"Bickle" 1948 3100

[joedoh]

so enough time has elapsed, I am bored again.

named Bickle because the fenders are yellow, they are the ones I picked up in omaha last year.

and the cab/hood/bed/running boards will be black, giving the appearance of a taxi I think. the most famous taxi driver I know (besides Jim) is Travis Bickle. here is the black 6400 cab I bought last year

and yesterday I picked it up.

it is really clean, has a kink in the drivers cowl that looks like as much fun as a pinapple enema to fix, but there is no other repairs needed at all.

it has a weird radio setup with a head in the dash and looks like a amp/speaker on the firewall. also has a fan, these are common in grain trucks that spend hours creeping at 2mph beside combines to catch the output.

more in next post

 

[joedoh]

so that is the body sorted, now I need an s10 donor. I like to use the 98+ stuff so it haas all the electronic upgrades, I especially like the 03s, that was the only year the 2wd s10 got the LU3 4.3 motor with roller rockers and MPFI. so when I saw this ad on marketplace for a body beat but 115k mile sonoma, I called.

when I got there it had two flats and was stuck in the mud. he was frantically trying to start it, but the engine turned over poorly like it had water in a cylinder. he assured me it ran when parked a couple years before, but it wouldnt turn over well even with a jump and I told him my donors had to drive home and even if we started it I didnt have spares for the tires that were leaking like sieves when aired up, and went to find something else. but a month later I picked up two smoothies with tires, and that gmc was still popping up in my feed, so I took it as a sign.

I called and said give me a "today only with a tow truck get it out of my yard price" and he understood. for $450 I figured I could replace the motor and trans if needed, so I towed it home.

turns out he was telling the truth, the battery cable was corroded from acid, and the engine spun furiously after that. maybe the fuel pump was out, wait, nope. its completely out of gas. a couple gallons and it is a smooth runner, runs and drives really really well. Its a ZQ8 truck so it has a larger front and a rear sway bar, and is factory lowered 2.5".

I popped on the front tires and at that moment my friend called with some steel rears, so I popped used tires on those and mounted them up.

I terrorized the neighborhood doing some shakedown, seems to need tie rods but everything else is good, even the ac works.

I needed to clean up the shop to get the parts out for this build, but I have been in the (bad) habit of just opening the garage door and throwing the parts in wherever there is room.

so I took an afternoon and organized.

more in another post

 

[joedoh]

"but wait" I can hear you saying, "what is that truck with the fenders in the last pictures?"

well eagle eye, a couple months ago I had a painted gmc grille for sale for $50. a nice guy called from oklahoma and asked if I would ship. even though it was oklahoma it was still twice the price of the grille, nevermind box and packing. but it was a nice day, and I was bored, so I proffered a suggestion, how about you drive north and I drive south and we meet somewhere? it would save him about 3 hours with the turn, and he quickly accepted.

we met up and since neither of us was anxious to just hop back in the truck and drive home, chatted a bit. he was surprised at all my fun builds and asked why I didnt keep one? I told him I was holding out for a very specific truck, a 55-56 big back glass truck maybe with a 58-59 fleetside bed. he smiled and said "like this?" and showed me a reasonably clean 56 BBG and a fleet apache bed. we made a deal, he gave a great price probably because I was willing to drive a $50 grille 3 hours (total profit minus gas and lunch: $12) and last weekend I drove to tulsa with a car trailer.

you can see the bed on the flatbed of the truck.

I will do another S10 truck this year besides Bickle, and maybe around Tgiving start on the 56. for now its just tucked away.

and being the kind of guy I am, I didnt want to "waste" a trip to another city,. so I browsed the classifieds and found these in tulsa, old stockton wheel reverse wheels with clip cap centers, widened to 15x8.

I will need to order a matching pair, which will cost a bit to have made, but the sum price of 4 will almost be half price.

what else is going on? glad you asked. my friend called one day, he has spotted an ad for a 91 4x4 chevy and told me "look in the background", I did and there appeared to be a 5 window cab. I called and asked if he wanted to part with it and he said "look, if you want to buy parts, you have to buy it all". I didnt know what "all" meant but his price was fair for the cab, so I went. there were FIVE doors, TWO front clips, running boards, a visor, and just buckets of stuff!

when I was done loading and strapping he asked if I had any interest in the 91 4x4, I laughed and said "maybe the seat" so he sold me that too!

my tool collection has been growing and I am busting out of my roll cart. I stopped by The Yard (local surplus store) and they had a nice snap on bottom box for less than half the box stores wanted for a husky. of course I dont sneeze at a good deal but still haggled another $20 off!

I also ordered a new plasma cutter, it cuts really well and I got it with a small cnc table that I cant wait to put together. Bickle will have cad designed and cnc cut parts!

I also spied some nice looking 20s with new tires on marketplace, I thought they might look nice on Bickle so I bought them. I tried the fit on nicks 54 and yes, I think they will look great!

the guy with the wheels also had a longbed s10 in his back yard, he said he was using the engine and trans but everything else was up for grabs. I think I will use the 5 window cab and make that mini coe I have been thinking about for a couple years. I wish I had driven to the PNW and bought that bullet riddled COE hood now!

so that should catch you up, I am working on cleaning my home shop today but might get some dismantling done on the sonoma.

 

[MercuryMac]

You are off to a real good start.
You've also proved that you cannot make a hotrod in a one car garage.

 

[forbigpicture]

WOW...going to have to take a break after all that.... I'm worn out now [ddd

can't wait to see what's next...[cl[cl

 

[skull]

that old s'cool radio is groovy daddy 0[cl[cl[cl

Later

 

[DozerII]

Holy Joe I'm outta breath just from your shopping trips. [cl[cl [P[P I will tag a long as usual.

 

[kenny c]

Man have you been busy. Sounds like you got some great deals.[cl[cl[P[P[P

 

[BillM]

Wow Joe, my head is spinning from all this info! It's no wonder that the AD parts are scarce up here, you have them all down there! LOL. Thanks for posting, I'll be watching...

 

[Torchie]

[P[P [P [P [P [P
Torchie

 

[joedoh]

it seems like a lot, but you have to know that this all happened in less than 4 weeks! except the omaha trip and buying the 48 cab, those were both last year, but everything else happened after christmas.

sidetracked by weather, and bent bumper brackets on nicks 54.

I did get the cab off the trailer thanks to my bomb cart and a 2x4. normally this would be a 10 second job with the forklift but I sold my smooth tire and bought a rough terrain forklift, and the delivery guy blew up his tow truck, so its still living la vida relaxo in oklahoma. I dont have a second way to get a 10k lb forklift 90 miles. maybe drive it? hmmm 6mph 90 miles is FIFTEEN HOURS>

 

[05snopro440]

it seems like a lot, but you have to know that this all happened in less than 4 weeks! except the omaha trip and buying the 48 cab, those were both last year, but everything else happened after christmas.

sidetracked by weather, and bent bumper brackets on nicks 54.

I did get the cab off the trailer thanks to my bomb cart and a 2x4. normally this would be a 10 second job with the forklift but I sold my smooth tire and bought a rough terrain forklift, and the delivery guy blew up his tow truck, so its still living la vida relaxo in oklahoma. I dont have a second way to get a 10k lb forklift 90 miles. maybe drive it? hmmm 6mph 90 miles is FIFTEEN HOURS>

When I was about 15 I had to drive my dad's Bobcat skid steer about 5 miles. It was fairly agonizing.

 

[Toad]

I also ordered a new plasma cutter, it cuts really well and I got it with a small cnc table that I cant wait to put together. Bickle will have cad designed and cnc cut parts!

Love the parts you're gathering! Can you tell more about your cnc table?

Toad

 

[joedoh]

sure its a langmuir crossfire, with the XL kit and a new razorweld 45 plasma. I have an older hypertherm powermax 600 that I would like to upgrade to the duramax torch, so if I like this table well enough I will probably order the duramax machine torch for the hypertherm to use with the table.

 

[joedoh]

still waiting out the weather, I can take the cold but not sleet and rain. cant wait to have the other shop up and going. tomorrow is a day of rest and sunday I will probably get the sonoma stripped.

here is nicks 54. I just did body and bumpers and pedals and column. should have been easier, but there was a little of everything. the front sheetmetal had a whang in it from a fender bender, and it pushed everything to the drivers side, so when I put it square on the new chassis it didnt really line up. taking out the hood bolts and the passenger hood spring mount twisted right off the rusted inner support. I didnt want to cut the running board mounts off his nice 1/2 ton frame and he didnt want tubs or a steel s10 floor so I did a lot of extra tube work for the running boards and for the bed wood he wanted. the front bumper mounts were bent from the whang, I had to put the bumper on with a ratchet strap to the frame. the rear bumper was broken in half, so I welded it and gave it a badass scar. the doors werent on the truck and the drivers upper hinge was cracked and the lower was looser than the morals at a strip club. the truck had a 47-53 bed on it but he brought me 60% of a 54-55 bed so I "made it enough". all in all a fun project for a month and a half, really a month if you count the two weeks I was farting with the honey do's on kechi.

 

[BillM]

Wow JD, that 54 looks really good now!

 

[soltz]

yep

Looks really good now, your[

 

[Dr Crankenstein]

'54 is my favorite AD. [cl

.

 

[Burgerman]

Dang that's lots of stuff going on Joe! Like the new shop. Agree with Bill about that 54 looking really good. You earned a rest. [cl

 

[Old Iron]

[cl[cl
[P[P[P