'Handy Man Jack' The service Truck
 

I figured I would start a thread on my current project. It's a 68 c10 that started life as a gmc. I swapped it to right hand drive, lowered it with a porter built dropmember. The frame has been shortened and the rear suspension built by me. I decided to build a bagged truck that was useful. Well as useful as slammed truck can be. I'm planning to run a ls in this one. Still undecided on a turbo though. Anyone have any advice on how to keep the pictures in the thread? My builds always lose the pictures. Thanks, hope you enjoy!

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Here's some progress shots

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And more

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Here's the air management I stuffed in there.

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Here's how it sat for quite some time.

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Here's where it began to take shape.

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And this should bring it up to its current state. I'm torn between sea foam/ mint green and staying bare metal with a clear plastidip finish. N2billet has been a major influence on this truck but I wanted to be a little lower than wally.

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Check this baby out with a little slice out of the middle. Sorry about the terrible pic scanned in.

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That's pretty cool but I do like the taller box personally. Here's a couple trucks that are similar.

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Here's a little better pic of the shorter box. I never would have even considered a utility box on a cruiser, but I think they have possibilities. I like it shorter myself best, but taller looks good too. Lot less work 4 sure.

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I have plenty of work cut out on that service bed! I got it home and the doors were all full of body filler so I have to reskin all the doors and move the wheel wells back as they don't line up. All of this was the result of hornets inside so I didn't take a chance on opening everything up.
I got the steering put together tonight. I shortened the column, moved the turn signals to the right side of the column, and built the steering linkage.

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Built new door skins for the bed to replace someone's hack job. There was about a half inch of body filler covering the bottom of each door.

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Got a lot done today. Cut the cross member flat, built 2" drop blocks, removed trans cross member, got a ton of dents pulled with my new stud gun.

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Got the cab off and the watts link tacked in. It works pretty well other than at max lift it's awfully close to contact.

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Got a bit more done. Flattened the trailing arm cross member and cut the trailing arms mounts to fit. I got the watts link welded up and smoothed out pretty nice. Bags rub on the inside of the frame so I need to give that a tune up.

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Here's some shots from today nearly done with the frame so onto inner fenders next

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Played with some cardboard today and finally found an inner fender setup I like. Biggest problem is my tires stick over the tops of the fenders about 2" so I had to get creative. Also got the c-notch pretty well finished up other than shock mounts. I need to build tubular rear cross members as well then I can get the frame painted.

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Finally got a chance to use my shrinking disk and I must say it's a life saver! It fixed the top of the cab extremely well and took care of quite a few other issues as well

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I'll follow along, I dig it

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I started shaving the cowl today and turned it into a genuine nightmare. I got out of hand with the grinder and shrunk it big time. It was almost perfect when I was done welding though. Here's some pictures after a hour of beating it back into shape. I also got rid of the factory rear crossmembers and made some tubular ones.

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Well I got the cowl fitting a bit better but still have a ways to go. I successfully ruined my windshield too but oh well.

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I see surface rust forming, but when I had bare panels I was amazed on how long they'd go without forming any (inside garage). Good steel.

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Yeah it's getting some rust from the shrinking process I have to spray water on the heated steel to form it and it gets everywhere. I figured I'd leave it be until all the metal work is done then I'll fix all of that. It is some good steel but it's no where near as good as my 54 that stuff is incredible!

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I bet it is. The further back in history the better. :metal: Looking real nice. I'm sure you know you just don't want any pitting to start with that rust but light surface just wipes off easy.

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By the time I'm done with 80 grit and epoxy primer no one would ever know it was in such a sorry state but that's the price of making metal that straight

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True, you're doing it the right way. What happened to the windshield? Hot metal splatter from the welding or grinding melted to it? Happened to mine.

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Yeah some dummy got weld sparks on it. I used cardboard, but it didn't stop much I guess. it's pretty bad but I work at a glass shop so I'm not the least bit worried about putting another one in

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looks good maybe someday when i am not so busy i will get a chance to come by and see it

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Starting to play with the idea of a flip up cowl vent since I don't really want to give up that much air. Also got the cowl fitting the truck a lot better than before I don't think it even fit that good when it was new!

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Man this thing is awesome. I likes it.

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very cool

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Thanks for the compliments guys. I don't have much of an update as I haven't hardly seen the truck in the last couple weeks but I did get my hood hinges and I'm picking up a fresh small block tomorrow for the old girl.

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I got my motor tossed in today. It's a 350 with a cam and supposedly 500 miles. It came at a price I couldn't refuse so I pulled it after work and put it in mine. I need to build some valve cover adapters so I can run staggered covers on square heads. I've got a set of ram horns lined up for it as well.

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Looking good

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very good looking

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I got started on the porterbuilt hood hinges tonight. I'm pretty disappointed in them to be honest. The hood plates were messed up big time. The nuts weren't even close to being centered on the holes when they were welded so I had to drill the holes out about 3 sizes to get the bolts to start then they all siezed in the nuts even with antiseize so tomorrow morning I'll cut all the stainless bull **** off and install some hardware that can actually be used.

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That sucks man about the added work with the hinges, as if there wasn't enough already. But they do look pretty sweet when they're done.

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I finally manned up and bought a real camera so the world can actually tell what my pictures are! They might not be the best but I have no idea how to even use the thing yet

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Got it out for a picture

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I made good progress last night I got the bed stretched 3" so that the wheel base lines up and built a new front panel since the old one has seen a lot of use. Today I'm hoping to get the hinges built and finally get the doors swinging.