Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
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Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
What year trailblazer do you use for this conversion??
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Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
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Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
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The wheels I got on ebay Sunday arrived yesterday (Wed) new in the box! Mocked up some 245-45-18" tires which have a 26.7" O.D. using rigid insulation I painted black. After looking a little closer at it, I will probably go with a 235-45-18 in light of the fact that the sidewalls will be slighly more vertical. The O.D. drops to 26.3" which is well withing my mockup cutting tolerances and will appear roughly the same. There appears to be no interferance between the front fender lip and tire. Now that I have the tires correctly shown, you can see that the front wheel needs to move forward in the wheel opening 1" to 1.5" and the rear wheel needs to move rearward about 1". Next move is to buy the tires and start the do the frame stretch.
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Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
Those wheels look nice.
I can see where the rear needs to go back but the front looks pretty good. Kim |
Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
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Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
I personally like a little more side wall especially on trucks.
Kim |
Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
I agree with Kim that the front looks pretty good and centered, but the back def just needs to move back a lil more
As for tires, depends your stance but the front looks good with a 235/45/18, the back could use more sidwall. Maybe a 255/45/18 or 245/50/18. Fill up the wheel well a lil more |
Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
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Had a fresh pair of 255 55 18's so I slid them under the body. Looks like a NASCAR version. Pretty appealing to my eye but think I am headed wards smalls in the front and these bigs in the back. Have another set of four 18's available to me but I don't know the size. Headed out this morning to pick them up.
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Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
Looks good.
Kim |
Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
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Kim..thanks. Made some more progress.
I had a single 245-45-18 and a single 245-40-18 laying around so I tried them. May have it. Now that the 255-55-18 is in back, it is pretty clear the 245-45-18 was way too small for the rear. I appreciate the input on the earlier thread. The 245-40 was too small (not shown) on the front but the 245-45 looks just about right. Will look for a 245-50 to try on the front before the final decision. For the wheels in this study, I used the center cutout from the fake wheels I made earlier. It helps give to see the wall height better. The front tire is sitting on 1.5" of wood spacers to get the tire up into the wheel well. The back is sitting on 0.75" spacers. Once on flat ground, it will have slightly less rake. Located some already bagged free sand from a friend I can use to load the suspension. I will be able see how much bed depth I end up with. You may remember, the rear suspension upper spring supports are pretty high and won't be coming down since they are an integral part of the setup. The underside of the bed will only be able to go down only so far until it hits it. To make it worse, the factory kicked it up in one spot to clear the exhaust pipe which makes it a even that much more challenging. Since I intend us the existing exhaust, the kick up stays.....for now.... By the way, the thing sitting below the cab is a lift my Dad made 30 years ago using a trash compactor. I used it to drop the transfer case out from under the truck and to level of the cab. Pretty handy even after all these years. He put a frame with casters around the bottom and welded a 1/2" socket drive to the threaded shaft. You can easlily run it up and down using a pneumatic wrench. Wish I had one more. |
Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
I kinda like the invisible wheels, maybe you could get them made out of Lexan?
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i hear lexan wheels are hard to keep clean :D
i too am a fan of big black side walls on trucks |
Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
Can you please give me some specs on the invisible wheels? Can they be clear coated?:lol:
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Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
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Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
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Invisible wheels are now gone. Finally decided on the tires and had them mounted. Borrowed a trailer load of already bagged sand from a buddy and proceeded to load the frame per my calcs. Initially, I had a 3.5" spacer between the the cab and the frame on all four corners. Once the frame was loaded, I ended up adjusting the front of the cab up 1.5" and the rear of the cab up 0.75" for the current and hopefully the final stance. Goal here is to utililze all of the factory geometry and not buy additional lowering hardware.
Note that the hood is now in place. The only concern now is whether or not the top of the stock LS on stock Trailblazer V-8 motor mounts will hit the cross bracing. I have about 15" to 16" from the cross bracing down to the top of the in-line 6 motor mounts. If I used the old carb'd 305 I have in the garage, I will need up to 19" of clearance. LS, I hope, is much shorter. I notice some guys remove the cross bracing. This may be an option. If not, looks like there is room to lower the entire drivetrain. I will start searching for LS dimensions since I don't own one yet. The front wheel location is correct to my eye. After studying the back, I decided not to stretch the frame but to tighten the gap between the bed and the cab. The current photos are as the truck would look if we pull it off. May cheat the front wheel back 0.25" in the wheel opening to help. |
Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
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...a few more shots back in the garage.
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Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
Looking good. That's a heck of a lot of sand to move.
Kim |
Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
too bad you can't weld the bed to the cab like the ford uni-cab trucks :D
http://www.scottalesinc.com/full/196...f100%20002.jpg |
Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
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Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
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Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
Looking good. Keep those pics coming.
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Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
if you think the frame is rigid enough i'd take the front panel off and see how the bed fits
maybe a uni-cab is in your future. it would look sweet :D extend the bed spear into the cab behind the door? there's a lime green truck on the hamb where the owner extended the bed spear into the door didn't attach the bed, just extended the bed spear. looked pretty nice. |
Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
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Re: Dug's 1959 Fleetside
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Quick update. My friend Brad offered to loan me an LS engine and transmission while he searches for a low mile version for me. Picked them up last night. This one has 121,000 miles and is out of a 2005 Truck. I need to learn about intake heights on these LS engines. This one seems really tall and may interfere. Should be able to drop this combo in the truck this weekend to determine if the hood will close over it in the stock mounting location. If it doesn't, I may have to raise the body and ultimately add lower suspension parts to get the stance right. I will drop by the dealer to see if they have some Trailblazer V-8 motor mounts for the 5.3 I can try out.
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