1949 Chevy 3600 Pickup: Be seated! Progress!

[grizz]

Go on then..........


What next.


Wikkel jou gat bliksem

[bmwmaniac]

need a donor vehicle, how bout a blazer? 

[Deleted]

Jan 22, 2019 19:30:50 GMT bmwmaniac said:

need a donor vehicle, how bout a blazer? 

...but then it wouldn't be a project,would it?

[darrenh]

the power of Grizzt compels you

[craigrk]

Jan 22, 2019 19:25:21 GMT grizz said:

Go on then..........


What next.


Wikkel jou gat bliksem

Ja, ja!!!

Jan 22, 2019 19:30:50 GMT bmwmaniac said:

need a donor vehicle, how bout a blazer? 

After all that non-project work I really couldn't bring myself to pulling it apart...

Jan 22, 2019 20:22:40 GMT @johnnybravo said:

Jan 22, 2019 19:30:50 GMT bmwmaniac said:

need a donor vehicle, how bout a blazer? 

...but then it wouldn't be a project,would it?

Correct! And this is a long term project.

Jan 23, 2019 11:05:20 GMT darrenh said:

the power of Grizzt compels you

It does, so here goes.

How about a W163 ML55 AMG? So, not quite as powerful as the ML63, but more oomf than the ML500. This popped up for sale locally, cosmetic issues, but mechanically sound (so it would appear), and ironically, the local seller whose child was in the same playschool as my daughter had bought it after being inspired by our ML63 & ML500.






Love the exhaust tips!!  Perfect for "Sleeper Mode" when completed.

18" space saver spare included.  Need to find me a few more of these to get banded/re-rimmed for the authentic Chevy look.


I like the idea that this is a genuine MB (obviously made by an OEM supplier) removable tow-hitch.  This will either remain (subject to making sense), or maybe return some beer tokens to the project fund.


It is MOT'd till October so will see some use in the present shape and form before being torn into, in order to ensure that all is truly good and that any issues experienced after the strip down and body swop (grenade style) is due to my errors rather than pre-existing issues.

This brings me to the "What's For Sale then?" question posed by grizz .

Well, the daily driver Ranger has to go ASAP. There is no space for that.

Ideally Custard should also go to give me space to work. Happy to let it go as is, or still try to get it running as a project. All subject to the day job allowing me the time of course!!

Finally, the Suburban, bought on whim is taking up space and I certainly won't get to building them all in the next year, so I really should move it on as well!!

[grenade]

Oh please take this drive line and stick it under something old. Keep as much of the electronic interior, brakes etc! It'll be EPIC!! I'd love to have anything AMG. Or "M" for that matter. Yes, do these things I had a peruse through this thread- I see LOTS of old cool stuff, but no finished projects? Old stuff with modern underpinnings? Did I scroll to fast?

Love it.
Or better yet- when I hope to make it across to the other side of the pond this summer- let's line up a few and see if I can get them done in a week's visit. hahaha

[strikey]

i don't want to open up the whole legality can of worms or nit picking details that ensue (thats for pussies to worry about)...but presumably this will carry over the reg from the donor as its a chassis swap..i'd be more concerned about the simple aesthetics of a modern reg on your old tin. would it work to bang a cheap non age related private plate on the merc before tear down, as i assume rightly or wrongly , that it could be carried over??

carry on...

[craigrk]

Jan 24, 2019 3:16:01 GMT grenade said:

Oh please take this drive line and stick it under something old. Keep as much of the electronic interior, brakes etc! It'll be EPIC!! I'd love to have anything AMG. Or "M" for that matter. Yes, do these things I had a peruse through this thread- I see LOTS of old cool stuff, but no finished projects? Old stuff with modern underpinnings? Did I scroll to fast?

Love it.
Or better yet- when I hope to make it across to the other side of the pond this summer- let's line up a few and see if I can get them done in a week's visit. hahaha

Hi Grenade,

That's the plan.  This AMG will be the underpinnings of the black '49 3600 pickup that this thread is based on.  (this one) 



and yes, I'm better at collecting projects than making real progress, but a lot of time has been spent researching and working things out as the legalities on this side of the pond are a bit more intense than your side.

[craigrk]

Jan 24, 2019 5:55:52 GMT strikey said:

i don't want to open up the whole legality can of worms or nit picking details that ensue (thats for pussies to worry about)...but presumably this will carry over the reg from the donor as its a chassis swap..i'd be more concerned about the simple aesthetics of a modern reg on your old tin. would it work to bang a cheap non age related private plate on the merc before tear down, as i assume rightly or wrongly , that it could be carried over??

carry on...

Hi Strikey,

Spot on!!  You've touched on exactly why I have taken a while to do this and have settled on the AMG donor.

I'm no expert, but have done a lot of reading, including the whole of blackpopracing 's Anglia challenges.

Like you, I don't want to get into all the legalities, and to be honest, it's up to each person to make their own interpretations and choices in their builds, for me, there are fundamentally two options for ending up with a fully legal build:
1) Custom build and then go for the BIVA test.  I suspect that the '49 Chevy will struggle with a lot of that, as I intend to keep it pretty standard looking and patina's, so all those edges and mirror angles will be a problem. 
2) Body swop:  i.e. put an old body on a modern chassis.  That's the plan here.

Simply put, in the UK, the identity of a vehicle resides with its chassis.  This is why you lose so many points if you modify the chassis (or monocoque - ?sp).

So, if I pull the body off the AMG chassis (following the rules about keeping photographic evidence, including strangely the number plate mounted on the chassis after the body is off), and then put the Chevy body on, then the identity of the AMG remains.  The catch is that they do normally issue a replacement (age-related) reg and you have to change the Make and Model designation (similar to what happened with blackpopracing after his BIVA test) not using trademarked names (I have a few ideas here).

And yes, I probably will look to get a cheapish non-age related plate to help with the sleeper look!!

My motivation is that I get modern power, braking, suspension, etc without having to have access to all the tools or horrendously deep pockets, or too many years in the making (only 2 so far, and 2 more till the deadline).

This is the approach ivanhoew took with Medusa which is on a Black Cab chassis.  The non-modification of the chassis is the reason he had to jump through hoops with his gearbox location/design.

The above is all also the reason I specifically chose a 3/4 ton (3600) to start with as the rear wings don't have the spare wheel indent and I could mess with the length of the bed (like grenade ) does to hide the change in wheelbase.

Other interesting points to note.  Apparently you can't use a subframe to do the transition between the new body and the chassis.  All mountings have to be part of the body, so some mods needed. 

grenade, as for keeping s much as possible of the AMG electronics, etc.  That is part of the goal, however with a twist.  SWMBO wants the interior to look as period as possible so I have to figure out how I achieve that.  So instead of hacking the AMG body down to the floor and grafting the two together I may well be keeping a lot of the Chevy in situ.  Still trying to figure that one out.

What the eagle eyed amongst you may have taken note of and not commented on is the position of the steering wheel.

I've spent the last 18 months or so looking for a LHD ML500 or ML55 at a reasonable price and just not finding anything.  I came close a couple of times, but the one was a non-MOT'd/non-runner in Glasgow (too far to risk as transport would have added a heap the price), the other I am sure is/was a scam as the guy is (still) playing silly buggers.  So when this RHD ML55 came up in my village it seemed to be an omen.

The question now is whether I convert the chassis to LHD as part of the conversion (can be done, some points to lose, lots of complexity to add), or convert the cab to RHD.  Considering I'll probably have to modify the same elements of the cab anyway to fit relevant gubbins in, this is the way that makes sense.  (But SWMBO is actually keen on LHD for reasons currently not relevant to this thread).

Next step on the adventure is to make space so I can start working on this in earnest.  Oh, and sort out time from work, which was all meant to be coming together effective this week, but a spanner has been thrown in the spokes on Monday!!

[ivanhoew]

Fascinating thread ,and beautifully written , thank you , one quessie , are the wheelbases the same ?

regards
robert

[strikey]

once hurdles are overcome and a firm plan in place this is going to be EPIC!

[mylittletony]

Jan 24, 2019 8:36:31 GMT ivanhoew said:

Fascinating thread ,and beautifully written , thank you , one quessie , are the wheelbases the same ?

regards
robert

WBs appear to be 111in for the ML and 117 for a 3100, nothing terrible to overcome.

As regards the subframe, from reading Kapri's guidance, as I understand it you can have one, but it must be permanently attached (welded) to the body and bolted to the unmodified chassis. Maybe that's what you meant, not sure

Great project and something I'm very seriously looking into myself (truck rebody)

[Morris63]

Great thread, looking forward to watching it come together.

Only one question, as I may have missed it, but I'm guessing this is no longer a secret from your OH then?!

[craigrk]

Jan 24, 2019 8:36:31 GMT ivanhoew said:

Fascinating thread ,and beautifully written , thank you , one quessie , are the wheelbases the same ?

regards
robert

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the comments, unfortunately the progress is a lot slower than your's. I really love Medusa, but will be doing something simpler.

Answer on the wheelbase below...

Jan 25, 2019 13:17:21 GMT mylittletony said:

Jan 24, 2019 8:36:31 GMT ivanhoew said:

Fascinating thread ,and beautifully written , thank you , one quessie , are the wheelbases the same ?

regards
robert

WBs appear to be 111in for the ML and 117 for a 3100, nothing terrible to overcome.

As regards the subframe, from reading Kapri's guidance, as I understand it you can have one, but it must be permanently attached (welded) to the body and bolted to the unmodified chassis. Maybe that's what you meant, not sure

Great project and something I'm very seriously looking into myself (truck rebody)

Hi mylittletony ,

Thanks, yes, 111" for the ML. This is actually a 3600, so 125.5", but yes, all easily lost in shortening the bed in front of the rear arches.

I've also got Kapri's notes (not read them yet), but yes I did mean the subframe had to be welded to the floor, i.e. only bolted on one side.

Get started and post a thread. The more the merrier as many of us (me especially) tend to take a while, so having more to read about is good.

Jan 24, 2019 16:11:17 GMT strikey said:

once hurdles are overcome and a firm plan in place this is going to be EPIC!

Thanks. Plans are being made on the hurdles, but it'll probably be a few months before we can be certain they're overcome.

Jan 25, 2019 15:29:23 GMT Morris63 said:

Great thread, looking forward to watching it come together.

Only one question, as I may have missed it, but I'm guessing this is no longer a secret from your OH then?!

Seems I forgot to post that piece of the story!! On her birthday in October 2016 we did the big unveiling...

[grizz]

Never saw that clip.

Well done.

Amazed you got that hard as nails super executive to dribble a few years.

Kyle interestingly left

Clever boy.

[mylittletony]

Jan 25, 2019 17:58:21 GMT craigrk said:

Get started and post a thread. The more the merrier as many of us (me especially) tend to take a while, so having more to read about is good.

Cheers, I will but I've got to raise funds before I start doing anything. Hoping to make it happen this year!

[craigrk]

So, not much done this weekend, and certainly nothing on this truck.

Yesterday I spent the day trying to sort the indicators on my son's motorcycle - they're not right yet, as I replaced them with LED ones, also replaced the flasher unit, but all 4 are flashing like hazards , so I suspect I do need go down the ballast resistor route. On principle I have an issue with this as it means you are effectively converting the power you are saving through the LED swap into heat. I'd rather just save it thanks.

The bike has a single indicator tell-tale on the dash, and based on Google I surmise this is somehow the reason why. If there is anyone out there who knows an alternate way of solving this, I'd love to get into a dialogue on it.

As for the '49. Well, I thought I would check out what the hubcaps would look like on the space saver spare:


So what do you guys think?  (PS:  This hubcap is actually off the Suburban and the same as the Aerosedan.  the pickup hubcaps are actually a bit plainer, with only the work Chevrolet, no flashes)

I think the wheels might need to be red or something other than black. Of course, they would need banding, I would need to find another 4 of them. So if anyone has a lead on cheap Mercedes W163 18" space saver spares (tyres condition irrelevant), I'll be very interested. Someone everyone on eBay seems to think these things are worth as much as alloys.

Also, anyone out there who does banding, any experience of tackling these? I found it strange that a magnet didn't stick to the center section, so wondering if these are actually steel. The magnet did stick to the rim.

[craigrk]

Jan 25, 2019 21:51:12 GMT grizz said:

Never saw that clip.

Well done.

Amazed you got that hard as nails super executive to dribble a few tears.

Kyle interestingly left

Clever boy.

FTFY: tears

As for Kyle, he went to fetch his sister who would have given the game away had she been allowed inside from the outset!!

[glenanderson]

The single telltale is the issue with the indicators. That type of layout, typical to motorcycles, simply links the left and right circuits with a bulb. It works fine with incandescent bulbs, but not with LEDs. You either need a pair of diodes and a separate earth for the telltale, or you need to have two separate telltales.

I’ll try and draw you a diagram when I get home and am not on my phone.

[craigrk]

Jan 27, 2019 19:27:12 GMT glenanderson said:

The single telltale is the issue with the indicators. That type of layout, typical to motorcycles, simply links the left and right circuits with a bulb. It works fine with incandescent bulbs, but not with LEDs. You either need a pair of diodes and a separate earth for the telltale, or you need to have two separate telltales.

I’ll try and draw you a diagram when I get home and am not on my phone.

Hi Glen,

Cool, so if I understand you correctly, by connecting the two circuits via the telltale, the one which is off acting as the earth and the other the positive. That’s the bit of info I was missing.

Now that I know that, I think it will be quite simple to identify the feed to the telltale (both legs) and then build a small loom that gives me an earth and two diode protected feeds.

I know enough to get myself into trouble, but didn’t know what they had done inside the loom!!