49 chevy truck booger

drove the truck down the street and the drivers door came open. Here is a weird one, its not the latch! the latch works perfect, as I was banging on the door to try and get it to fall open again, I noticed the handle drooped and eventually opened the door. the spring is shot. so I have penetrant soaking to get the handle off, one screw came out but the other is stuck.

gratuitous outdoor shots



rear wheels showed up today. I have to say the wheel vintiques chevy centers are gorgeous, very high quality. I also regretted buying the artillery over the smoothie until this very moment. worth every penny.


front wheels and tires are due monday, so I should have the gauges and bed wood done by then, ready for some shakedowns.

nice wheels [cl
Good luck with the shack down

Beautiful truck, love that stance.

thanks! I spend a lot of (too much) time on figuring out ride height. that spot in the driveway is the spot of honor, because you can see it from almost every door and window on the front of the house. maybe I will take a picture from a distance tomorrow, because the flat headlights look outstanding on the front, very modern, its a striking feature.

painted the rears


the fronts and all the tires will be here tomorrow. I did some work to the gauges today, I may NOT put the odometer in the gauge, its a giant pain and since the odo will still work just behind the speaker grill, maybe I leave it alone.

I also painted up some rears for the 41 while painting. nice set of original 15x7 deep offset from an oldsmobile. I need a couple 15x6 from behind the garage and then when I have the wide whites put on the artilleries I will have some new toyo thin whitewalls put on the steel wheels


my reasoning is two fold, one: since the 41 is next it would be nice to have some rollers on to set ride height. two: since this truck will be for sale saturday, it will be a GREAT idea to have a cheaper set of wheels to put on the truck when the wheedlers and cajolers pick away at the asking price.

Nice job on the wheels

thanks!


I got a lot done today, coolant overflow, some firewall cleanup, some dash work on the gauges. but this is what probably everyone wants to see.



I got the bed wood marked and ready to cut and saw a huge flash in the backyard, and then a split second later a BOOOOOOOM!! all the power went out, I thought the transformer exploded but nope. it was just a fuse. poor guy


so we went to dinner and just got back. I may do some more, maybe not.

"so we went to dinner and just got back."

[ddd When you said that, first thing that came to mind is, you ate the squirrel [ddd

haha he was well done!

I love the wheel choice.... aLOT! great color combo [cl

thanks! I was trying to decide between smoothies and artilleries and I really like the artilleries, even though they were almost $250 more. and are heavier.



I got all the strips de bolted and bed wood cut to fit. you would think I had done this before, went fast! need washers to bolt it down, and to close out the end of the bed, probably do that tomorrow.



may need some angle strips on the sides, I cut some off the 41 in the back yard though so I have em.

Great looking truck and I really love the look of the rims and wheels.
[cl [cl [cl
Torchie

thanks torchie!

I was working on the gauges but I cant find a color I like for the gauge faces. tried all sorts of almonds and ivories and whites with pearl and white metallics, have a flat white on there now that looks promising.

so I worked on finishing the bed. got all the wood trimmed and the strips arranged. the two center strips have a different hole pattern and a couple holes are over dents so the 2" screws I bought dont grab anything but air.



that gap at the front, I filled it with a piece from another bed board. good to have extra



welded up the back and got it painted. not fancy, just a gap filler.


and in the world of "what the heck", I counter sunk a couple screws in the outside boards to keep the clean look with no angle strips. passenger side went perfect, drivers rear though, I countersunk then drilled and put the screw in, and it fell all the way in. I pulled the screw out and this was my view


note you can see all the way through. if you look at older pictures of the bed there was a 3/8" hole there.


I picked the exact spot to drill where there was an existing hole. yay me. I drilled one about an inch further back, I will buy a lottery ticket with my luck and fill the first countersink with a plug.

more later!

The bed looks really good*****

thanks OI!

working on gauges, decided the odo would be appropriate on the gauge face. The last truck I used a non-tach cluster so the odo and PRNDL were all one piece, but on the tach dash they are separate. on the last truck it had a gazillion miles so I didnt care about the odo reading but on this truck it only has 79k miles and I DO care about showing that. the mileage is stored in the cluster, so I cant change to a single gauge cluster unless it had the same miles. enough blubbering.



trial fit. the last time I glued the display to the face but this time I wanted a stronger mount. there is a nice plastic ring on the cluster that I filed down so that it would be at the correct height in the 49 gauge.



I used my gap filler glue and it is STRONG.
next I wanted a stronger way to mount the speedo gauge, so I gutted the 49 speedo mount and drilled the s10 gauge face to mount to it. I had to countersink the screws which was nerve wracking but worked perfect. I also drilled the speedo to accept the turn signals (amber) and high beam indicator (green). I would have liked to use green for turn and blue for high beam but cest la vie, radio shack was limited on their LEDs




the lower holes are for the speedo limit pins, when you plug the gauges in they self test pin to pin so that the speedo is calibrated. on the last truck I played with this to see if I could widen the range, and it worked!

The flat white still looks like ****, pardon my french. I am going to sand it off and leave it kind of raw, I think that will look better.



mounted the quad gauges too. this zap a gap glue is the best, so strong!. Last time I drilled and used screws and it was still a wobbly mess.



I got the extension harnesses for the steppers built, just need to plug them in, the turn and high beam wires run, all I need is to sand the faces for the patina and then assemble. I got some nice blue 12v panel lights for backlighting. should work a treat!

[P[P
Torchie

nice work!!

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[P

thanks guys

its been spitting rain lately and I am tired of covering the window with a towel. I want the door installed before I put in the window though so it doesnt fall off and break the window. here is a tip though. dont ever take the door off no matter how easy it makes your life. It was like a jigsaw puzzle with the upper hinge totally loose and the lower hinge still installed. but I tell ya, its the smoothest working door I have had.



glass installed, no more late night running with a towel.


have a full plate this weekend going to try and have the gauges in tomorrow though. I sanded through the white paint a little and they look a little rougher. I will put some lines on them and I think call it good.

today I made the trip I was dreading, picking up my 41 and 49 that were still 60 miles south, along with paying for and picking up my car trailer I bought from the same guy. I was dreading it because it was an older trailer that hadnt been used in a while, and the brake wires were frayed and broken so no trailer brakes. also, it was two half trucks on one trailer. turns out I shouldnt have worried.

got all hooked up, my partner in crime helped. he had installed the trucks backwards and in reverse order of how I would have, so I was worried the tongue weight would be light.


while I was there I did a little more shopping. bought a smashed up grille and of COURSE another cab


that winch on the trailer is a monster, I looked it up it is a 3500lb rated derrick winch from the 20s! (older picture)


it had a pulley that let the cable go under the front truck, so I hooked it to the back truck and cranked it tight, only needed wheel straps and one hold down strap after that. then it was the 60 mile journey on back roads home. cotton is in


stopped in derby to see bartman


safe and sound! shouldnt have worried, at first I was doing 35 but eventually got to 55. that was as fast as I dared without trailer brakes. the tongue weight was a little light but ok.

messed with parting 41s out this week, but need to get gauges at least partially done. I cant find a face color that looks right but I need gauges to shake the truck down, so I just dusted white over the sanded faces and made some marks



wired everything up


got the quad gauge wired too


first test, promising but not done yet


dont mind all the idiot lights on the circuit board, they are the ABS (gone) airbag (gone) and check engine (needs reset, from when I ran it without temp sender and other stuff disconnected)
the speedo is setting at 10mph, I had this problem in the last one, I will adjust the needle. the temp gauge is either stuck or the temp isnt coming up. the turn signals only one works, but the LEDs are ok, so more testing needed. the fuel gauge reads low too, but I only have a couple gallons in it. more distressing is I revved the engine a second and the fan flattened out and took out the temp located overflow. yay. I quit for now haha.