Project overlooked

[foxhole]

loaded the shortbox even fuller than it was and headed for the ferry to go work on the truck a bit.

[foxhole]

got to the shop to find a bit of a river runs through it in heavy rain, oh well at least the floor will stay clean. Gonna be a long wet winter.

[foxhole]

thinking of running the chevy front bumper with the signals in it as i mar not be left with a good place in the grill for lights after the body is sectioned. Also put the much less rusty rad support that came with the cab in place.

[foxhole]

we did a little rough and quick layout for the chop just to put it in perspective. the bottom edge of the green tape signifies the top exposed edge of the windsheild opening and side glass opening with the proposed ten inch chop.

[foxhole]

with the proposed ten inch chop the rear window will be 3 and a quater inches tall and the rear veiw mirror should sight up with it perfectly and just clear the dash.

[foxhole]

to keep the body in proportion i plan to take an aditional 6 inches out of the body but sectioning it in such a way so as not to disturb the wheel openings or change any bodylines, just romove sections of flat metal. i would have liked to be able to section more from the body but the front fenders will be my limmiting factor. To make up for only being able to section it 6 inches i plan to shave the rockers from 3 1/2 inches down to one inch to further reduce the lower body mass.

[VA72C10]

Great progress so far...I'm more a fan of no or subtle chops....but still interested to see how this comes out...

[foxhole]

Originally Posted by VA72C10

Great progress so far...I'm more a fan of no or subtle chops....but still interested to see how this comes out...

I have wanted to see just how far i could take a chop chanel section job for quite some time. There was much deliberation before settleing on a 67-72 truck but i wanted something that was old enough to not get branded a lowrider and had some style but at the same time wasn't going to get persicuted for cutting up something rare or valuable, not that these trucks arn't special its that i started with a prettymuch terminal one for this project so no one could really complaine about me taking it this far. Its supposed to be the ultimate experience in fitting 10 gallons in a five gallon bucket. Hoping to make every aspect of the truck a bit overkill and stand out as i've learned from showing customers cars over the years that you can have a national award winning car and still some people will still walk right past it in a feild of 1000 plus nice cars. Don't think there will be a single cubic inch of space not filled up trying to fit it all in, but trying to do as many things i can in new and inovative ways and get as many things that have been rolling around in my head for years off the paper and into steel. Next weekend i plan to trial section the green cab to see if any unforseen problems arise before i section the good cab.

[GR8-68]

very interesting build , interested in seeing the outcome of the chop myself, never seen a chop that big

[VA72C10]

Hope I didn't come off rude...definitely interested in seeing how this turns out. Like I said, chops aren't my first choice, but if every vehicle was the same it would be boring. Looking forward to the progress shots!

[foxhole]

i'm not real great with fancy computer stuff, i tried to figure out photoshop and epicly failed but managed to mash this out with microsoft paint. Pretty sure if i took my reference points right with the headlights representing 6 inches it should look kinda like this once the 10"chop 6"section 2.5 inch body drop and 14.5" from suspension were all applied if i were to hit my 37 inch target. Might end up at 38 or 40 but i'm gonna do my best to hit 37.

[OARNGESI]

Thats going yo look mean from the front are you making it a shortbed theres someone on hhere doing something similar with a 60=66

HERES THE ONE IM TALKING ABOUT http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=280904

[foxhole]

Originally Posted by OARNGESI

That's going yo look mean from the front are you making it a short bed there's someone on here doing something similar with a 60=66

HERES THE ONE IM TALKING ABOUT http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=280904

When i first got the idea i was planning a short box but as the plan evolved i decided to make it a phantom dually and proportionally the short box wouldn't work as well and I'd like to retain the wheelbase for handling purposes

[foxhole]

I stopped by the tire shop on my way into the shop this morning to see about some skins for mockup, was looking for some 29 inch tall 16's.
20 bucks cash(canaidian) got me 4 sacked out yokohamas 215/75/16's mounted on my freebee rusty crusty dually rims. They even came with some mystery goo on them that got all over me when i loaded them in my truck. They measure out at just over 29 tall by just over 18 wide when dualed up.
if i make it so these clear the final tires should have lots of space. Final tires will be 29x18 single rear tires.

also looks like my camera was upsidedown

[foxhole]

i pressure washed all the mystery goo off along with as much loose rust as i could and then slathered them up with three good coats of hot rod red.

[foxhole]

this is all some of the homework i brought with me back from the island to help the project along even though i cant be near thre truck. Gutted the fist new door, bottom is pretty solid and over all in good shape. Even had some super cool MUNTZ speakers.
Thinking i'm going to have to come up with some more stylish handles though. Thinking maybe 58 eldorado handles might be cool, they look like 60's musclecar handles but the lock is built in so you can shave the lock.

[foxhole]

one dent in the middle, some trauma around the door handle and the mirror was dinged in but not too bad over all.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

This thing is gonna be bad ass when its done..

[foxhole]

drilled out some spotwelds and seperated the door top today so it can be modified later and won't be in the way durring the chop.

[foxhole]

another weekend another trip to the island to work on mock up on the truck. brought with me the "ready stripped" fenders from the longhorn step side box i bought for doner fenders for the dually box. They looked more like they were ready to be stripped than ready stripped and also had a good size dent in the one side that wasn't mentioned when making the deal but whatever, they're workable. although since getting them i realized i won't be able to run as tall a tire as i had planned and still be able to get it as low as i want so some redesigning came into play. Also in the redesigning came up that the box side can't be lower than the dually fender so i had to start splitting hairs and seeing where i am willing to let stuff go and still get this thing as low as possible. With the fender sitting on the ground it will clear a 25 inch tall tire. as much as i would love to run a much taller tire i am not willing ton sacrifice much of my sectioning so 25 it is. that will let me run a 25 1/4 inch tall bedside which will still allow a 5 inch sectioning of the body, one inch less than planned.

[foxhole]

going from the 6 inch section down to the 5 inch section ment totally re laying out the whole thing. plan here is to do a trial section job on the green cab which is rusty before i do the real thing on the black cab which is less rusty. that way i can afford to learn something as i have never sectioned a vehical before. i stagered the section from the a to b pillars a bit so they fell where they worked out best. the cutlines will fall at 5 7/8 above the lower bodyline and 10 7/8 above the lower body line which will give them the same width when the panels come together.

[foxhole]

I'll be reworking the whole firewall so i zipped that out of the way to be able to better see what ill need to do and See real word clearances.

[foxhole]

i staggered the section a bit where it goes through the jamb and stepped it so i can keep the striker pocket stock. oh and i forgot to get reinforcement stock before i came over so i dredged up an old bed frame and chopped it up and braced it a bit.

[foxhole]

she was a touch tricky as i was all by myself so i cut all four corners mostly and then pushed up with my back and put a jack stand in each rear corner and put a jack under the dash and cut out all the extra and dropped it down and tacked it.

[foxhole]

have a few tapers to deal with but think I'm going to section the doors first to see which way it is best i take up the difference. no sense in going too far on the trial cab anyhow. my buddies welder seems to need attentions though so that's another reason to just tack, its got 035 in it and seems to free wheel a bit after you release the trigger and spit an extra 3 inches if wire out.