85 GMC Sierra "Scarlett"

[N2TRUX]

With the tubs installed we still needed a battery tray to get her fired up and test things out. I knew that she would crank, but thats it. I got an overnight package from Mike Losh with the battery tray mounting brackets. The Slosh Tubz require you to use a 73-80 style tray, with custom brackets. Mike had designed a prototype, and they arrived just in time. I had to do a bit of on site trimming, but the fit well and look excellent. One side bolts in the factory holes on the fender, and the other side uses existing holes and captured nuts. We chose to drill and tap instead.

[N2TRUX]

In between our late night sessions I was working on the core support. I had wanted to paint the top of the core support red to match the inner fenders. I had given up on having time to do so until my buddies agreed to paint the tubz and panels. By getting up at 4:00 AM I was able to work on that. If you follow my Instagram feed you already know this blew up on me.

I overloaded the filler primer with wet coats and it bleed down to some older paint. The reaction was massive and had to be scraped off before sanding and stripping. The process took several early morning sessions, but I finally got it smooth again. I sealed it with a few coats of epoxy sealer and let it cure.

I came in early again to spray color and clear. As Im pulling supplies off the shelf I realize my hardener has started to gel. With no time to spare I had to use reducer to thin the hardener down and make it work. It all went well till the final wet coat of clear. The reducer created tiny solvent pop pinholes. I was beyond frustrated, but no time to repair. This will be sanded and re-cleared later.

[N2TRUX]

With the battery in place, I could finish routing the A/C lines. We gently bent and adjusted them as best we could to improve the flow. From there it was finishing up all the small details on wiring and hoses. We fired her up and heat cycled the motor several times to allow the paint to bake on.

[aggie91]

She turned out great! It was good to talk to you again and get caught up so to speak. Tell Chris it was good to meet him and we enjoyed talking to him too! Maybe I can have mine and Owen's ready for C10's in the Park this year.

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by aggie91

She turned out great! It was good to talk to you again and get caught up so to speak. Tell Chris it was good to meet him and we enjoyed talking to him too! Maybe I can have mine and Owen's ready for C10's in the Park this year.

As always it was a pleasure to spend time chatting. I would love to see you and Owen roll in the park this year with your builds.

[N2TRUX]

Thursday was a mad marathon to get Scarlett on the ground. I had a full day at work then had to go pick up the trailer from my brother in law Roger. After a quick visit I was back on the road.

From there I went by Discount Tire to pick up the rear wheels and a set of spline drive lug nuts. My Relaxed brother Jason is the store manager on 2920 in Spring. If you need a good deal on tires with great service stop by and he will fix you up.

Somehow with all my research and careful measuring I had missed my mark on the backspace. I wanted the rear wheels to have as much depth as possible and not be tucked too far in. I slightly miscalculated and they ended up being to close for my comfort. They would clear, but I was concerned they might rub. Jason sent them out to have the mounting pad machined down and saved my ass in the process.

I headed home to meet Chris and see if we could make this happen. We installed the rear wheels with the correct lug nuts and checked for clearance. It was still tight, but much better now so we could move on with out trimming the inner lip.

With the rear on the ground it was time to move back to the front. Chris had reinstalled the battery tray and mounted the battery in place. We double checked our grounds and test fired again. My buddy Keith had made it in from Dallas so he and Chris worked under the hood while I installed the last of the trim pieces in the interior.

[Precision Parts]

It was good to see you again Ken. Scarlett turned out great. I sent a few customers over there to check out our weatherstrip so it was great to have you so close to us.

See you at C10's in the park!

- Derek

[rustytruck50]

Soooo.....anything new in store for Scarlett now that you made it to LST? Looks great as is, but just the short time I've followed your posts, I know better than to think you are done!

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by Precision Parts

It was good to see you again Ken. Scarlett turned out great. I sent a few customers over there to check out our weatherstrip so it was great to have you so close to us. See you at C10's in the park! Derek

As always you and Precision Replacement Parts are a pleasure to work with. I'm looking forward to visiting again at C10s in the park.

Originally Posted by rustytruck50

Soooo.....anything new in store for Scarlett now that you made it to LST? Looks great as is, but just the short time I've followed your posts, I know better than to think you are done!

Actually there are a couple of things going on with her. After we finish up minor details under the hood, I am moving back inside the cab.

Derek Churchyard and I discussed an issue I was unaware of on my vent window installs. It appears all the trucks I have recently owned had the exterior seal installed incorrectly. I "assumed" the outside gasket should be to the outside because mine were all that way. Derek showed me the correct way to install them so I plan to do a segment on correcting that issue. Of course pics will be included

[N2TRUX]

At Lonestar Throwdown the American Racing booth was in good company. We were very close to Precision Replacement Parts and Slosh Tubz display.

We were directly across from Kicker Car Audio booth. On Saturday Tim Smith came over from the Kicker booth to take a look at Scarlett. He had been following her build on Instagram and wanted to see her up close.

I was away from the booth so Chris introduced himself and they chatted about the project.

Tim is a project designer for Kicker competition vehicles. He asked what we planned to do for an audio system and I explained time had run short so we didn't have a a finished system.
Tim was gracious enough to spend a great lengths of time giving a personal tour of the Kicker booth and suggesting several new products that might fit our needs. He was extremely knowledgeable and very patient with all of our questions.
Chris and I were amazed at PX waterproof series designed for marine, ATV, side by side and motorcycle applications. It's compact size allows it to fit virtually any application.
Tim gave us plenty of options to consider and offered to help us design a system for Scarlett. He was kind enough to introduce us to their Marketing and advertising manager.
I will be discussing that along with an announcement soon. Stay tuned, this just keeps getting better

[TKCR]

Originally Posted by N2TRUX

At Lonestar Throwdown the American Racing booth was in good company. We were very close to Precision Replacement Parts and Slosh Tubz display.

We were directly across from Kicker Car Audio booth. On Saturday Tim Smith came over from the Kicker booth to take a look at Scarlett. He had been following her build on Instagram and wanted to see her up close.

I was away from the booth so Chris introduced himself and they chatted about the project.

Tim is a project designer for Kicker competition vehicles. He asked what we planned to do for an audio system and I explained time had run short so we didn't have a a finished system.
Tim was gracious enough to spend a great lengths of time giving a personal tour of the Kicker booth and suggesting several new products that might fit our needs. He was extremely knowledgeable and very patient with all of our questions.
Chris and I were amazed at PX waterproof series designed for marine, ATV, side by side and motorcycle applications. It's compact size allows it to fit virtually any application.
Tim gave us plenty of options to consider and offered to help us design a system for Scarlett. He was kind enough to introduce us to their Marketing and advertising manager.
I will be discussing that along with an announcement soon. Stay tuned, this just keeps getting better

Sounds like it going to be something cool!!

[rustytruck50]

Originally Posted by N2TRUX

As always you and Precision Replacement Parts are a pleasure to work with. I'm looking forward to visiting again at C10s in the park.
Actually there are a couple of things going on with her. After we finish up minor details under the hood, I am moving back inside the cab.

Derek Churchyard and I discussed an issue I was unaware of on my vent window installs. It appears all the trucks I have recently owned had the exterior seal installed incorrectly. I "assumed" the outside gasket should be to the outside because mine were all that way. Derek showed me the correct way to install them so I plan to do a segment on correcting that issue. Of course pics will be included

Well, I'll be looking forward to that...Scarlett is in plenty capable hands and the audio upgrades should be equally interesting!

[UKNOWME]

Originally Posted by N2TRUX

Somehow with all my research and careful measuring I had missed my mark on the backspace. I wanted the rear wheels to have as much depth as possible and not be tucked too far in. I slightly miscalculated and they ended up being to close for my comfort. They would clear, but I was concerned they might rub. Jason sent them out to have the mounting pad machined down and saved my ass in the process

What backspace did you order and what should you have ordered?

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by UKNOWME

What backspace did you order and what should you have ordered?

I am running 10.5" wheels with 5 1/8 backspace I should have gone with at least 5 1/4"

[N2TRUX]

Great video from #lonestarthrowdown 2017 by @escolens_media featuring @n2trux.com build #scarlett in the @americanracing booth

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRTRC99gZ-_/

[rustytruck50]

Cool video...I was looking on YouTube the other day at the LST coverage and missed this...

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by rustytruck50

Cool video...I was looking on YouTube the other day at the LST coverage and missed this...

I believe this one is new.

[N2TRUX]

Can y'all keep a secret? Dont tell anyone but Scarlett is getting singing lessons and she doesn't want everyone to know about them just yet. As soon as the details are finalized, she will share with all her friends.

[TKCR]

Originally Posted by N2TRUX

Can y'all keep a secret? Dont tell anyone but Scarlett is getting singing lessons and she doesn't want everyone to know about them just yet. As soon as the details are finalized, she will share with all her friends.

That's funny!! I can only imagine what this means

[rustytruck50]

...pretty sure I know....

[N2TRUX]

At Lonestar Throwdown Chris and I met Tim Smith from Kicker Car Audio. It turns out he had been following Scarlett's build on my feed. Tim is the
Special Ops Technician and Fabricator
at Stillwater Designs/KICKER Car Audio and loves custom cars and trucks.

Chris mentioned that Scarlett didn't have a real audio system yet and he asked our plans. He gave us a personal tour of the Kicker booth and suggested several options.

Since then we have been working with Tim and the marketing department to put together a system.

We have created a system that fits perfectly with this build. It will have the latest in Kicker Car Audio components integrated in a way that doesn't distract from the classic good looks of the restored interior.

Stay tuned for Scarlett's singing lessons.

[Low Elco]

Awesome! Can't wait to see what's next. BTW, Your old truck now has a Pioneer/JL Audio/Kenwood/Focal/Dayton Audio system in it good for 1360 watts. Only thing you see is the HU.

[Low Elco]

Also, please integrate that Bluetooth thing they have for a HU, I'd like to hear a review on it. I have the Kicker counter top BT radio and while the sound is great, the BT sucks to put it nicely. The Pioneer in the truck has excellent BT.

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Awesome! Can't wait to see what's next. BTW, Your old truck now has a Pioneer/JL Audio/Kenwood/Focal/Dayton Audio system in it good for 1360 watts. Only thing you see is the HU.

I assume you are referring to the 84 Sierra. Sounds like quite the combination now. We utilized the existing components and optimizedthem with the Kenwood powered sub, 6x9s and 3x5s. It was a clean little system but certainly had room for improvement.

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Also, please integrate that Bluetooth thing they have for a HU, I'd like to hear a review on it. I have the Kicker counter top BT radio and while the sound is great, the BT sucks to put it nicely. The Pioneer in the truck has excellent BT.

We plan to try something a bit different on this install. I know that Blue Tooth is very popular but there are those like myself that don't store a lot of music on their phone.
To compensate I'm going to utilize the Kicker KMC20 Media Center. It does have Blue Tooth capability as well as AM/FM and Sirius capabilities. It is a 200w receiver that will power the front end. It has great reviews from consumers and installers as well, so I think it will be a good choice.