This is the next project for the Support/ recovery campaign.

1955 Chevrolet pick up 3100 step side. AKA: Task Force and Second Series.
U.S. Navy home movies from the 1950's


Box art from the kits that will be used to build this pick up truck


Starting with the chassis




The iSheets indicate location for these exhaust parts, but there are no holes for the pins.
I had to drill hole at 1/16" through the top side of the chassis frame part.







I cut and sanded the peg near the tail pipe end for more realism. Also drilled out the tail pipe end

Looking great!!! Gonna be a sweet project!!

I think it is kind of interesting that they didn't have the holes already there. I mean what if you don't have the means to drill a hole?? It is still only a Skill level 2...

Makes you wonder how they think sometimes...

Yup, true. It looks like the tooling made holes on the top instead of the bottom where they are needed. So I just used the holes that were there to register where the hole should be on the bottom. Did that make sense?

Looking good so far!

Jim

I'll be following you here KSO, I have a '50 Chev Stepside that I will be building this year.

Cheers, D

One comment, if used in the military service, this truck should probably have the straight six in it, not the V-8.
Norm Samuelson

Thanks for checkin' in guys!

NormSon, Oh OK good info thanks! Beyond what I can see in the few pictures that I have, I don't know much else about it.
I might need to get the engine out of the 1950 kit and modify it.

AussieReg - I'm also building that 1950 kit. It's on the side of the bench right now though...

The interior cab sub assembly build is next.
The door handle control detail tooling are bogus to say the least.







I made new handle parts from bits and stuff from an old cassette player and a disposable lighter for both driver and passenger sides.







also seat cover detail made with tube putty filler material:

Nice job on the scratchbuilt window cranks and door handles KPO! And NormSon is correct about the inline 6 engine, it's not very likely there would have been a V8 in a military truck like that. They would typically be a "stovebolt" 6 with a 3 on the tree, which means a 3 speed manual transmission with the shift lever on the steering column rather than on the floor.

Thanks for the compliment and detailed info about the transmission style.

I was this close [making pinch gesture with my hand] to glueing in the floor shifter from the "Street Machine" kit. I saw the hole in the floor part so I thought I would. Now I wont.

The kit part for the steering column has one lever that branches off to the right. Is that accurate enough for the transmission you describe?

Yes, it should look like this:


This is from a Cameo, similar to the one depicted on the second/lower model kit box you posted.

This is a 1956 3500, which is a heavier duty version of the truck you are building that has a longer bed. It has the same engine and transmission setup that the truck you are building would have:
1956 Chevrolet 3500 on ebay

Sorry for the small pictures, it's hard to find any of that setup as it's not a very desirable combination for most people. Usually the transmission shifter is converted to a floor mount shifter, and often the inline 6 engine is swapped out for a V8.

Thanks again for the info. The pictures are fine. I'll fill the hole in the floor this weekend

progress continues . . .

Painted the chassis flat black for now and cleaned up the flash on all the AMT/ERTL kit parts for assembly of the bed and step side fender parts

I'm jumping around with the sub assemblies

Careful and extensive online research, I found pictures of what the shifter base plate and auto-tranny cover plate looks like.
Then I realized that I'm going to install a floor mat so the hole and any scratch built plate parts will not be seen anyway . . .



shifter cover photos:
floor shift transmission
automatic transmission



I'll probably use this piece of styrene or textured paper.



I also realized this 'unseen' fact regarding the gas tank part as well.

The rear turn signals needed to be built and installed.
These were made with the parts from the this AMT Dodge pickup kit parts 65.




They are the correct diameter so I used them.

Digging them out of the kit box I notice that they are bad bad, terribly tooled parts.






Reshaping with putty was did done


Clear lens parts from the spares box were sanded down to an appropriate thickness


The bracket was an electronics component. The lens looks weird in this picture because they are tacked in place with tac-putty temporarily


Bolt details were made by slicing hex rod then gluing them in place next to the tailgate hinge on both sides



This pickup is a small rear window cab version. Work will continue on this . . .

thanks for looking . . .

Progress continues with the rear window. I found a picture online that was directly behind the cab. After resizing the image it was printed to scale. From this I can cut out the shape and use this for a template, as pictured in the above previous post.

I didn't take measurements from a 1/1 pickup truck to scale from. I'm working this one visually which is the way I usually build models. If it looks right then it is, usually


the window part has a weatherstrip detail along the edge around this part that has a thickness beyond the glass


I needed to uniformly fill the 'glass window' area inside the weatherstrip bead with material cut to the correct shape. I don't know the thickness of this material, I just placed them against each other and ran my thumb over it. It felt smooth and flush so I used it.
To get the exact shape right, I burnished a piece of paper over the detail shape of the window part


Then this was penciled in for better clarity. This was then cut out with scissors and transferred to the styrene (for sale) sheet. Then the styrene material was cut out to the proper shape


This was then shaped over a steel block for better conformity


Crazy clampidge while the glue set was deployed




After glue set, automotive product Body Filler was used to fill the gaps around the 'glass window' part that this kit is famous for

The rear window body work is finished with only the window weather stripping to install.
What type and shape of material would you recommend?




under a coat of primer

The chain fit nicely to support the tailgate




I found the chain in a craft store in the bead jewelry department.

For the weather stripping around the rear window I'm going to try this with the styrene rod method.


I'm forming the rod by bending it by hand. Then Crazy Glue (CA) in place as I go along

This material works, finally done with this part



A sharpened pencil tip was used to shape and hold each radius because of the variable corners and the porous wood material broke free easily from the CA where it touched

The lower piece at the bottom of the cab cracked free during this over handing but that's cool, it's fixable

Lovely work KSO, and thanks for detailing your progress so well for us !

Cheers, D

Cool, no prob... and Thanks man!

While I'm trying to figure out the front windshield and it's bogus fitting glass part. ...

I finished the seat back detail to match the seat bottom seam part.
Sprue was stretched to the same diameter and then glued, trimmed and sanded in place

Wow you're really going to town on the build KO! It's coming together very nicely, and I really like how your resized rear window area turned out

Thanks for the comment. I want to make it look good and as accurate as I can. The rear window mod wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I'm happy it's over

The front windshield fit is killing me right now. I haven't solved this yet but I'm working on it.



glass part on the sprue


the fit of the stock window part

As you can see, AMT let us down with the fit of the windshield. It's not new information though. Everyone who's built their line of '55 pick ups know this but know one has made any after market glass to solve this

Looks good so far my friend...Good luck...

Cool, Thanks for looking in