Not Another Rebuild Thread....

[faribran]

those emblems are over the top..... the talent on this site ... WOW

[McMurphy]

Ok you all posted too many replies for me to respond to !!
All I can say is thank you for all the compliments, which I truely have to share with Jay, as it was only my idea but his talents that made those as nice as they are.


Back a few pages I started talking about the face of my truck, and I started with the grill mods, and talked lightly about the hide aways, well it is time to address those now we are past the emblems mini-hijack.

I started with 69 Mercury Cougar light boxes as they were low profile, and cheap on Ebay.


As you can see in these next 3 pics, I had planned on using as much of them as possible with heavy modifications done to them. I was hoping to keep them as modular as possible to cut down on any shade tree engineering.






Sadly I came to realize that in order to keep the integrity of the CHEVROLET letters that I wanted to light up, I was not going to be able to use those 15" wide doors and light boxes.

[McMurphy]

As I have already shown, I needed a consistant platform to work with to get these lights right, and the center section of the grill support as it comes stock is not a level and easy surface to work with, so out it came and in went my version.


I was attempting to be clever about cutting the sheet metal, and keeping it all as one piece as possible, but as I learned later the backward sweep of the doors would require the headlights themselves to ride much further forward than I had anticipated.



Here you can see the Cougar doors, now shortened by 5" resting in place as I am getting my mind wrapped around this.



And the p-side door section of the grill also resting in place.



This was a very slow and careful process for me on this aspect of the project as it turned out to not be easy for me to accomplish.
By the time of this photo I was already one month into this particular modification......

[Ta2Don]

Hey Murph, those mods may be slow going, but IMO, Well worth it!!!

Adds to the factor!!!

[Jeff La]

One month, holy ****, but it looks great so far LOL

[piratexpress1369a]

keep at you will solve the problem

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Hey Murph, those mods may be slow going, but IMO, Well worth it!!!
Adds to the factor!!!

Thanks Don, glad to know you are never bored looking at my build

Originally Posted by Jeff La

One month, holy ****, but it looks great so far LOL

LoL.... it was a month into it when those photos were taken. So far this project/part of my build has taken me 3 months to date.

Originally Posted by piratexpress1369a

keep at you will solve the problem

Oh.... heh heh ..... I solved it alright !!
I just have to post the photos now....

[Low Elco]

Post the pics! Post the pics! Post the pics! Unfreeze your hands, and Post the pics!

[McMurphy]

Ok the next step of progress that I guess was photo worthy, but about two weeks later, was marrying up the doors with their sections of grill.


This was a lot of check and double check to ensure I would have the doors and grill sections positioned correctly because it would not be cool to find out I couldn't pull this off...


Then two more weeks after that, this was what the face looked like with my reverse engineered light boxes and the Cougar hardware, though minus the Honda Prelude actuators.
This is just before I started shooting paint....

Which brings us up to the 19th of November...

[Low Elco]

Ok, now you're just being a tease. Give a little, take a little back, give a little, take a little back.

[piratexpress1369a]

your right on that low elco he is teasing us ...come on its christmas mcmurphy lol

[duallyjams]

Table of content is the best cure for a rainy day.

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Ok, now you're just being a tease. Give a little, take a little back, give a little, take a little back.

I think this is the first time a guy has called me a tease....not sure how comfortable I am with that...
Trust me, it is better this way.
Given the amount of time I invested in this, and the spans between workable/acceptable progress were so lengthy that it would have been less humane to post it as I achieved it.

Originally Posted by piratexpress1369a

your right on that low elco he is teasing us ...come on its christmas mcmurphy lol

Just hang in there Pirate, when all is said and done, it will be well worth it.
I am not Peter Jackson after all....

Originally Posted by duallyjams

Table of content is the best cure for a rainy day.

Thanks for mentioning that, I need to update mine....hint received !!

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A couple of noteworthy mods that were needed for this to work, and I think should be shared:
These are the cutouts into my inner fenders I had to make in order to clearance the door actuators.

At the end of the day it turned out to be much less than I had anticipated; the majority of the headlight assembly is below the fenders, and is accessed from the wheel wells.
I am totally cool with that, just have to figure some way to baffle it from tire spray.



Since a large part of my grill support bracing was removed to accomodate the head lights, I made these to suppliment the support.

[McMurphy]

Just some more of the brace-brackets I made.










This is with the actual light buckets welded in, the doors added on, and ready for a fitting on the front of the truck to test the fender cuts, and to guage what the light beam aiming would look like....

[Bomp]

hmmmmm, interesting,.... very interesting.

Are these operated by electric or vacuum? I see some wires but not sure if they are for the lights.

Cool man.

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by Bomp

hmmmmm, interesting,.... very interesting.
Are these operated by electric or vacuum? I see some wires but not sure if they are for the lights.
Cool man.

Electric.
Everything I read, from Cougars, to Lincolns, to GTOs all said the same thing about the vacuum. They wear out unevenly, and over time you get the "lazy eye" effect where one will open/close faster than the other.
I wanted to avoid that, plus manage an easy exchange/swap of a worn actuator if need be.
As you will see in future posts, I think I have achieved that.
I tried to not allow for any consideration to go unexplored in this mod, which I may say added greatly to the extended amount of time it took.....

[TJ's Chevy]

You got some nice fabbing skills!

[theastronaut]

Wow! Been catching up on your progress and I'm blown away at your creativity, plus your ability to make your ideas turn into reality!! Can't wait to see how the grill and headlights turn out!

[chad64chevy]

looks great mcmurphy, cant wait to see it all together with the chevrolet lite up! also just wanted to say merry Christmas and stay warm up there

[piratexpress1369a]

that looks cool ..as to the cut out you did .can you weld in some steel or use a truck mud flap to help with the spray ..just my 2 cents

[markeb01]

Truly mind blowing. I love the creative engineering and dedication to sticking to it and taking your time. To my knowledge you'll be the only guy on the planet with this setup on a 60-66. Very cool!!

[Ta2Don]

Originally Posted by markeb01

Truly mind blowing. I love the creative engineering and dedication to sticking to it and taking your time. To my knowledge you'll be the only guy on the planet with this setup on a 60-66. Very cool!!

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by T.J. MCCAULEY

You got some nice fabbing skills!

Thank you TJ, I read your thread religiously you know....

Originally Posted by theastronaut

Wow! Been catching up on your progress and I'm blown away at your creativity, plus your ability to make your ideas turn into reality!! Can't wait to see how the grill and headlights turn out!

Ok .... well Wow back at ya!!
I am honored by your sentiments, as I am ever and consistantly in awe of your work. I can honestly say that everything I have done to my truck I learned from this site, and your thread in particular.
Thank you for all the inspiration, and the little "how to"s you put on your threads. It helps me to look past what I dont have, and accomplish with what I do have.

Originally Posted by chad64chevy

looks great mcmurphy, cant wait to see it all together with the chevrolet lite up! also just wanted to say merry Christmas and stay warm up there

Soon buddy....soon.
Just keep checking in on me here LoL

Originally Posted by piratexpress1369a

that looks cool ..as to the cut out you did .can you weld in some steel or use a truck mud flap to help with the spray ..just my 2 cents

I was kind of leaning towards a mudflap sort of thing, or some form of inner fender. Just not sure yet.....

Originally Posted by markeb01

Truly mind blowing. I love the creative engineering and dedication to sticking to it and taking your time. To my knowledge you'll be the only guy on the planet with this setup on a 60-66. Very cool!!

That is exactly why I had Jay make me up those Custom Emblems!!
I thought it would be fun to tease the next couple generations of gear heads with a peek at an ultra rare SS pickup truck.... LoL
It is going to be a serious bout of "Old Bull vs Young Bull" Heheheheheh

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Guessing I left you speachless...

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So then, of course, the next step was a mock up of the face mounted on the front of the truck. On my garage door I laid a strip of tape that measured from the floor to the center of my head lights, and level. I imagined if I could do a mechanical "zero" of the light beams, it would give me an idea of how much adjustment for proper aiming I would need. After all, those aiming screws only have so much they can do....

I realize everything looks like it droops off to the right in this photo, sorry about that.


I just hastily rigged up my headlight harness to power the lamps for these photos. Which I hope explains the battery on the milk crate...


A little further out from the garage, loooking less cock-eyed I think...


Without any adjustments, this was my beam placement down my drive. keeping in mind there is a 1-2% down slope here.


Well with that looking to be within acceptable parameters, it was off to the next phase of this project.....
..... the air dam and fog lights.

(que music.....and.....fade)

LoL Merry Christmas you guys !!

[duallyjams]

I thought you were making a diehard battery commercial

[Modges'66]

Dude!.. Lookin super-sweet!!!
Merry Christmas!