Semi-newbie, pinstriper, and all around car/truck guy !

[Crash'd Artwerks]

Hey everyone. I've been lurking here for a little while now, and figured I would go ahead and post an intro and show off my truck a little.

My name is Aaron, or CRASH as a lot of people know me. I'm a pinstriper/sign painter, fabricator, and all around old car/truck nut. I live in Allen, Tx currently.

I bought this '66 back in May and have been working on it quite feverishly since then. It had a rebuilt 283 with 3 on the tree in it, so that was a plus. Very little rust, and most of the body work was already done, so even more of a plus !

My dad and I have put quite a few custom touches on the truck, as you can see. We did a 5 speed swap using a Camaro/S-10 T-5 hybrid, and shortened the driveshaft at the shop. I've spent A LOT of time cleaning up and painting lots of stuff on the truck to clean it up.

I had a '55 Buick Century station wagon that I traded for the complete Old Air a/c system and new Coker G78 wide whites. A buddy of mine owns a powder coating shop, so I did some trade out pinstriping work for the powder coating on the wheels. Another buddy of mine owns an upholstery shop and I did some trade out fabrication/pinstriping for the leather seat cover. It will be getting new carpet put in it in the next couple weeks as well.

The dash had a hole cut out where the radio went that looked like someone attempted to use a chain saw to hack it out. So, we cut that out and welded a new piece of sheet metal in its place. I'm going to just run an amplifier under the seat and hook my iPhone to it instead of running a head unit.

I bought a new chrome grille, head light bezels, and front bumper from Classic Parts of America. Also bought new aluminum park light and tail light bezels. All have worked out pretty well.

We've had to completely re-wire the tail lights and park lights under the hood because a previous owner couldn't track down a ground issue so he had a bunch of unnecessary wires run. Also put in a new turn signal switch, and bought a new ignition switch for it yesterday that I need to put in.

Here's some pictures. I'm sure I haven't listed a ton of stuff, but I don't want to bore you guys to death.

What I started with.





Transformation.

[Crash'd Artwerks]

More transformation. T-5 hybrid swap.


Had to move the speedo gear back because the hole is in a different place in the tail shaft housing on the S-10 tail shaft housing.



Had to shorten the drive shaft 7 1/2" for the difference in length from the 3 speed to the 5 speed.




Fixing minor rust.


Had to redo the upper radiator mount since I used this aluminum radiator.

[Crash'd Artwerks]

Still have some more pictures. Stainless upper and lower radiator hoses. Since the radiator didn't have a petcock in it, I just put it in the under side of the lower hose. It has just enough clearance.




Also notice the fabricated fan shroud.



Made some fresh air block off plates for inside the cab since I put the a/c in. Might as well throw some stripes on them, right ?!



Went ahead and cleaned up the stock wheel, painted it, and put some stripes on it. Notice the ivory stripes on the horn button in the bowtie and two lines.


Custom leather seat cover by Ronnie Cathey at Custom Trim in Sherman, Tx. I can't tell you how excited I am about this seat ! It's awesome !! The shifter took a little cutting a welding to get it further forward so it wouldn't hit the seat in the 2-4-Reverse shift patterns.

[Crash'd Artwerks]

Dash all welded up and painted. Took this before I put the ash tray back in. The instrument cluster will get cleaned up and painted next.



Re-doing the brakes as of right now. Took this picture before I pulled the old M/C off to put the new dual reservoir M/C on it.


The pan was under it because the temp gauge in the instrument cluster wasn't working, despite a new sending unit, so I drained some of the coolant to put a cheapo mechanical water temp gauge on it for the time being until I can chase down the wiring problem, or make a custom gauge cluster and just put all new gauges in it. The hood has been adjusted since this picture too. LOL !



-Aaron

[Crash'd Artwerks]

Originally Posted by gmtec93c1500

nice work man...cool tuck!!.... how'd you do that Finish on the aluminum

Thanks ! I just used the heater box as a template and cut out a piece of aluminum. Then put it in the Bridgeport mill (my dad has been a machinist/tool & die maker for 30+ years) and used a rubberized abrasive stick called Cratex. You just start out making the first circle, then move down 1/2" (because the stick is 1" diameter) and pull it down again, overlapping each circle. When you get to the end, you have to go back down to the end that you started at, space down 1/2" and over 1/4" to get them overlapping. Then repeat, over and over and over ! LOL ! It's time consuming, but it really looks cool when you get done. My dad has engine turned almost everything you can think of on his '32 Essex-Terraplane coupe. Here's some examples !








Annnnnnnnnnd the money shot !

Originally Posted by lolife99

Cool truck!

Thanks !!

-Aaron

[gmtec93c1500]

nice work man...cool tuck!!.... how'd you do that Finnish on the aluminum

[lolife99]

Cool truck!

[jimmydean]

Looks like the dash of a 70's Trans Am. I dig it.

I know the Extreme Powdercoating truck has some of that done to it.

[Crash'd Artwerks]

Here's some of my pinstriping work.

[Crash'd Artwerks]

Filled the holes on this rear fender for a friend, then re-painted it and re-striped it.





Star motorcycle. All hand painted.





'53 Mercury custom.

[Crash'd Artwerks]

More of the '53 Merc.

[Crash'd Artwerks]

[thirdstreettito]

Nice truck! And other stuff!

[gmtec93c1500]

that artwork is sick man!! how long u been at it?

[jimmydean]

Dude, seriously sick work! The skate decks are just bad ass.

[chad64chevy]

really nice progress on the truck, and that pinstripping is bada$$! I really like the tiki, texas aint that far lol!!

[k1rodeoboater]

Wow...

so how'd you get into pinstriping? It's something I'd learn to love how to do just to play around with it.

[Crash'd Artwerks]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

Welcome to the forum Aaron

Nice work on the truck, and some excellent striping

Thank you, sir !

Originally Posted by k1rodeoboater

Wow...

so how'd you get into pinstriping? It's something I'd learn to love how to do just to play around with it.

I've always been into art, drawing and such when I was a kid. My dad and I went to the Lonestar Round Up in Austin, Tx 7 or 8 years ago. The first year we went, there were probably about 150 cars, so it was a lot smaller show, and a little more intimate. You could talk with people one on one and it felt like the good ol' small town car show. It has since turned out to be one of THE BEST traditional hot rod and custom car shows in the country and has blown up to 1,000+ hot rods and customs.

Anyway, there were some guys my age (22-ish at the time) that were pinstriping and I thought it was very intriguing. My dad had a guy named Jake stripe the old tool box the we had brought with us in the back of my dad's '53 Studebaker custom. I was hooked then. I followed him and his buddies around the rest of the weekend and one of them gave me one of his brushes and told me to start practicing when I got home. A WHOLE LOT of practicing later, here I am ! Haha !

I really enjoy it, and I have met some of my best friends because of my striping. It's pretty cool to see the reaction on someone's face when you get done making their car or truck one of a kind with some custom striping too.

-Aaron
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