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1957 GMC Custom Shop Truck
Been working on this truck for a few months now and with only a few weeks left on it for fabricating I thought id post some pics of the work thats been completed so far on the 57'. The idea I had for the overall look of the truck was to take design features from the first series trucks and earlier and incorporate those features into the second series truck. I had some parts left over from a 1950 panel and some other odds n ends out in the shop to work off of. The first thing the truck got was the dash since when i got the truck there was not even a dash in it. Just a piece of pine board with the gauges in it zip tied around the steering column. The Dash took a lil more than 50 hours of fabricating and finish work. I took the 50' panel dash front piece and added another piece of sheetmetal for the top. once that was setup i made the drop in the center of the dash top to take the opposite lines of the original first series trucks which had the hump on the driver side. the defrost vent was made from some banding straps i had lying around and just cut one into small pieces for the spacers. the underside is welded and enclosed using some 1/2" flat stock courtesy of lowes. then took a piece of exhaust tube that had a nice bend that would allow the heater unit to be hooked up for the defrost. once that was done i stiched in more sheetmetal into the old gauge holes and the radio hole and recut those down to fit the new gauges that came with the truck. after adding more filler welds around the gauges and polishing them down i took some body filler and covered the welded areas and sanded em down to get the look i wanted. after the dash went in i added more sheetmetal to tie in the dash to the cab, took a lil forming with the hammer n dolly but all in all i got the look i wanted and kept the function for the window cranks. the last thing on the dash was the glove box which was one i got off of ebay for a couple bucks then cut out the lettering for the GMC script. I just liked the original GMC logo so much i wanted to add it on the truck somewhere so i went with the dash. After the dash was installed i had to cut out the cab corners to replace the cancer with some fresh metal courtesy of the panel donor. Once the cab corner was ready i also replaced the driver side door step and alot of the sheet metal that was all but gone down there. The step was replaced using another donor piece off the panel. I took the running boards and cut em down to fit the space needed in the door step. In order to get the right look and function i had to create a drop step in the running board so the door gasket would be able to seal. I got more pics available in my gallery but thought id update the status of my build since i had some down time. Attachment 51794Attachment 51795Attachment 51796Attachment 51797
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Beefing up the Crossmember
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The first thing i did was add the cross plates for the engine block mounts to get the correct measurements for cutting them down and keeping them square, you'll see from the old engine mounts in an earlier pic that the old mounts were not up to snuff, then reinforced the crossmember (Trans-Dapt #4810) since although the tabs were fairly nicely welded, did notice some spots where the penetration wasn't up to snuff.
I haven't seen any reviews on these crossmembers yet but I think once guys start using them more they'll want a lil more beef on the mounts from a single tab. Last thing i have to do is polish up the welds from the other day but everything mocks up real nice and can't wait to finish up the front suspension and get the drive train in the truck. Feels like im gettin closer every day to getting the truck out on the road now.
