Installing new Parts up Front From LMC Truck
Since the initial body swap that landed our 1953 Chevy pickup body on an already airbagged 1994 S-10 chassis, we have been spending our free time crossing things off our long list of individual jobs that will get our classic closer to rolling down the road. Last issue we showed you how we installed a wood bed floor, but we did it at a raised elevation to clear our S-10 chassis’ step notch. This month we’re moving up front where we’re installing new bumper brackets, chrome bumper, filler, grille assembly, headlight buckets, headlights and headlight trim rings.
If you’ve been following this build, you’ll probably notice the addition of an engine and transmission in between the frame rails since the last time you’ve seen the truck. Well, the engine is a 1993 Chevy 350 that we horse-traded some parts for, and the transmission is a 4L60E that we pulled out of another project. The engine was actually installed using a set of motor mounts from Trans Dapt as well as a set of Hedman headers that were both slated to be put in a V-8 in an S-10. But here’s the trick, we installed them upside-down and swapped them side to side to push the engine back instead of moving it forward. Honestly, we weren’t sure it was going to work, so that’s why we didn’t show it. The good news is that it did.
With the engine and transmission mounted, it was time to bolt the front fenders back on and install the new front-end parts from LMC Truck. The installation of the new parts onto the almost 60-year-old front sheet metal took some patience; after all, old sheet metal tends not to be straight and is pretty much set in its ways. So just remember to be patient and don’t be scared to break out the hammer and dolly set to realign old (read: bent) fenders, inner fenders, radiator supports or anything else that has seen better days. As you can tell by the photos, using a little patience when installing the shiny new parts goes a long way.
Source
LMC TRUCK
Dept. STTR
15450 W. 108th St.
Lenexa, KS 66219
800.562.8782
LMCtruck.com (http://www NULL.lmctruck NULL.com)
-
- Before
-
- After
-
- Here’s what we started with. We had just bolted in the engine and transmission, and as you can see, we had already loosely fit the bumper brackets.
-
- The Advanced Design Engineering front bumper brackets actually came with our body swap kit, but until now we didn’t have a front bumper to put on the truck.
-
- Just because we’re lazy, we pulled the front sheet metal off the truck as a doghouse, which includes left and right fenders, inner fenders and radiator support. It is heavy and awkward to handle, but when you have a couple of friends to help you, the job goes much faster.
-
- The grille assembly we got with some of the body parts had seen better days. A lot of the bars were bent, a few were torn, and the bottom of the inner structure was really thin due to rust. It would have taken more money to fix what we had than to order a new one from LMC Truck.
-
- Setting the old one next to the new one from LMC Truck, you can easily see how bent and rusty our old assembly is. It’s no wonder the guy threw it in with the doors and hood.
-
- The assembly we ordered from LMC Truck has chrome grille bars and the inner structure has been painted cream.
-
- There are three holes in the inner fender and the fender that correspond with the three holes in the sides of the grille assembly; those are the main mounting points. There are several more that mount the top bar to the fenders, but you’re better off getting these six in before you install the other bolts.
-
- It took a little adjusting of the mounting points on the fenders to get the grille installed properly, but now it simply unbolts and bolts back into place easily without having to fight any of the mounting holes to get them realigned.
-
- On to fill the headlight holes!
-
- In order to do that, we ordered two prewired headlight buckets, H-4-style Euro headlights and stainless trim rings.
-
- The first order of business is to find the bottom of the headlight buckets. We just located the tab to mount the trim ring and that is the bottom.
-
- Each installation starts by putting the headlight buckets into the holes of the fenders.
-
- The buckets are attached to the fenders with #10 sheet metal screws.
-
- Since the headlight buckets come prewired for the headlights, we can simply plug in the new H4-style headlights.
-
- Then we attach the ring that holds the headlight to the bucket with the three screws that are provided with it.
-
- We line up the springs inside the trim ring, and then secure it with a #12 stainless trim screw on the bottom.
-
- With the addition of the grille and the headlights, our project is starting to look like a truck.
-
- The next items to be bolted up are the bumper and the filler panel with a set of chrome bumper bolts, all of which are available from LMC Truck.
-
- It starts with the filler panel that is simply set between the bottom bar of the grille and the mounting tabs go on the inside of the bumper brackets.
-
- The bumper is then mounted up to the bumper brackets with the LMC bumper bolts. They are all installed finger-tight at first to allow for the bumper to be wiggled around to align all of the holes in the bumper and the filler with the bumper brackets.
-
- After all of the bolts are installed and the bumper is level, the bolts can be tightened up snug.
-
- With the grille, headlights, filler panel and bumper installed, our project ’53 is starting to take shape.
Tags: Classic Chevy, custom trucks, LMC Truck, Street Trucks
