Back to the Fifties

[jerry56]

I've wanted to do one of the 56 Tonka trucks for a while, I found some reproduction cabs on "Gasoline Alley" so I decided to get it built. I started this earlier in the year but house and yard and stuff got in the way.... it took me longer than I planned.
Any way as usual it starts with some frame rails, I use aluminum "C" channel from Lowes or Home Depot 1/2x3/8 sometimes called plywood edging.

I trim it down to about 11/32 or about there....it just makes it easier to work with when your bolting stuff to it.

Then I lay out the location of my WPL axles so I can get the wheel base that looks right to me

I wish I could get the body lower on the wheels but they are a little bigger than the Tonka wheels and if I go any lower then the bed will hit the duals when I set it on so... this is the ride height I'll go with


Just doing some test fitting...



The cabs are close to the originals but one obvious difference is the nose angles back a lot farther on these...not a big deal just wanted to mention it...
The biggest problem is the metal wrinkles up just forward of the doors on both sides and a little on the front edge of the hood and a little in the fenders... so to get a smooth finish it took almost 5 hours of metal work with a pick hammer and a file to get it all smooth, it's still not perfect but it's close...
This week I'll get my axles and drive train mounted.