Non-Trad. 46 Chevy truck ground up

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well, my dad has just been filling holes in the floor and finishing up the floorpan and driveshaft loop, The guys from the laser shop wanted to come by and look at it since they were making somthing just about every other day for it, pedals and shock mounts and such, so they stopped by for an hour or so and saw my dad workin on the bed, and basically asked why he was wasting his time on the ol beater bed ( We didnt think it was very bad ) and we just said its what we had to work with. So they offered to make a new one all the way around, also a 22 gallon aluminum tank, and my pedals, for a 40 ford front end for the sons project... so we graciously accepted that deal, so we are waiting for all that to come in, and I just ordered all the steering and drag link stuff, I will be makin a roll pan similar to drewskies ford build, and put in the caddilac bullet taillights, frenched in, havent decided on if I want 2 or 4 yet, I will headin back to tyler the weekend after christmas and took that whole next week off, so we should just about be able to finish it up, at least the cab and fab work, just down to wiring and plumbing after that, also still need a motor, which im not totally sold on what i will run yet. Guess I still have time though. I like my "vacations" now, take a week off and work 14-16 hour days instead of 9 hour days 4 days a week... ohh well, its fun and will pay off in the end
 
rest of tunnel, and driveshaft loop

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Front panhard

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This will be hidden but my dad was in a playful mood, whatya think? kinda looks like the terminator huh?

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and my driveshaft,
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All my steering stuff comes in monday, column and steering joints and such...
and we will see if the bed, tank and pedals are done from the laser guys.

found an ol' rebuilt 409 on ebay but not sure if it will match my tranny... anybody know if it mounts up same as other small blocks?
 
That 409 has the same bolt pattern as a Small Block or Big Block for that matter. Very cool, choice too by the way. Now with that said, the 409 and little brother 348's are "NOT" small blocks. They are in fact the begining motor's of the Big Block's. If you can find a way go with the 409. Good Luck great little truck......

RS
 
Got some dimensions for the tank from the laser guys, they have the tank cut and bent for us now. Went with stainless and giong to run a holley red fuel pump. Heres some quick shots of the tank support

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and 2 of the tank itself... still gotta weld it up, gonna get plenty of tig practice in this week it looks like,

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and the battery box, which will go inside the frame rail in front of the axle
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This is the coolest part of the build so far I think... they gave the new bed panels a personal touch... i asked for the cutout on the tailgate, but I like the rest as well, heres a few shots of the pieces when my dad got home with them the other night

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Heres a few more of it put together and mocked up on the truck...

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Im heading over to Tyler tomorrow morning and will be working all week on the cab and getting the column and pedals, seats, and hopefully the rollpan and caddy bullet taillights i ordered, very similar to drewskies 55 ford rollpan with 4 taillights
 
Truck is lookin great! Love the bed pieces! When you are talking about going to tyler, are ya talking of tyler TX? I'm not too far from there if ya are.
 
Truck is lookin great! Love the bed pieces! When you are talking about going to tyler, are ya talking of tyler TX? I'm not too far from there if ya are.

Yea, he lives out by the state park right off of I-20, Where you located.
We are headed to grapvine wed or thurs i think to meet some family at the wolf lodge indoor water park....
 
This is Wes_tex guess i forgot to sign in on my dads comp. before i posted

Well it was a sad day in the shop, my prized seats are too deep and dont leave room for my lanky legs... so back to the board on that, we borrowed some seats from a 90's model s-10 and they fit great, so that may be what we end up getting if we can find some. We will just put them in my dads 55' 210, someday... got the framework for the bed done today and got measurements for the bottom pieces for the bed and the roll pan, also found out my caddy taillights are on the way and should be here this week, made some french buckets for them, just waiting for the laser parts to come back and get some seats to mock the pedals and steering column... hurry up and wait i guess, lol. we still have some things to keep us busy for a day or two, some body work, and blast the cab, it needs a patch on the front passenger corner... I might be afraid once we get all the body putty off the truck cab, theres a lot on it. Guess we will find out... nothin a welder and dent gun cant fix
 
Yea, he lives out by the state park right off of I-20, Where you located.
We are headed to grapvine wed or thurs i think to meet some family at the wolf lodge indoor water park....

I'm in carthage. It's a little over an hour away. Maybe when you are working on it one weekend give me a shout and we'll swing by and check it out!
 
Got the pedals mounted up and waiting on pedals, may make some, or buy some, not sure yet... but heres the mount, We tried to make them work inside the cab there just wasnt enough room under there.. so here what we came up with

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Also got the bed mounted up, heres some of it on and the mounts and framing we came up with

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Went ahead and picked up my radiator and got started mounting it, this is a quickie mockup so we can get the hood and grille spacing and shape, we are going to widen the hood about 4-5"

mounting tabs
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Radiator, double pass 19 H x 22 W

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mounted up

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We are going to make some out of aluminum hex stock later for a more finished look, but this established our concept, also have to make a shroud, running a 14" electric pull fan
 
Heres what we came up for the hood and grill, thinking of using the vented pieces on the side... may be harder than it will be worth

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S-10 Blazer seats mounted up... need to be recovered, but fit very nicely

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It seems lately that there is quit a few really nice builds going on here, I would say yours is right at the top. Very nice job you are doing, very creative with a well thought out plan. I like everything you have done so far keep us all posted on your progress.........

Curt[cl
 

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