The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre Do It Yourself (DITY) Gallery 1960 Chevy Short Fleetside - "My Birthday Present to Myself"

Being my truck is a 1960 model (as I am), and is going to be 60 years old this year, I decided it would make a nice birthday present to myself. I bought this truck some time ago and it is in the Gallery.

I stripped the truck a couple of years ago to prepare it for this rebuild. I had also stripped another parts truck for the nuts and bolts.

I took the bolts out and, after de-greasing them, I threw them in a bucket of vinegar. Then I scrubbed them clean, dried them, and bead blasted all of them. Some of them I ran a tap and die over to make sure the threads were clean and sharp. Then I took them to a local zinc plating shop and when I got them all back they looked like new again. I spent a lot of time on them but in the end it all seemed worth it, and I sorted them out. I even took the original jack and cleaned it up and zinc plated it too. I'm not doing a restoration so it didn't need to be original.

After removing the body from the chassis, engine, transmission, rear end and front suspension, I bolted up a 1985 front engine cradle, suspension and rear end. Then I brought the chassis to a guy to have it blasted. Now that is a little backwards, but when I bolted up my newer engine cradle and suspension, I cleaned and painted everything that was mated together first.

I got it home and used epoxy primer and then black equipment enamel to paint the whole thing.

As I disassembled components, I cleaned and painted where the blaster couldn't get. All new bushings, bearings, rotors, rear drums, etc.

I disassembled the trailing arms and found a kit that welded steel on top and bottom of the trailing arm to beef them up a bit. I ordered a trailing arm bushing kit and got the old bushings out ... then the new bushings arrived. They came with sleeves, but none would fit. When I read the "destructions" it said not to remove the old sleeves, and to reuse them. I destroyed the little buggers taking them out, so I ordered some stock replacements.

Pictures, man, pictures! Keep on spinning those wrenches. Good show!

Now I had 5 lug setup with disc brakes up front and drum brakes in the rear.

I removed the front shock mounts from the frame and fashioned some new ones to weld up later. Before I could weld up the panhard bar brackets in place, I had to set up the engine and transmission for the pinion angle.

My newly rebuilt engine is an Oldsmobile 350 Rocket along with a fresh 4 speed automatic. I had to cut the old transmission mount off the frame and put it in a new spot for the trans mount. I happened to have another 1960 frame outside that I had put my cab on so I could roll it around better. I put that in my shop and put the engine and tranny in it to take measurements. I wanted to make sure I set back far enough, and not too far back. After I figured out where I wanted it placed, then I took relative measurements and documented so I could transfer those measurement to my rebuilt frame.

Once the engine and trans are mounted, I can set up the rear drive axle and pan-hard bar. After determining the rear axle angle and bolting the rear end down (always new U-bolts), I welded my cradles.

I'm leaving the truck stock height, so I started at 1/2 travel of the rear end and made the pan-hard bar level at that point.

My friend and neighbor has a frame rack, so we are going to put my chassis on it to double check the frame for straightness. But I have to wait a week or two to get it on the rack.

The body shop is ready for me and now I am getting ready to bring all my sheet metal to them.

Here's what I started with.

Steve, you’re having way too much fun.🛠

Cool. 😎

You aren't the only one that is JUSTHORSENAROUND.

Steve, nice job, good work.

Hey, I may be doing another road trip in the near future.......you may get another visit?!!

Thank you and Yes. Tomorrow I will start bringing parts to the painter.

Since the last time I made an entry, Not much has happened. The body shop stalled on me, so I have been getting on them about it. They cleared a week on the schedule and tried to get somewhere. In the mean time I have just gathered some more pieces and stashed them until the day comes to get it back. I'll let you know.

Progress is progress. Thanks for the update.

John

I had to chuckle when I read your opening post. Like you, i procured a 1958 (my birth year). Picked it up my birthday week and trailered it home from NM to IL. Wife was pretty mad until she asked what I planned to do with it. She couldn’t stay too mad at my answer, “Hive it to you.”
K