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55 to 59 chevy truck owners

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#1 · (Edited)
My name is Richard Johnson and I am building my second Apache truck.I drive this truck every day and am doing everything I can to make it a pleasure to drive and still be a good work truck.I like modern drive trains and stock body and interiors.I am looking for other guys that have and drive these trucks to talk to and share Ideas and designs for custom made parts with.I have sent private messages to a few people on this board and only one person responded.At his request I sent him pictures of my custom sway bar mounts so he could make some for his truck.Without sway-bars these trucks are no fun to drive.I am curious to see what others have done and share ideas.
 

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#2,703 ·
57plaid said:
Since it doesn't appear that you have the rest of the exhaust system, why not use the block hugger style of headers?
i do have the rest of the exhaust, it is just disconected in that picture, but i think i am going to end up having to go with a block hugger shorty and have a shop by me fab up the rest of the exhaust, just sucks, by the time i get the new fender wells, headers, and exhaust that will end up being another $400+ more than i was planning on spending, but i guess in the end it isn't that bad, maybe i will find something at the good guys car show in two weeks, i just hate waiting, wanted to start working on everything now, lol
 
#2,705 ·
How were you planning to lower the front of your truck ? The headers I have on my truck may not fit yours because I see you still have your stock steering and I assume your rear motor mounts are still bellhousing mounts with clutch linkage. I would go ahead and lower it like you planned and see if the tires hit the headers or how much they rub, maybe it will work without changing headers. I remember in the old days it was not uncommon for tires to rub the headers on a full lock turn. Try it and see what happens !
 
#2,706 ·
57halfton said:
How were you planning to lower the front of your truck ? The headers I have on my truck may not fit yours because I see you still have your stock steering and I assume your rear motor mounts are still bellhousing mounts with clutch linkage. I would go ahead and lower it like you planned and see if the tires hit the headers or how much they rub, maybe it will work without changing headers. I remember in the old days it was not uncommon for tires to rub the headers on a full lock turn. Try it and see what happens !
i was going to do a drop mono leaf up front and drop shackles in the rear, really not trying to spend a fortune. im fairly sure that there will be a lot of contact/rubbing if droped, i will take another look, o'rileys said they should have some headers in tomorrow that might work for me, hopefully they will then i wont have to worry about it.

now as far as relocating the battery goes, i think im also gonna mount that to the frame under the passenger side of the cab, $100 for a drop down box seems a lil pricey (and brothers was out of stock when i checked today), i was thinking of either mounting up the stock box (trimmed up a bit) i think you can still get to it to remove the battery if needed, i saw that ogre said he ran a + terminal for jumping, how/where did you do that, i was also thinking possibly doing something like this

http://www.ebay.com/itm/14055931592...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_2443wt_1037

in the floor what do you guys think?



also anyone know if anyone makes a patch pannel to shave the stock fuel fill neck, i ordered a new in bed fuel tank today. and hope to get that all taken care of next week
 
#2,708 ·
The only drawback is if you ever have carpet installed. You'll have to be able to get to the door. The battery box I have is stainless steel and drops down to get access to the battery. I don't drive my truck rain and certainly wouldn't drive through puddles. They also make main leaf springs with reversed eyes for the front and rear. I went that route before I changed over to a Volare front end. That way you can still keep half your leaves in and still drop it 3" in the front and 6" in the rear and still have a nice ride. The jumper wire I used was a short chunk of battery cable connected to the battery post on the starter.
 
#2,709 ·
Oregonite said:
The only drawback is if you ever have carpet installed. You'll have to be able to get to the door. The battery box I have is stainless steel and drops down to get access to the battery. I don't drive my truck rain and certainly wouldn't drive through puddles. They also make main leaf springs with reversed eyes for the front and rear. I went that route before I changed over to a Volare front end. That way you can still keep half your leaves in and still drop it 3" in the front and 6" in the rear and still have a nice ride. The jumper wire I used was a short chunk of battery cable connected to the battery post on the starter.
where did you route the other end of the jumper wire from the starter to where?

on the front suspension are you talking about the dropped mono leaves that give a 3" drop, that's what i was thinking, brothers has them on sale right now for $379 or i was gonna check the good guys car show in a few weeks
 
#2,710 ·
I just tucked the end of the jumper wire inside my frame rail after insulating the end with a short piece of hose. Now for the springs. The main leave is the longest one with the eyes. The eyes are rolled the opposite way which make them reversed eye main leaves. They work really nice if you are going to keep your stock straight axle. they also make tapered wheel bearings which work better than the old ball bearings.
 
#2,711 ·
I have a side terminal maintenance free battery under the passengers side of the cab behind the step inside the door. I made a battery box out of angle iron and bolted it to the side of the frame. I drive my truck rain or shine with the battery exposed to rain and puddles and haven't had any problems in 8 years. Also dropped shackles (longer shackles) in the rear won't do much , I tried them on my truck , only dropped about an inch. Can't make shackles too long cause they will hit the underside of the bed floor.
 
#2,712 ·
OMG sooooo many different projects at once, and they are all lined up like dominos, lol, i was workin on making a battery box for the frame with some angle iron when i ran out of mig wire. I just gutted the inside of the cab, still have to strip it all down to bare metal inside and do a couple tiny lil patch panels in the floor, just picked up some leather 6 way power seats i have to make some mounts for, and figure out how to dye black, the new in frame gas tank should be here this week, need to fill all the holes in the fire wall, clean up/grind off the grit from the frame/firewall/and motor, finish getting the drivers front fender and bumpers down to bare metal.... this is going to be a busy week, lol

then after all that i can start thinking about exhaust/lowering/paint, then puttin the interior together, im hoping i can knock all this out in the next 2-3 weeks, being out of town this weekend for a paintball tournament isn't going to help though, i see a lot of long nights ahead, stupid work getting in the way of projects
 
#2,715 ·
lol, yeah taxes and some money saved up from the last deployment, and a great day at the salvage yards, the leather seats and center console came out of a 2000ish jeep grand cherokee and are in great condition, just the wrong color....

I finished fabing up the battery box, but ran into a snag, it is pretty damn heavy and the spot i was planning on having it go has a body brace in the way, looks like i have to find a new spot or maybe drop the $$$ for one of those drop down boxes

i also finished up stripping down the floor and inside firewall of the cab, it was a busy dirty night, lol, i think tomorrow i will patch up the few small spots in the floor, and my new tank may be in :D
 
#2,716 ·
hey guys, got the new tank in and the old one out of the cab now, 2 questions:



1. where did you guys that are doing an under bed tank run your vent line, i was thinking up under the drivers side fender well and using a line clamp to secure it to one of the fender flare bolts up top, but do you cap it or something or just leave it open, leaving it open seems like a potential hazard with it sitting in the garage, i dunno, what do you think

2. It shouldn't need an electric fuel pump right? the mechanical one should keep up just fine i would think, i new 3/8 rubber fuel line from the tank through the frame all the way to the inline filter right before the pump





on a side note, i have a bunch of parts taking up room in my garage, i will be selling them locally, no idea how to ship them, if someone here is interested in them let me know i will definitely knock the price down to get them out of my garage, or if anyone has any ideas how to ship the bigger items so i can try ebay please let me know:

Front driver and passanger fenders, descent condition, need the lower patch panels but other than those lower areas they are good

grill, needs to be painted, small dent should be easy to fix, if our bead blaster at work ever gets fixed i will clean it up

fender well headers, same i will clean them up if i can

inner fron fender wells with holes cut for the headers

stock gas tank, in good condition

probably some more im forgetting but this is it for now
 
#2,717 ·
fuel lines

if it was me doing the fuel lines I would use a piece of rubber fuel line from the tank to the frame ( this just makes life easier if you ever have to take the tank out for any reason), then a steel line to the front, all bent pretty and secured to the frame with clamps (less chance of a leak and potential fire from fuel leaking onto an exhaust pipe or something crazy), then rubber line from the frame to the fuel pump on the engine. that way you don't have to worry about changing it again in a few years. steel line is gonna last a lot longer and withstand the elements and mechanical damages better than rubber (like if you ever lose a u joint, run over something on the road or even just road gravel). it also doesn't tend to sag over time and looks better too, like it was made to be there in the first place. you only need rubber at the flex points. steel line is probably cheaper than rubber anyway.I would also use a good quality fuel line, something with double cotton braids embedded in the rubber. fuel injection fuel line is really good stuff if you have some extra cash. also, I would use a good quality hose clamp, like the ones used on fuel injection hose, way better clamp than just a regular gear clamp. for the vent i would go over to the frame with rubber and then make a u shaped loop with it so the end of the hose is pointing downward at the end, to stop water etc from getting in. then use a vent from a differential, like a stock chevy 4x4 front diff vent from say an s10 or a full size truck. actually i think the s10 has a bigger vent (it is located next to the rad fan shroud on the drivers side if you are going to pick one up from a wreck). it is plastic and has a barbed hose fitting made to push right into the end of the vent hose. like you were saying, use some clamps to keep it tied up where you want it. I would also use a vented fuel cap on the tank, but only if your tank has an anti syphon fitting at the inlet. otherwise you may get a lot of slosh back when you hit the throttle or go over a big speed bump with a full tank aboard (just saying that because your fuel fill hose is pretty short). you don't want fuel inside your box from slosh back coming out of a vented cap. if you use a non vented cap just make sure you have a good sized vent line and end fittings that can let as much air back into the tank as what your maximum fuel flow will be that is leaving the tank, otherwise your engine will starve for fuel. if you find your engine is running out of fuel at high rpm/load conditions you can always add an electric pump inline near the tank to help keep up. make sure to use a large enough fuel delivery line from the tank to the engine. bigger is better. the suction side of the pump needs a larger line than the outlet, especially when you get farther away from the pump. don't forget to add an inline fuel filter as well, somewhere that has easy access and won't make a mess or be a fire hazard every time you have to change it. I believe steel line will flow more than rubber line, steel line has less friction loss than rubber ine does, especially if the steel line is run nice and straight.
just some thoughts,
 
#2,718 ·
dsraven pretty well hit on all the points i would have. it's a little ghetto to run rubber that far, so much restriction that you may need to add a pump in back. change to steel line, safer and no pump needed.

the vent should be pretty much like it is. you can add a small filter there to catch any slosh or water. with your thru the bed fill and a vented cap you could plug it.
 
#2,719 ·
sorry to steal the thread, but I'm not very computer savvy. can't seem to figure out how to contact a member directly.
hey ogre, what did you use for a rear end in your truck? I am looking at an s10 4x4 10 bolt, at 59 inches wide, might need $pecial order wheel$, or a ford 8.8 at 61 5/8 " wide, no $pecial order wheel$ required. the 8.8 is supposed to be stronger but would need the axles redrilled for the chevy pattern. I was going to go with a camaro 10 bolt but the one I got from an '81 ended up being bent and i figured the 8.8 is stronger anyway and would come with disc brakes. any ideas?
thanks,
dsraven
 
#2,720 ·
Evil
I used a VW fuel filter in the end of my vent line for my tank and tucked it up inside the frame rail . As for your gas line take the original line and straighten it out where it turns to go to the stock tank and route it to the rear , where it ends put in a fuel filter then continue back to the new tank with 3/8 steel line, use brake line tubing. I think the stock fuel line is 3/8 already. Thats the way I did mine and never had any problems.
dsraven
The rearend in my pickup is from a 64 to 67 Chevelle 10 bolt and is 60 inches wide , fits great with 8 1/2 inch American mags.
Gene
 
#2,721 ·
thanks for the rear end info Gene, appreciated. your truck looks cool too, by the way. I am only as far as boxing the frame and setting the mustangII front end in and a small c notch out back. now I have to get the rear end and set it in so I can finally get this thing mobile. then the body work starts.....
 
#2,722 · (Edited)
okay thanks for the info, for the fuel line are you talking about something like this



just want to make sure we are all talking about the same thing here, and for eveyone that said run the vent line to the frame, doesnt it need to be above the fill cap? and since the fill cap is going to be in the bed it would have to be higher than that i think, right?
 
#2,723 ·
stainless steel braided get real expensive. I just used a piece of 3/8 brake line tubing. You already have tubing from the stock tank to the engine don't you ? Just extend it back to your new tank. My vent only leaked gas once when the tank was real full and I was parked on an angel with the pass side lower than the drivers side.
 
#2,724 ·
57halfton said:
stainless steel braided get real expensive. I just used a piece of 3/8 brake line tubing. You already have tubing from the stock tank to the engine don't you ? Just extend it back to your new tank. My vent only leaked gas once when the tank was real full and I was parked on an angel with the pass side lower than the drivers side.

okay great thanks, i'll check out the stock line, but i dont think it was in the best of shape, if i am going to end up re-running the straight steel line i will probably just pick up a new 10' roll just trying to find someone around me that stocks it or else i found some cheaper on fleabay
 
#2,725 ·
ok so i found a breather filter that i think will work, 57halfton you said your vent line is below the fill cap and you never had an issue with fuel coming out of the vent when filling up? I also found steel 3/8 fuel line at a shop near me, and on fleabay, i think i will re-do that once i figure out what i am doing with lowering the truck, if i do a flip rear end i am gonna have to c-notch so i will run the fuel line after that. thanks for the input everyone.

now on to the lowering question, for the front i think i have made the final decision on the reverse eye mono leafs from brothers for $380, for the rear im still trying to figure that out, i can do the drop shackles for $80 or so, if i do the flip rear end that can be done with the stock leaves right? so i would need new perches, u-bolts, and a mounting pad which i think can be picked up at a local trailer store right? and then a c-notch kit. I think that can be done easy and cheap using the stock springs unless i am missing something
 
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