Ironworks latest project - 48 Chevy truck, Blown LSX 376, lots of body mods
 

Well We are just about done with this massive project we have been working on for about a year and a half. Pretty much if it can be done, it has. There are over 80 body mods and think after the first couple major ones, I doubt anybody could pick them out. I have sown some updates in the What's up at Ironworks thread, but I figured it was time for a full blown story on exactly what went into building this truck.

In the next few weeks leading up to SEMA, I will try to explain all the work done on this massive project.

So in Feb of last year, A local guy named Frank decided to have us build his wife a nice truck for his wife. He promised it to her like 40 years ago. Frank and I discussed a few mods and a deal was struck for the sheetmetal I had with an old chassis from another project that got a brand new chassis. Plus I had a used LS1. It was going to be a driver for his wife.

Well Frank and I both have a pretty similar design style and taste. His shop is just down the street from my shop. So with some after work discussions about how ugly these trucks were from the factory it was decided that we would Chop the top 1.5", section the cab through the hood and doors 1.75" and lengthen the cab 3". So we took the sheetmetal I sold him and gathered 2.5 cabs, 3 hoods and 8 doors to do the work we discussed. At this point we began cutting and we have a chopped sectioned and lengthened cab.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010080.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010022.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010034.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010037.jpg

Then we began the task of lengthening and sectioning the doors to fit the cab dimensions. We wanted it to look stock behind what would be the door panel also. The doors structure was fit together to eventually have a doors skin made to the new length. It took parts from 4 doors to make each door.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...rch2010064.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...rch2010046.jpg


Then we began mocking up the hood to sent up the cut for the 1.75" section.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010075.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010066.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010084.jpg

So last year we took the roughly mocked up truck to a Local NSRA show for display in our booth.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...k/IMG_3200.jpg

Nice! I've always wanted one of those trucks but I hate how little room there is inside the cab, cool to see that you lengthened it

Rodger Very nice.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: Scott M.

Time for some details
 

Well about now is when things got out of control. The customer and I talked about narrowing the grille 1" per side, We narrowed the bottom one in the middle and top one on the outside.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...May2010031.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...May2010007.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...une2010105.jpg

Some other pics of bringing the loose ends together of the hood and doors and getting the body together.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...une2010104.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...une2010076.jpg

We had to roll a new roof skin because of the shape of the roof when we lengthened the cab.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...uly2010005.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...uly2010006.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...une2010031.jpg

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...uly2010005.jpg

Here is the air intake system, We always wanted this truck to have a pretty OEM appearance but just wanted to clean things up.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010023.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...uly2010012.jpg

Here is where the engine gets it's cold air from.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010055.jpg

Then we made a cover to protect it from the tire.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010050.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010051.jpg


The original hood hinges really sucked and nobody made some reproduction units. So we made our own.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010054.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010050.jpg

The phrase "if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing" applies to all of your builds. Looks like another winner.

In this picture you can see the addition we made under the dash for the AC vents. We tried very hard to make it look some what OEM.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010137.jpg

In this picture you can see the under hood support we built to flimsy hood and also the gas shocks we set up to hold the hood up.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...r2010052-1.jpg

To access the fuel filler we set up 2 strips in the bed wood to flip up and give us access. We build the hinge in Solidworks and had the parts press broke. We used graphite impregnated Delrin for the bushings.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010042.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010001.jpg

You can also see the 2 holes for battery leads if you need to put the truck on a charger.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010008.jpg

In this picture you can see the holes in the interior of the cab for the 3 point seat belts to come out of the cab for the passengers.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010009.jpg

At this point you can see the fruits of all our labor on the front end. The grille now has a taper to it. The grille bolts to the fenders not the other extra parts. We heavily modified a Volkswagen Karman Ghia front bumper, we made a custom splash apron, we sectioned the hood, we made custom hood trim, and installed 57 chevy truck turn signals in the front fenders, we also had to make the raised section in the sheetmetal to mount the turn signal. Among other things.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010030.jpg

Bare metal photoshoot. This thing is pretty cool if I do say so myself.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010018.jpg

Killer! May actually have to go to Sema. :D

Here is what it looked like leaving for paint.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2011010.jpg

The chassis mock up.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...May2011047.jpg

Well it's no 69 Camaro, But let me tell you it is a crap load of work.

Thanks

first a 68 Camaro, then Welds Bubble and now a 48 Truck ?
I thought you only did Novas over there... :lol:

This truck looks great.... awesome subtle mods.
Nice !

We have a few of those also. We do it all. Everything from street rods to off road buggies.

We also have like 4-5 tri-5's in here currently.

truck looks like it's coming right along can't wait to see it finished!:thumbsup:

You'll be seeing it sooner than you think. We have been working hard on finishing up the body and paint, and a couple of Rodgers guys have pretty much moved in to my shop to do the final assembly. There's not much time left before SEMA. I gotta say one thing... you guys are seeing this truck in pictures but I get to see it in person. The fab work on this truck is incredible, I didn't even realize that the doors where cut in eight different sections. There were no visible areas of cutting and welding anywhere on the doors, That's how this whole truck is. Quality fab work, and I'm glad to be a part of it.

That truck is awesome!

pure ecstacy.......... i think i left a stain

Hurry up already --- I want mine!

:unibrow:

I'm with Alan. The mods are so subtle and well done that you might not know it if you were not familiar with the body style. Simply outstanding craftsmanship. Thanks for trusting me to work on her Rodger.

Thanks for the props guys. It has been a team effort on this project. Thanks for the help Carl, I'm glad you could come by Alan's shop, but did you have to wear your driving suit every time you were there? Haha

:rofl: Hollywood, Baby.

This truck is turning out to be one Cool truck. Can't wait to see it in less than a month from now.
Where is the truck going to be Parked?

It will be parked near the taxi cab drop off for the Hot Rod Industry Alliance, it will leave Thursday night to go to their banquet.

oh cool, I went to the banquet a couple years ago, they usually have a few cars in there, great for getting some cool pictures and publicity.
Are you sure Thursday night and not Wednesday night. The SEMA banquet is usually on Thursday night.

They said be sure me and the truck are at the banquet Thursday night.

I'm just following orders

Here is where we used some of our Hot Rod Fab Parts coil relocation brackets and installed them down on the chassis to move the coils down and build custom plug wires.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...May2011012.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...May2011105.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...May2011011.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...May2011072.jpg

A picture of the headers after we updated to an LSX-376.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...rch2011006.jpg

Here is one final picture of the bed floor hinges.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...r2010004-1.jpg

Looks awesome Rodger! Look forward to seeing the truck at SEMA!

With that being the case I bet you're going to have an awesome night!

Here are some pics of the truck parked next to a stock one at Pleasanton last summer.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...t2010075-1.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...t2010081-1.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...t2010079-1.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...t2010083-1.jpg

Quite a difference. It's crazy to look at the grille on our truck and have it look so much bigger then stock when we actually made the grille smaller then stock.

Some more various details.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...r2010078-1.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...r2010082-1.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010036.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...r2010081-1.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...r2010083-1.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...r2010079-1.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...r2010043-1.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...r2010044-1.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...r2010061-1.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...r2010057-1.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...r2010034-1.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...r2010044-1.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...r2010043-1.jpg

Just read the entire thread, this is a pretty amazing truck. You guys do some unreal metal work for sure Rodger. :cheers:

Awesome fab work you guys do some sick stuff! congrats,
? who makes the green braided lines ive seen troy running some on his builds aswell love the look of it!

It's just big enough for one of your legs.

Truck Looks Great Roger! You guys did a helluva job:bow:

Are you making fun of me or yourself? Just Sayin.

Well here are some pics of where we were just a few days ago.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ept2011180.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ept2011179.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ept2011178.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ept2011176.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ept2011174.jpg

Another big load of Chrome will arrive today. Door handles, Glove box, trim clips, door garnish moldings, All kinds of stuff.

LOL! That would be me. Someone forgot to check the height box on my options sheet. I do think an upsized version would look good on you. The truck is coming along great. That air intake is wild!

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/5...1091700017.jpg

Looks great Rog, I really like the color :thumbsup:

I think I stood in the height line twice. What I lack in dark and handsome I make up for in Height.

Looking awesome Rodger. That color is awesome.