48 chevy truck

[enjenjo]

How about a similar year GMC grille surround? Better yet, two of them, one upside down.

[kb426]

Frank, I went looking for the GMC surround. No used ones in my area. Chevies of that era outnumber GMC's by atleast 10 -1. New is above $400 for ether painted or chrome. Interesting idea, though. I had considered doing a grille like the Ring brothers truck at the SEMA show but that was before I saw their truck. I lost my desire after that. As you guys know, I have done nothing with this since around September. I didn't like where I was going. After looking and thinking for an extended time period, I decided to give this a shot as something unconventional but useful for a good driver. That may be the worst idea I've had. We'll see if I can make this just ok or better than ok.

[kb426]

O&S had to make a decision today. I wanted to be able to set ride height on the c4 front suspension. I realized I had no way to compress the suspension to allow a pair of struts to be bolted in. I realized that I couldn't remove the factory frame clip without destroying it. I wanted to maintain it to obtain some measurements from it. I ended up cutting the fiberglass spring in 2 places to remove it. That allowed the removal of the frame and being able to set ride height for frame placement. That also caused the purchase of a pair of coil over shocks. The pics show the motor mounts removed and all of that bracketry gone. One pic shows it at the desired ride height of 6" at the bottom of the crossmember. Hiding inside the crossmember was the build sheet for the car. I had not seen one for a vette. Lots of info.

[kb426]

Measuring and thinking. At my age, that could be counter productive. LOL.

[idrivejunk]

That calls for countermeasuring. Thats my counterthought. Devoid of counterintelligence.

Get that cast sports car fangledy stuff outta there.

Speaking of countermeasuring, the back of a 72 GP hood is five and a half wide then down the middle once the slotted area at rear is lopped off theres four foot to get and another half foot of fiberglass beak ahead of that. Or bend it at peak to fit the deuce shell at top. The tapered contour is right at two foot wide where hood and header meet.

Lots of vehicles have a wedge contour in the hood. I'm no help aside from wildcard input such as that. For if you are even thinking hood.    

[kb426]

Matt, cast sporty car stuff is here to stay. I like to go around corners. A few pics from today. This came from red dirt country.

[kb426]

O&S is right on with the name.

[kb426]

More thinking and measuring.

[kb426]

I did what I believe to be the final mock up of this mess. I set the bottom of the frame rails at 8". The front crossmember will have 6" under it at ride height as desired. The rear will have 9.5" under it. The wheelbase will be a little over 104". The pinon has a 1" offset to the right so that allows an adequate amount of room for the steering shaft. It's still a mess but it's starting to look like it might work. LOL.

[kb426]

The pile is growing.

[kb426]

I'm working but am so slow, it's not worth mentioning. LOL.

[idrivejunk]

Get crack-a-lackin, Methuselah!   

Just messin. 

Hope its not dread keeping you from enjoying the project. Visual progress daze are like one out of five blah progress days on old trucks. On a good day. SOP. Par. You're doing good!

[kb426]

I don't know what is slower than O&S but I'm there. After a ridiculous amount of time, I have 2 rails welded up.

[kb426]

It's raining here. That is a good thing but it's messing with my plans. LOL. I squared the rails up and started cutting crossmembers. Nothing is welded. My plan was to have the perimeter frame welded and on the trailer so it can go outside. Oh well.

[kb426]

Here's another example of why progress is so slow. Without building a serious jig, I was pretty sure that I couldn't get all of the holes in the right place for the front sway bar mounts and the frame support crossmember. I believe most of the pics are self explanatory. The next to last pic is about cutting spacers to be welded into the 2" tubing where bolts go through.