Chassis and drip rail: 1938 Chevrolet Pepsi Truck Custom Build Part 3 This is part three of a series of posts on this highly custom 1938 Chevrolet Truck restoration, in post one we introduce you to the project and the custom features to be fabricated. In post two, we look at the individual truck parts that make up the front end build. In post three, we cover the chassis build and drip rail removal. In post four, we show you the process of metal finishing the fenders. Post five takes us through the panel restoration of the original inner grille housing panel and a custom touch of deleting the cowl vent panel. Post six takes care of the lower cowl metal and left hand front fender. Post seven covers the toe board panel, door lock upgrades, and mainly the upgrades to the inner fender support panel; this panel has to be heavily modified to take the new location of the hood side panels. Post eight looks at how the custom hood was created to open by pulling forward instead of the original butterfly design. Newberry Motors assigned a chassis builder in Ohio to build a custom chassis for this 38 Chevy truck to take a non-original 350 engine, transmission, and rear air bags. It is nicely done and we give credit to the builder. The latter pictures in this set show the removal of the drip rail at the customers request. Although there isn’t an ‘off the shelf’ replacement drip rail available, if needed our shop could have fabricated them. Custom chassis for 38 Chevy truck The chassis. Drip rail removal for custom restoration Original drip rail, you can see some deterioration here. Once removed, you can see what’s under the primer. Work begins on the drip rail to remove the contour. Continuing to remove the contour and fill in the holes. In the process of metal finishing the drip rail area on the truck. You can see how smooth the new contour of the cab is from this angle. All done, now repeat the process for the passenger side of the cab. This is part two of a series of posts on this highly custom 1938 Chevrolet Truck restoration, in post one we introduce you to the project and the custom features to be fabricated. In post two, we look at the individual truck parts that make up the front end build. In post three, we cover the chassis build and drip rail removal. In post four, we show you the process of metal finishing the fenders. Post five takes us through the panel restoration of the original inner grille housing panel and a custom touch of deleting the cowl vent panel. Post six takes care of the lower cowl metal and left hand front fender. Post seven covers the toe board panel, door lock upgrades, and mainly the upgrades to the inner fender support panel; this panel has to be heavily modified to take the new location of the hood side panels. Post eight looks at how the custom hood was created to open by pulling forward instead of the original butterfly design. 8 Responses Restoration of the inner grille panel and custom removal of cowl vent | The Metal Surgeon November 16, 2013 […] look at the individual truck parts that make up the front end build. In post three, we cover the chassis and drip rail. In post four, we show you the process of metal finishing the […] Cowl and front fender repair and restoration on 38 Chevy truck. | The Metal Surgeon November 20, 2013 […] we look at the individual truck parts that make up the front end build. In post three, we cover the chassis and drip rail. In post four, we show you the process of metal finishing the fenders. Post five takes us through […] Custom touches for 38 truck to support hood modification | The Metal Surgeon February 19, 2014 […] we look at the individual truck parts that make up the front end build. In post three, we cover the chassis and drip rail. In post four, we show you the process of metal finishing the fenders. Post five takes us through […] Todd Hirtle March 14, 2017 very nice work, and a very well done post about a repair to a 1938 truck. I have been working on a 1934 Chevrolet 5 window coupe and like some of the nice changes done by you for this truck. I have been making new metal fenders because I do not like fibreglass. This has been a big learning curve for me because I have worked at the carpentry trade for 35 years. It is nice to see this kind of work done and to show it shares that it can in fact be done, after the 34 I hope to be able to fix up a 37 GMC truck I saved from a metal crusher. It is in sad shape but I think with what you have shared here it can rise again. I see in one of the 11 pages you ask for neat ideas and I did not see it used by you in these post, something that I have found and used and very helpful is called a “flexible shape pattern” it works check it out on the internet. Thank You and keep up the nice work it is an art. All the way from Nova Scotia Canada Jon Bingham April 2, 2017 Thanks Todd, sounds like your 43 is coming along. We will look into a flexible shape pattern, definitely sounds handy. We do use a lot of similar tools, but are always looking for more! SoCal Paint Works May 1, 2014 Such an amazing blog you have posted dear i like it and also suggesting it to my friends for visiting your blog because it has really admirable and informative data which provide us through your blog so i would like to thank you for sharing it with us and also appreciate you on this so keep it up. collision repair services in san diego Clive September 28, 2015 Is there some chance I could get the pics for this build. They are not showing up. Especially on these earlier sections. Cheers. Clive valerietms September 28, 2015 Hi Clive, Go to the HAMB build thread here: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1938-chevrolet-pepsi-truck.662041/ We had linked to a lot of pictures from that thread, then the HAMB changed their formatting and the pics no longer work! We are working on fixing it, but it’s a very tedious process. Thanks for reading!
Restoration of the inner grille panel and custom removal of cowl vent | The Metal Surgeon November 16, 2013 […] look at the individual truck parts that make up the front end build. In post three, we cover the chassis and drip rail. In post four, we show you the process of metal finishing the […]
Cowl and front fender repair and restoration on 38 Chevy truck. | The Metal Surgeon November 20, 2013 […] we look at the individual truck parts that make up the front end build. In post three, we cover the chassis and drip rail. In post four, we show you the process of metal finishing the fenders. Post five takes us through […]
Custom touches for 38 truck to support hood modification | The Metal Surgeon February 19, 2014 […] we look at the individual truck parts that make up the front end build. In post three, we cover the chassis and drip rail. In post four, we show you the process of metal finishing the fenders. Post five takes us through […]
Todd Hirtle March 14, 2017 very nice work, and a very well done post about a repair to a 1938 truck. I have been working on a 1934 Chevrolet 5 window coupe and like some of the nice changes done by you for this truck. I have been making new metal fenders because I do not like fibreglass. This has been a big learning curve for me because I have worked at the carpentry trade for 35 years. It is nice to see this kind of work done and to show it shares that it can in fact be done, after the 34 I hope to be able to fix up a 37 GMC truck I saved from a metal crusher. It is in sad shape but I think with what you have shared here it can rise again. I see in one of the 11 pages you ask for neat ideas and I did not see it used by you in these post, something that I have found and used and very helpful is called a “flexible shape pattern” it works check it out on the internet. Thank You and keep up the nice work it is an art. All the way from Nova Scotia Canada
Jon Bingham April 2, 2017 Thanks Todd, sounds like your 43 is coming along. We will look into a flexible shape pattern, definitely sounds handy. We do use a lot of similar tools, but are always looking for more!
SoCal Paint Works May 1, 2014 Such an amazing blog you have posted dear i like it and also suggesting it to my friends for visiting your blog because it has really admirable and informative data which provide us through your blog so i would like to thank you for sharing it with us and also appreciate you on this so keep it up. collision repair services in san diego
Clive September 28, 2015 Is there some chance I could get the pics for this build. They are not showing up. Especially on these earlier sections. Cheers. Clive
valerietms September 28, 2015 Hi Clive, Go to the HAMB build thread here: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1938-chevrolet-pepsi-truck.662041/ We had linked to a lot of pictures from that thread, then the HAMB changed their formatting and the pics no longer work! We are working on fixing it, but it’s a very tedious process. Thanks for reading!
