F1 Project

[FormTA]

Unfortunately I plan to paint it and then stuck that tar ish aluminum backed sound deadening mats and then make a custom carpet for it. I'd like to leave it but I plan to drive this quiet a bit so I want it to be comfortable.

[FormTA]

Still banging away on this project. Been busy all winter with snowmobiling. We finally got a snowy winter in Michigan (I trailer from Ohio to Northern lower Michigan, around the Gaylord area) I put almost 1400 miles on my sled this year.

Anyway.  I have been working on patching the fenders and other front end panels just enough to bolt them together so I can locate the cab in the right spot to make body mounts.

In doing this I'm finding that, yes I can fix them but they will take many, many hours of work to be paint ready. If I was leaving it as is with the petina, they would be fine. My wife hates petina vehicles and insists it gets paint. I finally decided that my time is more valuable and broke down and order AMD fenders and lower panels. At a cost of almost 2k for the few pieces it was a tough decision.

What did it for me was when working on them and seeing all the rust on the inside of the panels and all the dents that needed fixed. Even if I did get them straight enough, there is just so much surface rust that I know would eventually come back and ruin a paint job.

Plus judging by how much time I have into just making them mountable I would have months of time ahead of me just in 2 fenders.

The good news is I have really learned a lot and gained so much metal working techniques doing what I've done so far. I still have two horrible doors to fix and a beat up hood to tackle. Also the new fenders will compliment the new bed and rear fenders.

Here is how it sits today. Still on the junk test frame. I cleaned out all the pictures from my phone because I ran out of storage so this is all I have. I did have some pretty intricate panels that I made using the English wheel, bead roller, brake and other hand tools. But unfortunately those got move to a thumb drive somewhere.

[ryeguy2006a]

Glad to see you plugging away. This is a cool project.

[roadking77]

Paying that kind of money is a hard hit, but you will most likely be the better for it in the long run. Although you are not paying yourself to do the job, your time is very valuable.

[5th T/A]

I got to give you credit Luke; you are a very ambitious person. Especially since you got multiple projects going on at the same time. I am always envious of people who have metal and body working skills. I know the patina look is popular right now, I agree with your wife on having a nice paint job.

[roadking77]

A lot of the guys in the AACA are starting to go with the leave it original finish. Mainly because the cost of a paint job has gotten out of hand. I dont mind that look for a lot of cars. Even your truck would look fine. I think there are some cars like a grand ole Packard that needs to have a nice shiny paint job. Either way your truck will stand out when its finished.

[N PRGRES]

MY TA will shine but she has alot of paint chips and such.  I would love to repaint it, however as mentioned, the cost is insane now, well beyond my budget, especially for a good paint joob.  So she will have the survivor look probably for quite sometime if not forever.

[FormTA]

I've been working on yhe doors for those truck and been trying to decide what to do with the door latches. These old 40s and 50s cars use latches like you house door. If the jam gets out of whack at all be it a harsh bump or an accident, thw doors pop open. It's also very tough to close them and the latches don't catch very well as they wear quite quickly.

The idea of figuring out how to use the latches from the 2002 S10 doors has been rolling around in my head for a year or so. I finally went out and got one of the doors from the donor truck and cut the latche from it and pulled all of the parts out of the door.

The latch is a really nice compact unit but still quickly became obvious that it wouldn't fit, or at least it couldn't make the turn around the window track to get in place. So I went back to trying to clean up the old 1949 latches.... After a while of working on them, I just couldn't do it, they are so rustic and just plain crude. No matter how much improvement I make to them, they are still horrible.

So I went back to the S10 latches.... I found that there is enough room (barly though) but they would have to be mounted from the outside. Basically cut a hole, put them in and then bolt a plate over them. I thought that was crude so I went online to see I'd someone made an upgraded latch. I found one company that does and they do it exactly as I described above.... and cost 500-600 dollars.

So for the past few weeks I have been working on building a bolt in plate and brackets, springs, rods and thing to make the original door levers operate the new s10 latches. I also created parts to make the locks function.  This truck didn't have locks except on the driver/curb side. The lock also only functioned from outside. I am creating a lock handle and going to CNC them from aluminum at work too.

I have a junk door that I cut holes in it so I could measure for rods and brackets. I have the latch and locks functioning on this test door and I'm working on a mirror image of parts for the other side right now. This should be a great operating door when finally on the truck.

The red plate is what I made to bolt to the door. I did save the hardened backing plate from the s10 behind it. May not be as strong as it was in the s10 door but stronger than the latch and plates that were originally in the 49 door.


I cut the hole below the outside lever too big to install the lock. But I test fit it and it functions.

[roadking77]

Nice fabrication work. I like that you have to think outside of the box. This is a good example of how guys get so deep into a project financially. Imagine if you were paying a shop to figure all of that out
Heres a pic of my grandfather beside his new truck!
2021-01-15_10-04-44 by Kerry Grubb, on Flickr

[FormTA]

That's a cool picture!

[ryeguy2006a]

Agreed, nice fabrication work!

[N PRGRES]

The phone number on the door is pretty wild.

[FormTA]

Well, summer was really busy for us. Just spending every weekend at the lake end enjoying the hot weather. Winter is coming and I decided I needed a lighter trailer for hauling my snowmobiles. I currently use a 26' all steel car hauler which weighs 5,000 lb or more. My 1500 RAM struggled pulling it so I had to upgrade to a 6.4 gas 2500 ram a few years ago and even that doesn't like it much (I like to pull at 80mph to keep up with traffic). And my trips are 5-10 hrs and the engine is taching 3-4k rpm. I feel bad for the engine.  Anyway, I bought a new all aluminum snowmobile specific 29' trailer which weighs 2500lbs. I told you all this as getting that accessorize and floor epoxied took some time too.

My 16 yo son, has now collected 4 trucks, so helping him work on and keep those all running has also eaten some time. I'm going insurance poor.... The kids will soon be required to insure their own cars so that will help. He took this picture the other day. My daughter's car and another one of my trucks is not in this picture.  This doesn't include all of the project cars we have scattered in the barns.....





So now I have closed up the lake and most of the home projects are wrapped up so I'm able to get back into the shop.

I have most of the work done on the doors and floor of the cab so I started to focus on trying to integrate the dash items and gauges into the 49.  I'm doing my best to make it look as good as it can, as I'm using year 2000 car parts in a 1949 truck.

The gauge cluster was really deep and curved. I cut it in half and I will glue a new flat pice of plastic to the front of it. I hand made a surround and set fit it and then started to mold it in to the  stock dash. It's a mock up and work in progress.

It has taken me two days banging on metal to get this far but my skills using shrinking, stretching, English wheel and the power hammer are getting better. I used the bead roller to help define the area and then chunk and rolled the edge.

I also loosely threw the steering column and seat in to see where it needed to be.

I know people will not like any of this but it will put a old truck on the road and use parts of another truck that was destined f9r the scrap yard.

[ryeguy2006a]

That's some top notch fabrication right there! I'll bet you could get a custom gauge face and/or needles and it will look really retro/modern. I really like it Luke!

[FormTA]

Thanks Ryan.  I thought about looking for a gauge overlay for the S10 gauges. I might dig deeper into that.  For those wondering what stock looked like g
Here you go.



I also have to completely remake the center of the dash/radio area as the new gauges cut into that area. I plan to make a drop down panel that will hide the modern radio and 4x4 controls and airbag switch. We'll see what I can come up with.

[5th T/A]

Luke, summers are short in the upper Midwest, glad you could enjoy. Great progress on the F1, it's going to be a nice ride! Also nice you have good father and son time working on his vehicles, you're creating some good memories!

[FormTA]

So, since this is not an original truck, just a collection of junk new and old I need to try and hide as much of the new as possible.  I have the 4x4 and airbag switches to hide. An original ashtray is kinda expensive and not really needed. I decided to make a panel that resembles the original but open. I will hide some of those weird modern S10 switches in here.

I think the door itself came out pretty good. The hinges are just roughed in for now. The geometry of hinges is crazy, I really don't understand them and how to get things to land where you want them. I don't have CAD or anything to compute what I need just 17 tries of cardboard and metal options until I got it close and functional.

I know it doesn't look like much, but this took many many hours.... sad...

[ryeguy2006a]

Love the creativity! That hinge setup looks tricky, but I know you can figure it out. Glad to see you making progress on this project.

[5th T/A]

So, since this is not an original truck, just a collection of junk new and old I need to try and hide as much of the new as possible.  I have the 4x4 and airbag switches to hide. An original ashtray is kinda expensive and not really needed. I decided to make a panel that resembles the original but open. I will hide some of those weird modern S10 switches in here.

I think the door itself came out pretty good. The hinges are just roughed in for now. The geometry of hinges is crazy, I really don't understand them and how to get things to land where you want them. I don't have CAD or anything to compute what I need just 17 tries of cardboard and metal options until I got it close and functional.

I know it doesn't look like much, but this took many many hours.... sad...

All the little details add up. I can’t imagine taking up a project of this magnitude, merging old body to a much newer chassis. I like the fact you are doing your best to keep the classic original looks. Out of curiosity, the cigarette lighter socket, was that original or an aftermarket addition?

[FormTA]

Original I believe as this was what they called a 5 star truck. It has 2 windshield wipers, radio, door panels and arm rests and driver side door locks. Yes what we would consider standard but not back then

[kentucky yeti]

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  simply amazing!  I admire yours and Ryan's talent and dedication on y'alls rides.

[FormTA]

Thanks Mike, I appreciate it. Mine is nothing compared to Ryan's.  His runs....

I tore it apart so I can weld up all the floor and firewall. I also pulled the trans and transfer case out of this chassis to clean it up and prep it to go into the new one. I'm going to roll this junk chassis out and bring in thw finished one so I can get the cab mounted and see if the frame chop is enough to line up the cab, bed and running boards.

I guess I didn't post my frame chop. Here it is. Apparently I didn't take pictures of the sleeves. I made 3/16" square sleeves that i slid inside of the rails and cut holes in the frame so I could plug weld it to. Right now it is just all bolted together so I can test fit the cab. I made this frame the same wheelbase as the 1949 so it "should" fit but just incase I have to make adjustments, I'm trial fitting everything.







Used my really sketchy lift mechanism on my cheery picker.









https://youtu.be/Y6h7pzxnXRU?si=E0tt2K68MU8EKUQS

[ryeguy2006a]

That's a really clean job on that frame section! I've never done anything like that before, but that looks top notch. I like how you offset the cuts and reversed them side to side!

[FormTA]

Ah, you noticed that, I appreciate it! Ya, hopefully once I weld it, I hope it's pretty undetectable.

[FormTA]

Trial fitment of the body on the "new" chassis. The bed will need to be dropped about 2-3" to line up the running boards. Gives me an actual representation of how the final product will look. I really like it. It looks so much bigger on the ZR2 Frame than on the standard 4x4 frame.

Still lots of work to do but now I can finalize the cab and bed mounts and then weld the shortened frame as it all seems to fit well.

[FormTA]

I built a frame inside the bed of 2x1" channel to support the bed and to raise the floor to clear the s10 frame and put the bed sides around the correct height for the running boards and cab to line up. I'll have to get some pics of this frame but to get an idea of where it would sit, I threw the bed wood floor boards in it.

This helps me see what I need to do to fill the gap you see under the boards when thw tailgate is open.

[N PRGRES]

Love the wood slats on trucks, that's going to look gorgeous

[ryeguy2006a]

Luke, that looks great! The front tire size is about perfect if you ask me.

[FormTA]

So, I just finished fitting all of panels on the truck and was about to pull the cab for final welding of all the floor and firewall. When I got to thinking about all the wiring that has to go in this thing. Remember it's a 2000 S10 with all the EFI, ABS, push button 4x4 and everything else a modern car has (at least for a 2000).

So, the wiring that goes from the engine bay to the cab used to go through the firewall to the left of the brake booster. Well, this cab is like a foot skinny so there really isn't any space for it and I don't want extend or unraveled wiring.

In this picture you can see the s10 firewall, the part with the brake booster and the cowl sticking out. I relixized I could drill out some spot welded and remove the cowl area. So that's what I'm doing now to make a place close to where the wiring used to enter. Also the area to the pasanger side is likely where the ABS pump will have to live as that too was on the other side of the booster.











So, I still need to finish weld it all but I think it will work. I'm going to throw the wiring through the hole, put the booster back in and see if I can make a crazy mount for the ABS pump.

[FormTA]

I've been trying to remember everything that might need welded to the cab before I removed it for body work. I think I nailed down the AC/heater system I'm going to use. I plan on ordering that Tuesday after I re measure the length of lines I need. Man these AC kits have really gone up. $1800 for a semi basic universal system. I wanted defrost, vent and floor vents as well as electronic controls so that drove up the price. Anyway, I need that box so I can cut up the firewall and make mounting brackets.

I also needed to figure out how to integrate the S10 wiper system into this truck. It's been a few days of measuring cutting and welding but I'm close. I still have to adjust the throw of the arm on the motor but I have everything tacked in basic location. This was built using some of the S10 wiper linkage and some custom ends and adjusting it all to fit. I will drill out tye 7/32 holes on the ends that fit on the 1949 so I can put bronze bushings in but for now it works for mock up.

[FormTA]

Not sure if I shared this, but I found a great deal on a hood in better shape than what I had. It also came with the side trim and the nose trim which to buy separately would cost more than double what I paid for everything.

[ryeguy2006a]

Wow, that's a lot of work! Nice score on that hood. I love that patina on it!!

[FormTA]

If it were totally up to me, I'd just do a patina paint job on the truck. If you notice i broke down and bought all new sheet metal fenders, valance, grill and header... My wife wants a nice paintjob on it, I might be able to talk her into a satin finish but she wanted no part of the patina. I am keeping the original front clip and I might look for another cab to build a 2 wheel drive low rider with a V8 version of this truck. That just depends as I have so many projects and project ideas....

[FormTA]

I think i finally got the wipers figured out. See if this link works.

https://youtu.be/75WwgcZISMo?si=iEqp8RxnBahvQC2J

[ryeguy2006a]

Nicely done!! I might have to steal that idea for my Nomad. My wiper motor is very close to my intake.

[FormTA]

Started mocking up the AC unit. Decided I needed to make an under dash panel to house the controller and vents.  I will probably put the engine in place so I can figure out the abs pump placement as well as the battery tray and other under hood items.

Here under the dash on the bottom right you can just barely see the AC box






Here i cut the hole to run the AC and heater lines out.



You can see the panels I've been working on under the red dash. I've had to make this in several seconds.  I just need to make one more piece and then join them all and cut the holes for the vents and controls.

[5th T/A]

Luke, I had to go back to the very beginning of this project to refresh my memory. I had forgotten what an undertaking this is. Incredible fabrication skills and workmanship. I can't imagine how many hours you have invested in this project. I give you a lot of credit for sticking with it. Maybe I missed it, but it looks like maybe you will be using an aftermarket heater/AC system?

Thanks for sharing!

[FormTA]

Ya, it's a big project. I didn't post everything about the build but there is definitely a ton of things done to it and a ton of time in it as well. I just haven't posted much as it doesn't seem many folks are interested. I understand as it's a F body forum so no worries.

Yes, I'm using a universal AC/heat kit from Old Air Products called the Hurricane unit. I opted for the electronically controlled version too. The price of these systems doubled since I bought the one for my 67 Camaro back in early 2000s.


Kinda finished up the lower dash panel today. I'm not a great metal worker like those on YouTube shows but this came out pretty good i think. I TIG welded each little section together and was able to blend it all together pretty seamlessly. I didn't want to build a completely custom dash so this lower section bolts on and is easily removable so other under dash items can come out.

I still need to make the drivers side vent pod thats left of the steering wheel and order 2 more round vents.

Now that I'm almost done with the dash, I'm thinking it may have been easier to just go full custom...

[ryeguy2006a]

Luke, that looks outstanding!! Very nicely done. Love the fabrication man. Please keep posting up as many pictures as you can, I love to see them. Not sure if you noticed, but this thead has over 100K views. So people are looking just not commenting. 

[N PRGRES]

For "not being that good" your work looks amazing!