Ironwork project - Paddle shifted rusty door, 1966 Chevy truck with LSX454
 

I figured I would bring everyone up to date on a project we have been going pretty hard on lately for a local guy. The project name came from the fact the owner asked one of his X employees if the shop he worked at now could handle some rust repair on some doors for a pick up he was trying to build in his garage in his spare time. The owner had no idea about anything in our shop, just knew Jimmy who used to work for him as a shop foreman at his trucking company now worked for a "Hot Rod shop". The owner of the truck said he might send the whole truck over to us to complete if we did a good job on the doors. Well here we are today.

The Truck has a custom chassis under it from a builder that will remain nameless. ( It's junk ) We are going to have to re-engineering most everything for the results the customer and I would like out of the truck. Otherwise it would twist the frame and rattle and clank if it actually created any forward bite. With a paddle shifted 6 speed auto with an LSX454 engine it will have plenty of go power if we can get it to the ground. The customer already had some 20 and 21 inch HRE wheels with Pirelli tires. We installed some Ridetecg drop spindles to try and get it down in the weeds. We are going to set up a rear frame notch and raise the bed floor. the shock mounts and shock lengths are all wrong. The shocks were at complete full droop with the arms level and the upper shock mount at the lowest setting. Plus the motion ratio for the front end shock geometry was nearly 2 to 1.

Enough BS here are some pics. This truck should be a pretty Bad Ass Cruiser.

We did an initial mock up to find the best ride height for performance and obvious looks. The truck was going to sit pretty stinking high and we wanted to hide the transfer case.
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We had to rework each cab corner and some of the outer floor boards to get things to line up with out rust.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...28-2013016.jpg
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We began to build up the inner fenders and hood hinge mounts to get things to clear the tires at the desired ride height with the 20" front wheels.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...-7-2013013.jpg

We are widening the wheel tubs like 5 inches to clear the 375 rear tires. We are also raising the wheel tubs 3.5" to get this ride height.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...-7-2013012.jpg

We are shaving the cowl vent and the windshield wipers because it never rains here anyways. And the truck looks way better without them. Plus its cheaper.......HAHA

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...-7-2013014.jpg

The owner is looking at having the truck painted a Flat color from a Designer series Mercedes. Then doing all the trim in flat black or brushed like the wheel lips.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t.../Monzagray.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t.../slsmonza2.jpg

Enjoy - more to come.

Rodger been watching this build come together on Facebook.Awesome.

Dang are you trying to get your post count up or what? HAHA

Thx Happy Birthday. Take it easy on the buffet tonight.

Triple post............impressive and a first. :D

I cleaned up the litter for ya Rodger.

The truck looks really good! :thumbsup:

Regretfully I don't think I'll be asking you to fix the rust spots in my doors though........now if I hit the lottery....:rules:

But now no one will get my idiotic comment which is nothing new. But I actually make sense this time.

HAHA

I like the nova in the background

Gonna be a sweet one Rodger. Keep the pics coming. Love the wheels!

^^What Marcus said. Yeah, those wheels go perfectly with that truck.
I can only imagine how much that flat paint cost!! :G-Dub:

transfer case?

We just can't win.........:underchair:

We can't make him look THAT bad on his birthday........can we? :unibrow:

I've moderated my share of posts, that triple was a first. Obviously he really is 50, or one of the bottles in the shop is leaking. :lmao:

cool build. I got the same motor sitting in the garage waiting for more parts. its going in a 67 chevy truck though. what brand is that front drive setup? I might ask some more questions later on. I don't want to be the riddler right away. haha

:thankyou: Rodger,I only wanted to post once.But I had fried chicken grease & ranch dressing on my finger and I slipped and hit the button more than once.Sorry about that buddy.Skipped the buffet tonight had Grilled ,bacon double cheese burger's & Hot apple pie.

Nice truck, it should be a wild ride!

Very cool! Paint choice sounds like it will work really well.

Now, what's that flared out car in front of the truck? A Pantera perhaps?

Awesome metal work. I like how it got it's name. LOL

Thanks guys. The guys in the shop are knocking this one out. We want to finish it before his twin turbo Camaro is complete.

Neat-o.

Really like that body style. It's underrated.

I wish I hadn't sold my '66. Looking good.

Got to watch this one, I have a '65 that I want to redo someday. Always looking for new ideas for it.

Thanks for all the compliments guys. My guys have been knocking this one out very nicely.

The engine compartment was going to be tough due to the aggressive ride height but I like the results so far. We decided yesterday with the customer to incorporate dimple die circles into the under hood in a few areas.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...15-2013001.jpg
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Things are rolling along well on this project.

Great job Rog :thumbsup:

love ironworks projects

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...15-2013004.jpg[/URL]

Looking Badass. You should keep the guy on the front tub when finished.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...16-2013011.jpg

I think we nailed the stance on this one two. Rear tires might be thin, but at least they are 375 wide.

Do they hold air or are the press-ons? :D

Stance is nailed! :thumbsup:

Stance is awesome!

Hard to tell from the pictures how much turning radius it'll have, are you running bags in the front? Can you explain how you did the inner wheel wells? Looks like the arch was formed and the edge was either hammer formed or bead rolled. Am I close?

As always the level of craftsmanship is top notch, you and the crew turn out some real nice stuff. :thumbsup:


:headscratch:
Dan

Should have full turning radius. We narrowed the track width on the suspension and are looking at re hooping the wheels to improve the scrub.

The wheel tubs are pretty simply made with a standard tank roll. The only trick is that the wheel tubs split and an inch or two of the outside is with the fender and the rest is a separate piece making the inner fender. The firewall down bars were done to give us strength for the hinges and go higher then the stock inner fender and look better. The hood has a bit of work on it where the flange would hit the wheel tub but its not much to lose any strength in the heavy hood.

It's really not as complicated as it looks.

We have also done quite a bit to raise the bed floor to get this truck down in the weeds. The rocker is nearly 5" off the ground.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...16-2013008.jpg
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We are cutting the entire rear suspension out of the truck put in something that will have chance at traction with close to 600hp. And working on some kind of custom bed strips.

Rodger

This truck is gonna be just too bad a$$.

Yeah. What he said.:thumbsup:

I see a seam in the center of the front bed panel. Did you widen or narrow the bed to make it match up to the cab better?

Truck looks killer!

widen 1.25" overall

Looking great Rodger! I love how you guys have such a nice mix of projects going on, not just a bunch of the same thing over and over. It keeps you top of your game I'm sure!

^^YUP!
Looks great. Stance is nasty.

THANKS - It really makes it fun. I think we do pretty well at trying to make them all stand out for their each individual style. We have one coming in that is 24ft long and over 10ft tall that I'm a little worried about, but they all seem to come together pretty well in the end.

Start with a 3' chop?

Update

We narrowed the bumper alot and got it sucked in to the body quite a bit. We are getting things ready to for the LED headlights. That shoudl really bring the front end together with a modern vibe.

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We have begun a dash layout to allow a Double Din stereo unit that will flow with the original design. We are designing some custom Ac vents and gauge cluster and Glove box to be machined from Billet aluminum.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...29-2013008.jpg
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In this picture you can see the sub structure we put in the cars to make the column mount very solid to the car. I had a dash mounted column in a car is rattles and moves around as you get in and out.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...12-2013003.jpg

We raised up the drive shaft tunnel for clearance and and are getting ready to build the bigger trans tunnel for the 6 speed 4L80E trans from TCI.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...12-2013010.jpg

We are getting a heads up on the chassis and getting ready to set up the rear suspension for the proper geometry.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...12-2013011.jpg

Some crappy cell phone pics, But the firewall and bed look really nice.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...18-2013002.jpg

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...919_171945.jpg

The bed with aluminum bed strips.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...18-2013001.jpg

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Enjoy

Looks great as always!