Skip's 39 Ford PU. How it happened

[Skip]

When I started thinking about a project I had an open wheeled bobber in mind. Then when I found a cab, it came with a set of usable fenders. From there, the challenge was to figure out how short I could make it all with fenders and a bed. The conventional wisdom is to find a two-wheel drive standard cab long bed donor. It has an almost exact match for the stock wheelbase. I didn't want that, so I ran an ad on CL for a short wheelbase S10. This showed up.

[Skip]

The new chassis was rust free, and the manual steering was tight. All good. So I pulled the cab off of it and got to work. First thing was to put the chosen wheels and tires on it. The other option for wheels was a set of American 200Ss that are in the rack. The slots just looked way more bada$$ in this application. Plus, the 200s need some repair work.

Now we can see that back end is way too high and the frame is still a bit too long. But it is shorter than the stock 39 by about 6 to 8 inches. As you can see, there is lots of frame sticking out on both ends that will only get in the way of making this as short as possible.

[Skip]

3 inch lowering blocks in the back got the frame leveled pretty well.

Since the frame was a base model, it has no extra suspension niceties like sway bars. A trip to be bone yard supplied me with front and rear sway bars, and of course new shocks were in order as well. The front sway bar was a stock one off of another S10 PU. All the mounting points are there to use. The rear sway bar came off of an Olds S10 4-door Blazer clone. I fabricated the brackets that weld to the frame for these. The rest is bolt-on. I suspect this baby will corner like a...

[Skip]

Once I thought I had the body and fender placement sorted out, I clipped the front end of the frame back to the steering gear. On the back end of the frame, the target was to allow for the shortest bed possible. So, everything behind the rear spring shackle got the ax.

NOTE: I ended up trimming more than necessary off of the front. Be sure to leave the bolt hole for the front sway bar if you are planning to use one. Its that half a hole on the bottom. I need to weld a tab back on to secure the sway bar bushing retainer better. Live and learn.

Other than trimming off unneeded body and bed mounts, that is pretty much the extent of the work on the chassis. It turned out that I did not have as many pictures as I thought.

[Dr Crankenstein]

I like the slots, Skip! Far and away my favorite wheel!

.

[DozerII]

Your making some great progress.

[Skip]

Weather is finally getting nice (I know, I'm a woss) and my bones are not screaming at me. So I went out and looked at where I left off, and I think the new radiator mounting system is ugly. It will work just fine, but if I looked at some other guy's car and saw that, I would not think highly of it. Problem is, that it is part of the fender support bracket mounting system also. Need to stare at it for a bit. I'll figure out something.

This is at least partially self-motivational.

[earthman]

.................

[smallfoot]

Making good progress! I like the slots better too Skip!

[Skip]

I need a house keeper. And a secretary.

After I washed the dishes and made breakfast, and ate while checking my mail and RRR/UDS, I put a load of cloths in the laundry, and finally headed out to the shop. I am happy to report that it is still there.

Surprisingly, the fix was really simple. Well, getting rid of the ugly part was anyway. After that, since the geometry had changed a bit, I clamped the rest of the radiator mount in place, and positioned the radiator. Then fitted the grill and surround in place and checked everything for clearance. It will fit! YEA!

And the laundry is done.

Next I will take it all back apart and finish fitting and welding the pieces of the radiator mounting contraption together. Then I can trim a few bits and whatnot, and it will look fairly decent. Especially considering it will be in a dark place anyway.

Nothing really picture worthy with today's work. I'll put some up of the finished product.