It has been a great weekend for parts! While at the Columbus Goodguys show, we visited the Ring Brothers! They make a nice product! Check it!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-57-26_270.jpg

All we bought was a set of hinges and Jim and Mike both spent a half hour talking with us. That may not seem like much, but they were in the middle of winning SMOY as well. They are top notch for sure! :thumbsup:

To augment the Gearstar trans. we hooked up with Steve at Twist Machine and got one of his Shrifter Paddle Shifters and Muscle Drive Torque converters. He is also going to handle the programming of the Compu-Shift. A manual trans wasn't an option for us, but this deal should still be hot!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-54-14_903.jpg

Don't you just love new parts? :woot:

Beautiful stuff ! It's like Christmas in July !!

Jim

Huge Disappointment!!!!
 

Well, what was supposed to be a cool milestone in the project has turned into one of the biggest disappointments. It is time to move on to the fabrication of the front end of the truck. Mount the Rad, coolers, make close out panels etc, etc... So we un-box all the new Tri-Plus panels and bolt it on. Everything was fitting OK (As far as repop stuff goes) until we got to the hood. It is a brand new 2" Cowl Induction hood from Tri-Plus. It is JUNK! Completely the wrong contour on the leading edge. We are contacting the vendor today (not from this site) to see if he will help out. The problem is we bought it over 2 years ago. This is the first time it's been out of the box other than opening the flap when we picked it up to make sure there was no shipping damage. Needless to say, we are dejected. I don't mind cutting and slicing, but this would be rebuilding 1/4 of the hood. Anyone had any better luck with another brand hood! Any help or advice is greatly appreciated! I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...1-26-57_95.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-24-15_999.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-53-30_790.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...1-24-50_19.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-53-37_805.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-53-49_459.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-24-34_996.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-24-26_303.jpg

Bummer Chad!!:mad: :mad: Truck is looking good though!! Keep us posted on the hood issue.

Nothing a cut off wheel and some TIG won't fix....

Just sayin' --- thas hot roddin' man....

That's what happens when you buy kit cars/trucks!


--Eric

I'm going to try some other options first, I think! :willy:

Oh, you're a laugh riot! :yes:

So while we ponder the hood puzzle, we decided to move on to getting the radiator mounted so that we can mount the rad support and leave it there for a while. As we started looking and measuring the REPRODUCTION rad support, you guessed it, things just don't fit. The vertical rails that the rad lays against were different heights. Out comes the body saw and off they come. Bend up some new ones and here yah go!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...0-09-45_49.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-09-29_245.jpg

The factory lower saddles are too narrow for the new PRC dual pass LS radiator. Off they came and I fabbed up these new saddles and installed them on the rad support.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-29-18_745.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-39-45_584.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-39-52_622.jpg

These saddles and the new vertical rails will be lined with shore 50 rubber so we use paint sticks to get the fits.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-40-01_354.jpg

Here is the rad sitting in the new mounts.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...21-52-06_9.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-51-32_431.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-57-51_414.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-58-00_275.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-51-53_548.jpg

So, the next trip to the shop will be devoted to making the upper retainers. I'm trying to decide between steel and aluminum. They will be covered in the end so we will see.

Thanks for looking!

Update!
 

All the mounts are now complete for the rad. It seems I forgot to take pics of the upper mounts. I will fix that this week. We added some lower tabs to retain the rad laterally. All this will be lined with rubber to protect the aluminum rad.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-01-03_747.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-00-48_579.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-00-40_523.jpg

:lateral:

Update!
 

We are in the process of getting a new hood for the truck. After talking with several shops that have used these aftermarket cowl induction hoods, they all say none fit right but ours is terrible compared to those. The next one we get is going to be checked on a truck before we get it.

While this is going on we decided to move back to the bed and take care of something that has bothered us for a while. When we modified the factory REPRODUCTION wheel tubs to widen them, we noticed that the vertical flat side of the tubs were significantly distorted from the stamping process. At first we were going to leave it, but things are turning out too nice to do that. So here is what we started with:

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...0-20-30_45.jpg

Those shims are just over 1/8" each. First we tried to shrink the center of the panel with heat to lift it. FAIL Then we tried a shrinking hammer and dolly. FAIL Then out came the cutoff wheel! No turning back now!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...21-41-17_4.jpg

As soon as I made those cuts the pie shapes sprung out 3/8". After quite a bit of hammer and dolly work, I clamped it all down and started to weld it back together.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-59-01_915.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-45-53_997.jpg

After quite a bit of grinding and more hammer and dolly work with some heat shrinking thrown in we now have tub sides that can be easily body worked with minimal filler. I gotta say this was a first for me. Flat panels are definitely a challenge to weld and keep flat. All in all I am pleased and best of all my Dad (The Owner) is very happy!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-36-50_713.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-37-14_858.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...-41-26_883.jpg

Now time to go enjoy a Labor Day Picnic with the family!