Re: Barn raising
 

NICE,:metal:

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Nice truck! I love it! You did great one the rear suspension! The front suspension looks like a 20 grand show truck! Word's cannot describe! What year car did the rear come from? What brand coil-overs? Man, I love it!

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That looks incredible. Great work.

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Thanks guys for the encouragement!
The Rear end was out of a '77 Mark V. The E-brake lever arms did not work with my application so I found some 80's Lincoln calipers levers that work better with the geometry of my suspension. I had to make special brackets to hold the cables but it all work great.

The coil overs are Bilsteins with 300 # springs. Has a real nice ride not too bouncy but not soft in the corners. I will be putting a 1'' sway bar on soon.

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looks great mike i might have to copy what you did with the license plate

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It really is not that hard to get them looking really nice. The press we have at work is really big but you can accomplish the same thing with one half as big. If you are restoring an aluminum plate it will be even easier.

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we dont have a press so we probably have to jack up my truck and then let it down on the mold :lol: just joking

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My plans to paint the truck have to be put on the back burner for now since the economy has not turned around, I decided to keep the money in the rainy day fund.
With that in mind I decided to have a little fun with the already faded and oxidized paint. I got this article in my Rodder mag back in October and knew that this was the direction I wanted to go but did not have a clue as to what was going be the logo.
http://www.classictrucks.com/tech/10.../photo_01.html
I thought about making up some kind of fake business but couldn't come up with one that I wanted painted on the side of my truck for a while. Then a friend of mine came to work one day with a Callahan Auto Parts shirt and I figured that that would be awesome on the '69. Being that it is one of my wife and my favorite movies, it just fit the faded green trucks personality.

So my sign maker friend that made the Good Year letters for my tires got another call from me and we replicated the logo perfectly. $25 bucks for the vinyl and $30 for the paint, a couple hours of work and it changes the whole attitude of the truck.

Here is the before

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/o...k/DSC00067.jpg

Here is the logo I had made

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/o...k/DSC00068.jpg

Cleaned the side of the truck of any wax then stuck the vinyl on being careful to get all the bubbles that were close to the edges, but not real concerned about the ones in the middle where paint will not be.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/o...k/DSC00069.jpg

Ready for paint, I used Omni brand MTK urethane with MH167 hardener. I don't know if this was a good choice or not but I figured that I was going to be distressing it over oxidized paint so it really did not matter as long as I could achieve the look I wanted.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/o...k/DSC00070.jpg

I scuffed the surface after the vinyl was applied to give the paint something to grab onto since I was not priming it. Then applied several heavy coats with a soft brush waiting only several minutes between coats.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/o...k/DSC00071.jpg

Waited about 20 minutes and peeled off the vinyl negative

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/o...k/DSC00072.jpg
http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/o...k/DSC00075.jpg

Right after I got the vinyl off I used H.E.T. reducer 1380 and rubbed the patina into the paint. It really was easier to achieve the look I wanted than I thought it was going to be. I was a little nervous going into it but after the first couple of letters I was a lot more at ease.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/o...k/DSC00073.jpg

One thing the article does not mention and I found worked well was 0000 steel wool after I was done with the reducer. The reducer is basically like solvent and leaves the thinned paint all around the letters, a careful, steady hand will get the majority of the smudged paint off from around the letters but letting it sit for 30 min or so then I hit it with the steel wool and it took the rest of the unwanted paint off leaving me with this result. I am very happy with the final product.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/o...k/DSC00077.jpg

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Looks great, Nice weathering job

Spike:smoke:

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wow that does look good

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Chris Farley would be very proud, nice work

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That looks great! It adds a nice touch to the truck.

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Nice! Are you going to buy a little coat and hire a fat guy for shows? :haha:

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fat man in a little coat.....

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that is awesome! tons of attitude!!!

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Your build is amazing, your truck is coming along great. Looking at your Lincoln 9" at first glance it looked longer than the chevy rearend to me especially seeing where your shocks are mounted.
But then I read you say its shorter and your tires right at stock spacing..
Since you have the backspace you want on your rim, could you run a wider, lower tire instead of a spacer? Im just throwing something outhere. I had to get my 10 1/2" ralleys altered so I would have a 4 1/2" backspace so they would fit under without cutting tubbing.

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Thanks Vdog
The lincoln is wider than the C20 rear by several inches but not the C10 rear. C20's have huge drums on them which takes up axle width. So this is where I was just guessing at the correct width of the axle and b.s. needed.
Unfortunately I did not get the back spacing I wanted. Coy's has certain b.s. for certain wheels and I did not want the wide 10" rim for gas mileage reasons, but I wanted a deeper well on the wheel which would have pushed them out further w/o the need for a spacer. Coy's had recently discontinued the C55 rim that I really wanted, and had only small amount of 18's left to choose from. None were deeper than the ones I got, so I hoped that the amount of b.s. on these wheels would move them out enough, as you can see it did but not enough.

I do not think running a wider tire would have given me the width that i was looking to achieve with the spacers. Maybe next time I will try wider. but I wanted to run the exact same front and rear so that I could rotate when needed.

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I understand now. I forgot you had a C20, which now makes sense. On that note, as far as a good backspacer, im not sure. Maybe a tire and rim shop might be able to reccomend a good one.

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nice build! the rear end is awesome. very cool truck indeed!

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Ended up going to Off Road Warehouse and getting a real nice billet set that is designed for off road trucks going off jumps and whoops, so I think it should be fine for street driving. Pushes the wheels 1.125" on each side and is just the right width.

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Mike thats great news, glad you found some good ones. I went to 4x4 Warehouse in Lawndale a few years ago when I could not find rearend spacers at any local parts store. Cost me a 12 pack of Pepsi for about 20 spacers.

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Very nice! I like everything you have done with the pickup and you have done it well. Great job.

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Figured I would take it out and take a couple of pictures that were not in my driveway.

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/o...ofDSC_0026.jpg

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/o...ofDSC_0028.jpg

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Love it. The sign looks great.

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those were some cool shots

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hey- from the Sandusky, oh area. the truck looks great. nice job man.

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This is my favorite truck on this site..

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Well I don't know what to say, First of all thank you! I am kind of at a loss for words because I have so many inspirations that I have drawn from both here and elsewhere that has ended up with the end result. Over two years it changed in my mind and on paper about three times before I started the build.

I have noticed that after I lowered it and started refining the theme I get all kinds of compliments to the point that I am starting to think about alarm systems and I now park it in the garage and the wife's explorer is on the driveway, she is not thrilled with the arrangement. :lol:

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That is a cool pickup!

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Hey, for you tires I have a great idea.

Alsa Corporation "Rubber Paint"

Nothing sticks better to rubber!

Rubber Paint goes where other paints dare not tread! It sticks to most rubbers and pliable urethane substrates with unequaled "stretch". No more cracking or peeling like traditional paint. Our special formulation retains it's flexibility much longer than other products which use flex additives that leach out of the paint finish over time. Rubber Paint is an ideal product for restoring or retouching the color if your rubber.

Email them, it isn't on their website, but it's in the catalog.

http://alsacorp.com/

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how hard was it to register your truck as a 1/2 ton

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Well that is an interesting story, I am still in the process of it. Had a camper shell on it when I bought it so it had auto plates. When I restored the black and yellow plates for it I went back to commercial. They only asked me to weigh the vehicle, they never had any question about C20 or C10 status. But I am having a heck of a time getting the YOM plates on the truck.

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I will have to look up that rubber paint in the catalog but I am really interested in the chrome powder coat, that stuff is cool. I think I will get some and write a review on it for the board.

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my cab came from a 67 3/4 ton truck and i now have it 1/2 ton and wanted to know if i was gonna have any problems

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Mike, I'm thinking of running the Patriot side pipes on my 71. Where did you get them ,what length kit did you orgionaly buy,and how is the sound outside and inside the cab at idle and on the throttle? Thank's, Tom

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wow ! gotta say nice build. i just looked threw the pics (ill read later) awsome work. !!!!

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When I bought the truck the mufflers were pretty shot, so I installed a set of flow masters 40 series while I decided what I was going to do. It was so loud in the cab from the resonance that my wife and daughter did not want to ride in it. The Patriot glass pack side pipe has a fuller more mellow tone but still has a rich classic sound both inside and out of the cab. You can buy the kit from Patriot which includes the collectors that have three dummy pipes and only one that works, Hooker has a similar kit that is 4" pipe. I deleted those and built my own single 3.5 single 90* that tucks nicely under the front wheel well.
I got the 73" length but it really did not matter because I was getting rid of the collector in front of the side pipe so I could have made it any length.
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All my body panels are original, all I changed was the drive train, not sure if they will hassle you since the vin # is on the cab.

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oh ok thanks mike

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If it was me I would just swap the VIN tags. I know, I know... but the cabs are exactly the same, so morally speaking I think it would be ok to do.