Project '64 Cheapskate

[rusty76]

Happy Birthday Dude.

[chevyrestoguy]

Originally Posted by duallyjams

Happy B-day and welcome to 50 plus club.

Thanks! I'm proud to join this elite fraternity!

Originally Posted by likaroc13

Happy Birthday! Looks like you got some good stuff for the truck. We put new Moog steering/suspension parts on mine too. Love the pinstriping as well, & look forward to seeing your progress pics!

Thanks! I SCORED on the gifts, huh?

Originally Posted by TommyDuncan

Happy birthday! Those are the gifts you will remember years from now when you are driving that truck down the road.
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks, Tommy!. You know, I thought that exact same thing today when I laid everything out on the bench.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Happy Birthday! Great Presents, hope they get put to good use soon! Glad it was a good day for you.
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks, Chip! It was a good day, especially when I got to share it with my awesome wife and my close friends. The parts are being taped up for primer as we speak so I can get them painted and installed.

Originally Posted by kustombrad

Happy BDay dude!
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks, Old Man!!

Originally Posted by theastronaut

Sounds like you had an awesome birthday, with I got truck parts like that!

Thanks, John!! I just put them in the mail heading your way so you can put one of your killer paint jobs on them.

Originally Posted by pdxhall

Happy Birthday, man! The truck's coming along nicely. I'll bet you're itchin' to get that stuff installed.

Thanks! Man, "itchin" doesn't even close to describing how bad I want to get this thing done. For lack of a better word, I'm "dying" to get it finished!

Originally Posted by McMurphy

Happy 50th !!
I just rolled the half century mark this month as well (on the 9th) !!
Nice score on the front end parts !

Well, Happy Birthday to you too, sir!! I never realized how many people I know who have birthdays in September.

Originally Posted by 65Gregg

Happy birthday to you bunch of kids.
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks, Greg!!

Originally Posted by Dinos63

nice work and happy-b-day kat!

Thanks, Dino! I'm hoping to make it out to Phx in November for the party and the Goodguys show.

Originally Posted by gofastnut

Happy Birthday!! I honked and waved as I drove through (yeah, sure) with my wife on our way to So Lake Tahoe to celebrate our 15th anniversary.

You honked and waved? You should have dropped by. I would have put you to work and the wives would have headed to the mall and wreaked havoc on our checking accounts.
Happy 15th Anniversary!! 15 years, huh? You're way ahead of the average, my friend. Good Job! The wife and I are going to celebrate the Big 2-5 coming up soon.

Originally Posted by Bomp

Happy B-Day!!!

Thanks, Bomp!!

Originally Posted by rusty76

Happy Birthday Dude.

Thanks, Rusty!!

[rusty76]

Must've been a long birthday.......where you at? Lol.

[chevyrestoguy]

I went on vacation and took a trip back to Louisville for 5 days to visit my family, and I've been at the California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield for the last few days. It was a great vacation, and with my stressful work schedule, I really needed it. I'll be a little bummed out to go back to work tomorrow and get thrown back into the fire, but I'll get over it.

In the meantime, there has been progress on the '64. I've been doing body work on the inner fenders, so all I have to show for it is a lot of body filler dust. The A/C condenser has been fitted and drilled up, all of the A/C lines on the forward side of the core support are cut and crimped. and now it's ready to blow back apart and get painted chassis black so I can hide all of the hard work I did.

[Low Elco]

Bangshift said the Cacklefest was epic! Was Brad there pushin'? Glad you got some time off.

[chevyrestoguy]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Bangshift said the Cacklefest was epic! Was Brad there pushin'? Glad you got some time off.

Chip-
The Cacklefest was awesome! Brad was using the '49 to push the Tocco, Harper, and Garten Fuel Altered again this year. We went to the tent to go get our wristbands for the Cacklefest, and the lady running the booth asked Brad if he could possibly push TWO cars! Of course, he said yes. So, that meant that we were the first car to light off, kicking off the event. As soon as Roger lit off the Altered, we hauled butt down to the end of the track to get the second car, the Schrank Brother's 1961 record holding B/Fuel dragster. It set the E.T and Mph records in 1961 with an 8.65 @ 183 mph, with a blown 276 cubic inch DeSoto(!) Hemi on nitro. That record stood for two years. That was one bad hot rod in it's day, and when that little sucker lit off, I was blown away at how nasty it sounded. The event was great. The weather was perfect, and it was a great time seeing old friends and making new ones at the same time.

Dude, you have got to come here one day and go with us. It's a blast!

[Low Elco]

Sounds like a great time. It's on the bucket list. Batting lead off and pushing 2 cars, that's awesome!

[rusty76]

Any updates on the truck dude?

[chevyrestoguy]

I was working on my son's truck for a good part of the weekend, but I was able to etch-prime the core support and battery tray and did some body filler work on the inner fenders, which are now nearly complete. I would like to get those parts in primer this weekend, and if that goes well, get them wet-sanded and ready for chassis black.

This week, every night after work, I plan on doing some prep work on the condenser, receiver/dryer brackets, and the A/C lines and get them ready for primer. The fan shroud still needs to be wet-sanded with 400 grit and prepped for primer. As soon as the inner fenders and core support are back on, it'll open up a bunch of work that can be done.

[Low Elco]

Glad you're still on it. You and Brad have to Convoy to the Reunion next year!

[rusty76]

Kool just checking on ya.

[chevyrestoguy]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Glad you're still on it. You and Brad have to Convoy to the Reunion next year!

That's the plan! We'll be rolling in tandem, with our push bars in the bed. Now, all you have to do is catch a cheapie Southwest flight to Ontario and go with us!

[Dinos63]

lil happy b-day kat!

[Low Elco]

Man, that sounds fun. I'll have to get to work!

[chevyrestoguy]

It's been awhile, but that does not mean that I haven't been bustin' on the '64. As a matter of fact, I have been doing a lot of work, but it just wasn't exciting enough to post up pictures. Most of what I was doing was bodywork on the inner fenders and prepping the under-hood parts for paint. Man, I have a real respect for the guys who do bodywork for a living.

If you remember, I took out a 2" lower section of the inner fenders to compensate for the 2" Z we did on the chassis. It was important to me to have it all look factory, so that meant that I had to do some welding and bodywork. Here's a shot of the driver's inner fender right before we primed it.

And the passenger side:

So after a bunch of sanding and prep work, the parts were ready for paint. Brad offered to do the spraying, and another buddy, Ryan, offered up the use of his shop. A big thanks to Brad and Ryan for doing this!





The funny part of this is that the paint we used was a Frankenstein mix of a couple of black enamels and it turned out perfect. I'm a stickler for chassis black, and it has to be the right sheen to look "right", and this batch has the perfect eggshell sheen I was looking for. And to top it all off, instead of using the high-dollar Iwata spray gun, we used a $15.99 Harbor Freight special and it worked incredibly well.

The next step is to assemble all of the stuff on the core support and start installing parts! More pics to come...

[Low Elco]

"Look factory?" Um, they didn't look that good from the factory. Nice stuff! I have the 3-gun kit from HF. I love it 'cause the big one comes with a 1.8 tip. Great for primer. Good progress! I would say, If you have a plater near you, having all those bolts cad plated works a lot better than painting. I tried to do that, the plater's burned down, so I had to paint mine. I'd have been a lot happier with plating. Not trying to be a jerk, you've just got the rest of this so cool and all. Those inners would look good with Raptor liner on the undersides, too. Man, I'm stoked for ya!

[Bomp]

Congrats on nailing the color.

Not sure if this tid bit of info helps on "paint on bolts" but it worked for me.
I cooked my freshly painted bolts for 20 min @ 175 in a convection oven I got at a garage sale.
None of the paint lifted after I wrenched'em in.
Wifey was happy I wasn't in the house trying to poison the family with my cookin.

Gonna be awesome to see things getting put together.

[rusty76]

Ahhhh some updates. So kool man. I'm still digging the ride.......Can't wait for more.

[theastronaut]

Those inner fenders look killer, can't tell that they've been cut and welded! Love stuff like that, nobody will notice but that's the whole point.

[NEWFISHER]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

Those inner fenders look killer, can't tell that they've been cut and welded! Love stuff like that, nobody will notice but that's the whole point.

+1 Nice work!

[chevyrestoguy]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

"Look factory?" Um, they didn't look that good from the factory. Nice stuff! I have the 3-gun kit from HF. I love it 'cause the big one comes with a 1.8 tip. Great for primer. Good progress! I would say, If you have a plater near you, having all those bolts cad plated works a lot better than painting. I tried to do that, the plater's burned down, so I had to paint mine. I'd have been a lot happier with plating. Not trying to be a jerk, you've just got the rest of this so cool and all. Those inners would look good with Raptor liner on the undersides, too. Man, I'm stoked for ya!

Thanks, Chip! Yeah, I was really shocked at how well the cheapie HF gun worked. I wouldn't use one if I were spraying a car, but for small parts, it kicked butt. I thought about coating the bolts with the phosphate coating that the factory starting using in the late '60s, but the home kits they used to sell are no longer available. You would actually cook your bolts in a phosphate solution on a Coleman camp stove. I'm sure NOTHING could go wrong with that set up!

Originally Posted by Bomp

Congrats on nailing the color.

Not sure if this tid bit of info helps on "paint on bolts" but it worked for me.
I cooked my freshly painted bolts for 20 min @ 175 in a convection oven I got at a garage sale.
None of the paint lifted after I wrenched'em in.
Wifey was happy I wasn't in the house trying to poison the family with my cookin.

Gonna be awesome to see things getting put together.

I like the convection oven idea, and I'm brainstorming on an idea using a metal box and a hair dryer. The last time I used one of the home appliances for my car stuff was when my wife was out of town, and I used the dishwasher to clean a set of rods and pistons. They were super clean before I put them in, and they came out awesome. The only problem was, I had to pull all of the baskets out of the dishwasher and scrub the inside with Comet to get the grease film off. And, I had to run two full cycles on hot with nothing in it to get the solvent smell out. Worked really good, though!

Originally Posted by rusty76

Ahhhh some updates. So kool man. I'm still digging the ride.......Can't wait for more.

Rusty, you've always been one of my biggest supporters, and I really appreciate it. Glad to help you with your picture fix!!

Originally Posted by theastronaut

Those inner fenders look killer, can't tell that they've been cut and welded! Love stuff like that, nobody will notice but that's the whole point.

If John likes 'em, then I'm a happy guy! They actually look even better in person. My camera is on it's last leg, and it's taking bad quality pictures. I completely agree with your stance on "stealthy" modifications. I love that stuff, too, and if only one guy in a hundred figures it out, then I've done my job correctly.

Originally Posted by NEWFISHER

+1 Nice work!

Thanks!!!

[theastronaut]

I'll prolly have to do a similar mod to the inners for 'Locks, so I've been watching to see what you came up with. They look perfect. How far away are you from getting it on the road?

[Jmorales3181]

Nice progress!

[likaroc13]

Nice to see the progress, & everything looks great!

[chevyrestoguy]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

I'll prolly have to do a similar mod to the inners for 'Locks, so I've been watching to see what you came up with. They look perfect. How far away are you from getting it on the road?

I still have a ways to go.
I have to install the inner fenders and core support, and get the underhood stuff done (paint the bottom side of the hood, hoses, wiring, etc). I still have to do my fuel tank mod, and that's going to be some uncharted territory. Still need to raise the bed floor and c-notch the frame (couldn't get it low enough without the rear end hitting the bedfloor). Still need to do bodywork and blend in the paint to match the patina. Still need to spray the exterior with satin clear. Still need to finish the sound deadener in the cab. Need to re-rubber the doors and windows. Replace the windshield.

I think I'll have it running in Mid-January, and on the road around March. Hopefully, a whole lot sooner than that, but I'm trying to be realistic. I have to stay on my current pace and not try to rush anything. If I rush stuff, it'll show in the final product, and that'll drive me nuts every time I look at it later.