1946 Chevy Bobber Truck Chop Build

Look'n good. How long did your bed end up? What size is the rear tire?

Thanks

Thanks for the comments.

The tires are 33 x 21.50/15 MT's.

The bed is about 33" wide by 54" long not including the upper slanted portion.

I think the truck proportions look OK, but I think it would look better outside than in my cramped garage.
I don't exactly have it draggin' in the weeds either. There's about 5" of clearance under it right now. I could go lower yet, but really I want it to be a good driver, so I think I will hold off on that for now.

I did get my second header mocker up last night. Now time to cut all the exhaust holes, weld em' all up and make some baffles.

It's been a while since I last posted, but i have made some progress.

Tranny cooler bracket

I needed a grill shell and grill.
After a little seaching on the net I did find a 32 grill shell made of steel for a reasonable amount. I didn't buy it because I hate buying stuff and then having to spend hrs. modifying it to make it work.
I used the old 46' truck hood sides instead for the compound curves they already had. What a pain!!! Took me forever and didn't turn out as nice as I wanted. I added the 49 Pontiac trunk ornament I had from the old car to spruce it up a bit. We'll see if I make another this winter or if this one grows on me.





kinda looks like the Iron Man character a bit...




My english wheel and planishing hammer turned out to be a couple soft faced Snap-on hammers and my rubber anti-fatigue shop mat...lol For a Rat it actually worked half decent.

First out door pics. My garage is 24 x 72 with only two doors, so I roll the projects in and arround, sometimes using floor jack to make it happen, so they don't get outside very often. Had a buddy stopped over that helped with the mock up and rearraigning.

Now time to take cab off, finish welding the frame, do plumbing for brakes and air ride and lots of misc. At least it's starting to take a little shape.

Wow! That looks awesome. Nice work. Wanna' sell it?

I really like your grill shell, I think it turned out great..I'm trying to do something similiar using IH rear fenders for mine..pics are in my build thread..I'm not as far along though..Love the Sportsmans too

Wow, nice progress! And the grille turned out very nice in my opinion. [cl[cl

I agree, I think your truck looks great, I really like the big & little tires, totally sets the look perfectly, and the grille bar finished off the custom grill shell nicely too...

Great work!

It's getting there and looking good too.

Thanks for the comments.
I just counted up what I have left and it's alot.
Hopefully it's not a record hot Summer...I do have a window A/C that does help with the humidity some. I've got another that's a little smaller and thinking about mounting it too.

Tim...Ok said:

I really like your grill shell, I think it turned out great..I'm trying to do something similiar using IH rear fenders for mine..pics are in my build thread..I'm not as far along though..Love the Sportsmans too

Click to expand...

I looked up your grill shell build and looks to be a great start!

Looks good Bruce! How many feet of bar did you end up using in the grille when you were done?

I used about 45' of 3/16" and about 10' of 1/4". The whole unit is still pretty light anyway.

I need to paint the rad and tranny cooler stuff black so the grill looks better.
Still need to finish welding the back side surround yet.

I'm thinking leave the shell distressed blue and paint the bars black.

I'm really thinking about putting the second window air unit in the garage or I'll have a tough time getting any more done for awhile with this heat.

looking really good!

I like the fact that you made the bed legnth proportional to the size of the cab. I am not a fan of the long nose, tall cab, 2 foot bed look that most people seem to go with. Bravo! Carry on...[P

jfg455 said:

I like the fact that you made the bed legnth proportional to the size of the cab. I am not a fan of the long nose, tall cab, 2 foot bed look that most people seem to go with. Bravo! Carry on...[P

Click to expand...

Thanks!

The bed gets even smaller after I install the 16 gal. keg tank when I get that far and I plan to haul at least a few things when I go places and make parts runs. I do have the hitch that I could use too if I need more space.

Dang near a year since my last post...
Seems tough to imagine having the thing all mocked up last year and still not done yet. As it turns out, there's alot of work to building a rod from scratch...[S

Fall was tough to get anything done with yard work and other vehicles, projects and hobbies. I did work on the Rat some this Winter, but probably had a little trouble getting motivated.

Later this Winter and early Spring I removed the cab, engine & trans and tipped the frame over to do all the finish welding underneath and painting (flat black spray can).

Finished up with the new steering kingpins, brakes and welded front suspension etc.

Cleaned up the engine, new front cover and a few new gaskets.

Got new drive shaft made twice. It was a little short and my drive shaft shop took care of me on it the second time for no extra.

Started on Stainless Keg Fuel Tank. My buddy Chris has a nice Miller TIG he is getting good at to weld in the bungs. Still need to finish shortly.

Seats: I had the original 46 Chevy seat springs and frame, but I felt it would be alot of work to fit it over the drive shaft tunnel and alot of money for seat covers. I had a set of Honda buckets donated to me by my Buddy Greg but decided seat covers were too expensive and they didn't fit as well as I hoped.
Ordered up a set of Jeep seats for it. They were the cheapest Buckets I could find and on sale for $109 each I think. They are the Denim type, so maybe slightly less hot than just vinyl. Made some 1" square brackets and bolting down to original floor. No sliders or reclining because there isn't much room anyway.







Bent steel for driveshaft tunnel and trans tunnel either over my knee or one a pipe I have that clamps in a vice.



I used 16 gauge for the floor and tail shaft cover and 18 for the rest of the tunnels. I tryed to buy some 20 gauge for the tunnel, but I was going to have to buy a whole sheet and I'm better at welding on thicker steel anyway.
Here's where I'm at as of last night.









The whole shifter/left side trans cover unbolts for linkage access.

I bought a Lokar tail mount shifter and switched it around to the rearward setting so I could reach it. Maybe I'll get a picture when I take it back apart.

I've still got alot to do and was hoping to make it to BTTF show in June, even if its on a trailer to get there.