38 Ford truck project The Maineliner

New helper

When I started this project my daughters boyfriend wanted to help but in the beginning he was pretty much a grinder and a floor sweeper, but now a full semester of machine and welding class at the high school has turned him into a pretty darn good welder, cutting torch operator,chop saw,etc...
before and after shots! [cl

cab

Now I guess its time to put the cab back on and make a firewall,doghouse, we also need to make some front cab mounts. the engine comes into the cab a little but it will be fine

It's coming right along, and a helper is a great thing to have when building, that is for certain.

How's your leg room in there with that motor set back? (or cab set forward depending how you wanna see it.)

Man, you are gonna be sad if your daughter ever dumps that guy!

leg room

Sam_Fear said:

How's your leg room in there with that motor set back? (or cab set forward depending how you wanna see it.)

Man, you are gonna be sad if your daughter ever dumps that guy!

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Actually its pretty good, that 6cyl is pretty narrow and the bell housing is not all that big around, I mocked up a seat in there and I think the legroom will be fine,there will be an area about 14 inches wide right out to the stock location,I can fit both my size 12s in there no problem

Glad to see ya back on this build.
Kudos to the help, he's came a long way, you can tell by the pics.
Kudos to you for taken the time to show him what building rods is all about [cl

Got the cab mounted today and put her out in the sun while I cleaned the shop

Got the cab all mounted down,put her outside while I cleaned the shop. Now I have to get a steering box mounted and build a floor, I couldn't resist a little photo chop there on the end![

Looks sweet, but you squished your Chevelle!

flat

Yup my chevelle took a beating in that pic!

Whoa, even sectioning doesn't work on GM stuff. Nothin' makes them look better.

MercuryMac said:

Whoa, even sectioning doesn't work on GM stuff. Nothin' makes them look better.

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Thats right, they are aw-sum just the way they are!

hehe

LOL merc.....

Enough brand bashing fellas. We all know GM iron rules![cl

I'd be more worried about the Hippies that seem to wander in and use your welder whenever they want! [

jfg455 said:

Enough brand bashing fellas. We all know GM iron rules![cl

I'd be more worried about the Hippies that seem to wander in and use your welder whenever they want! [

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what do they do?
sneak in there and make bongs?

steering

Well she has a steering box now, I will be making a pitman arm this week, I took a box and column from a 40 ford and shortened the outer and inner 14 inches[,I like it!

Hey dsanman

You got the look down perfect....love it..keep up the good work...

I would leave the top as is...you want this thing to be fun to drive...and being able to see is huge...and you want to be kinda comfortable too when you drive it...so maybe set the seat that you are going to use and see how you like it...how do you feel in the seat???...can you see around stuff????...then think how is it going to be with less space with the copped top...

Just a thought thats all...

MikeC

I will definitely be chopping it

Well I stopped in to the local steel shop and picked up a chunk of 3/4 in bar stock to make up a pitman arm, I know some people shy away from pitman arms but I have made a few over the years and never had a problem, most of them were in circle track cars and they took a hell of a beating! I needed 11 inches of arm movement to steer the axel from stop to stop,that ended up being an arm about 8 inches long, I will take it to work with me tomorow and weld it solid, I just have it tacked now for mock up [

fire wall

Well I figured while I was waiting for my super duper heim joints to come in the mail, (for my drag link and pan hard bar) I would start building my firewall,I'm using some pretty thick material,(12 gauge) for the fire wall an I picked up a 4x8 sheet of 16 gauge for the floor, I'm not too thrilled about this part of the project but its got to be done!

Yessa

mikec4193 said:

Hey dsanman

You got the look down perfect....love it..keep up the good work...

I would leave the top as is...you want this thing to be fun to drive...and being able to see is huge...and you want to be kinda comfortable too when you drive it...so maybe set the seat that you are going to use and see how you like it...how do you feel in the seat???...can you see around stuff????...then think how is it going to be with less space with the copped top...

Just a thought thats all...

MikeC

Click to expand...

I know where your coming from Mike, I used to work at a hot rod shop and on more than one project a customer would spend in access of 120 k building a car with all the newest and coolest fiddle faddles and wiz bangs just to find out it sucked to drive because the chop amount (that they insisted on) was too much. heres a couple pics of a 36 ford I did a few years ago for a customer, this car was actually not too bad to drive with a little seat work

A little more flooring

Made a drive shaft tunnel and a trans hump, got drivers side floor done, hopefully tomorrow I will finish the floor completely[