The Strange build thread

[Strange]

Yay first build thread ever

Made some nice and not so nice discoveries today! Under all the grime and seemingly misplaced RTV I found a 600cfm 4bbl manual choke Edelbrock carburetor perched on top of a Edelbrock intake manifold! Woo! I also discovered that the bell-housing is not bolted to the block all the way, and that two torque converter bolts are missing.Boo! Everything seems to be held together with RTV and JB Weld

Its all good as I had planned to rebuild/refurbish every mechanical aspect of the truck anyways. Im not sure what the mindset of the previous owner was but the remote switch box for the airbags tells me it was going to be one of those "jumping" trucks (if people still do that?!). My first goal was to check the transmission operation by driving it after the kick down cable was replaced but seeing as how everything is just sorta floating around down there I may just start the tear down process now.

Im still undecided on what to do with the cab atm. Build it a topless cruiser or find a new cab with a roof? After tear it down I will be correctly c-notching the rear end, which will take some fabrication since the back half of my frame is gone. I will also add a Z up front! I will lay frame. After that it needs a wiring harness, interior, paint, ect. I cant wait to kick start this project.

[Strange]

As you can see the rear bag setup is a disaster. The bags are misaligned by a mile at least. The cab and dash are pretty rough, I may buy another cab and forget this whole topless idea.

[jd4300fel]

i think the topless idea if done correctly could be cool at the very least different. i say at this point you have nothing but options

[QKENUF4U]

man talk about hacked up.... good luck

[Strange]

A while back we had a customer come in wanting us to make some prototype exhaust tips for his new Nissan GT-R. About a week into his project he bailed out and will not return our calls. Good thing he paid the $2500.00 up front I also got one hell of a ride in his car!

They are almost finished and could make a killer through body exhaust tip! The material started out as a forty pound 6x6x10 block of aluminum. The almost finished tips now only weigh 5.5 pounds. This one is eight inches long and six inches deep. Thats our new CnC lathe in the background!

[Strange]

I have been pretty busy lately, and haven't had time for tinkering. I did manage to get the engine and tranny pulled out today. Tomorrow the cab is coming off and the frame work begins!

[68laydout]

Sweet, keep us posted. Sent you a pm.

[Strange]

Got the cab off! Check out how crooked the previous owner welded his terrible frame step up Good thing all that stuff is getting cut off and redone Isnt K.I.T.T. awesome? One of our R2-D2 customers is building one and he drove it up to our machine shop. It has a full replica interior and everything. I may build one of those next I would have to change the name of our shop to Knight Industries!!

[Strange]

Its been a busy week! Got the frame Z'd and all that garbage cut off the rear of the frame& axle The welding work from the previous owner is one of the most pathetic things I have ever seen. He welded some bag brackets on the axle, the welds were massive and I expected some difficulty getting them off but that wasnt the case. I hit the first one once with a sledge and the entire thing popped off in one piece. Upon inspection only about one half inch of his weld had actually penetrated the axle and it was barley on there. The second one took two hits Please people, if you cannot weld dont weld.

Its really scary how this truck was thrown together, here is a tally of how many bolts were left out/loose and what was broken.

Cab bolts/ nuts---\zero

Engine mounts---two of three & both were finger tight on both sides

Bell housing---six,all of which were loose, the tranny was a half inch away from the block and not even on the guide pins

Flywheel---three of however many and its cracked almost all the way around

Torque converter---one

Transmission crossmember mount---one and extremely loose

transmission crossmember---two and again very loose

front spindles---both upper and lower crown nuts were finger tight on both sides and had no cotter-pins.

Upper a-arm mounts--- two for two on both sides all were finger tight


Its scary that not only was someone willing to sell a vehicle this way(I planned on a frame off from the start) but before the decision came to sell the truck the previous owner was going to drive it this way. People never cease to amaze me. There is a massive gap from what this fella did and the right way to have it done.


There is a killer deal on a complete front suspension and crossmember thats fully assembled and never used on craigslist, if the man calls me back I will be out to buy it tomorrow morning!

[truckdude239]

wow is all i can say about that frame !!!!

[Strange]

Thanks Truckdude

Well the guy with the suspension parts called me back and I will be on my way to Ft.Worth tomorrow morning!

The list of what im buying!
CPP tubular upper a arms, ECE 3 inch drop spindles, ECE 2 inch drop springs,braided brake hoses, new rotors, new control arm bushings and cross shafts, rear ECE drop springs, ECE adjustable panhard bar, ECE shock relocator brackets, Urethane ball joint and tie rod end boots, drop front shocks, new ball joints, used power steering box and a swaybar! All the forward suspension components are fully assembled on a crossmember and are all new.

The guy bought his truck at an auction and it turned out it had a lean on it! He had already torn the truck down for modification and spent a ton of money on new parts when he found this out. The dmv told him that the lean holder could come reclaim the truck at any time with no questions asked so he decided to part it out. Sweet deal for me

I will probably sell the springs, the panhard bar and maybe the swaybar.

[Strange]

oooo new parts! The guy gave me two brand new chrome threshold plates

[spike38]

Let me know what you want for the panhard bar and the swaybar

Spike