Dug's 1959 Fleetside

[dsraven]

looks good man. you would benefit from a stud welder!
hey, better take some time and do a quick alignment on the little red and yellow express. looks like the toe in is excessive.....

[Kim57]

Nice looking bed parts.
Cool kids.
Kim

[RockinKees]

Bed parts are really nice!
I was a bit worried on how you would blent the new and old bed together, but it came out great!

I think you've got your grand kids hooked on old Chevy Trucks

[dug224]

As I await the sheet metal pieces I am having bent to attach the bed sides, I decided to go ahead and hang the front bumper. Also sent the hood and doors to the blaster since they did not play a role in hanging bedsides.

On a couple of jack stands, I screwed some 2x4's together so I had a solid platform from which to adjust the bumper's position. From my dumpster diving inventory, I used a large piece of angle to create the brackets at the bumper. Welded a couple of small angle irons together to create the horizontal "C" channel structure and used a fairly thick piece of plate metal as the vertical attachment to the frame. Tacked the verticals to the frame temporarily. Once I have the front clip off, I will drill and bolt the verticals into place so they can be removed in the future and cut the bottom of the plat off flush with the horizontal piece. The toughest part was establishing and maintaining the location of the bumper relative to the truck front to to back, horizontally, vertically and, finally, the "rotationally" (side view). I managed to bump it a lot so I go pretty good and resetting the location. Before I weld the horizontal to the vertical, I'll stare it for a few more hours and remeasure to make sure its as close as I can get it. At it's closest point at the front of the fender, the bumper is about 1/4" from the fender. The factory edge is pretty terrible. Had it been a painted bumper, I would have ground a curve into the top of the bumper so it followed the curve of the fender. Last thing I'll do is build the outriggers to pick up the single holes near the ends of the bumper.

[dug224]

...some more appealing shots.

One final detail, to get the vertical plate to fit flat against the side of the frame rail, I had to cut the sway bar bracket portion that was on the side of the rail and reweld to the bottom of rail. See last two photos.

[dsraven]

Hey dugg, nice job. You will be driving it soon. Im jealous.

[ChuckDriver]

Looks nice, is it upside down?

[dsraven]

Just thinking that you may want to round off the orners of the attachment brackets so they fit the contour lf the bumper better, don't wanna bend that nice chrome piece.

[dug224]

Originally Posted by ChuckDriver

Looks nice, is it upside down?

CD: Yep....Good eye. Could not get used to the right side up look architecturally. Just doesn't seem right to my eye, however, it covers the valence a bit better. My brackets can go either way. I'll flip it over one more time tomorrow to see if it has gotten any better looking to me before I go permanent. Also plan on flipping the rear bumper so I can hang the tag down low to cover the receiver hitch. Thanks...dug

[dug224]

Originally Posted by dsraven

Just thinking that you may want to round off the orners of the attachment brackets so they fit the contour lf the bumper better, don't wanna bend that nice chrome piece.

DR: Agree. I softened them a bit but plan on a good bit of finish work on the brackets before I cinch them tight. Thanks dug

[Kim57]

Looks good.
They do fit better upside down.
Kim

[dug224]

Thanks gents for the input. ChuckDriver put us to work this morning with his comment. I called my buddy Jim over and we studied the "right side up" version (photo 1). It was touch and go for a bit and "right side up" was winning. After a bolt hole location discussion, the realization that the short face of the bumper (to my eye) belongs on top and the fact that the rear bumper was going to be flipped, we came back to the "upside down" version. The bumper definitely fits better "right side up" against the valence and it does not help my choice as beat up as my valence currently is. I went ahead boxed the end of the horizontals, finished the diagonals and reinstalled it. Will measure it a few hundred more time and do the final tacking to the verticals. Whew!

[ChuckDriver]

Hey sorry, didn't mean to cause you extra work!!

[dug224]

Originally Posted by ChuckDriver

Hey sorry, didn't mean to cause you extra work!!

Many many times I've been so close to something I could not see the obvious. This was extra "play" and we enjoyed the exercise. Frankly, this is what this site is all about. Thanks dug

[dug224]

Almost finished bumper. Bottom of bumper is 8.5" above the ground. With all my heavy welding on the brackets, the final bumper location wandered off towards the passenger side by about 1/8". I'll slot the holes in the brackets next time I have them off. Sorry that the last photo is rotated. Could not figure out why it was doing this.

[ChuckDriver]

Very nice!

[Kim57]

Looks good.
Kim

[dsraven]

somebody has a sore thumb!
I like the set up. don't you love it when a plan comes together?

[RockinKees]

Looks good Dug!

I was also thinking about flipping the front bumper, but as I look at it, the A-pillar is somewhat in the same shape and direction as the bumper, if you know what I mean...?
It just looks better.
I'll go right-side up

[dug224]

Originally Posted by RockinKees

Looks good Dug!

I was also thinking about flipping the front bumper, but as I look at it, the A-pillar is somewhat in the same shape and direction as the bumper, if you know what I mean...?
It just looks better.
I'll go right-side up

It's a tough call. With a couple more minutes of studying it, I probably could have just as easily talked myself into installing it right side up. I'm pretty sure the only people that would notice it either way reside on this build site!! Working on my flipped back bumper now. dug

[dug224]

On to mounting rear bumper upside down. Plan is to narrow the bumper by a removing a couple of inches from the center to make the ends of the bumper flush with the bedsides. Will also cut the edge of the bumper so there is no curve where it meets the bedsides under the tail lights (see pencil mark in 4th photo). I'll hang the receiver hitch and the bumper off of the same plates that will be welded to the frame. I'll cutoff the male end of an old receiver hitch and weld it to the license plate holder thereby making it removable when I need to hookup a trailer.....but first, since I don't have my sheet metal to mount the bedsides, I'll have to shim them into place and get all the lines right before I commence with the bumper. Got the bumper cheap because the chrome was falling off. Had my blaster remove it and prime.

By the way, figured out the photo rotation issue. Because I upgraded my computer to Windows 10, I now have to rotate, rename and save the photos I took with my camera (only the photos I took with camera rotated) using MS Office Picture Manager. Will attempt use this program to open and save the photos rather than using MS Explorer which was the old and easy way I did it until now.

[Kim57]

That should look real nice when done.
Kim

[dug224]

Fabricated the receiver hitch license plate holder this morning. Pretty straight forward.

[dug224]

Started projecting the line for the back of bumper cut. Pretty hard to keep a straight line on such a complex curve.

Also, proved once again, you get what you pay for. Fortunately for me, I am installing the bumper upside down. The old top has a significant bend that would have been pretty noticeable had I installed it correctly. I whacked the bumper a few times with a large rubber mallet and managed to lessen the bend a bit.


By the way, I finally understand how to add text to individual uploaded photos thanks to the smart guys on this site. This is what I got when I searched this site. It was posted back in 2014. Thanks!!!!

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=636863

[Kim57]

License plate holder is simple and clean.
Kim