Dug's 1959 Fleetside

[dug224]

Originally Posted by wutnxt

I just finished ( mostly ) my 58 with a LS 2.....And had it out yesturday for a drive...and nothing but nothing says loving like a LS ....

Great build keep up the great work...

Just took a quick cruise back over your thread. You opted for a new engine wiring harness. I did not pick up on why you bailed out on reusing the original harness. ?? Also, made the mistake of rereading your bad day thread when the bed got damaged. That was horrible. Hopefully you got that rectified.

[wutnxt]

Originally Posted by dug224

Just took a quick cruise back over your thread. You opted for a new engine wiring harness. I did not pick up on why you bailed out on reusing the original harness. ?? Also, made the mistake of rereading your bad day thread when the bed got damaged. That was horrible. Hopefully you got that rectified.

Well one of the reasons i bailed on the factory harness was the amount of time it was going to take for me to do ....a few other reasons were the guy that was supposed to give me a hand pulled a no show a couple of times...and to send it out and wait....well it was easier to just buy a harness and fly at it. That was my first LS build so if i would have been on it earlier it might have been differnt...........But since then I started my low and go 66 short box that is getting a 6.2 ltr supercharged LSA set up and I think i will use more of the cars options and harness.......see how that rolls so to speak. I see your making progress....trucks looking great...going to be a great ride

[dug224]

Got the trans tunnel bent and installed thanks to my buddy Jim. He dragged some steel over and set up a short metal brake. Matched the template on the first try but my cardboard template was not as accurate as it could have been. Had to add some steel here and there to get the welding done. Did not weld the passenger side since that floor will be replaced when I take it back off of the frame. Learned alot about warping on this weld. Had to slow down and space out the tacks. Jim also provided the piece of sheetmetal. It came from his dead packaged AC unit.

Before the tunnel went in, I fabricated the front seat mounting plate. It also acted as the bridge over the driveshaft to replace the portion I had to cut to clear the driveshaft. Welded the entire perimeter and added some support over the driveshaft.

Next move is to fabricate the trans tunnel between the seats. It will be the mounting point for the E-Brake and I will utilize the sheetmetal I took out of the donor that has all the mounting points. Right now, the shifter feels good left of center and the e-brake to the right of center. Note the that the centerline of the tunnel ended up 5/8" to the right of the center of the cab.

Started looking for a welder so I can Jim's back to him. I have my eye on a Millermatic 211. Factory is offering a 15% rebate. Any comments and recommendations would be appreciated.

[OrrieG]

Looks good but you might consider making it removable. Make getting to shift stuff, transmission bolts, etc. easier. My transfercase is a B to align and mount from the bottom only too. Look at the photo in your post 187 to see all the stuff on the top of the tranny that is impossible to get to from the bottom.

[Task Force Era]

Just went thru all 7 pages of your build Dug. I'm definitely impressed. You got some pretty clean work going on. Gonna be checking this one out on the regular!!

[dug224]

Thanks guys. So, I have been able to log in a bunch of hours. Got the core support finished. With the encouragement of my buddy Jim, I have decided to go a good bit further backwards and get things done that I would have been putting off in my quest to drive it around the neighborhood this winter.

Engine (with new mounts and all accessories) and transmission (with torque converter) are now installed and mounted back in the frame. I picked up two 5 gallon buckets of metric nuts/bolts from my friends at Autoworld here in Mobile. By the way, pretty heavy. I was metric bolt challenged until then. Being able to match sets of bolts has been a life saver. Note the handy hole through the oil pan for tie down purposes. One size fits all in the Trailblazer platform. They appear to all be setup for 2WD and 4WD. The Trailblazer 5.3 is all aluminum and the key difference I believe between it and the truck aluminum LS is the oil pan. I looked back at my receipts. I paid $600 for the engine and $400 for the transmission and they have 60k miles on them. They came out of the same vehicle and I got all of the parts that came on it(including the computer) except the alternator. I did not get the drive by wire gas pedal which I believe I have successfully found and installed. Won't really know until I get the wiring done.

Using the chain mounted to the floor to get the cab off worked well except I did not use enough chain. The hook needs to be further from the floor to keep it from being top heavy. Got a little dicey with it trying to roll over. I ran out of hands doing it myself.

Started on the firewall. Counted over 50 holes, tears, gouges, etc. to fill. Cut the master cylinder plate out of the old '59 frame. The good news is that I get to cover up the hole I cut in the firewall from under the dash for the master cylinder. Was not a pretty hole. The nuts you see are for my pedal assembly struts. The plate and nuts are now welded in place. Since my arms aren't long enough to reach the back of the firewall with my handy copper backer tool, I took one of my H.F. red magnets and filed the edge off to install a piece of flattened 1/2" copper pipe. Bent it into an "L" shape and put a bolt through it to attach it to the magnet. Will use it today and photograph it if it works.

So far, based on some advice from an old timer, I have used wood cutting hole saws to cut several holes in some pretty heavy plate. Mounted the plate to a piece of wood that is in the vice mounted on the drill press table. Used alot of oil and have been able to reuse the blade more than once. I have a drawer full of them (for 20 years) from my Dad's estate so I had nothing to lose.

Ended up with 6 bags of glass beads for my blaster. Got two bags for free since they were torn and paid $10 each for the other 50 lb bags since they did not have the proper markings on the bag for retail to businesses. They are said to retail for $27 per bag. Will attempt to collect it and rescreen it if I can bring myself to use it. Also dried and screened a bunch of Home Depot playground sand I had laying around.

[dug224]

Originally Posted by Aftermath59

Just went thru all 7 pages of your build Dug. I'm definitely impressed. You got some pretty clean work going on. Gonna be checking this one out on the regular!!

Thanks. Love the Iphone app art work. Will be looking into this. dug

[Wheelie]

Wow! Your making a lot of headway. Keep it going!

[Kim57]

Nice progress. The radiator came out nice.
Kim

[dug224]

Shot a picture of the welding magnet modified to hold a piece of smashed copper pipe. Works great provided the hole you are trying fill is flat and in a place that has enough area for the magnet to grab. Note that I had to grind a bit of the magnet frame so the copper is flush with the edge of the magnet frame.

The 5.3 looks like a pretty big engine when all the sheetmetal is removed.

[Kim57]

Good idea on the magnet.
the frame looks good.
Kim

[dug224]

Originally Posted by Kim57

Good idea on the magnet.
the frame looks good.
Kim

Kim: Thanks...did you wire your LS yet? Do you plan on stripping the OEM harness or are you buying a fresh one? Thx Dug

[Bomp]

You've got a nice build going on there. Subscribed.

[Kim57]

Originally Posted by dug224

Kim: Thanks...did you wire your LS yet? Do you plan on stripping the OEM harness or are you buying a fresh one? Thx Dug

I got a fresh one from PSI. I had them flash my computers also.
Kim

[dug224]

Last day for the truck for a week. Yesterday I sand blasted the firewall using screened playground sand. Went pretty quickly until I hit the undercoating. Will have to find another way to take it off. Recovered about 80% of the sand and rescreened. Will put a trarp down next time.

Got the cab mounts on the driver side finished. Cut the top off flush with the top of the frame and cut out a plate to fill it. The small corner cut is for the front of the cab step. Ground down the welds on the frame where the old mounts were located. Discovered that the front mount was an integral part of the frame. By the time I finished grinding the welds, there were two vertical openings (1/16" wide) in the frame from top to bottom. Welded them up and hit it with a wire brush and paint.

Finished the day by cramming everything on one side of the garage to get the wifes car back in. dug

[dug224]

Got the four cab body mounts boxed and painted. Cut out the area behind the old battery and the area where the steering column went through and replaced. Filled all but three of the remaining holes in the firewall. The nail trick (thanks Kabwe) came in very handy. Much grinding to do. Still a welding hack but improving.

May go ahead and replace the rotten passenger floor while I have the cab off. The water that got in that rotted the floor came through a hole somebody drilled from inside the cab through the cowel. Everytime it rained, it drained into the cab. Note the repair in the top left of the firewall photos. dug

[Kim57]

Looking good.
Kim

[Red Foreman]

What Kim said, I'm really enjoying this build!

[dug224]

Tossed the cab back on the frame and reinstalled the steering column and pedal assembly so I could cut the hole for the steering shaft and get the trans tunnel started. Patched the top left triangular piece that I got carried away with when doing my initial trans cut. Ordered cab corners, passenger floor and both steps with integral rockers so I can get started on the sheet metal.

Did a preliminary 10 minute mockup of the trans tunnel. Shorter but wider than I envisioned. Will push it to the right to get a little more clearance right of the gas pedal. Remember, the trans is 1"+ off center to the right. Cleaned up the donor shifter and e-brake units and took a look. Top is currently rectangular. May tapper it on the next mockup and see how it looks. Fortunately, when I removed the e-brake from the Ranier donor, I drilled out and removed the bracket it mounts to. The bracket comes with the mounting points for the cables under the vehicle.

Also, cut the long piece of steel (you can see it in the 3rd photo) to begin fabricating the beam that that the fronts of the seats mount to. Decided to abandon my initial approach which simply bolted seats to the existing beam and create this long piece with nuts welded to the bottom. Once fabricated, I will weld to the front and top of the existing beam. This piece will also bridge the structural beam I cut out for the trans/driveshaft clearance. The bridge will get a couple of pieces on top to replace what I cut out below and will be under the trans tunnel and out of site.

Question: Does anyone know what the third hole in the firewall is for under the hing mounting holes? You can see it in the top left of the first photo below. Could not determine what it was for so I was not brave enough to weld it closed. It is under the fender liner. thx dug

[Kim57]

Looking good.
I have no idea about the hole.
Kim

[OrrieG]

photo is cropped this might help.

[dug224]

Thanks Kim.

OrrieG: I don't see it on your drawing. Worst case scenario is that I leave it open and, if not ultimately used, I put a nut and bolt through it. One of our fellow bloggers will be bringing his '58 Fleetside by soon. I will take a look at his. Thx for the drawing. dug.

[sparkydog]

Antenna wire hole?

[dug224]

Originally Posted by sparkydog

Antenna wire hole?

I will give that some thought. Took a look at your build. Now THAT's a project. One of my buddies had a Travelall back in High School. Was amazing what we could fit in that thing. dug

[Kim57]

Looking good.
As far as welders I've been using my Lincoln for over 15 years without any problems at all.
I'm sure the Miller is a good unit also.
Kim