squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

[squirrel]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

I did some sandblasting...the top of the metal strips now have some bare metal showing that I can repaint. Not all of it, just some. But it'll look better, I guess it was worth taking half an hour or so out of my busy day to do that.

[jays67]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

keep it up still my favorit body style pick up and to be a big block mmmmm
my pops 56 was a 3/4 ton light tow truck when he got it and they took the boom out that was the truck with the aluminum 427 in it I love this body style
anyway back to work I like it ;D

[squirrel]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

This is almost turning into work....but it's fun. Here's the wood I need to install. Oh yeah, there are 8 more little pieces for the corners!



I got started, two pieces down, 14 more to go. But I need to stop and figure out a few things about the gas tank first.



The sill that goes over the front of the tank will hit, so I need to cut out the center. I decided I could use some step side bed sills I had laying around to replace the two center ones that are not full height (they are designed to clear the frame hump on 1/2-3/4 tons that this 1 ton does not have). I'll use one of the old center ones as a donor to section into the problem sill to make it clear the tank.



And then I have to deal with the filler. I can't figure out a good way to get it to sit down below the "rocket" on the side of the bed, so I'll put it into the rocket itself. The cap will stick out past the sheetmetal. like they used to do in the 70s. Of course this will require cutting some holes in the inner panel, and notching the bed wood to clear, then I need to build a cover to hide the filler so you can't see the plumbing inside the bed. It'll all make sense when you see it done...

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

It'll all make sense when you see it done...

Glad you have it figured out in your mind, going to round out the sheet metal plate on the filler neck to the body curve?

[squirrel]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

Somewat,, I'll bend it back at the top and bottom, but it won't fit the curve quite right in the middle where I can't bend the flange the right way becasue it's welded to the tube. I'll probably glob some type of sealer on it so it looks properly hacked.

[Tazracing]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

[Tazracing]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

[squirrel]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

neat! Mine's gonna look real crude compared to those.

[squirrel]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

I decided to change the angle of the filler neck so it wouldn't stick into the bed so far. I got a piece of 2" 90 degree bent pipe at the local csk for $7 and gas welded it into the middle of the neck.











Later I finished putting the bed together, but I didn't have the camera in the shop and it was late and I went in the house for the night. Pics tomorrow maybe.

[rightpedal]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

Is it the camera angle or is there a dip in the fill? If so it is the time to fix the situation. I did that once on an old blazer and it was a bear to fill the tank. I found one gas station in town with enough of a slope to park the truck on an an incline so fuel would clear the vent. Two months of that crap and I redid the whole tank/fill. Not trying to be "that guy" just a second set of eyes.

Sweet truck and nice job on the bed wood. Much better than mine.

Steve

[squirrel]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

Thanks!

You're right about the filler neck needing to not go "uphill", I tried to get it as good as I could, although having the tank sitting up so high makes it difficult. Once it's all installed the angle doesn't look so bad. I dumped a couple gallons in from a 5 gallon can, it seems to work ok so far. I won't know for sure till it's on the road.

And the gage works....sort of. I didn't change the sender resistor, it has a 90 ohm in the new tank, the original was 30. So what will happen is that when the tank is full, the gage will read past full, When I use up 2/3 of the tank, it should get down to just "full" on the gage. Then it will go down to "empty" properly. So the gage will give a good indication of the last 13 gallons in it. And if it's past full, I should be able to drive well over 100 miles.

[JOES66FURY]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

jim is trying to set some sort of truck build record...whats it been...2 weeks...all that woulda took me 4 freaking years...

Hell I have had my car for 5 years and have not done anything but make it worse.

Too cool

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

As long as there is a vent that lets air through, then all is good.

[milner351]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

Nice work Jim!

Gas welding, I'm going to have to re-learn that again someday - what makes you decide to gas weld instead of mig or tig? Material thickness?

[squirrel]

Re: squirrel's 57 Chevy one ton

I didn't want it to leak, and I know I can't butt weld thin tubing with a mig without lots of holes.