New Member and 56 3100 Project

[oldcouple]

Here is a better pic, I need to get the correct knobs and the little flippers too.

[Russell Ashley]

The Filling Station has those knobs and flippers. I think they are out there somewhere in your area. I found them nice to deal with.

[Denee007]

Hi and welcome! what a neat looking truck and doggy!! I'm soon (within 6 months lol) to be cutting and welding in a new radio patch panel in my '59~ really not looking forward to that install at all! Wouldn't you like to kick someone's butt for doing that to our trucks!? ; ) Just think, Long Term Project! My project is going kind of slowly, but keeps me thinking even when I haven't touched it for a few weeks!
; )
dne'

[pro1955]

Looking forward to watching your project take shape. Do you have an idea what style truck your going to build?

[Amorget]

The plan is daily driver/functional with a little bit of tow rig thrown in.

Color will be flat yellow with white bumpers and grill (at this time). Comfortable seats with shoulder belts, descent stereo. Main key is dead nuts reliable.

[Amorget]

We've been removing all the of previous bodywork... and wow... what year was it cool to slather 1-2" of bondo onto a vehcile, block sand it even and call it good? Check out the passenger side headlight area and door...

So we are debating what to do about the door. We already have a used fender. The other side had a lot of bondo but not a lot of damage. It looks like they just slathered the bondo on it have it on. Once all the bondo was gone all the panels lined up as well as they did with the bondo. They also appears to do no metal working, there were a bunch of little dents and stuff that have easy rear access. Oh well.

[Kim57]

That sucks. That's the way my rear fenders were.
Kim

[jimig1]

that looks like the back of my cab

[_Ogre]

i feel your pain...
my whole truck was skim coated, even the good flat, rust free metal had at least an 1/8'' coat.
after blasting, my truck showed where a ladder rack was bolted to the cowl, dented 1'' and bondo'd.
this rear fender had to have at least 2 gallons of filler on it.

[oldcouple]

Bondo it frosting, Paint is the Icing on the cake.

[dubds10]

Nice truck and good deal on it..looks like the sister/brother to my truck. Anything under $1g for these trucks is good if it's a short bed around here. But most are complete ground up projects no matter how good they look on the outside lol Bondo was king back then I think. Mine has a bunch in it as well, but that's what replacement panels are for

Have fun with it and make sure to get a detailed picture history of your build.

Nate

[wilberweb]

Amorget,

Nice truck, your wife did a great job finding it.The truck I have is the same color. When I found my truck five years ago, my dad thought I was crazy.He helped me get it home.Man was that truck ruff. Here is what my truck looked like when I first brought it home. Then after a year and a lot of work Here is what the truck looks like today.
Its a lot of fun. I am going to the Portland swap meet April 12-14
you can find a lot of Parts there.Since you are in Washington, not sure how close you are to Portland. They have a pretty good swap meet in puyallup Washington Mar 17-18.

Great job!! good find

-Larry

[oldcouple]

Makes ya wonder how some of those holes got there.

[Amorget]

Thanks for all the encouraging words. I spent yesterday while my wife was away blowing apart the front end. Pulled off the bumper, grill and all associated supporting panels. Just the outer fenders and hood left on. Found some damage on the frame, but really minor, just the top of the C pressed down. I used a pair of vice grips and bent it back up enough to get to the bumper nut.

So far it's about 50/50 on if the nut/bolt breaks or not. I've been lucky and only one captured nut has broken. I've only had to cut off one bolt so far, I think the nut stripped the threads so the bolt wasn't spinning but the nut wasn't coming off, either. Some of the larger PITA bolts were already missing which doesn't make me sad. My Craftsman Composite impact wrench has made quick work of the things it can get to, plus lots of Liquid Wrench.

Our main debate is the front end right now. We are trying to do this "quickly" on a budget. I'd really like to be able to use a set of brakes off of a 98+ F-body the same way we use them on the 82-92 F-bodies with a turned down hub. Large alum dual piston calipers with 13" rotors and cheap. Need to see if someone will sell a "hub to hub" IFS without the brakes for a descent price that makes it worthwhile to go with the LS1 brakes. We are also looking for a totaled truck to pull the engine/wiring/pedals/brake booster, etc off of and hopefully part to rest to make the motor cheap. I already have a 700R4 that was rebuilt in the not too distance past, so we'll probably use that. I am hoping the truck doesn't do too much nickle and diming over what they all do, which is a big reason for buying a whole truck instead of piece by piece.

[oldcouple]

I have found PB blaster to work better in most cases, fun job!

[Amorget]

We have PB Blaster, too. The Liquid Wrench was just super cheap. For 99% of the bolts on this truck I have no issue breaking them, they are all so rusted anyway they need to be replaced.

[mr48chev]

That looks like an interesting project. You might check with Wes at Classsic Heartbeat outside of Olympia for patch panels. I'm not sure what he keeps in stock for that model but he has good stuff and the road trip might trump shipping if you run down and pick up a load of pieces at one time. There used to be a couple of vendors up loser to you but one moved and then went out of business and I'm not sure if the one that was in Arlington is still around.

I've always had a want for one of those big windows but I think I'll have go get along with the projects I have now and be done with it.

[Amorget]

Thanks for the tips on finding the patch panels "local". Any idea what the place in Arlington was called?

[oldcouple]

http://www.classicheartbeat.com/cata...heet_metal.htm

http://www.dreamershotrods.com/index.aspx

maybe some of these?

[my55chevy3100]

hey i like the project...thumbs up...i actually just bought a 55 first series saturday...ill have pictures up in a few days

[Amorget]

Sweet, that place in Everett looks great! That's between my home and work.

[Amorget]

Since the weather is beautiful we pushed the truck out of the garage for a little clean up. The truck left a huge mess in the garage, so we are working on cleaning that up before starting the front clip. Also figured we can grind off a lot of bondo outside and not make a mess inside the garage. We also pulled the bed off, spent some time grinding/cutting off the bolts. We covered the truck with a tarp for the night to keep the dew off.

[_Ogre]

that is almost funny,
i can see the outline of your truck in rust dust
most of us have been there



i was in your neck of the woods last summer
port ludlow, real nice area