Dug's 1959 Fleetside

[Purcell69]

Looks great Dug!

-Joe

[Kim57]

Very nice.
Kim

[dug224]

Thanks gents!

Decided to take a look at the bumpers outside and then take the truck for a spin around the neighborhood. Had to reinstalled the battery. Hope I don't have to do it in a parking lot somewhere without a jack! Tried to manhandle it up into the tray with no success. Resorted to the floor jack.

Pretty happy with my upside down bumpers.

The 5.3 starts every time!

[Kim57]

Truck looks good.
Kim

[dug224]

Managed to strike some small things off of the TO DO List. Welded a missing square nut onto the front grill.

Purchased an obscure windshield washer tank filler neck off of eBay that fit the bill perfectly. Cost $7.50.

I'll mount it adjacent to the radiator reservoir as shown. When the tank arrives, I'll mount it under the front right fender and route a small hose between the two.


Replaced the old headlight connectors with some fresh ceramic connectors and renewed all the headlight wiring.

[ChuckDriver]

Nice work. Those new connectors might be a tight fit to the back of the headlight buckets.

[dug224]

Originally Posted by ChuckDriver

Nice work. Those new connectors might be a tight fit to the back of the headlight buckets.

That did not even cross my mind. Went together pretty well other than having a little trouble installing one of the SS retaining ringes. Went down to the garage and took a look. Appears as though I have 1/8" clearance and wires are not pinched....but... my headlights have not yet been adjusted. I do remember seeing a guy who updated his late 50's Corvette headlights. Assumed he was doing something a little more modern. He took a hole saw and cut out the backs of the buckets and covered with a rubber plate. I'll wait to see if it throws the headlight adjustment off before I make any mods. Thanks! dug

[dug224]

Been tied up working on rental houses and renovating my own house. Finally got my doors and hood back so I may be able to get back on the truck a bit.


Hood is in great shape except for one possible problem. Seems there is a nearly perfect crown down the middle of the entire hood. Since I have no reference, does the '58/'59 hood have such a crown?



Passenger door will need at least a lower inner door panel.


Got my universal windshield washer tank and remote filler. I'll be putting them up under front right fender and on top of right inner fender, respectively.

[Kim57]

Parts look good.
Door bottom isn't to bad.
Kim

[dsraven]

looks great so far. not sure on the hood issue. I had one here too but I traded it for some doors. sorry man. if it was me I would just go with it anyway, the hood looks really straight so it is probably stock like that. the small bump would keep the hood from oil canning all the time.

[dug224]

Thanks guys. Decided to take a more aggressive approach to getting it on the road. Pulled the front clip off and sent to the blaster this morning. I'll dive into welding up the holes in the cab, replacing the cab corners, steps and passenger floor and other misc. cab welding projects. Once finished, I'll send to blaster. As the parts come back, I plan on painting each piece in preparation for final assembly. Current direction is to single stage flat or satin black everything with little to no body work. I do plan on welding up the strange holes that came with the truck. Maybe by then, the sheet metal guy will have my parts bent up for the bed!!!

[Task Force Era]

Good looking Apache man!

[dug224]

So, the sheet metal guy went silent so I'll be looking for a new one soon. On the other hand, the blaster quickly finished my front clip. No rust but the standard number of dents. I'll finish pulling the bed today so I can better access the cab corners. I plan on tacking them in place then pulling the cab so I can better weld them away from the nearby 18 gallons of fresh gasoline in the plastic tank.

[dug224]

In preparation of getting the cab to the blaster, I removed the wiring, seats, e-brake and steering column. No more driving it around the neighborhood for a while.

I then drilled out the spot welds and removed the driver side cab corner.


The remaining metal on the front side of the pocket is in decent shape. I'll do some metal prep/preservation and then reshape the curve on the bottom and replace a few square inches of rust.


I left a couple of inches of cab body that I can trim until I get the corner in place.


With a few minor adjustments, the step is ready to weld into place.


Gaps are within reach which I will correct mostly with modifying the edges of the doors and by fender adjustment.

[big_moss]

Following

[dsraven]

when you trim the cab to fit the new corner leave a few tabs that hang down so the new part overlaps onto them. then you can step flange them, then rivet, screw or tack weld the new part to the flanges. screws work good because they come out easy for alignment etc. less guess work and the holes can be welded shut easily after removing the fastener. just a thought.
your truck is coming along quick now it seems eh? nice. gonna look awesome.

[dug224]

Originally Posted by dsraven

when you trim the cab to fit the new corner leave a few tabs that hang down so the new part overlaps onto them. then you can step flange them, then rivet, screw or tack weld the new part to the flanges. screws work good because they come out easy for alignment etc. less guess work and the holes can be welded shut easily after removing the fastener. just a thought.
your truck is coming along quick now it seems eh? nice. gonna look awesome.

Very timely comment. We were just having a "tab" and alignment discussion. Thanks for the comment. Truck is coming along secondary to painting my house. I try to log some time in on both but the house continues to win!!!

[dsraven]

if you leave a few tabs and the rest is butt welded you can use a strip of flattened copper pipe, possibly from the house reno, as back up behind the weld area. it absorbs some heat and also will help stop burn through because the hot metal that would fall through is trapped in place. copper doesn't stick to the steel either. I have a cut off c clamp with a magnet on the cut off part that I use for areas where I can't simply vise grip the copper on. I also have a chunk of brass that is thick and it was invaluable when I was filling all the holes in my frame. to fab up a "C" clamp thing try to get a deep "C" clamp and cut off the bottom leg of the "c", where the threaded part butts down against, so it leaves an upside down "L" looking part, leave the threaded part as normal. get a magnet with a hole in the middle, sometimes they sell them with a bolt on hook that can be removed to leave a hole there, screw the magnet to the cut off area then that will stick to the fender far enough away so the magnetic current won't mess with the weld circuit. you can use the clamp part to hold down the flattened copper pipe back up material. of course you can also just have a buddy hold the copper or brass backer while you tack weld etc.

[dsraven]

there are also butt welding clamps you can get at harbor freight for cheap but they don't work as well on curved areas. they leave the proper space between the two metal parts for a good butt weld. access to the back side of the panel is required.

[dug224]

Originally Posted by dsraven

there are also butt welding clamps you can get at harbor freight for cheap but they don't work as well on curved areas. they leave the proper space between the two metal parts for a good butt weld. access to the back side of the panel is required.

Yep...I have a stack of these and I can get to the back of the weld to assemble. Took the passenger side step and cab corner apart this week and they fought me the entire way due partly to the fact that I had to leave the door in place. Came off in pieces. Fortunately, water got in between the step flanges and compromised the welds. As a result, I got out the trusty air chisel and quickly dismantled them. In retrospect, I should have air chiseled them out from the beginning. I left the doors in place since I adjusted them into place with the fenders on and did not want to disturb the placement. The remaining front sheet metal in pocket is not in quite as good condition as the drivers die but should be pretty easy to patch.

[Kim57]

Lots of work.
Quite a few of us have removed the inner corners. They're the main reason the cab corners rust out as they trap water and dirt.
Kim

[dug224]

Originally Posted by Kim57

Lots of work.
Quite a few of us have removed the inner corners. They're the main reason the cab corners rust out as they trap water and dirt.
Kim

Kim...as in removing and not putting back? If so, do you just cap the top and maybe run an outrigger to the new cab corner? I'll do a search through your build and the build site. I also remember seeing someone (may have been you) who put a small piece of angle iron on the bottom of the step to help keep them straight. Will also be looking for that as well. Thanks...dug

[Kim57]

Originally Posted by dug224

Kim...as in removing and not putting back? If so, do you just cap the top and maybe run an outrigger to the new cab corner? I'll do a search through your build and the build site. I also remember seeing someone (may have been you) who put a small piece of angle iron on the bottom of the step to help keep them straight. Will also be looking for that as well. Thanks...dug

Removed them and made a piece o seal the inside from the elements.
And I did reinforce my steps.
Both fixes were pretty easy.
Probably should reinforce the cab corners also.
On the sill I had to replace my outer only and tacked a piece of 1x1 square tube for reinforcement and then took some 1x2 tube and split it to use on each sill.
The 1x2 is tacked to the 1x1 and the sill. Here are some pics.
Kim

[dug224]

Found a great exchange regarding the inner cab corner.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=567066

I'll plan on leaving mine out and capping the inside. Still haven't seen an under truck shot of a finished cab corner without the inner corner. So, if anyone reading this and has left off the inner cab corner, feel free to post a shot on my build site.

[dug224]

Kim... We must have pulled the trigger at the same time. I cruised through your build and I did find you step still upgrade. Nice work. I'll figure out a brace. I envisione something like an outrigger that is used on bedsides. Thanks dug