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Plan is for this truck to appear as stock as possible and hide the modern drive train the only choice for a steering column would be a stocker. I got this column out of a 1950 Chevy 210 sedan. The steering wheel I found on Ebay was out of a 1948 Chevy Fleetline. I cut the stock steering box off and cut the column flush to firewall. I pressed in a bearing to the end and added a steering joint.
For the steering drop mount I used a redneck milling machine and used a scrap piece from a 1990 Mustang 5.0 trans mount.
Mustang piece done and a bracket welded to it for bolting to dash. I wanted to keep the stock style shifter to operate the 4L80E so I cut the shaft after the firewall and welded a bracket to the end then bolted a shaft with Heim ends that ran down to the transmission.
The fun part was making this bracket to mount the column to the firewall. I used a brass bushing and pressed it in for the shifter tube to move in. Also on the floor this is the only mod to the body that I had to do to fit the motor and trans into the truck. I Had to make this little trans hump since the 4l80E is kind of tall. And next to that I reused the 2007 Silverado pedal. It stuck up a little high so I used a heat gun to reshape and bend down.
This picture you can see the shifter arm for the trans. Just ran the steering rod down and added a bearing support to the frame. It was tight but got it to it to the Mustang rack.
Interior done and steering all wrapped up. I mounted a little tach to the left side of the steering column also.
What column are you using and can you share some pictures of your steering linkage? I'm about to that stage on my build and could use some ideas.
I just posted the steering stuff for the truck. If you have any questions about let me know. The stock truck column would have worked also but when I got this truck it had a billet Ididit column in it. Didn't really fit the style I was going for so I sold it and got this one.
Awesome,I have the same redneck mill,and will steal the idea of the catch-all angle iron on one side of the welding table.Great to see guys actually being creative and building stuff on their own and not grabbing it out of a catalog or online store-keep up the good work.
I just posted the steering stuff for the truck. If you have any questions about let me know. The stock truck column would have worked also but when I got this truck it had a billet Ididit column in it. Didn't really fit the style I was going for so I sold it and got this one.
Thanks for the info. The picture of the linkage to the rack is really helpful! My truck was optioned with the 4 on the floor instead of the three on the tree so I have been kicking around the idea of modfying my stock column and using a lokar shifter or going for something like ididit with the column shift. Both lokar and ididit are really expencive...
When I got the truck it just had a piece of plywood thrown in for a bed floor. I could have gone back with a stock wood style floor which looks great when stained and done right. Trying to go utilitarian with this build so opted to put in a steel floor.
The bed is off and ready for some mini tubs and a new floor.
Got lucky and scored this Chevy late model bed for $80 bucks. It was in rough shape but nothing a hammer and dolly beating the hell out of it can't fix.
I am assuming they used this bed to haul cinder blocks around in it had a serious bow to it so had to jig it up to get flat. Had to trim and section 2 of the cross beams to clear some stuff on the 53' frame. Also added in the 1/2" square stock runners down the middle to give it some more support.
Welding the new floor and mini tubs in. I made the tubs flush with the outer frame rails. Probably didn't need them but now fitting a 10" slick will be no problem.
I bought some Duplicolor Bed Armor off of Amazon and sprayed the bottom and top of the bed. Was really easy to use. Also got there gun for applying. Gun is super easy to clean after use. Just be ready when spraying cause it comes out quick!
The hole on the left side was the gas filler flip cover on the side of the stock late model bed. I just cut it out and put it on top of the gas tank filler below the bed. Turned out real clean and works perfect.
Wow. Cool build. Seems like you are making months of progress in days.
The truck is pretty much done now. I started to do this thread awhile back but had issues uploading photos so gave up. Now catching up with it from random photos taken. I am actually in the baby stages of doing another LS swap into a 53 or 54 Belair this time. I got a LQ4 out of a 2002 2500 HD next need to find the car haha.
I have always liked a good old Chrome Reverse wheel. It's the one wheel that could go on almost anything pre 64' and look bad ***. The fender openings in the Thriftmasters are really large so I wanted to go with a 17" wheel. I used Stockton Wheel out of Cali to makes a 17" x 8" 5-4.75" chrome reverse with a 5.25" back spacing. Took about 3 months to get the wheels but was worth the wait they looked awesome!
The next tricky part was finding a whitewall 17" that was tall enough to be a truck tire. I ended up finding out that going with the 17" really limited my tire options and there was like 2 or 3 radial whitewalls offered but cost like over $250 each. So for the alternative I got a set of raised white letter BFG Long Trail T/A Touring tires P225/65R17 for $163 each. Then went to Nick's Tires in Houston and had him cut the whitewalls in for the whole set at $60. This shop has it down and does good work! By the way it's just a strange coincidence a Thriftmaster was out front it was somebody else's.
All said and done saved some cabbage and got a good looking whitewall tire to offset that shiny panty dropper chrome. This picture was taken right after the tires got cut.
Fantastic thread, I'm 64 yr old & my son recently bought '50 model 3100. He wants to install LS & auto trans, we have never attempted anything like this. It's very helpful to find a thread like this & follow along, with envy I might add.
I especially like your column & chrome reverse wheels.
Fantastic thread, I'm 64 yr old & my son recently bought '50 model 3100. He wants to install LS & auto trans, we have never attempted anything like this. It's very helpful to find a thread like this & follow along, with envy I might add.
I especially like your column & chrome reverse wheels.
Thanks and awesome to hear about yall's project! Hope some of this helps and if you run into any weird situations during the build feel free to shoot me over any questions.
Decide to be a cheap *** and use the stock harness that came out of the 2007 Silverado I got my motor from. Here it is in all its 10,000 wires glory.
Lots of wires but ends up making sense had a buddy help me do the 4L60e to 4L80E conversion on the harness. Also used the stock DBW throttle body, injectors, mass air, TAC module, pedal and computer.
Used the stock computer holder out of the Silverado and just trimmed some off the back and drilled mounting holes. The brake booster is under the floor so had an empty spot. Under the computer is where I mounted the TAC module. To the left of the computer I got these power bars from a marine store the big one is batt pwr and the small one is key on pwr. Next to that is a Moroso oil catch can.
The stock location in these truck for the battery is below the floor in the cab. Which sucks if you want carpet and nice interior. This was a cheap but nicely built holder from Speedway. I welded the bolt heads from the backside so easy to remove in the future as with all the stuff on the firewall.
So a million hours later everything wired up, AC installed and front clip back on. Used a Walker radiator made for LS. Costly but here in Texas got to build them to run cool. I mounted all the relays on the driver inner fender. Fan1, Fan2, Ignition, Fuel Pump, Fog Lamps. Never liked the stock truck intake cover so I got a piece of aluminum and went crazy with my hole saws. Center of firewall is a fuel pressure gauge T'd into the fuel line. The air intake I made from an aluminum 90 from Street and Performance and another longer radius 90 got from an online pipe fitting shop. All of the aluminum under the hood I used the old mystery oil and scotch brite pad trick to give it a satin finish. Gives it a whole new feel and not so gold chainy as shiny billet does.
love that bed! nothing i despise more than when people stain the bed wood and chrome the rails. ugh, looks like a friggin bowling alley. i did untreated oak in mine but really I should have done what you did and put steel in since I use the truck for truck stuff.
gonna do expanded steel grate in my turbo truck, haha
11-26-2015, 10:59 PM
Steering 
'53 3100 
