Last we left you, Goliath our 1966 Chevy C50 truck, had been dropped off at Tube Chassis Designz to have the cab floors replaced. There were holes literally large enough for a small child to fall through, and we had more than a little sand and debris fly into the cab off the big front meats, while we were driving to the shop. Not to mention the fact that since the cab mounts had rotted through, the cab was sitting on the frame and the truck drove like some kind of demented circus ride.
As a reminder, here’s what was left of Goliath’s cab floor.
Due to our schedule, we were not able to drop in on the guys when the work was getting done, but we were able to stop by each weekend to check on the progress. The driver’s side of the cab was by far the worst side as both the floor and the cab support beam had completely rotten to nothing. Installing that beam was job number one and then the floor fabrication and installation began. As you’ll see in the next few photos, the new beam is in and the inner rocker on the driver’s side is also set.
What can’t be seen in the photos above is the fact that the main frame mount for the cab on the driver’s side had to be replaced beacuse it too, was rotted to dookie. There was some serious drilling and swearing done to remove that big bastard. So, with the structure in place, the sheetmetal was quick to follow. You’ll notice that the bolt securing the driver’s side floor panel seems to be in a weird spot. It isn’t. The panel was stamped with the floor mount hole in the wrong place! Another bitchin’ touch that says alot about the work that Jon, Dave, and John do at the shop is the toe board piece of the floor that you’ll see below. That’s a custom made piece, complete with a bead they rolled into it to match the factory one. Totally awesome!
Yeah, yeah, we know, there’s rust at the bottom of the doors. We’re going to replace them this winter. At this point in the project we were unfortunately called away again. While a couple hundred miles from home we got a call from Jon that started well. “Hey, your floors are done.” Then the call went to crap, “Oh, and your gas tank is junk.” HUH?! While the tank had always looked OK from the outside, we knew it was at least a little rusty on the inside. Turns out, it rotted through and when the guys wiped a rust spot off of it while lowering it back into the cab, gas poured out. A late night order was placed with LMC Truck for the tank and we hoped it would arrive on Friday evening so we could run over, install it, and cruise the truck that weekend. The tank did arrive and with our pop, we headed for Jon’s, undaunted. Upon arrival we found the floors were finished to a level we didn’t expect. Jon and Dave had applied seam sealer and coated them top and bottom in rust inhibiting paint, something we were thinking of doing ourselves. Total quality job but guys who normally build single digit drag cars. Super bad ass! Here’s the finished floors!
Once we wiped our drool off the new floors we set to getting the sending unit swapped from the old tank to the new one. In typical fashion, the holes had to be reamed out so that they lined up with the holes on the original factory sending unit. We knew there was a little funk in the tank, but we had no idea just how bad the rust situation was. The sending unit looks like something from the Titanic!
With the tank in place, we mounted my $40.00 junkyard bench seat and then we headed out into the darkness. The ride home was a very happy affair. The truck drove better than it ever had before, ran like a top, and the whole night ended with us driving pop back to his house in the passenger seat. After riding with him for decades as a kiddo, it was his turn to ride with us!
The next day, we loaded up the two biggest Goliath fans on planet Earth, four year old Tom and two year old Jack for a cruise around town. This was totally bad ass and you should have seen people’s faces and expressions as we rolled up to them or by them. The big guy is a show stopper!
After logging nearly 50 miles on the truck over the weekend, we decided to pull the fuel filter off and swap a fresh one on, knowing how awful the tank rust situation was. Check the photos below to see just how bad this filter was clogged. It is amazing any fuel was making it through at all! Know that the filtering element should be white!
So that ends this update on Project Goliath. Stay tuned for sweet, sweet, video!
