and will hopefully let me use them. Either way, I like the stance now.

So basically I cut one end of the ubolt plate off and welded the stock bolt on mounts to it creating a ubolt plate with a shock mount. Turned out nice and the shocks seem to have some play but I am still thinking they will bottom out too soon. Will probably have to find a shorter pair. It’s gonna ride rough but I don’t want it to bottom out too soon. Want the air shocks also because I intend to haul some music equipment in it. Anyway, here are some pictures.




If you look close, you can see the shock mount on top of the ubolt plate with a spacer hanging out of the other side. This was just mock up and I was going to make a proper spacer but don't need to now.



Basically took the two pieces in the center and cut and welded them together to make them look like the one on the left.



Turned out good but I need to take some of the angle out. I guess that is what is done for the stock height?



The other side.



Shocks nor extended more.



Other side.



Truck sits more level with the rear hanger flipped.

 

Looks like good work. You can likely make a SS heat shield that would protect the slave cylinder.

Is the back too low? Maybe it is just the picture. The bed is pretty heavy and will lower it more, not sure just asking.

 

Martin,

As always your fabrication looks like it grew there. Nice work, keep it up! This is a fun build to follow.

What?! Never!

 

I would not want the back lower than the front.

 

Good point!

 

I have the same 1958 truck same color, big window, the truck was from Napa and I have a place in Napa and the Delta. It would be cool to see if both trucks were sold new local.

 

The back is a little higher than the front now. With the airshocks, I should be able to keep it that way. Also, the front clip isn't on and I know when I stand on the front and the cack to get a comparison of the drop (I am 230 lbs) the front drops a little lower. The back barely moves.

 

I think I scored big time. Going this afternoon to pick up a cab and front clip that is being given to me as scrap. It's left over from a job where they are combining 3 trucks to make one. He said he has other parts I can acquire too. It's like waking up on Christmas morning and having to wait to open your presents until after breakfast.

Same color as my truck and about the same patina. Looks like all the areas I need sheetmetal are good. I may even be able to just swap cabs.

 

I want to keep the current radio in the truck (after I replace all the caps and get it working) but I know the dashes are not all the same. Has anyone replaced the actual dash on one of these?

 

Really cool on the cab, et al. It is very easy to cut the holes for the original radio if the new cab is not cut. Repair and re-cut is pretty easy too. Changing the dash can be done, but it seems like a lot of work (lots of spot welds) just for the radio.

 

There is another build on FTE somewhere on a Fridge and they took 2 dashes, cut out the drivers side where the gages are and put it in the passenger side, so that there was one on each side. Forget exactly what they did to fill it in (as in no gages) on the passenger side, but it was a cool custom feature.

Great work so far, I love this build! And score on the extra cab!