1972 Chevy 4wd Longhorn Project: Never Ending Changes

[brimc]

Awesome. Looks fantastic!

[Dieselwrencher]

Last weekend while driving to the field I was supposed to go to, I went the wrong way. There was a nice flat piece of new road, with no one around. So, Clint got to be in the truck for it's first real burn out! Sorry, no pics or vids of it. I did a few hard accelerations from a dead stop too. It will get pretty dumb if you keep in it. Dumb as in, those new tires will be gone asap. I didn't do much more of that, that rubba is expensive! On the proper way to the field, we drove by an old mill off a river. I had my 4yr old son with me and he said, "Dad, look at that water fall." I told him it wasn't a water fall but he didn't really get what it was. The field we went to was actually their last one, so we got done about sun down. I had enough time to drive to the mill and show Clint what it really was. He really liked standing over it and looking down. there is a nice bridge that goes over the water that was a service bridge for the mill years back. When the kids are a little older, I'll take them for a tour through it. Pretty cool place with great history.

[Dieselwrencher]

While at the farm we were at, I parked by an older small barn. There was a 200? buick century, and an 80's S10 easily viewed as I walked around the front of the truck to get Clint out. As I was walking back towards the front of the truck, I saw an old, old, car setting in the barn. I'm pretty sure it is a 1929 Whippet. My friend said that it has been setting for over 20yrs. He said it was the lady's husband's car of the farm. Josh said that the guy removed the carb to get rebuilt, and put the car up on blocks. He passed away shortly after that, and the car has sat just like that ever since. Pretty sad. It doesn't look like it's for sale either. The lady is 97 and she isn't sure if anyone in the family has any interest in it. I'll be stopping back at least once a year. What a coincidence.

[lower50's]

Wow so cool. If you could get that old car that be sweet.

[LT7A]

Good thread and great truck. Lots of information. Got a little sideways with 'brand vs. brand' there for a minute but you got it back on track. I think it's cool how you and your brothers work on stuff and share things. I have two brothers too, and they're great but we wouldn't quite be able to make it work as well as you guys do. I hope you can work of the last couple details on your truck and keep enjoying it. Chris

[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by LT7A

Good thread and great truck. Lots of information. Got a little sideways with 'brand vs. brand' there for a minute but you got it back on track. I think it's cool how you and your brothers work on stuff and share things. I have two brothers too, and they're great but we wouldn't quite be able to make it work as well as you guys do. I hope you can work of the last couple details on your truck and keep enjoying it. Chris

Thanks Chris! Yeah, the entire build and thread went off track a few times. All in good fun though.

I've been daily driving this thing for a month now. I really miss the cab space but still enjoy driving it. It is going to be hard to stop driving it but once the weather really changes and they start putting more junk on the roads, that will put a kink in my style.

Here's a pic of it doing work. Not a heavy load by any means.

[lower50's]

Glad you having fun driving it, that's what it's all about!!

[mosesburb]

Truck looks better with some dirt on it.

[Dieselwrencher]

I'm still dd'ing it. I need to get around to installing the grid heaters. It's been starting fine surprisingly with the single and low teen morning temps we've been having.

[CHIZZLER]

Love that truck. Awesome

[Dieselwrencher]

Thanks Chizzler.


Last weekend I used the truck to go get plywood, 2x4's and a new heater for the garage. Saturday they sprayed liquid rust all over the roads, and we got a little over an inch of snow. Monday morning it was 2* and it didn't want to start. I got the battery charger out and got it going but just let it stay put until some of this garbage is off the roads. I need to wire the grid heaters. It's going to be real cold on Sunday. I got another dodge done and gone. On to the next one. This 24v ran awesome.

[lower50's]

Nice term "liquid rust" they spray that stuff like they are washing the roads up here. 24V looks real nice.

[Dieselwrencher]

This weekend I went and got some wood for some projects. Too bad this white stuff was everywhere. I need to wash it now.

[Dieselwrencher]

The truck keeps doing well. I've got to get my 95 F350 done enough because I want to take the bed off this and get it finished before June. It'll be making parts of the Power Tour in June. For now, I've just been racking up the miles using and enjoying it. It has me spoiled. I won't want to drive the stock powerstroke for long at all. Haha

[lower50's]

Ya it's funny how we like driving the old trucks better than the new ones. Could be because we give them more power or because we built them and put our heart and souls into them. I think both.

[fakerwade]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

The truck keeps doing well. I've got to get my 95 F350 done enough because I want to take the bed off this and get it finished before June. It'll be making parts of the Power Tour in June. For now, I've just been racking up the miles using and enjoying it. It has me spoiled. I won't want to drive the stock powerstroke for long at all. Haha

Imagine that,,, someone actually driving their finished truck!! (weirdo!!) Don't you know that your supposed to put that truck in your garage and only take it out to go to CAR SHOWS!!! I love seeing these trucks actually driving around,,,being used!! Excellent job Ryan.

[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by fakerwade

Imagine that,,, someone actually driving their finished truck!! (weirdo!!) Don't you know that your supposed to put that truck in your garage and only take it out to go to CAR SHOWS!!! I love seeing these trucks actually driving around,,,being used!! Excellent job Ryan.

Thanks. I haven't driven it in a few weeks. Had a little steering issue that will need resolved. So until I get the time to tackle that, it just sets behind the garage. And I don't know if this truck will ever be, uhm, finished.

[7dee2]

Ha, I'll second the weirdo part who does that? Sorry to hear the truck is on time out for behaving badly.

[Dieselwrencher]

A few weeks ago I got the steering issue resolved. The studs for the steering block broke. 3 out of 4 of them. This time around I put on the skyjacker drop drag link and no steering block. The truck drives totally different. The studs must have been flexing the entire time before 2 broke, then the last. Now, the rear could use a sway bar. I'm working on that now. I'm thinking about putting a square body one up front too. Soon I hope to get the bed off but I'm waiting on the blaster. Plus I've been using the truck a lot too.

I'm trying to decide if I want to try to do the tail light filler or locate another aluminum fuel door and cut a hole in the bed side. I'm hoping I can make the tail light filler work.

I removed the throttle pedal last week and shortened it. I also had to make some adjustments to my shift linkage. Drive was in the low position of the factory column. It is much more comfortable to drive now.

[kehstr]

Glad to see the truck getting used! Let me know if you go the aluminum fuel door route, a buddy of mine has a couple in MINT shape that I'm sure I can talk him out of

[7dee2]

[Mad Mazdawg]

So I just joined today & came across your thread tonight. 94 pages wow! So I couldn't go through all of them this evening (have to get some sleep b4 work tomorrow HAHA) BUT....I checked out page 1 to see what you started with then cheated & skipped ahead to page 94. Is the Orange "finished product" on pg.94 the same green one on pg.1??? Anyway clean Chev my man & I'll get around to reading through all 94 pages eventually. ;-)

[Dieselwrencher]

Mad Mazdawg, welcome to the board! Yeah, the thread has been a saga you could say. Yep, the green truck on page 1 was the original truck. I've retained the doors, glove box door, frame rails, and some hardware from it. The rest is new, and or new to it and rebuilt. It's been an adventure. Haha

[mcbassin]

Nice upgrade to the steering Ryan. Keep plugging along, eventually you have it just the way you want it.

[Dieselwrencher]

Last week I logged on to the Goodguy's website to pre register for the show here in Des Moines Iowa. I was surprised to see the Longhorn is in a picture for the Des Moines event. It is right behind the Willys. Pretty cool that it made it in a pic considering how many cars and trucks cruise down Grand Ave those 3 days!

https://www.good-guys.com/hln-2017