[57plaid]

Originally Posted by 57halfton

Hey Plaid
I don't mean to be argumentative but my 57 has 56 front fenders and I put my 57 grille in to see what I had to cut to get it to fit and it bolted in without cutting anything out of the grill or cutting notches in the fenders for the outer grill bolts.

No problem, I don't know everything, I'm baseing my reply on the fact that the 57 fender has the indent, and I couldn't bolt mine up on a 56 clip. Does your grill have the brackets on the end pieces? If not, does it rattle at all that you know of?

[dsraven]

I will try to snap a few pics and see if I can figure out how to post them on here. then you can see what my original fenders look like in the area that matters. are you guys talking about the holes in the fender that are outboard of the turn signal holes that chevy trucks use? the gmc has a part of the grille that covers those holes and the signal light mounts in that part. it bolts through a hole in the fender out there past the chevy signal light hole. if that is the only difference then I could use an earlier set of fenders and just drill that hole!? I don't know where the indent would be, but I will fish the fenders out from under the snow today and see what the $#%*.
thanks everybody
dsraven

[57plaid]

I may be missiing something here. I am talking about chevrolet fenders, not GMC.

Earlier, I stated that the hole in the GMC fender was for the turn signal. The fact is, it is a grill mounting hole. Sorry for any confusion.

The difference between the 55-6 and the 57 is still the indent though.

[57halfton]

My 56 fenders don't have the indent in them and my 57 grill has the mounting tabs on the ends. The grill I have is nearly perfect so I didn't want to cut the tab out but my 56 fenders will be replaced with 57 fenders someday so I figured I would cut out a spot in the 56 fenders where the indents are to install the 57 grill but it fit in tight without any cutting on anything.

[57plaid]

That is interesting. I didn't get that far into my install, because I had the 56 upper/lower sheet metal, which would not let me mount the 57 grill. I have a couple of reworked GMC fenders that I'm going to be using, so it's good to know they will work.

[dsraven]

I snapped a couple of pics of my old fenders yesterday. I tried to attach them but we'll see if it worked or not. it looks like one has an indent on the rim of thre grille opening, with a mounting hole, the other side doesn't have an indent or a hole. the grille was all intact on the truck, so I don't know what the *#@. anybody else got a better poic showing the difference, or has anybody installed a 57 grille on 55-56 fenders and had it work out right?

[57plaid]

These look like GMC fenders. Do you have a GMC or Chevrolet?

[dsraven]

ok, I got it figured out. duh, if I would have looked at both fenders in the first place....I would have seen the difference.
the gmc fenders have a depressed area on the rim of the grill opening so the grille extension that houses the gmc signal light, (that goes out over and covers the big round hole in the fender used by the chev models for a turn signal), will have somethoing to bolt to on the inboard end of the extension. there is also a hole on the outside part of the fender that chevy trucks don't have that is used to secure the outermost part of that grille extension. as well there are different holes in the upper rear area for different emblems to secure through.
you guys rock, if I could just get my brain to turn on maybe i could have figured it out all by myself. I have one gmc fender that has the depression and one chevy fender that doesn't.I remember when I was dissassembling the truck that only one side had a bolt in the inboard grille extension. I just wrote it off as missing in action, since alot of the body paryts were previously brazed together.
if you have any other tips for the brain dead Canadian, send em along.
hey, does anybody know the length of an original short box? I am planning on using a newer style box from a 88-98 chevy sportside, but they are 6 1/2 feet long. I will be cutting it down so a regular box will fit on if I don't like the look. I just need some measurements to know how long the original is and if it is centred on the rear end. my project is a long box truck that I want to put a short box on and then extend the cab out to fit properly with the new box. any help would be apprerciated.
dsraven

[57plaid]

If, and that's a big if, I remember to, I'll get the measurments you want.

[dsraven]

that would be awesome. i could get an assembly manual if nothing else, but since there isn't too much left that will be stock it seems like it would be a waste.

[57halfton]

My bed measures 6 feet 8 1/8 inches overall. Measured on the top of the bed rails where the stake pockets are.

[57plaid]

Mine measures 80 1/8" on the bed rail. I measured the wheel center to front of bed, and came up with about 40". My restorers guide from Chevrolet says it is 41" from axle center to rear of bed.

[wretched ratchet]

I know that it's a GMC but I have a question that Y'all can probably answer, if you don't mind?

Since I'm installing a dual carb setup, the braces that I marked with a red arrrow are in the way and I want to remove them. Can I get rid of them completely or do I need to put something, somewhere, to take their place?

thanks,
WR

[eloc431962]

Em, you can remove them people do it all the time when going from 6 to 8 cylinder. JMO

Might even be some replacment parts out there if you would rather have the supports there just relocated some what.


Cole

[ogre]

the only truck i've owned with those braces was my 59 1 ton.
none of my 1/2 ton trucks have had them.
nor did they have the holes in the firewall for the braces.
all the inner fenders do have the front holes but not in use.
IMO not needed...