My new 57' stepside

[Lockedup]

Hey everyone, Just thought i would post up my new project. I am new to these trucks and am pretty excited about owning this one, I have wanted one for a few years now. I am doing some trading for it and am picking it up on thursday. Heres what i know about it.

1957 chevy 3100
full roller 350
turbo 400
lowered
all new chrome
shaved handles and firewall
fuel tank relocated to under bed
uncut Original front end
disc brakes
12 bolt rear


It has everything to put the interior back together besides the window regulators and glove box. Heres a few pics of it.

[apache200]

Nice find. Looks to be in great shape

[71'tahoe]

Welcome to the board and that is a cool truck!

[Kim57]

Welcome.
Looks like a real clean truck.
Kim

[Daze57]

Very nice truck - good luck with it

[1959 Apache 3600]

Welcome and congratulations. Time to buy another... this one's about done!

[la hi]

On the picture of the motor, headers, steering gear box. How much clearance do you have from the header tube to the adjusting nut on the steering box?
Where were the headers purchased?

[Lockedup]

Thanks guys, the truck is just enough done that I can still get my feet wet in building these trucks and add my own touches to it. I am new to these trucks but I have built a few rock crawling jeeps so it's going to be exciting to switch up the style a bit
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[_Ogre]

very nice steel on that body, good place to start a project.

[entourageguy]

welcome!

[Maximus]

Love the custom battery relocation job! hah.. but seriously, nice SOLID truck!

[Kabwe]

Its looks to be a really solid truck you have there. Please keep us posted.

[waybad]

[Lockedup]

Well we picked up the truck yesterday and made it home with it without any issues

Its in a little rougher shape than it was explained to me, which of course led to a cheaper price which is always good for me. It needs about 50-60 hours of body work to finish it up, suspension work, something in the front end because it wobbles all over the place.

There were a few suprises though, No rust at all, already has bear claws installed, motor might be a 383 (the guy wasnt sure) eithier way its a clean strong motor, Fuel tank has already been relocated to the rear.

Overall i am extreamly happy with it, i will get some more pictures today.

What would cause the front end to feel like its wobbling all over the place? Everything feels to be tight, could it be the alignment? It hasnt been driven in 10+ years, just rolled and driven onto a trailer to move it around.

I am going to adjust the carb today and see if i can figure out whats up with the front end and drive the **** out of it while i decide the direction i want to go with it

[Lockedup]

My better half, she actually insisted we get the truck. We have been talking about getting one of these trucks for about a year now.

[jimig1]

Originally Posted by Lockedup

My better half, she actually insisted we get the truck. We have been talking about getting one of these trucks for about a year now.

That is how I ended up with my truck. I have wanted a classic car/truck for a long time. We were at a big car show here in MN called Back to the 50's and she said we should get one and i told her that we can get what ever she wanted and she picked a truck.

[Red Foreman]

Your better half has good taste...but then again you have excellent taste

[Lockedup]

Mine are 5 lug, does that mean they self center? If that's the case then they should even out when I put the 5th lug on all the wheels (each wheel is missing one lug right now).
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[Lockedup]

I found some lug nuts locally and installed them, it smoothed out the ride alot but it still has a shimmy from take off untill about 10 mph. Im going to take apart the front end today and check all the bearings, it has disk brakes up front so i am hoping that it has had the roller bearing upgrade already.


On the clearance between the front axle and the engine cross member i am not sure how to approach this issue, it looks like someone installed the engine and trans to far back. Here are some picutres to show what it looks like. If anyone has any suggestions i would love to hear them.

[_Ogre]

take it out and fab something like these.
i had these in my 58 for 15 yrs, cut them out when i did the mustII x-member.
a short piece of 3/8 tube, a triangle from each frame rail and a gusset in between the 2.



use the tube from your motor mount, i made/installed them without removing anything from the truck.

[Kim57]

Lockedup
I don't think you can run the uni-lugs without the proper washers installed.
They made different ones for the different wheel patterns. If you hit something hard it could move the wheels on the lugs IMHO.
Kim

[Lockedup]

Ogre - Thanks for the idea, after looking at it some more i think i will go this route it seems alot easier than trying to mess with the current cross member.

Kim - I got the correct washers along with the lugs and you are right you deffinetly have to have them.



I took it out for a drive today (only about 10 miles) but she runs awesome! It still has a shimmy at start off but im thinking it may just be the tires being out of balance. I found a good spot for some pictures so i took a few.

[ChuckDriver]

Awesome project! Keep us posted on your progress and have fun driving it!

[Kim57]

The truck looks real nice. I like the Cragars on it.
Kim

[OrrieG]

I got curioius and did some more research. I found a site that said the round washers are used on GM bolt pattern the oval-pinched washers for Ford - Mopar bolt patterns.