Welcome to the forum 57chevydog
Heres a few pics of a 4 link in my 57. Hope they help.
Post pics of your truck when you can. We love pics.
Kim

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Welcome 57chevydog

Looks like everyone is busy with other stuff these days. I am busy with work for the rest of the month so work will be very slow on the truck. But I did get my tax refund so I can get more parts! I found a turbo 400 from another truck guy north of me for $150. It came from a 86 IROC Camero. He said he drove the car home when he bought it and stripped it for his truck project. He did say the tranny leaked oil from the pan. So worst comes to worst I can use the case as a core. But If I have to I will rebuild it myself. Guess I will need to get a cross member for the tranny. Now gotta get that line lock...where's my Jegs catalog.....

Before the work got piled on I started on the sway bar bracket. I am going to use 1/2" steel as DD did on his. I pretty much just copied DD's design. If you look in my journal the last couple pages you will actually see copies of the pics DD took of his on my bench. I will make a template and save it so if some one else want to do the same then I can copy it scan it and email it to them. DD helped me I'll try and pass it on....

http://hotrodders.com/journal_photo...11763962150.jpg

Also I found a crack in my lower shock mount that I will have to weld up. I also removed the front end for cleaning and painting. I rebuilt the front end not to long ago so all I really have to do it make it pretty.

I did remove one leaf from my passenger side to help lower the front end just a bit. I will get to the other side later.

Anyway....back to work.

edit...spelling

57chevdog welcome to the fun.Post some pictures of your truck.I would love to see the interior as well Kim57 have you done your lights yet.Gator on those sway bar mounts you can put a metal blade in your skill saw and cut those out yourself if they want to much at that place by you.If you don't have a drill press,drill the holes before you cut them out.if you cut them out with a torch you will spend more time cleaning them up with a grinder then if you cut them out with a metal blade.It is snowing up here again today.It makes it hard to get anything done.I have run out of parts and money.Now that The 97 astro van is fixed and Linda is OK and back to work I can line up some carpet work to finance buying more parts for the 58.

Hey Gator
You sure about that turbo 400 , I wouldn't have thought that an 86 IROC would have came with a turbo 400 . Mabey a 700R4 ????
Gene

You are probably right halfton. But either way I am looking for an automatic. Heck even if it was a turbo 350 I would be happy. When the truck is running it will only be used for hauling me all of 3/4 mile to work and back...and an trip to high school when ever my daughter can pry it from my hands.

DD...you have never seen me with a torch.....so I'll use the saw like you said.

DD
Still no decision on the lights. I keep drawing different designs on my fenders trying to decide what I like.
Also want to make my bed tilt so I can get the tires off without dropping the rear end out. I just need to figure out what to use as a pivot.
Kim

Gator I have seen me with a torch If that trans is a 700r4 you will love it in your truck just use the hardened basket(that is were they always break)when you rebuild it.I have one in my 58.The overdrive allows me to have 4.56 gears for pull power and still get 14 mpg.With 3.73 and a small block you should get at least 18mpg just go with a 1500 stall converter to get the heavy beast rolling.I run a 2200 stall but I am geared to be in the higher rpm range to go with my intake manifold choice..Kim57 go to the wrecking yard and check out an old dump truck.It will help you design your tilt bed set up.For the tail lights you can have any design you can think up if you cut it into the fender and mount the light on the back side.Flames would be cool with your hot set up.You could practice cutting them out on a piece of sheet metal and even work out how to mount the lights on the back before you ever touch the fender.

Picked up my tranny last night. It is a turbo 400 like I thought. The fluid was a nice red and no burnt smell to it so I hope I got a good one. He also gave me the torque converter, flexplate and the drive shaft for the yoke.

I might be able to use the new drive shaft due to the length of the turbo 400 being longer than my standard tranny. I need to look into a cross mount for the 400 also. I think I will have to remove my existing crossmember.

Yesterday I also picked up some 1/2" plate from the local steel distributor. It was such a small piece they just gave it to me. So now I can cutout my sway bar brackets.

Hey everyone..... havent posted in a while! Nothing new here..... just waiting on some extra spending cash to start back up with my truck. Everyones project's are lookin nice! I went to the Drag strip today(Opening day). it was cold but took some good pictures of my buddies mustang leaving hard off the line. He ran his best time which was a 10.34 with a rt of .67. well hope everyone is well and projects are moving along a little bit better then mine is.

Mike

And we thought you fell asleep under your truck......silly us!

Do some small stuff and keep us posted.

Later,
Gator

Gator I got my cross member from Harmons.They had the best price at the time.It is $52 now.It is made for the turbo 350/400 But I made a riser block to bring the mount up to the proper hight and it worked just fine for my 700r4.I raised my engine and moved it forward to accommodate the 700r4 so my trans sits 2 inches higher and 1 1/2 inches farther forward than yours will.

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DD My engine mounts with the original V-8 mounts which attach to the front of the engine. I am really hoping that the location of my engine than the added length of the turbo 400 will allow me to use the single drive shaft instead of the double that was on the truck. I'll have to ge with you guys to figure out what angle the engine and tranny should be.

Thanks for the tip on Harmons

Gator for the proper angle set the truck level first then take off the carb and put a level on the intake manifold.The engine will have a slight down angle when the mounting surface for the carb on the manifold is level.As far as the one piece drive shaft goes as long as it does not hit a cross member when you have a load in the bed it will work.Just make sure the yoke on the shaft has room to move in and out on the output shaft of the trans.Take the yoke off the drive shaft and insert it in the trans most of the way in.Measure the distance from what would be the center of the bearing cap of the u joint to the center of the bearing cap of the rear end.Before you take this measurement put 1000 pounds in the bed(two 52 gallon trash cans full of water directly over the rearend) this is the length of drive shaft you need.This is how I got the measurement for the drive shaft in my 58.I had a one piece drive shaft in my 59 long bed step side for 10 years without any issues.

Thanks DD But if I want to set this up while I have the sheet metal off how could I do it?

I was looking for cross members and found one for $45 at
http://www.truckandcarshop.com/trucks47_59/t47_057.html

I think they are in LA area so shipping would be minimal.