squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

[JOES66FURY]

I love how jims projects just kind of explode into these epic rebuilds...

[SuperBuickGuy]

That's just a cool truck...........I like the photo with the
wind mill in the background........perfect

I must be going blind, all I see is a telephone pole

[milner351]

Nice work Jim!
You'll have to give me the online training course on pulling gasketed mid 50's chevy windshields. I need to replace the '54 gasket - it drips right into the glove box where my once new kenwood radio was sitting on power tour 07 - now reduced to a shorted out corroded mess.

[squirrel]

on this one I just broke off the gasket lip on the inside of the car, then pushed the windshield out. If the gasket is still flexible, you can just push the glass out, but you have to pull the lip away from the metal on the inside as you go.

More progress...glass in, motor in, exhaust manifold ground to fit, ready to make some front mounts. The stock small block bellhousing mounts make this kind of easy.

[JOES66FURY]

How long before you turn the key?

[squirrel]

hopefully by the end of the week, but I dont know...Steve is leaving soon so progress will slow a bit.

[JOES66FURY]

You are my hero.

[squirrel]

We'll see about that....but I am getting stuff done. The mounts look easy, the small block mounts installed in the 6 cyl holes end up lining up almost perfect with the front of the big block, I just need to make some 1/4" thick adapter plates.

Still need to tear apart the fenders and grille and stuff and do all that bodywork....I'm almost getting tired after 4 or 5 days of working on it 10-12 hours

[JOES66FURY]

you gonna go thru the rear end too?

[squirrel]

I looked at the brakes, and the rear doesn't make noise or anything so I think I'll leave it for now. The transmission needs attention, I guess I should drag the other two I have over to the shop and see if I can make one good one.

[squirrel]

Engine mounts are done, it's level and centered and almost has clearance around it...might need to find some other valve covers with angled ends. The spindly little front mounts just carry some weight, they don't locate the engine. The two big mounts under the bellhousing do all the locating. If it works on a 235 or a 283, it's gotta work on a big block, right? although there might be a bit more torque coming out of this mill.

The mount adapters are 1/2" 6061 that I had left over from building the underwater robot.

[milner351]

"Jims house of big blocks - we'll put a 454 into ANYTHING"

nice work Jim - you sure make all this stuff look easy.

[squirrel]

thanks! It is easy, if you think it through first. It also helps to collect parts for a couple decades.

[SuperBuickGuy]

what happened to "I'll just paint it with a brush and drive it?"

[milner351]

thanks! It is easy, if you think it through first. It also helps to collect parts for a couple decades.

I started the collecting parts deal until I realized that I'd collected myself into making my shop nearly unusable, so I purged a bunch of stuff I'm sure to never miss. Of course - I don't have a vast desert property like you do to store all this stuff - and I have to worry about rust on everything that's stored.