Where has the last year gone? I was surprised to see it has been that long since updating this build. My camera broke and the replacement sucked, so I don't have all the pic's I should have.
My friend with the '50 Chev truck decided to leave Alaska this summer and always wanted to go on a cruise with our two trucks,
so the mad scramble began to get mine running began. I was shooting for our anniversary in April.
Both rear fenders are in primer finally. I wanted to replace them, but couldn't see paying $1,000 each with shipping. One came off a truck that burned, so every bolt hole was rusted out as well as the lower front and back edges. Ten patches later, it is solid again. The rad support is finished and in paint.
Here is the drivers inner fender.
Smoothed and patched.
The passenger side was just as bad and both are in primer now.
Rear cab corners are in.
Tilt your head to the right. This is the new drain tube for the cowl vent. If anyone has ever had a leak here, it is probably due to Chevrolet's great wisdom of using round sheet metal instead of a solid tube to mount the drain hose to. Of course the seam is on the firewall side and no room to really get to it, so I added a liberal amount of windshield urethane to seal it up as a safety precaution.
I got my driveshaft made and then added a driveshaft loop to help create the needed clearance as it was hitting the cross member near the back of the cab and wouldn't even mount up. I used a piece of heavy well casing 8 inches across. I split it in half and added 1 3/4 inches to get more clearance.
I have complained about the steering column ever since I installed it as I never liked the dimmer switch in it. This added two large boxes on the side of it and it was a column shift (I'm going with a floor shift) and I already have my Cal Custom dimmer switch cover (Floor switch) that goes with my Moon gas pedal.
Last summer I obtained a late 60's floor shift tilt column and after complaining again to a buddy when he was at the shop, I ripped the old column out and started the change over. When I told Jackie about it, she wanted to know if that was part of the Must Do list? I told her it is now.
Mocked up. I planned to use the original dash mount I had made, but didn't like the looks of it going back so far.
Here is the old mount after cutting it all apart and rebuilding it so it is thinner and leans forward. The tube on the side is for my ignition switch.
