Dug's 1959 Fleetside

[dsraven]

doug,
man, that thing is looking awesome. good job so far. I wish I had time to get at mine. I have had a whack of jobs to do so no time for the truck for a few months now. no time to check the site either. seems like I have been out of touch with the hot rodding forever. last thing I got done on my old truck is the lower 1/2 of the extended cab section on the drivers side. gotta get out there and finish the window opening so I can start on the other side side so i can get the cab on the envoy frame so i can.....you know.
well, have fun and keep tightening stuff as you. it sucks to lose a brake pedal pushrod while driving, trust me on that one, ha ha. (dunebuggy story too long ago to mention as it will carbon date me, ha ha).

[dug224]

Originally Posted by dsraven

doug,
man, that thing is looking awesome. good job so far. I wish I had time to get at mine. I have had a whack of jobs to do so no time for the truck for a few months now. no time to check the site either. seems like I have been out of touch with the hot rodding forever. last thing I got done on my old truck is the lower 1/2 of the extended cab section on the drivers side. gotta get out there and finish the window opening so I can start on the other side side so i can get the cab on the envoy frame so i can.....you know.
well, have fun and keep tightening stuff as you. it sucks to lose a brake pedal pushrod while driving, trust me on that one, ha ha. (dunebuggy story too long ago to mention as it will carbon date me, ha ha).

Gotta get your thread going. Your work is incredible.

Check this out.... Buddy of mine sent me this. Good solution for a front end wrecked truck. Can't really tell but the rear fenders look old as well. Note the chrome stepside. Will consider this for the next one. Dug

[dug224]

Got the truck back on the ground and the following installed:
- Radiator overflow. Dorman generic tank. Fits nicely.
- Radiator cooling fan. Never had a cooling fan zip tied to a radiator. Seems a little semi-permanent but it will do the trick. Clearance between fan and engine pulley is not an issue. Note the center of the fan motor is not in line with the engine pulley either vertically or horizontally. Plenty of room for a thicker fan. I may even could have fit the factory Corvette cooling fan assembly now that I see how much room I have.
- PCM. Got the PCM back from Branden at LT1swap.com. Quick turn around and Branden is very responsive and communicates effectively via email and phone. All I lack one more bracket to hold the top steady.
- Throttle Actuator Controller (T.A.C.) which will be mounted to the bottom of the PCM. Currently being held in place by some cool clamps my Dad left me.
- 5 Gallons of gas.

Jim and I started mapping out the circuitry on the back of a big piece of sheetrock. Utilizing the factory controls that come on the late model T.B. column and dash have been challenging but with the Alldata diagrams, we are slowly getting to the bottom of what we need to do. I have a stack of relays coming and need to buy another fuse panel to manage the engine power and such. Decided all of the relays and fuse boxes will be in the cab.

Mocked up battery location below the front right passenger corner of the bed. I plan on welding up a battery platform and being able to slide the battery towards the outside of the truck to get it out. Need to confirm that I have enough space to do so. Also, will add a couple of posts (pos. and neg.) under the hood to jump it off if the battery croaks....dug

[Kim57]

Looks good.
You're making good progress.
Kim

[ChuckDriver]

Wow that's a lot of wire! Good luck, but I'm sure you'll pull it off!

[1955 mancave]

looks great and the work you have done is top notch.

do you think that the frame you used would work on a suburban the same year as your truck ??

thanks.
Henry,

[dug224]

Originally Posted by 1955 mancave

looks great and the work you have done is top notch.

do you think that the frame you used would work on a suburban the same year as your truck ??

thanks.
Henry,

Henry: Yes I do. The only issue I see may be some conflict between the top of the rear frame rails (system) and the Suburban back seat and rear floor pan. You may have to raise the floor pan a few inches to fit over the stock components....or not lower the body and much as I did. You may be able to shave off the top some of the factory frame stuff as well. Kind of depends on what look you are going for. The track width to me was always the issue with me and I believe it looks right to my eye. Good luck. dug

[1955 mancave]

cool thanks , well I think I know what to go find, oh it's going to be a long road now !! but it will be a fun road.

[1955 mancave]

Originally Posted by ricott

Thanks for the update on the body height. I don't have a build blog on this vehicle at this time as my son and I are finishing up a frame off restomod of a 1966 GTO for him. The car has a 6 Liter Escalade engine with a T56 six speed from a 2000 Camaro. We are completing the wiring of the car right now, and will be installing the glass this weekend. When I bought the 55 pickup earlier this spring I thought we would be finished with the GTO by now - but we all know how deadlines slip!!! I went to my friend's salvage yard today and discussed my plan to use a Trail Blazer/Envoy frame on my 55 pickup. He has 13 of these vehicles on his yard. One was a 2005 with 27,000 miles, and another was a 2005 extended cab that had a cab fire. I will continue to follow your build, and I'm sure this is the way I will be going.

The build of the GTO is at Hotrodders.com - Projects and builds section - under 1966GTO.

wow do I have lots of questions !! on the TB/Envoy frame ? I was not aware that there was an extended cab ? or are you talking about another frame ? next it sounds like you have friends in the salvage yard business , but what do you guys think is a fair price for a chassis ??
thanks.

[dug224]

Originally Posted by 1955 mancave

wow do I have lots of questions !! on the TB/Envoy frame ? I was not aware that there was an extended cab ? or are you talking about another frame ? next it sounds like you have friends in the salvage yard business , but what do you guys think is a fair price for a chassis ??
thanks.

Ricky (Ricott, you referenced above) is hard at making an extended cab version of the truck. He bought straight front and rear sections of two different frames and put them together. TB's come in a couple of different lengths. He is using the TB floorpan for his truck which I am not. I am using a SWB frame while I believe Ricky bought the LWB version. The cool thing is that the removal of a select few welds you can change the length of frame either way. Not sure what a good deal is but I paid $800 for a complete frame less engine, trans and wheels. Front suspension, rear end, spare tire (and tools), fuel tank, brakes, frame wiring harness (which i did not use) were still in place. The front left horn was bent but I cut it off to fit the truck. Like I have said before, if you are lucky enough to find a wrecked TB with a 5.3 (or better, an SS with a 6.0), you will be way ahead on the body swap. Don't know exactly how much I have in the project making the 5.3 fit but I suspect I could have paid $3k for a wreck and saved a lot of effort and maybe some money....but, then again, the build is why I am doing it. Would have never learned how to explode an engine wiring harness!!!!. Dug

[1955 mancave]

1st and formost I would like to thank you for your time to respond .

okay well here I go, I have found a chassis and I'm in the process of negotiating a price, I here you about the build that's the part I love , if you search my projects you will see the 64 1 ton I just completed , but now I'm looking for something that I can use for my DD I just don't want to have a truck that everyone else has , I also want to be able to drive it across country and the to the store.
back to the truck. I wonder since what I want is a 4x4 I would like it it on a 2000 and later frame , I do wonder how the track width would work ?

Originally Posted by dug224

Ricky (Ricott, you referenced above) is hard at making an extended cab version of the truck. He bought straight front and rear sections of two different frames and put them together. TB's come in a couple of different lengths. He is using the TB floorpan for his truck which I am not. I am using a SWB frame while I believe Ricky bought the LWB version. The cool thing is that the removal of a select few welds you can change the length of frame either way. Not sure what a good deal is but I paid $800 for a complete frame less engine, trans and wheels. Front suspension, rear end, spare tire (and tools), fuel tank, brakes, frame wiring harness (which i did not use) were still in place. The front left horn was bent but I cut it off to fit the truck. Like I have said before, if you are lucky enough to find a wrecked TB with a 5.3 (or better, an SS with a 6.0), you will be way ahead on the body swap. Don't know exactly how much I have in the project making the 5.3 fit but I suspect I could have paid $3k for a wreck and saved a lot of effort and maybe some money....but, then again, the build is why I am doing it. Would have never learned how to explode an engine wiring harness!!!!. Dug

[ricott]

Trailblazers came in two lengths the standard one, that Dug started with, has (as I recall) a 113 inch wheelbase. The longer on is called a Trailblazer EXT, and that wheelbase is 129 inches. The truck I am building will have a "stretched" cab, and a wheelbase of 123 inches. I think you should look hard at the 4 Wheel drive trailblazer/envoy frame. The wheels fit in the fenders, much more than a full size truck. Look at BBeep's thread - he is doing this on an AD suburban using the entire Inline 6 drive train. Good luck with whatever you do, but please post pictures.

Ricky

[1955 mancave]

ok , thanks for the info ! there's a few things you all will learn about me I ask a lot of questions and I'm not afraid to take on a challenge .
when problems arrive challenge yourself to find the solution, when you find it share it, if you can't find a solution ! ask others , keep an open mind , like a chess game you need to think many moves ahead of where you are now.
thanks again.
Henry

[dug224]

Still managing to make headway. Got the battery tray fabricated out of some small angle iron. My 15 gallons (3 each 5 gallon buckets) of metric bolts I got from the salvage yard continues to pay off. Had two long metric bolts that I cut the heads off of and welded on. Fell out of practice pretty quick on my welding. Had to do a lot of grinding. Lined up the bottom of the battery with the bottom of the frame. Pushed the tray hard against the T.B. body mount to create as much room as possible between front of battery and back of cab so I can get the front of the bed installed. Also, cantilevered the battery off of the tray so the battery does not have to travel the entire width of the battery to fall out. Not really sure how much room I have before it would hit the inside of the bed side. Can now start pulling power wires from the battery to the starter/underhood locations and the electrical panel.

All of the stuff I need to make the '59 run is now in my garage with the receipt of my terminal fuse boxes and relays. Tentatively decided to build an electrical panel I can mount all the electrical stuff to that will mount behind the driver seat. Rough dimension is 12" x 14" depending on how neat I can be and how many relays I end up using. Hope to make it easy to access with a nice cover to hide it. I will start with a bare piece of plywood in the morning and begin laying it out. End of month drive it deadline approaching quickly......gotta hurry.

[1955 mancave]

looking great, love the pictures to go along with the process.

[Kim57]

Real nice job on the battery tray.
Kim

[dug224]

Had some help from Grandson Noah so we made measurable progress. Maybe not measureable but it was fun having him help out..... End of June deadline approaching fast!
- Engine wire loom is 100% and all connectors are plugged in including the Green and Blue plugs into the PCM. PCM location I chose looks pretty factory. The PCM wires clear the upper suspension bolt nicely.
- I am a bit puzzled that my Bank 1 and Bank 2 O2 connector wires appear to be a bit short. They reach just past the exhaust manifold flange but don't appear to be long enough to make it to any kind of 02 fitting. I may need to lengthen them when I have the cross over pipe with O2 plugs fabricated.
- Debated putting the fuse panel back under the dash at the diver kick panel. The behind the driver seat location appears to be still winning at this point.
Next few steps:
- Wire loom and route the fuel tank wires from the three plugs in the tank to the PCM and fuse panels.
- Consolidate the engine/PCM pink 12V switched wires, orange continuous 12V wires and grounds.
- Route the consolidated wires to their respective fuse panels.
- Big wire to the starter.
- ....turn key...drive....
-

[Kim57]

Looks like he's having a great time.
Kim

[dug224]

Beat the end of June deadline and got it running. Jim and Jerry came over after I finished getting it ready to help me through the initial checkout before we turned the key. With the exception of leaving a few wires hot and NOT taped and one key wire feeding one of my Fuse Panels disconnected, the initial check went off pretty effortlessly. Still not sure if the cooling fan is working. During checkout, we jumped the relay and made it run. After the PCM was connected to it, it did not appear to be working. Fan grounds through PCM so maybe we do not have it wired correctly. Not sure we even got the engine hot enough. Truck fired after it turned over a few times. Turned it off pretty quickly and checked all the fluids. Got them topped off and took it for a spin. Did a mini one tire burnout going up the hill. Had a transmission fluid leak which we fixed by replacing a hose clamp. As I was coming in to park it for the day, the rack started leaking badly. Hopefully it is leaking where I put the new hydraulic lines. Will tackle it later.

Pictures show the fuse panel which is located behind driver seat and the mostly finished cluster of wires under the hood near the PCM on the drivers side. The EZ fuse panel located at the bottom of the board will handle much of the normal stuff. Fuse Panel 1 (top) serves the "Pink" PCM wires and the fan and fuel pump control circuits and power. It is switched from the late model TB column thru the Yellow wire that is Ignition/Crank. Fuse Panel 3 is just above the EZ panel and is constant 12 V. It gets the "Orange" wires from the PCM among others. I jumped off the input lug for Fuse Panel 3 to power one portion of the EZ Fuse Panel which is the starter circuit. Fuse Panel 2 (second one down) will support all the fun stuff I am trying to do with the late model column. All the relays are mounted on the right side of the board. Note I also put the OBD connector between FP2 and FP3 for easy access.

Cross over pipe with O2 ports is next. As you can imagine, it is pretty loud without any mufflers on it. Subsequent trips around the neighborhood included hearing protection.

INITIAL START: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szzH...ature=youtu.be

MAIDEN VOYAGE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AVv...ature=youtu.be

...dug

[ricott]

Congratulations on the first powered drive! Your truck is looking great. Can't wait to see the bed on it.

[dug224]

Originally Posted by ricott

Congratulations on the first powered drive! Your truck is looking great. Can't wait to see the bed on it.

Thanks. Once I clean up the garage and get the loose wires out from around the gas pedal, I plan on roughing in the bed location.

[Kim57]

Congrats on getting it started.
It's all down hill from there.
Kim

[dug224]

Loaded up and headed to the muffler shop in the morning. I will initially have the muffler guy simply create a cross over pipe and connect to the existing single pipe two muffler system sans catalytic converters. Don't intend to have it too loud but, if too quiet, may remove one of the two mufflers.

Sorted out my steering rack leak. I did not properly install the peculiar seals when I installed the new lines. In short, push the new seals into the body of the rack and then push the new lines into the seals. The 8mm bolt will pull the flange with both lines in tight against the rack. See photo. The two lines are to the left. You can see the flange flat against the rack body. If it is not seated properly you can see it in the fact that the flange is not flat against the rack. If you try to put them on the lines first then push the entire assembly into the rack, the high pressure seal won't seat properly and will leak like you have never seen before. My second set of new seals cost $15 each ($20 list) at the dealer. By the way, the master cylinder/brake booster were removed which made it much easier to see. You work on it from under the vehicle and access it pretty good.

Brake booster was bad and so was my backup booster. Bought a new one for $113 and had to paint it. I now have proper brakes.

[dug224]

...failed to include the photos.

Also, my $100 Chinese '06 Corvette radiator appears to have sprung a leak. Saw some steam "whisping" out from somewhere on the driver side. I got what I paid for.

[ricott]

Thanks for the "heads up" on the correct way to install the pressure side of the power steering. I would not have guessed it worked that way and at $15/$20 a crack (plus a drive to the stealership) I would be sad. Can't wait to see your truck with the bed on it. So, are you going to put a windshield in it and make it a "around the neighborhood driver" or do you plan to go straight to bodywork?