53 Is back from the Body Shop

Had a good day of progress today, big things went on. I have had the whole week off of work so a lot of work has gotten done. Most everything went on pretty good, the drivers side fender never did go on as nice as the passenger and it fought me again today. The only real big problem is on the driver side back of the hood, I don't know if all the working of the metal stretched it that much but it has a terrible fit in the back. It gaps up very high on the top curve but everything else gaped good. I am going to put on my extra hood and check the gaps on that one, and if it is nice I am going to replace the left side with the left of the extra hood I have. I need to tackle the grill yet but that will be later.

The engine compartment filled up nicely with fender wells installed and I had to make more room for the radiator. I stuck the Astro van seat in to check it out but I think I need to look at Caravan seats before anything gets recovered.

Then It was time to take a break.

I think you overworked the help ! Great set of pics, thanks.

Hello I'm new to this forum but not new to building hot rods I've built quite a few of these trucks try checking your left side cab mounts looks like either your left rear is low or your left front mount is high I've got a fifty model just like yours an ran into same problem you could mount your bed an adjust cab height from that also

It looks like the front of the fenders are low. Did it fit before you painted it?

Thanks for the questions Sef and V8, I did have things fit b/f I had it painted and the I checked the cab height and it was good. I did find the problem though and it is because of the questions you asked me. I was double checking everything and what I found was the problem was the radiator support. When I cut out the top of it to fit the new radiator I knew it weakened it but the effect was when I pulled the fenders in with the draw bolts in the engine bay, it pulled the front of the fenders more in instead of up.The hood would not go down far enough and screwed everything up. We made a new brace today and refit everything and wa la, it worked. However it doesn't help when the right and left sides of the hood are not even from the factory.

Always a case of playing around with things until one has it all aligned but as you mentioned, trucks from the factory were work horses so the gaps were never a propriety to align correctly or nicely. You are doing a fantastic job on it though so thanks for the updates. Imagine aligning the tilt front of an E Type Jaguar as that still brings nightmares to me when I allow those memories to come back.

It was an all day battle but well worth it. I don't know what the Jaguar is like but you made me laugh about blocking the memories. I must have somewhat did that with this thing. My wife and boy were helping put on the hood and I kept saying "this is going to suck " cause I remembered the prefit. She laughed at me one time because right before we started I must have walked past the hood and gave it the Death Look.

That looks much better. Getting all those lines perfect on old cars is a bitch.

Ditto patience is needed as well as a few sets of helping hands!

Here is a couple of photos of the same model truck taken at the very first Hot Rod and Bike show anywhere in the world today held at Whangamata, a small coastal beach resort town where they have a high number of Rodders per head of population. I only pinched these as I thought of you putting yours together.Attachment 66837Attachment 66838Attachment 66839

Thanks for the pics, the burnt orange one was the color we were going to go with for awhile, then it turned to green. I like looking at those pics of those old pickups. I told my wife a long time ago that when I am getting mad at the hood not fitting right, show me pics on the internet of every other one out there that can't get their hood good either. Most all have terrible gaps although the last one in your pics may be the exception.
I did't do much yesterday, I got the headlights in and the light harness wrapped and also the condenser put in. I think I may order 2 10 inch fans for the condenser, wire one in for constant on with A/C and the other to come on if the high side calls for more cooling. That's about all I did yesterday then called it quits to go to a friends house for the new years.

Got the grill all fixed up, I couldn't stand looking at the front of the pickup without it anymore. Had the Mrs drill out the rivets and then I bead blasted it, sanded it and shot it with some semi gloss. I bolted in the chrome bars which have been siting around for better than 20 yrs.That really set this thing off. I wanted to blend the new seat in with the old frame. I took my old seat frame and narrowed it up about 2 inches and removed the rear bar and took about 2 inches off the height of the wrap around trim on the front corners. I have to pinch the tubes together on the top yet but I think it turned out pretty good for a rough draft. I called the upholstery shop to get an appointment and they are booked up till the end of the summer so I guess it will look like an Astro seat in an old frame for this year. I'm back to working on it nights and weekends now so things are going to slow up now.

What do you like better, the hood with the chrome strip in the middle or without? I think I know what I like better.

Chrome strip really cleans it up!

With! SO much better!

And nice work with that grille! Man that's nice.

Yes to the chrome strip as it flows up into the screen divider nicely.

I like it with the chrome strip. I also think the grill would look sweet with the back bases painted body color too. It would really make those chrome bars stand out. :LOL:

I'd tend to disagree Mike.
When we painted the bus initially we painted the grille the same colour as the body.
It looked bloody horrible!
It was just too much of the one colour.
Within a very short time we painted the 'teeth' and bars of the grille ivory with black behind it.
Much better!
It just 'broke' that entire slab of yellow.

Although, having said that; as Ryan said you will have the horizontal chromium bars across yours.
That also could 'break' any overkill of colour.

We thought about painting the back bars green but Kari looked at a lot of photos where they were painted that way and never really liked it, but she loves the way it looks now. As for the chrome strip on the hood, I got out voted on that one by you guys, my vote is to leave it off. I thought it was getting over done on the chrome but I'll put it on for a few days and take it back off for a few days and see what I think.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

We thought about painting the back bars green but Kari looked at a lot of photos where they were painted that way and never really liked it, but she loves the way it looks now. As for the chrome strip on the hood, I got out voted on that one by you guys, my vote is to leave it off. I thought it was getting over done on the chrome but I'll put it on for a few days and take it back off for a few days and see what I think.

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I'll throw in my 2 cents just for grins.....regarding the chrome strip, if you decide to leave it off, I think you need to weld up the seam and give the appearance of a one piece hood. If you're keeping the seam, I think it needs the chrome strip...:3dSMILE:

Sorry for jumping on this so late in the game but I just wanted to add that I think the green color is a bold yet great choice. I've never seen a Chevy truck in this shade of green and feel like it really brings it strong character. Had a great time reading through this thread while enjoying my coffee this morning - thanks for that!

With the strip.

Grill looks great with the chrome strip, as does the hood. Has a very classic look retained from the older body style. Without it it takes on an unfinished more modern and therefor more modded out truct. Keeping the style of the original truck just completes it for me. the chrome strip on the hood also breaks up too much green in one place, but also gives a nice compliment to the green, as chrome does with most color schemes.

Okay I think you guys finally convinced me to keep the chrome strip. I would like to say I'm building this pickup only for my eyes, but it's kind of like saying all pretty girls wearing skin-tight shorts and a tank top are wearing them only for their man to look at at no one else.

JB. I'm confused.. ( even more than usual actually!) all I said about the grille was nice work. I never mentioned colors.

I did offer an opinion regarding the hood strip chrome. I like it being there! Was there a different Mike that I missed?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 34_40

JB. I'm confused.. ( even more than usual actually!) all I said about the grille was nice work. I never mentioned colors.

I did offer an opinion regarding the hood strip chrome. I like it being there! Was there a different Mike that I missed?

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Oops!
Mea culpa!
I was in a hurry and misread / misunderstood your post.
My fault; forget I ever said anything.

Your truck is coming along nice.

Did a little more work on the 53 again today. Thought I would quick install the condenser fan,relay, and trinary switch. I also moved the relay for the engine fan to hide it under the hood latch panel with the other fan relay. The relays are on the opposite ends of the radiator because thats how it worked best with the wiring on the other side of the radiator. Quick a minute wiring turned into a all morning deal but it all works. It got to be kind of a mess of wires but I'm soo sick of wiring, I have self cured myself from wiring OCD when you can't see them.

I had a grill turn signal short to ground when I tried hooking up the park light wire. Found typical Taiwan Quality control with my bulb socket. I'll let the picture speak for itself. Worst part is I dropped the lens after I took it off to check things out. I doubt they will warranty the lens.

Shame about the lens just because of a cheap ass part.

The left light is better but leaves something to be desired .It's frustrating putting a lot of this new stuff on. When I put the new chrome grill bars on, they were ok but nothing great, almost not even ok, took some work to get them to fit. My old grill bars are in really nice shape and when I took them off I thought about putting them on Ebay. Now I think I will keep them and get them chromed when the new ones I have on turn to crap. So far I am impressed by the new rear fenders from Taiwan, good and thick metal. The new sides are from USA and they are very nice.

All the re-pops were supposed to get better when the OEM's decided to license the production of those parts.
But I think they just collected the fees for using the corporate names. I never saw any improvement to the parts I had been using.

Seeing the contacts in that light socket just makes me angry, what a waste and it isn't the first one that I've seen like that. The lights on my coupe were almost the same! I was replacing the sockets with an LED setup anyway so I was spared fighting with the lights. Or even returning them. I think you have a good plan to re-chrome the original grille.

I know this is getting the cart in front of the horse but I need some help with know what rim back spacing and offset to look at for the rims on this thing. It has the mustang II ifs and the track width is the standard 56 1/2. I am looking at 16 in with 4.00 backspace and 12 mm offset or 17 with 4.07 backspace and 11 mm offset wheels but I am not confident on the back spacing and offset thing. The more measure and check, the more I am unsure. I will license this photo of me to use for a pinup in your garage if what you suggest works.

Praise the lowered; 53Chevy5 has seen the light!

Can you get retake that pic using a pretty young lady?

I tried photoshoping a new face in for you guys but I couldn't find one better looking :D

[QUOTE=53 Chevy5;563403]I know this is getting the cart in front of the horse but I need some help with know what rim back spacing and offset to look at for the rims on this thing. It has the mustang II ifs and the track width is the standard 56 1/2. I am looking at 16 in with 4.00 backspace and 12 mm offset or 17 with 4.07 backspace and 11 mm offset wheels but I am not confident on the back spacing and offset thing. The more measure and check, the more I am unsure. I will license this photo of me to use for a pinup in your garage if what you suggest works.[/QUOTE

Haha! Great pic!!
I don't really have a sense of your final ride height but I usually go on record for "bigger is better" to a point...LOL! Here's a link to a '53 with 18's & 20's that I think looks pretty cool. It doesn't list the offset but it doesn't list wheel width & tire size. :D:D
1953 Chevy Truck-The Third Act

Ya, my wife told me to stick my face in the head light hole, I didn't know that I was giving some provocative while I was posing **), it is fun to look at though :LOL: .That one may be a bit rim overkill for me. As for ride height, I guess I would say normal if there is such a thing. It will be a daily driver so some ride comfort and practicability is needed. Thanks for the link though, it is a nice guide of what direction to go.