When I was very young I got an infection, you know the one I'm talking about. The smell of gas and exhaust gets you excited, turbos, superchargers loud exhaust makes your heart beat to the point of explosion. It's incurable; once you have it it'll NEVER go away.
I got this disease from my grandpa "Willy", he had been around cars forever, was a judge for the world of wheels for longer than I have been alive. Grandpa was always off the beaten path though, when the popular cars to hotrod were the Chevy’s and Fords, grandpa was knee deep in Chrysler, Olds, Buick and Studebakers. And man was he good at it. Grandpa could look into these cars and pull out the true potential, which usually took more than a nice paint job and sweet wheels......more like several years or re-shaping it into what he saw in his mind’s eye.
I was exposed to more creativity.....or madness depending on your view point then any young child should have been. Maybe I don't have a disease, maybe a better turn is an epidemic......Hotrods, road racing, drag racing, rat rods choppers custom fabrication and welding all melded into one sick little disease......implanted in my brain, yup epidemic. Grandpa went to be with the Lord a few months back, yeah it’s just a car, but I'm building it for him for all the memories, lessons and skill he gave me while here on earth.
Thank you Grandpa.
Now to give you an idea for what is in store. I am married and a full-time college student so money isn't a free flowing commodity. That being said I have a lot of connections, and I work for a steel company, I have been a fabricator professionally for over 5 years and a garage professional way before that.
Body is going to be a 52' Chevy cab, fenderless with a custom mini truck box (for now). Love it of hate it, it's going to be a challenge for sure. It will be chopped......sectioned and channeled to some degree or another (don't you just love surprises
).
Frame will be custom, why?......because I can. I have a lot of ideas I have seen and liked, some not original and I'll make sure I give credit to whomever its due if need be. Front suspension will be a mustang II front end........shoot me now I know "What is he thinking, those look like crap on rat rods!!".........Challenge accepted!
Power plant and drive train........this is where grandpa starts to creep in. He "disliked" Chevy.......so, in his honor this Chevy truck will be powered and moved by a complete Ford drivetrain.........DUN DUN DUUUN! I have a H.O. 302 roller motor, still searching for a T5 tranny and a fully built 9" from a Jeep project; it's going to be nasty!
The rest, well it’s a surprise to keep you coming back. To put all silliness aside, there are many of you on here I highly respect for your ability to build some very sick rides. I am very opened minded and love taking in your thoughts and considerations........so please don't hold them back.
SO........ON WITH THE BUILD!!!!
Here is what I got done Saturday. I had a lot to get done that day so I started pretty late.
I was going to get the doors bolted on first and all lined up but I went through every bolt I had, and no 3/8x1x24 were found. So I moved on to putting other parts on so I can cut it apart later..........[S
The guy I bought it from was in the process of restoring it so he had all the patch panels for replacing the front cowls. I figured this was a good place to start, not sure yet how I'm going to clean up the front but these were part of it so I put them on.
I was able to get both sides put together and all tacked up, I know I'll be cutting the crap out of this in the near future so that’s where I left it. I then decided to go out and about to find bolts for my doors...........HA! RAPE AND MURDER I TELL YA! I looked at 3 places, second stop had 5 bolts, at .90 cents each, FOR 1" BOLTS!!! REALLY??.........Then I had a brainfart and thought.....well its a truck, I bet O'Reilly's has some. they did.....for a $1.19 each!. Needless to say, I have my purchasing guy at work ordering them for me today, and the doors were never installed.
Thats what I got so far, stay tunes, hopefully here by Christmas we will all really get to see Willy's Wild Ride take shape.
I got this disease from my grandpa "Willy", he had been around cars forever, was a judge for the world of wheels for longer than I have been alive. Grandpa was always off the beaten path though, when the popular cars to hotrod were the Chevy’s and Fords, grandpa was knee deep in Chrysler, Olds, Buick and Studebakers. And man was he good at it. Grandpa could look into these cars and pull out the true potential, which usually took more than a nice paint job and sweet wheels......more like several years or re-shaping it into what he saw in his mind’s eye.
I was exposed to more creativity.....or madness depending on your view point then any young child should have been. Maybe I don't have a disease, maybe a better turn is an epidemic......Hotrods, road racing, drag racing, rat rods choppers custom fabrication and welding all melded into one sick little disease......implanted in my brain, yup epidemic. Grandpa went to be with the Lord a few months back, yeah it’s just a car, but I'm building it for him for all the memories, lessons and skill he gave me while here on earth.
Thank you Grandpa.
Now to give you an idea for what is in store. I am married and a full-time college student so money isn't a free flowing commodity. That being said I have a lot of connections, and I work for a steel company, I have been a fabricator professionally for over 5 years and a garage professional way before that.
Body is going to be a 52' Chevy cab, fenderless with a custom mini truck box (for now). Love it of hate it, it's going to be a challenge for sure. It will be chopped......sectioned and channeled to some degree or another (don't you just love surprises
). Frame will be custom, why?......because I can. I have a lot of ideas I have seen and liked, some not original and I'll make sure I give credit to whomever its due if need be. Front suspension will be a mustang II front end........shoot me now I know "What is he thinking, those look like crap on rat rods!!".........Challenge accepted!
Power plant and drive train........this is where grandpa starts to creep in. He "disliked" Chevy.......so, in his honor this Chevy truck will be powered and moved by a complete Ford drivetrain.........DUN DUN DUUUN! I have a H.O. 302 roller motor, still searching for a T5 tranny and a fully built 9" from a Jeep project; it's going to be nasty!
The rest, well it’s a surprise to keep you coming back. To put all silliness aside, there are many of you on here I highly respect for your ability to build some very sick rides. I am very opened minded and love taking in your thoughts and considerations........so please don't hold them back.
SO........ON WITH THE BUILD!!!!
Here is what I got done Saturday. I had a lot to get done that day so I started pretty late.
I was going to get the doors bolted on first and all lined up but I went through every bolt I had, and no 3/8x1x24 were found. So I moved on to putting other parts on so I can cut it apart later..........[S
The guy I bought it from was in the process of restoring it so he had all the patch panels for replacing the front cowls. I figured this was a good place to start, not sure yet how I'm going to clean up the front but these were part of it so I put them on.
I was able to get both sides put together and all tacked up, I know I'll be cutting the crap out of this in the near future so that’s where I left it. I then decided to go out and about to find bolts for my doors...........HA! RAPE AND MURDER I TELL YA! I looked at 3 places, second stop had 5 bolts, at .90 cents each, FOR 1" BOLTS!!! REALLY??.........Then I had a brainfart and thought.....well its a truck, I bet O'Reilly's has some. they did.....for a $1.19 each!. Needless to say, I have my purchasing guy at work ordering them for me today, and the doors were never installed.
Thats what I got so far, stay tunes, hopefully here by Christmas we will all really get to see Willy's Wild Ride take shape.
