Chopped 55 f100

[Duke55]

That truck is just off the hook! Awesome work...that grille is perfect for the colors on the truck..

Thanks, Robert. I am getting way exited about actually getting this thing out to some shows soon. I have registered it for the Western F100 Nationals in Anaheim CA. on June 21st so I hope I can get it done in time.

When I say I am going to paint he grille, I am talking only about the outer shell. It would obviously make the grille look a little smaller (which I kinda think it needs) and I think it will look like it is floating.

 

[Duke55]

Went to Idaho and picked up my dad's sewing machine to do my carpet.



First time I have done carpet. My dad definitely made it look a lot easier than it is.





Looking through some of my previous post I realized how bad of a picture I posted of the pedals I made so here is a better one. Also a better picture for the carpet color (don't know why the others turned out so bad).

 

[BBChevro]

Excellent work on the carpet Royce.


Mark

 

[Duke55]

I have finally painted all the pieces for the truck.





I'll give it a couple days to dry then its time to try and put the hood on.

 

[Duke55]

Made some billet aluminum carpet sill plates.









Unmasked the grille and I think its going to look a lot better.

 

[MP&C]

Yeah, I'd say good call on the grille!

 

[hogdoc]

From a dyde in the wool Chevy guy, that F100 is AWSOME. I sold my 15 year 59 Apache roadster project to fund a house that fell through last year, after seeing this I wish I had never let it go. Sold my class winning 55 BelAir show car/street racer to fund moving to Idaho in the early 90's, same thing, stupid move!

Dont EVER let that truck go!

I LOVE the body hammer shifter, I think it fits the trucks history perfectly. It will start a lot of conversations at shows and cruise nights.

 

[Duke55]

Got the truck out to a Fathers day car show in Idaho. The family and I had a great time. Many of the old timers remembered the truck and told me stories of when my grandpa and dad had it. It felt good to have its first show on Fathers day and the comments I received I will remember for a life time.

Parked next to my uncles 55.


Next day it was parked next to my uncles 49 Ford that was built by my grandpa in the early 50's. Actually had some sun in this picture.



I ended up making a windshield divider bar that I think fit the truck perfectly. My dad and grandpa always ran a two piece windshield.









Will be taking the truck to Cali in a couple of days for the West Coast F100 Nationals.

 

[drewski]

Royce, your truck turned out great. Quite a contrast parked next to your uncle's 55. It should be a big hit at the Nationals.

Drew

 

[MP&C]

That really pops in the sun. Well done, sir!

 

[Awitte58]

Great thread! Great picherrrrss
Nice work on everything!

 

[75zedd]

Saw this truck in person tonight at a local car show. This is one beautiful truck. The photos do not show the attention to detail that has gone into this build. The portions are all so right on. I love this truck! You are a very talented young man, keep up the great work.

 

[Duke55]

Saw this truck in person tonight at a local car show. This is one beautiful truck. The photos do not show the attention to detail that has gone into this build. The portions are all so right on. I love this truck! You are a very talented young man, keep up the great work.

Thanks for the great comments. My family and I have been having an excellent time showing the truck. I haven't decided if my wife really likes showing or if she has just figured out how to keep me from working in the shop. She keeps piling on the car shows to go to. This last weekend we went up to the West Yellowstone Rod Run and camped for a couple days and put the truck in the show. Had a blast. Crazy a couple of old timers came up and said "hey that's old Duke's truck".

 

[honda_fox3]

Saw this truck at a local car show, turns out we are from the and county not too far away from each other. Small world made smaller through garage journal! I also good to meet the owner/ builder and his family, super nice folks. I can tell you all, pictures aren't even close to worthy of this truck it is simply stunning! Well done sir, well done.

 

[Duke55]

Been awhile since I have posted so I thought I would do a quick teaser. The family and I have done up bunch of car shows. The wife said we have done at least 15 (that's probably more than I have done my entire life prior to this truck). It has been a good time and I cant believe how much my wife likes doing it. Coming back from one of the shows she started pushing on me to pull in the next project and she would like to help. So I pulled a COE in to start tinkering and now I am getting carried away.







Had another grille shell that was nearly squished in half so I thought I would see if I could straight it and maybe weld it solid.


Quick sand blasting and stripping


Started a custom grille


Finished up half the tubes after work one night


Made a lower mount that I could bolt each tube too. This is mounted at a downward angle so the center tube is 1" lower than the furthest outside tubes and sticks out 4" further forward.








Pulled the Flathead out of frame that came with the cabs. Haven't been around flatheads very much. The more I look into them the cooler I think they are.




Top end looked pretty good. Definite ring ledge but it is the factory bore.


Bottom end looks better than the top end. There was so little sludge in the motor I question if it has been taken apart before. Another thing I noticed is that it is a 46-48 block and has a 49+ crank and rods. I guess maybe it lost a bottom end at some time since the bores are factory. I did have to clean at least 30# of oil/dirt off the engine to disassemble it so it has been quite some time since it was apart.

 

[HOTFR8]

Sidevalve V8's are great motors if they are built well and they can be kept cool as for the COE truck well that will be just as much fun. A good 5 speed manual will give the V8 some great legs and make it run at a speed it should not get to hot.

Keen to see how this new project comes along.

 

[BBChevro]

You're off to a great start with this one Royce, the grill bars extending right down accentuate the "tallness" of the COE (and I mean that as being a good thing).

Having seen your abundant talent with the '55 build, I know that this will undoubtedly be another great build to watch.

 

[NAPPY]

How many cabs are you hoarding! Not fair!

 

[MP&C]

Awesome! Here's the build I've been waiting for!

 

[tinbender 66]

This is gonna be fun! I love watching you work.

 

[95riosnake]

I love the new COE project, I've always wanted to do up one of those with a flat bed for a car hauler. Nothing beats showing up at a car show and parking your show car next to the tow rig and having both in the show

 

[xtremek]

I just blew through this thread and it's outrageous. Incredible work!!!!! And as for the beaten to death controversy over the shifter, if you don't mind, I'll throw my $.02 in. Since this is kind of a tribute to your dad and grandpa, I say it fits better than anything else you'll ever dream up. Thanks for letting us go with you on your wild journey. Well done sir, I'm sure your dad and grandpa would be proud of you and what you've done to honor them.

 

[slickgt1]

I basically just killed half a day looking at this thread. Holy **** amazing work. Amazing does not even begin to describe it.

 

[sleepy127]

That flat head is awesome but I would save it for another project. That COE needs it some diesal power (if it is intended to be used as a toy hauler).

 

[HOTFR8]

That flat head is awesome but I would save it for another project. That COE needs it some diesal power (if it is intended to be used as a toy hauler).

I agree a Diesel would be good.

 

[Duke55]

Thanks for all the great comments. I should have given some details on the direction of this build. If I only had one COE cab the original plan was to build it into a crewcab diesel trailer puller. After pulling my enclosed trailer with my 55 in it all over the place this summer, I am seriously thinking it would be a better idea to find a HDT that has been converted into a RV/tow rig (would likely cost less too).

Since I am have battles with myself on which way to go for the trailer puller (and I am now obsessed with kustoms), I decided to build this one as a 50's/60's kustom cruiser. It will be a mid engine flathead (likely old school twin turbo setup) that will be very low to the ground and very short wheel base. I would love to do a 3 on tree OD trans but availability and linkage issues might drive me away from that. I plan to build my own frame and flatbed with full skirt sides. Originally I wasn't going to chop it but the mind is taking over and I see a non traditional chop job likely in the future.

I have a few crazier ideas but they are staying in for now.

 

[MP&C]

I plan to build my own frame and flatbed with full skirt sides. Originally I wasn't going to chop it but the mind is taking over and I see a non traditional chop job likely in the future.

I have a few crazier ideas but they are staying in for now.

Sounds like your Grandfather had quite an influence on you..

 

[Duke55]

Chopped the top three inches this weekend. Leaned the back of the cab forward to take up the difference. The cab went together very clean. The doors are going to take some work.

 

[MP&C]

That didn't take long! It would look awesome towing the 55!

 

[dittle fart around]

Chopped the top three inches this weekend. Leaned the back of the cab forward to take up the difference. The cab went together very clean nearly. The doors are going to take some work.

I'm liking the lean forward. Nicely done.

 

[Duke55]

Put together a couple before and after pictures

 

[Buds55]

I've been following this thread for a while and I gotta tell you, you're work is amazing. You're definitely an inspiration. I hope to hone my skills and be as good at metal fab as you someday. Keep up the good work!

 

[jfdestree]

I typed kustom flat bed on google image and found some awesome build like this one!
A really cool utility cruiser.

 

[Duke55]

Haven't had much time lately to work on the truck but I have welded and ground probably 95% of the welds for the chop and done some metal work on the fenders.



Picked up a 3 speed OD manual trans with all the hardware and an open drive banjo rear end with a new leaf spring on it.



After that I came by a Franklin Champ quick change that I couldn't pass up.





Prior to finding the Q/C I decided to convert the banjo over to 9" axles and hardware, so I will complete that project and likely store the banjo for another project.

The Q/C I will likely order new bare axle tubes so I can start fresh with suspension and brake mounting.

Don't see anytime soon that I will have a lot of time to work on it but I will keep slowly gathering the components I need prior to starting the frame build.

 

[MP&C]

The metal work is looking good!

 

[HOTFR8]

Will be interested to see how the Q/C works or fits into the project.

 

[Duke55]

I have created a build thread were I will post all future COE build progress. I also updated my signature to include a link to the COE build.

For now I plan to continue to post my misc projects and further progress on the 55 on this thread.

Some of the misc projects I have worked on in the last few weeks:

Helping a friend build an engine cover for his 59 caddy that has a 6.0 LS engine in it. Made the dimple die out of some aluminum bar stock. The sides, front and back of the intake cover will now be made after test fit on the motor.







Misc paint work:

Someone painted the hood and fender of this car and the base is not sticking to the sealer so I razor bladed off and repainted.







Guy backed into his boat and wiped out his tailgate. So I painted a new tailgate to match.







Started making a car show display sign (to make the wife happy) yesterday for the 55 that I will take some pictures and post soon. I only plan on conveying the trucks history on the sign. Thought I had a long time before I would even think about showing again but I found out about a show in NV next weekend that looks fun. I think I will go if the weather is good.

 

[Duke55]

Start to the car show display sign. I used my practice piece I did when I was setting up my louver die for the first time. This was the sheet I did prior to trying a full sized sheet. I rolled some crazy thick 3/4" schedule 80 pipe to run around the perimeter. I figured this heavy pipe would give it enough weight not to ever have to worry about wind.



Now I will get this thing painted and try to figure out how to capture the trucks history within the space I have.

 

[Duke55]

Painted the sign. Ended up doing a very last minute lace job when I couldn't decide which shade of red to paint it. It is now having some hand lettering done.



Started building a new floor to put in the bed of the 55. Its all bent out of 16 ga. thought I would go for the wood look but stick with the all metal theme.



Metal work is a bunch easier since I got a new brake and scored a good deal on a shear and slip roll.

 

[MP&C]

Nice work on the sign! Where did you source the lace from?