Project PT-57, 1957 Truck, Built By Hot Rod Jim's

[ironworks]

I like the design in the grille with the horizontal and vertical lines.

If you get it done, we can race, for the fastest truck on LAT-G with vette suspension.

[Kendall Burleson]

He telling the truth about not see the F-bomb 73 camaro the what I thought went I saw the art work but this is a fifty seven truck(pickup) I love it.Rodger I have a c-note says he will out run you loaded with a trailer hook up.IT a shop truck

[Hdesign]

Rodger-one of the first things I thought of when Russell told me it was a 57 is that I wanted to get rid of those vertical connectors to the inner grill. Then we got the idea to turn it into a set of cross hairs. (one on each side)

[rat_rod_russell]

Originally Posted by ironworks

I like the design in the grille with the horizontal and vertical lines.

If you get it done, we can race, for the fastest truck on LAT-G with vette suspension.

Maybe if I get that stroker in mine or if we get to race on my home track . I've seen your C5 truck and it looks killer, I know I can't hold a candle to you on the track... right now

But I like Kendall's Idea too, we can go bumper to bumper and play that would be fun, eat a set of tires but still a blast.

Originally Posted by Hdesign

Rodger-one of the first things I thought of when Russell told me it was a 57 is that I wanted to get rid of those vertical connectors to the inner grill. Then we got the idea to turn it into a set of cross hairs. (one on each side)

Ben's idea entirely same with the design of the door logo,the speed holes in the visor and the GMC front bumper. His flow of the plate lines and rivets on the truck is perfect too. Saved me a bunch of time

Thanks
-Russell

[ironworks]

Originally Posted by rat_rod_russell

Ben's idea entirely same with the design of the door logo,the speed holes in the visor and the GMC front bumper. His flow of the plate lines and rivets on the truck is perfect too. Saved me a bunch of time

Thanks
-Russell

Yeah that Ben guy is pretty slick with all his new fangled Iders...He should draw pitures for a livin or somethin.......

Warning this post requires translation, I do not type this bad, Just pretend your Paul Sr.....

[rat_rod_russell]

Update Time
Jim’s been back in the shop more and Billy was told by the doctor if your back hurts then don’t lift that. I swear that kid’s healing rate is ridiculous, breaks 3 vertebra and losses 1” to his height. 5 months later he’s back at his weights and working 7 days with me in the shop, just wow.

Onto the truck, the Grill is going together nicely, we’ve taken out all the teeth, welded up the seams and slicked them off with marine tex. We’ve welded in holders on the back so we can start shaping the cross hare supports for the front.



Jim’s been shaping some exhaust tubing for our hood “Exhaust” These will be our heat ducts for the engine compartment and look like the old plane exhausts.



We’ve found the mother lode of body gods, Terry is in his late 50 and has been doing body work since he was 14. He’s been kind enough to take time out (and escape from his wife) to teach Billy and I tricks to body work. But despite being an old guy he’s up on the latest body world technology too. Front fenders are done and un warped thanks to Terry’s welding tricks. I’ve also rented him a space in the back of the shop where he can do other projects for guys he knows. We’ve also been getting a lesson on how much uni-body suck but that’s another story.



Exhaust Question’s
He’s the dilemma, the car will have LQ4 6.0 with a cam (274/274 .556 lift and 112+4 LSA) Long tube headers, 2.5” stainless mandrel bent tubing, TIG’d together, with a X pipe. There will be the turn outs in front of the X on a remote for “fun time” but my problem is what kind of song to I want the tail pipes to sing. I heard a ZR1 the other day with Borla mufflers and it sounded rowdy and all kinds of evil but at the same time I keep thinking go with the flow master 50 series. Their more reserved with a rumble of “I’m not stock” to them. I’ve got a set of both right now, Borla for a C5 race car I’m specing out and some Flow Master 50’s going on a 57 hardtop I’m doing too. What are the preferences of our members and why.



Click Images to enlarge

Thanks
Russell Alexander
Hot Rod Jim's

[rat_rod_russell]

Thanks for all the positive feedback. We’ve been rat killing down here and upgrading the shop. New toys and some reorganization move the welding table and getting some of the old Jigs out of the way. We’ve also been researching several parts and dealers.
New Band Saw



The Big News is that we will be going to SEMA this year and the truck with us. Part 2 we’ve also been invited to the Optima Batter Street Car Invitational’s with the PT-57. That presents a bit of a problem. See, I’m competitive by nature so the original plan of a good driving trailer pulling truck is going to need some modification to make the truck capable of running with the toys going out there. So we’re permanently halting the Meteor Project (Dad’s 57 Hardtop) and sacking some of its goodies for the Truck project. The LS7 we had for sale if you missed it. We’re going to be upgrading to a TKO600 or Magnum T56. LQ4 is going to transform into a 408 Stroker and several other upgrades to the chassis and suspension.

Cough cough, carbon fiber half shafts and drive shafts, cough cough.

As for the truck we’ve just about gotten the dash sorted out and hood vents are starting to come together. We’re building a new Jig table to make this project even easier and better so stay tuned.

The Hood Vents (Sorry but my good camera was gone so I took these on my Phone)



The Dash



Thanks
Russell
Hot Rod Jim’s

[syborg tt]

This truck is going to look way cool.

I really like the color scheme and I can't wait to see it at Sema.

[rat_rod_russell]

Originally Posted by syborg tt

This truck is going to look way cool.

I really like the color scheme and I can't wait to see it at Sema.

That makes two of us, LOL.

We have the new table finished. I spend 3 days tweaking and heat shrinking to make sure the welding from attaching the legs made the table square and level. Plus this metal is not that great from the factory so compensating for that as well. Got the cab up today the bead will be up on the table tomorrow with the rear fender and the big wheels.

Big change, after tweaking and playing with the C4 bits and pieces plus I started looking at widening the rear end to get some better wheel scrub radius. I was going to need 4” wider rear and the C4 hubs still have almost no scrub angle. From what I can tell it’s .25 degrees maybe, I almost thing there was something under the caliper at one point. Plus the brakes and on and on I’ve decided to just run the C5/6 goodies. I had 3-4 complete suspensions out back, I need to test the C5/c6 differential adapter we’ve built and it’ll be a whole lot easier to set up right. Pfadt sway bars only need to be shortened a little and bow-chick-a-bow-wow we’ve got fun. You can see the Solidworks drawings, this makes life so much easier.

As you can see a lot of the simplicity originally planned went out the window with our SEMA invite, oh well.

Potential project changes, TKO600 or T56 Magnum, Stroke out the LQ4 and a bump to the compression. Carbon fiber goodies here and there to include a carbon fiber driveshaft for reduced rotating mass.

I’d also like to thank Air Ride Technologies for sponsoring by upgrading our Shockwaves to the I.S. Internal Ride Height Sensors. One less thing to mount, more accurate, and lighter once you consider all the pushrods nuts and bolts used to prevent binding on the old ones. I’ll get some photos up when I get them back.

Solid Works Updates







PT-57 one the New Jig





-Russell