Well......DBasher talked me off the ledge today and I am officially signed up for T Hill optima event. I am nervous.

I picked up a pile of exhaust stuff tonight, 3" stainless mandrel bends, a couple flanges that worked perfect, some stainless v band clamps and a muffler is on order.

Wish me luck.

sean

:clap:

Now all you've got to do is get it done, tuned and tested....no problem!
I guarantee you'll have fun, these events are well ran and everyone involved is willing to help out.

:thumbsup:

That black truck is pretty cool, in an ugly duckling sort of way. :)

Loved the first truck you built - this one is even better! Stealing several ideas for my own 1970 F100 that's getting rust repair at Ironworks.

Probably a moot point at this time but do you still have the old front beam suspension?

That is awesome about the 70. Ironworks does some killer work.

I ditched the stock beam stuff from two trucks now. I did not know that people were still using it???

Very slow week for work on the truck as a matter of fact its been exhausting.

Picked up a bunch of stainless 3" tubing 3" stainless mandrel u bends, v bands and some 3" 2 bolt gaskets from columbia river mandrel earlier this week as I kind of need the exhaust done before I can continue on and get it on the ground.

Ordered a muffler but it did not fit so had to order another muffler, single in and out this time instead of dual in and single out.

Magnaflow 3" all stainless, I think its going to be really loud.

Managed to get the header flange over the crossmember and back to the V Bands done, then from the V bands around the transmission, built the y connector from scratch and got that all tied in together last night. Its hard building exhaust on the floor and trying to build it all neat and tight with very very small gaps.

I spent a long time getting these just right.



http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psr3m45jml.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psk6wy16po.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pstaxiurne.jpg

Fit up is about perfect, there is no gap all the way around it.



http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps35t7di5u.jpg

Here is what it looks like under the truck. Sorry for the crappy cluttered photo. I really hope to have the exhaust all mocked up tomorrow and pull it out. I need to figure out if I am going to try and take it to a friends house to tig weld or just use the stainless wire that I have in my machine and get it done. His welds are masterful to say the least.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps288djk9i.jpg

Also need to get some 3/8" round stainless for the hangers.

Headed to pick the wife's new car up tonight so no shop time.....happy wife though =)

Sean

Sean your attention to detail and fab skills are impressive, for what appears to be a beater this thing is turning out to be pretty wicked! Looking forward to looking it over and hanging at T-hill....Service manager or fab shop foreman?

Is the Volvo gone and outta the picture?

Thank you sir.....the whole plan for the truck is to fly under the radar. I think the finished interior and the stance might give a little bit of that away. Should be fun though.

Service Manager......Owner =)

Volvo is gone, It went to a new home in Florida. I needed the garage space and am only going to get with practice so I keep building new cars so I build drive, enjoy and sell :confused59:

Managed to get a little bit of work done on the exhaust this morning. Finished the rear part and got the exit figured out. It took me a few times to get it but it turned out good. I am pretty happy with the final results.

Got the hangers all bolted in as well and welded up the hangers to the exhaust. It was ready at that point to come out and get welded. I asked my buddy if he would weld it up, it just looked too cool to not tig weld it.

I pulled out everything and gave it to Robbie to get welded up.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0zetimtv.jpg

Only pic I snapped of it.

After the week of exhaust work, the garage was in desperate need of some clean up. A couple hours later I was ready to get some more work done. I got the overflow tank tucked away under the air filter.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps52qfqnom.jpg

There was no great way to take a photo of i so this is what you get to see. I had to put a spacer on the front of it to make up the space. I am not happy with it but it will need to work for now, running out of time.

With that done, I could clean up the frontend a little and get the grille and upper sail panel mounted up, well at least its kind of on there. Upper bolts are in and its pretty well aligned. I ran out of hardware.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7jfeestk.jpg

Hope that my buddy gets the exhaust all welded up tomorrow so I can get this thing wrapped up and back on the ground.

Sean

I picked up these lights a while back and was excited to get them in the truck. I have run them on several other cars and they are awesome. Replaceable H4 bulbs and excellent beam pattern.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pscazdgvcc.jpg

Spent a little bit of time cleaning up the bezels, they still look like ass, but less dirty and cloudy now.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1agqrtja.jpg

Went to put the bumper on and things up front might not be perfect. It took a little work with the porta power to push out the frame horn to get things to bolt together but I got it. I have a little more work to do to get things straight and square but pretty sure I can get it there.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psrma7o1kh.jpg

And hot damn look at that, I have a frontend of an actual truck, It actually looks pretty good. I feel like you can tell even from the outside that there is more than just an old farm truck here.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pszfawz1y7.jpg

Made the trek out to the other side of town and picked up the exhaust from my buddy. He had a few issues with the 409, but ended up looking good. Its a much cleaner process than mig welding.....I need to get a tig and learn how to run it.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psxoitkqwx.jpg

Exhaust all welded up and ready to go on..

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psty0jmi2f.jpg

All bolted in

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psmkmaaoww.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pszbphwus3.jpg

So.....Exhaust is done and all bolted on, v bands, gaskets at the collector flanges, done. Little bit of copper high temp on the v bands to make sure it doesnt leak after the welding

Here is where the side exit comes out, I think it looks pretty cool and flows with the wheelwell opening and the side of the truck

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psp2ehiygr.jpg

I had my wife put a couple of blocks of wood under the bed when I lifted up on it so I could make some clearance for the shock bolt so it was removable without pulling the bed. Also ran the fuel vent line with a -6 line up into the bedside behind the tailight and ran a small air filter on the line. No pics though.

Also cleaned up all the bed bolts and got those all installed and nuts on the bottom and tightened up.

Got the bolts under the truck and the rearend tightened up and went from rear to front with a pair of wrenches. Got all the loose stuff tightened up. Ran the drivers side wires in P clips for the front harness up and got things tidied up. Got the Wheels bolted back on and set it back on the ground. That felt damn good.

Fired it up and drove the bitch out the garage!!!!!! That is right, I drove it out of the garage, clutch feels excellent, brakes feel like ass but stop the truck, this is as far as I drove it, then pulled it back it. Sounds awesome.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fMN1sVHpSN0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

https://youtu.be/fMN1sVHpSN0

Pretty happy to see it looking whole and on the ground for the first time...

The very, very unsuspecting back end.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psqhctut1o.jpg

Sean

Awesome build, thanks for sharing. I'm looking forward to seeing more as you head towards completion.

Looking good!

Let's go back a bit to the front end....anything learned from the other truck on the CV suspension or brakes that you're doing different? I didn't see anything mentioned on donor mustang brakes so I'm assuming you're happy with the other build.

:popcorn2: