Green Gus the 68 shortbed convert

[GR8-68]

Looks great Corey, do you want to come scratch mine up for me ?

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by GR8-68

Looks great Corey, do you want to come scratch mine up for me ?

Haha. I'd be happy to come help you ruin your paint.

[GR8-68]

Originally Posted by hewittca

Haha. I'd be happy to come help you ruin your paint.

Thanks, You are pretty good at it. I assume this is a compliment

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by GR8-68

Thanks, You are pretty good at it. I assume this is a compliment

It takes skill to ruin your paint correctly.

[GR8-68]

Originally Posted by hewittca

It takes skill to ruin your paint correctly.

Unbelievably true, we do a distressed door to look like barnwood and we actually have to be careful who we allow to do the distressing because some just can not make it look natural. It is actually an art and not always that easy as one would suspect it to be.

[GR8-68]

Here is one of our doors I built for my personal kitchen, it is barn wood distressed.

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by GR8-68

Here is one of our doors I built for my personal kitchen, it is barn wood distressed.

Very nice! Looks like you have the touch. I think you'd be good at ruining automotive finishes as well.

[YBNORML]

I finally found some time and read through your thread. Pictures don't do justice to the work you've done. Awesome.

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by YBNORML

I finally found some time and read through your thread. Pictures don't do justice to the work you've done. Awesome.

Thanks man! In a way, that is kind of the plan. I want it to look like an original old truck with a few tweaks to the styling.

[hewittca]

So now that the shortbed conversion is done and I'm in between large projects, I've been thinking about a few other small things I wanted to do on the truck. One of those was shaving the sidewalls. I hate the look of modern sidewall designs, especially on low profile tires. So, I started attacking (very carefully!) my tires with a very worn out 60 grit flapper wheel. I was surprised with how quickly and smoothly this method knocked all marking off the sidewall. The finish was a completely smooth and matte finish. I think this added the perfect touch to finish off the vintage inspired look of this wheel/tire combo. Most people would probably never notice it, but to me it made a big difference in the way the tires look in person as you walk around the truck.













Now that the sidewalls are smooth, I'm considering another vintage touch to this setup, white line tires. On my Malibu, I painted thin whites on the tires with great success, so I'm considering doing it on the truck as well since many of these truck came with them. For now, I just drew them on with chalk to get an idea of how it looks. I definitely like it but am not ready to commit to it yet because I also really like the blackwall look too. For now, it's fun to just draw them on when I want.











Now, what should I ruin next?

[GR8-68]

Some sweet ideas Corey, I would have never thought to remove tire markings like that The truck looks great

[rusty76]

That's a great idea. I like the smooth look of the sidewall. I've always been a fan of thin white walls as well. I remember eons ago my ole pick it up had them. One of my favorite looks is a Bellflower look. Thin whites on Cragar SS or Truespokes lowered suspension with just enough mods. I'm a sucker for lowriders and kustoms.

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by GR8-68

Some sweet ideas Corey, I would have never thought to remove tire markings like that The truck looks great

Thanks! I know making custom whitewalls from white letter tires by grinding them down has been done for a long time, but you don't see too many smoothed sidewalls. I hated the sidewalls on my tires enough to give it a shot. I think it was worth the effort and risk of ruining my tires (if I got too impatient).

Originally Posted by rusty76

That's a great idea. I like the smooth look of the sidewall. I've always been a fan of thin white walls as well. I remember eons ago my ole pick it up had them. One of my favorite looks is a Bellflower look. Thin whites on Cragar SS or Truespokes lowered suspension with just enough mods. I'm a sucker for lowriders and kustoms.

Me too on the thin whites. Even if it's a crappy old van or something, if it rolls by with thin whites I'll turn my head and think, oh cool! Then I wonder where they get their tires from and if it was a conscious effort of theirs to make sure they got some thin whites.

[SKT]

.

Shaved sidewalls look great!

.

[rusty76]

I just like the look of an old school custom rollin low with a simple wheel and tire arrangement. I had a crappy little wagon I drove for years with thin whites and steel wheels. Anything else would have made it look ridiculous. I got to thinking on my old pick it up right now it has thin whites on it turned inside.

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by rusty76

I just like the look of an old school custom rollin low with a simple wheel and tire arrangement. I had a crappy little wagon I drove for years with thin whites and steel wheels. Anything else would have made it look ridiculous. I got to thinking on my old pick it up right now it has thin whites on it turned inside.

Turn those tires around! I love squarebodies on thin whites. They just look right, especially when it's a two tone truck with white in the middle.

[hewittca]

I had a last minute change of plans this morning that allowed me to attend Heavy Rebel Weekender today in downtown Winston Salem. This was the first time I took the truck out to any show, and the first time really getting a good perspective of it out in the sun since painting the bed. This show was pretty awesome. It was an oldschool hot rod culture inspired show and there were a ton of great cars and trucks. I didn't really have a good chance to take many pics because I was trying to keep up with my kids, but there were many GM trucks that showed up. Here's a few photos of my truck. I was parked on the corner out front of an old ACDelco warehouse. My son also brought his trucks and had his own little car show. (don't worry, parking in front of the hydrant was okayed by the event organizers )

[GR8-68]

Thanks for the heads up !!! If I would have known about this I would have come checked it out Do they do this every month ? Love the bug beside you to

[rusty76]

It's funny but I didn't even see the hydrant. We parked in a loading zone. I saw the toys and told my wife it looks like the bed of your truck was a play park. There was a cool red 55 parked behind you too.

Larry they usely do the car show on Saturday on the 4th of July weekend. It really has grown. There used to be like a street and two side streets. Now they take up a bunch of room.

[preacher anthony]

Truck looks great!

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by GR8-68

Thanks for the heads up !!! If I would have known about this I would have come checked it out Do they do this every month ? Love the bug beside you to

Sorry! We were discussing the show the week beforehand in the NC thread and thought you probably saw it there.

[hewittca]

About one week after completing all the engine/trans repairs, the rear diff started leaking so I took some time over the holiday weekend to fix that. While I had the cover off, I figured I might as well swap out the longer studs that I had lying around and replace the axle seals. While I was working on the truck, my son was working on his own customization.







The studs I used were from Moser. I wanted longer studs because the stock studs didn't stick out past the lugnuts I'm using on the Transit wheels, and I also want to run a 1/2" spacer. I made a sleeve to put over the studs so I could press them in squarely. I had to drill out the stud holes to 15/32" because the .480" knurl on the Moser studs was slightly larger than the stock knurl.







I put everything back together again how it was and for now I am not running the spacers. I probably won't put them in until I add the drop blocks and spindles since the spindles will add 3/4" to the front. I did, however, mock-up the rear wheel where it should be with the blocks and spacers. I'm pretty happy with where it will end up. Now I just have to get around to ordering some parts to make it happen...

[hewittca]

I recently installed a new track bar since the original was never meant to run at the ride height I'm going for. I ended up going with the original deluxe bar from CPP because I got a good deal on it. I like the bent bar for the added clearance, but I don't plan on ever running a different differential cover, so the straight bar is fine. Even though my setup is stock otherwise, this bar is still very close to the cover. There's about 3/16" clearance at the closest point. Other than that, I really like the bar. It fit with little persuasion and I have noticed a difference. The truck is more stable over hard bumps and recovers quicker. With the stock bar, I could feel the rear wander over bumps.



I also took the truck to work yesterday, so I got to bring it by a few of my favorite places on the way home to snap some photos.

[Byoung330]

Love this truck. It is a definite inspiration for the way I'm building mine. Mine won't be as low and will still be a long bed but I'm doing the argent steel 22" wheels and factory green but restored not patina.

[rusty76]

Good pics Corey.