1953 Chevy 3100 "Someday..."

[LERM]

Still pecking. A new little girl showed up at our house in Oct. So my freetime is officially nonexistent. Still, energy permitting ive been able to sneak into the shop between 8pm and midnight.


Gusset plates are done both sides, and im 80% done with the panhard bar (though I neglected to get pics of that. Maybe next time im down there...)



I got measurements for wheels and set about ordering them only to find that I underestimated the cost of wheels. Son of a biscuit. Its my own fault I suppose since I want to put 335/30/18s on... but still...

Im 100% sure that I need to run these.. just not sure what rims will land on the truck.

Started laying out the rest of the essentials. Fuel, battery, and nitrous. Bare essentials.

[Project Bike Truck]

Right!? Like perfume. Unfortunately my wife doesn't agree, and ive been unsuccessful in getting her to wear it on date night...


Im smitten with this motor, but honestly if it weren't for the sentiment and the "something different" cool factor, it wouldn't make sense to me anymore. Its proven somewhat cost prohibitive to make anything more than 500hp.


Theres a splined collar that gets welded to the bar itselft. The set screw just locates the arm laterally on the bar. Its actually an "anti-roll bar", and it'll only be attached to the axle for the drag strip.

Got the gusset plates almost done and filled up a cart at Summit. All the guts for one hell of a ford 9 are enroute!

How are you making those frame gussets?

loving the build and process, time to step my game up.

[LERM]

@ BikeTruckFella'... Thanks for the encouragement.
So, I did the passanger side first. 4.5" angle grinder and hole saws. Then I started collecting for my inevitable header build. I wanted something cleaner cutting, and had been sniffing at this set up for a while. SWAG Offroad makes a table that turns just about any available portaband saw into an upright metal cutting bandsaw. Of course it has its limitations, but pretty slick for the price.

I used this to cut out the driver side. Same hole saws though.... I need a CNC pla

Here's the shot of the panhard bar set up.

[LERM]

My first attempt at headers. Its every bit as tedious as I expected, but im having fun with it just the same. Just like the rest of the truck, its an excersize in 10 things trying to live in the same spot.

[Project Bike Truck]

My first attempt at headers. Its every bit as tedious as I expected, but im having fun with it just the same. Just like the rest of the truck, its an excersize in 10 things trying to live in the same spot.

Headers look legit to me!

[frink84]

good lookin stuff

[LERM]

Lifes good, but free time is short. Mockup for the passenger side header is about wrapped up



Im currently set up for manual steering, but im dreaming of power. I like the idea of electronic assist if I can find a way to hide one of those ugly things.

The firewall is on the horizon. Good thing too... i'm getting excited to play with my new baileigh bead roller.

[Motown 454]

Nice work they look great. Check out andrewb70's Cougar build thread towards the end, he did an elec. power steering swap in it.

[frink84]

Im currently set up for manual steering, but im dreaming of power. I like the idea of electronic assist if I can find a way to hide one of those ugly things.

Talk to mister projectbiketruck as he's playing with EPAS on his ranchero.

[LERM]

So, the electric power steering got ousted. I cant hide the unit anywhere. I feel like a GM Type II pump is going to be the ticket.

In the meantime, I started to look at the drivers side header... which requred the steetring column be conplete.... which required a firewall. Amazing how these things snowball...

As im working through the firewall, a large delivery of big block Cadillac parts came in. Im ITCHING to get to the assembly of the rest of this motor. Just a bit more fabrication and a few days of welding away...

[Sbeck09]

Really cool build man! I wish I had just embraced the process of building my own headers like you did, but I hate how long it takes. Haha. I like your frame work too.

I wanted 335 tires too until I saw the cost jump from a good set of 315s. So maybe that's worth considering for yourself.

[Subsea69]

Nice build. I sent you a PM about an serpentine belt accessory drive for your Caddy.
Dwayne

[LERM]

6 months of minimal progress via pic dump:

[Mtrhd329]

I like minimal progress. Keep it up man. Almost there!!