Not Another Rebuild Thread....

[piratexpress1369a]

very very cool ..did you think about doing the tail gate also ? red ?

[Low Elco]

Not nice to tease! That's gonna be neat!

[1963c-10]

Great work on the grill and support. Can't wait to see the finished product.

[Ta2Don]

Originally Posted by markeb01

The boundaries of your imagination boggle my mind! Very impressive, looking forward to the finished result for sure! I'm great at copying ideas. I can even improve on them. But thinking up stuff out of thin air has never been one of my gifts. Keep it up!

and what an AWESOME IDEA!!!

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by markeb01

The boundaries of your imagination boggle my mind! Very impressive, looking forward to the finished result for sure! I'm great at copying ideas. I can even improve on them. But thinking up stuff out of thin air has never been one of my gifts. Keep it up!

Thank you Mark, I guess with equal parts imagination, determination, and opportunity; anything is possible.

Originally Posted by piratexpress1369a

very very cool ..did you think about doing the tail gate also ? red ?

Yes.
Right now that is all I am going to say about that !!

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Not nice to tease! That's gonna be neat!

Thanks Low Elco... hope you like what comes next...

Originally Posted by 1963c-10

Great work on the grill and support. Can't wait to see the finished product.

It is coming, I promise.
Just had to give myself a head start because it is quicker to post photos than it is to make progress and I knew some of you would be really digging this and spanning weeks between these photos seemed unfair to you all.

[QUOTE=Ta2Don;6401623] and what an AWESOME IDEA!!!QUOTE]
Thank you Don, hope you like !!


*****************************************************************************************

My loving wife went into Fairbanks and looked high and low and could not find any colored clear coat, like the Night Shades line. I was at the local hardware store a few days later and saw this Krylon Fusion for plastics and gave it a try.
It certainly laid down nice:


Sometimes stock is just fine, but then you look at other stuff and think, I dont like that.... so I made a new center support for my grill merely because the stock one was too wide of a profile behind my grill.

You will also note that mine will screw to the face.


My light box ended up being a 3 piece shown here with the LED strip lights already glued in:

And lit up for you of course:

[McMurphy]

Here is the light box installed (thumb tight only) You may notice my end support/mounting brackets on each side. I drilled the face to take square nylon set nuts. I am going to sleeve the mounting screws with rubber vacuum hose to provide some back pressure, and with this grill mounted soild to the Face at the center, these end mounts will not only stabilze the grill, but with the nylon nuts, and the rubber sleeves, give me 4 points of adjustment to (hopefully) ensure proper alignment with the head light doors. I mean it just would not do to have all this work, and not have my grill look as much like one piece as possible.


And a close up of the center junction where my wires all come out:

[McMurphy]

Here it is all lit up for you guys.


This is only with one set of the LED strips, though I got two sets; one to run along the top of the letters, and one along the bottom.
I realize these look plenty bright enough on camera, inside my dark and frozen garage, but I think out in the sunshine ( ya not in Alaska ) the second set will be worth it.


If in the end they are too bright, where the letters are unintelligible due to the light diffusion, then I will install a remote controlled dimmer my neighbor showed me for LEDs.

At the end of the day I am pretty pleased with the way this phase of the project turned out, and as smoothly as it went.
Cutting out all those letters with my dremmel tool took a solid 7 hours from start to finish, to include the purchase of a set of mini files to clean up some of the tighter letter bodies and corners.

The light box has been set aside now awaiting final install as I work up other phases of this project.

As always, thanks for looking guys !!
I appreciate all the comments, and if you think I am just silly or mad as a hatter that is Ok too !!

[Ta2Don]

Murph…. Dude….

All I can say is...

[Bomp]

Cutting sometiN' up to make it KooLer!

Dude. I LiKe iT!

[bj383ss]

Wow 7 hours of cutting. That is brutal. Worth the effort in the end though. Looks awesome.

Bret

[jamesrussell26]

Love it murph

[RestoringClassics]

OH MY GOODNESS!!! Murph that front grill looks fantastic! what a great and original idea... do you mind if I steal it?! WOW just WOW....

[Low Elco]

That is TRICK! Tastefully done, too. Me likey!

[1963c-10]

Right on....that looks great.

[piratexpress1369a]

that is killer ..way to go ...LOVE IT

[clemdaddy]

i agree... you've hit another one over the fence.

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Murph…. Dude….

All I can say is...

Thanks Don, that is how I felt about your steering wheel. You did such a killer job on it that I am stil thinking about it, and considering revisiting mine since it isnt bolted on yet....
....but then.... I still have a spare one I sectioned up to make smaller like TheAstronaut did.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......

Originally Posted by Bomp

Cutting sometiN' up to make it KooLer!
Dude. I LiKe iT!

Thanks Greg, guess it is getting chilly down there again huh?

Originally Posted by bj383ss

Wow 7 hours of cutting. That is brutal. Worth the effort in the end though. Looks awesome.
Bret

Yeah it was certainly patience and labor intensive, then going back over it all with the mini-files to get some nooks and corners just so, but in the end I really like how it turned out.
So totally worth the effort involved !!!

Originally Posted by jamesrussell26

Love it murph

Thank you sir, been keeping up with your updates too !

Originally Posted by RestoringClassics

OH MY GOODNESS!!! Murph that front grill looks fantastic! what a great and original idea... do you mind if I steal it?! WOW just WOW....

I would be amazed if you stole this idea man, the work you do is incredible and top notch !!
I could only imagine how you would do it, and what you would do to improve on my process so steal away sir !

Originally Posted by Low Elco

That is TRICK! Tastefully done, too. Me likey!

Thanks Low Elco, hope it was worth the wait and the teasers.....

Originally Posted by 1963c-10

Right on....that looks great.

Thank you

Originally Posted by piratexpress1369a

that is killer ..way to go ...LOVE IT

Glad you like it, I know you keep looking.

Originally Posted by clemdaddy

i agree... you've hit another one over the fence.

I just want mine to be so different from everyone elses I guess.
Another side project has just borne some progress thanks to my good buddy Jay that I absolutely cannot wait to share with you guys !!
You think this is past the fence, wait till you see what Jay has been cooking up for me! You are either going to roll your eyes, or blow coffee all over the computer..... I promise.

[laynrockers]

Murph you are a madman!! What a cool idea with the grill Keep it up man. MEanwhile i have several more pages of your build to dig through. Man you popular guys keep me busy with all the reading lol

[Jeff La]

Love it

[likaroc13]

Lookin' good Murph! The lighted letters look really cool in the dark, & I'm interested to see how they work out in daylight. Stay warm, & keep up the good work.

[Zane M]

Fantastic!

[Grizz1963]

Updates like these make me realize why you live in North Pole and get all the crap weather....... So you can think out and complete builds like this.

Absolutely awesome Michael.

Thanks for sharing.

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by laynrockers

Murph you are a madman!! What a cool idea with the grill Keep it up man. MEanwhile i have several more pages of your build to dig through. Man you popular guys keep me busy with all the reading lol

Thanks, hope you find something you like in all that back reading.

Originally Posted by Jeff La

Love it

Thanks for looking

Originally Posted by likaroc13

Lookin' good Murph! The lighted letters look really cool in the dark, & I'm interested to see how they work out in daylight. Stay warm, & keep up the good work.

Yes daylight is going to be the challenge, but the truck will be closer (much closer) to finished before I will take it off the dollys and get it outside for that. On that day it will be a walk around video though....

Originally Posted by Zane M

Fantastic!

glad you like it man !!

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

Updates like these make me realize why you live in North Pole and get all the crap weather....... So you can think out and complete builds like this. Absolutely awesome Michael.
Thanks for sharing.

I guess there is a silver lining for every cloud if you look hard enough for it

I have some more photos I need to post up, and I have 2/3 of a video shot to compile, but I am working on some necessary electrical right now to really do the last third of the video up right for you guys.

As always, thanks for looking and commenting it really goes a long way to keep me motivated (and my thread updated)

[NEWFISHER]

That grille/led idea is the coolest out of the box mod I have seen. Awesome job!

[flips72]

grille is awesome, that's going to look great coming down the road, I was wondering though, if you hold a piece of florescent fishing line in front of the letters in the dark, does it glow? if it does I need to do this to my fishing truck, the guys in our local bass club would flip. great idea