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The first vehicle I ever drove was my Dads 68 Camper Special. He had that truck for years, we made almost weekly trips to the desert to go dirt bike riding in it. It had bean hole mags and a 429 cobra jet motor with a big, lumpy cam. It seemed like all his friends had bump or dentside trucks, and being that they were all hot rodders, all the trucks had built motors in them. Of course the trucks weren't that old at the time, but something about growing up around them made it easy when picking a platform to build. Besides, I wanted to avoid smog laws while still having some horsepower. A family friend had a retired PG&E truck that he had for years, a deal was struck and the project began.

It's been going on for some time now. Many parts, advice, and inspiration came from John at Autofab. Fabrication and metalwork was done at The GMR. Motor work was done by Clay Smith Engineering. Shocks and bumps are all Bilstein. I really can't thank these people enough, without them this project wouldn't have gotten off the ground. It's now at my house to get finished up. I'll try to update as more work gets done.

Now for some pics...

Autofab +3" front glass and drop center hood, mystery bedsides.






Autofab leaf springs, 2 link not installed in this pic. GMR9 full floater.


390 FE, should be good for a little over 500hp.

She's a sexy beast Mike. Can't wait to see it driving!

That's a beautiful truck man. Nice project. Can't wait to see it done.

Chris

Some interior cab pictures. Cage work is 2" dom, both .120 and .095 were used. A few pieces of 1.5" were used in places where it made more sense, like to create more headroom. The cab was cut off in order to tuck the cage above the door jamb.




The cage was built off of outriggers to conserve legroom. This pic was before final welding.




The frame is boxed from the rear to the front crossmember. In front the frame is hardfaced tying in the front bumper horns. The front crossmember is also braced where the bumper ties in with a 1.5" .120 tube. The light bar is removable, two bungs are on the front bumper.






Creature comforts. I want this truck to be able to put down some serious miles. Thats no fun if you're not comfortable. I had to have an ice chest to carry frosty beverages to wash the dust from my throat. Batteries will mount underneath, yellow posterboard is templates for aluminum that I'm working on.

Thanks for the compliments, guys. I know everyone likes pictures, so I'm trying to get everyone up to speed with what's going on. Here's a few more for now.

The front end is GMR built 1" kingpin beams, radius arms, and single swing rear steer. I don't have many good pictures of the steering, it was too dark under there the other night when I was taking pictures. Front hubs are Autofab with gusseted Ford spindles, steering is double sheared. The steering is 1.25 4130 with 3/4" heims. The front was strapped at about 19" or so to match up with the 17" we got in the rear. 17" 4 tube bypass Bilsteins will be used front and rear, with 17" Bilstein coilovers holding up the front. Bilstein bumps at all 4 corners.

WOW! That is an awesome truck!

Very Nice! Glad to see you on the site!

Awesome. Is there a rough completion date yet?

Nice build!

Any updates?
Is it still in the shop or at you're place now?

bitchin'!

AiiRaciing wrote:Any updates?
Is it still in the shop or at you're place now?

Back at his place. He's making templates for aluminum panels but I think that's the only "update".

Steve nailed it. It's at home now. Not a lot to update. I'm working on some aluminum panels and trying to finalize brackets and pulleys on the motor. Culhane should be done any month now with my tranny, then I can stab it in there and start work on the headers.

Some of the pics that I posted were from when it was at the shop, others taken at my place. Anything that was only 1/2 welded got done before it came home. Completion date? Who knows? After seeing those Mexico pics from the excursion, I know it can't be soon enough. That looked like fun.

Small update, I turned my posterboard templates into aluminum. The time spent making good templates paid off, the panels fit pretty good. I still need to do a little tuning on them with the file, but they're close. I actually wrangled my wife into helping me bead roll the panels, I had her on the crank.

They will all be dzus pinned on, hope to get on it this next week.

Looking good Mike. You have a bead roller at the house???

Nice

Thanks. It's my first attempt at doing aluminum work like this. I used my bro-in-law's bead roller, nothing fancy, just an old hand powered Williams. I drug it in the house so I could work in air conditioned comfort. I had my wife turn the handle while I rolled it, all while watching college football. Win.

I still haven't had a chance to get started on the dzus buttons, maybe tomorrow.

I figured you might have borrowed his stuff but I thought you'd do it there. Is the thing on a floor stand or something? My small one is on a base that allows it to clamp to a table, but it's not something even I would bring in the house to mess with. At 40 or so pounds the thing would break the table I clamped it to then fall over and break a tile in the floor, or mess up the wood. So yeah, you're braver than I am!

I really really dig this build!! When do you anticipate it will be ready for wheelin?