What's up at Ironworks Speed & Kustom.
 

I try to send out a newsletter to the all the customers and vendors we work with on a regular basis to show the progress of some of our build on a somewhat regular basis. But A good portion of our work may not fall under our the umbrella of "Pro-touring", But I have gained alot of great friend through this website and thought a updated thread about different project we are working in our shop large or small might be of interest. We do a lot of different work beyond the Chevy Muscle cars that seem to fill a majority of our shop space.

So here we go. A local Customer that I met a small local show just about a year ago that owns a large engineering firm down the street from me started talking to us about building a 1947-54 chevy truck. I informed him that one of my magazine editor buddies had an older chassis with all the suspension and such set up was for sale for a really good deal. Well after purchasing the chassis, he went to a local truck auction that was selling 47-54 chevy truck stuff. This is the really ironic part, He bought 2 cabs, 2 hoods, 6 doors and 1 set of inner fenders. He had some bed sides and a few other NOS or really solid truck parts in storage already. So this is what we started with.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010079.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010080.jpg

Well after some time of discussion we decide to chop the top 1.5", section the cab 1.75" and lengthen the cab 3". We had big plans. So after some major planning, some precise lay out and cutting and some retacking of all the parts back into position. This is what we had.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010036.jpg
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Well if you remember back to the beginning of the story my customer bought a big pile of parts at an auction. Well a little ways into the build we realized he bought some ton and half stuff. Now the ton and half trucks we found out have longer hoods, which we thought might help us have less welding when we would have to section the hood to fit the cab buy joining the stock half ton hood to the ton and a half on top. Well yesterday we started layout the hood on the mocked up front sheetmetal to start the surgery and realized the ton and a half hood maybe longer but it is also sectioned 1.75" from the factory....... It fits like a glove. It is just a bit to long, but it fits like we wished we could have planned. Just dumb luck. Here is pic of the stock hood next to the sectioned hood.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010075.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010074.jpg
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Like Hannibal Smith from the A Team says, " I love it when a plan comes togther".

I can't wait to see how this one turns out. :thumbsup:

That hood looks way better!

Well we also started on a 1955 for a another local guy. We wants just a bad ass black cruizer 1955 chevy with a big horsepower Big Block. We put Prototype #1 of our tri five chassis's under the the car and and have begun mock up. We have to do floors and trunk. We will be mini tubing the rear to run 335/30/20's and have 275/35/19's on the front. The car will sit about 4.5" to the bottom of the frame. We are looking at possibly debuting this at SEMA this year. Carter Hickman did a nice quick rendering for us on the direction we are looking at.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...evy/round2.jpg
The as it came in on a Thursday
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010150.jpg
Monday afternoon we had the body in the main shop ready for the chassis
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010052.jpg
Tuesday Morning we are setting the big Block in the chassis
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010059.jpg
Enter the 540
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010065.jpg
Prototype #1 of the chassis
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010030.jpg

Eric's 62 Finds a new Home..... On the ground
 

Well We finally got Eric's car to the point we could pull the body off the table and set it on the ground. It does not have the control arms back from him yet as he is digitizing the mock up arms we made. But man it looks good on the ground. The very tall camara man makes it look even lower.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010072.jpg
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This Nova may not seem normal for us considering what we have done to a few other Novas. But Man is this thing cool.

66 nova, Blown Hemi with tons of real magnesium parts from EBAY. Altered wheelbase, straight axle in the front, Olds rear end. We built the chassis in just a few days. That Miter cut stuff is pretty easy. The customer wanted us to set up the big important stuff and he would take it home and bring it back when he needed help with things. We have worked on 2 other gassers for this guy in the past. They are on our website somewhere.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2009078.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010068.jpg

Love the work you guys do. Nice variety (it's the spice of life).

Good people doing good work
 

Rodger; Keep up the great work.Having a guy like you in the hobby is great for us all.You inspire some of us. And having a good rep. lets customers w/ money to spend know not every shop owner is just out to make a quick buck. Scott.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :hail:

Nice man....I need to get over to your shop one of these days.

Nice work Rodger. It's good to see some different types of builds. I really like the gasser and also the direction you are going with the truck. The mods to the cab have made a HUGE difference in how it looks.

Whatever happened to that C6 camaro? That was shaping up to be a real Bad ass car :bow:

It is still shaping up to be a Bad ass car. We are keeping a it under wraps for a little while. We don't want to give away all the secrets just yet.

Love the Nova Rodger...:)

Great looking stuff. The best compliment I can pay you is that even though the 'vert Nova has a ton of body mods, it is done so well, that it could have been the way Chevy built it from the factory. Subtle but radical.

Thanks
 

Rodger

Glad you posted pics of the "other" projects.. I would bet most of us would like to see continued updates on the truck and 55 . I dont care if its P-T or not. Love to see metal fab.:thumbsup:
Glad you guys are busy and thought to share the really cool builds with us.
Now keep shootin and posting so we can see the dreams come alive.

Tom

Whats up with the Chevelle wagon next to Richs Camaro?

Thanks guys. The wagon is getting a new chassis to fix the very very poor work that was done at another shop. When the customer drove the car up here from LA with the 572, the frame was broke in 5 places. The customer was completely unaware of the fact when he drove it up here. I will be posting more info on that build very soon.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I agree with Tom. I would love to see updates on the 55 and the truck too, as well as others in the shop. The fab work is amazing on everything you guys do there. :cheers:

How about the 61 bubbletop?

It's on the website. We are only doing the interior and under hood sheetmetal.

Looks like you guys are busy!! That's great, you guys do some very killer work and bring some bad ass idea's to the table:thumbsup:

I was just looking at the web site, the interior on the '61 Impala looks really cool!

Very cool update Rodger. Looks like business is doing well for you guys, which is great.:yes:
More shops should do what you do and showcase their talents/builds, they may even make gain new clientele/business out of it.
Keep us posted buddy!:thumbsup:

I'd love to see more pics of that Pickup. The trucks built in the 50's have a lot of potential to be some really sweet rides. I've had plans to do a '55 F100 with a modern drivetrain and suspension, but I have other projects to finish up.

What are the plans for the pickup? any wild chassis work like the '57 you did previously?

Rodger, you did exactly what i have wanted to do to one of those AD trucks for a couple years now. Glad to see someone finally got around to it. I did not plan on the chop though trying to keep from giving it an elcamino look

Thanks Nick, We try really hard. Wait till you see the rhino we are currently building...... Pretty cool stuff.

The chassis came from a Magazine editor who changed direction on his project and sold his old chassis. Nothing fancy but will do the trick. The customer wants to build this truck for his wife and he has a 41 chevy coupe that will get the deluxe treatment. He has owned the 41 since he was 15 in like 1954. One of those stories. We plan to have a powder coated chassis with metal finished
sheetmetal at the local NSRA show in late April here in Bakersfield. I really think this formula will be the recipe for a possible Truck of the year Contender in 2011.

I think I speak for everyone on here, doesn't matter if its PT or not, we all love to see the badass work coming out of Ironworks

I like the idea of the on-line newsletter.

I think "Scott" should set up a builder section so the builders can post all of there progress threads in there own section. It would be pretty cool if i wanted to check out what you guys where doing and just click the "Ironworks" Folder and check it out.

Just an Idea !!! :_paranoid

Great idea !!!

Don't tease ....... Send me pics to my email or give me a link to watch the build. Justin is killing me with all the idea's over there and I need to stay focused on my car build so I can drive it this summer.:thumbsup:

I will not tell everyone you are a SXS cage master hiding in the closet:lol: We really enjoyed the work you did for us before our trip.:cheers:

Well hay we just try real hard. After Building that Teryx for Cognito it really got my wheels turning. If you think it is odd for us to be building SXS utv's, you should see all the work we have been doing to our Go-Karts.... We spent 4 hours last week working on a $1.99 part just so I could have adjustable timing and pull start. The manufacturer of the billet flywheel said there was no way to make it pull start. And the class runs state it must still be pull start. DONE.

175 dollar fly wheel on a 180 dollar engine, with 4 hours of work in a $1.99 part just to pass the boys on the back stretch. And you thought Hot Rods were a poor investment of time and money.....:D

The make a go-cart big enough to fit a guy like you. I thought they were fro short people like me.

I never said I did not look like Super Mario in the Kart.

I traded my 2003 Mustang for 3 karts and we have had a blast on the weekends with the karts for a while. A bunch of my buddies have bought karts and have done some damage to say the least. :D

You one bad ars looking Mario

Trust me, I've seen him folded up in a Kart! It ain't pretty but he gets the job done!!!:lol:

John

You've got a great range of really cool projects! Congratulations on that! It's nice to have different things to work on so that one certain style or car doesn't get old that fast.

I really think this is what makes our hobby interesting.

We started this Teryx for Cognito Motorsports about 3 weeks before SEMA last year. The first time the Owner saw it complete was when we drove it into his booth.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2009019.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...2010/teryx.jpg
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That Big ugly White truck in the background belongs to Dan Henderson of UFC fame. Believe it or not it says "Hendo" on the door, his nickname.

I got quite a few emails and phone calls on this pickup, so I figured I should show a rough mock up pic we took today.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010079.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010082.jpg

The long bed sides will be cut to length, Don't worry Tim....:D