Projects Fresh Fab' Ideas....Mike Roberts '28 pu build pics.

Mike stayed with me recently while on a trip from his New Zealand homeland. I scanned these pics of his 28 pickup project back home. Mike is not a HAMBer but his sweetheart is so if anyone has a question we can probably get it answered. Search Mike's name on the H.A.M.B. and you will see that he is a master fabricator. I was impressed with some of the fresh ideas he is incorporating in this project. His vision is that when finished you won't see any welds anywhere on the truck. Most of the cab is scratch built, it is wedge chopped (not really, built from scratch that way) with the posts leaned forward giving a kind of forward moving curved look.....









Here is a hairpin like no other. Think early motorcycle frame when looking at it. There are many hours invested, The rear will take a urethane bushing. The sleeved areas are sweated together to seal everything but before that there is alot of tig welding inside and out and also alot of plug welding.

 

Rear suspension is quarter elleptics with an upper wishbone that has a ball joint......

 

Thats a clean truck, I would love to see how he made those radius rods.

 

All the frame sections have been formed by Mike, a top hat shaped section will finish this crossmember with D shaped access holes to get to the bolts.

 

Wow!

 

Nice workmanship. That shit must be inbred in you kiwi's!!

 

Engine is a Y block, here is the mount...

 

Wow, i love his wifes car and this looks even better. Those hairpins are real nice.

 

Olds' Dash, not sure what year, anybody know for sure?

 

Wizard!

 

Nice fab work. That motor mount is beautiful.

Neal

 

Body follows 32 type reveal in frame...



Last pics...

 

That's some fancy work,Kevin! Any pic's from the front? I'd like to see what the front of the cab looks like.

 

Wow ,might have to borrow that Y block mount idea Great looking work!

 

I wanted to wedge chop my 24 TT, now I know I am... That's just BADASS!!

 

I dig those hairpins. Nice craftsmanship.

 

Breath taking!!!!

 

awesome work looks great

 

I think Ladyshifter has a new friend.......Mike is a 50's nut.

 

Mike is one of my heroes!! You wont meet a nicer guy, I really enjoy his visits to the shop! His builds are always amazing..
Jimmy White

 

The craftsmanship looks top-notch! I really like all the suspension pieces, traditional with a modern twist. Especially like the Hurst style Y-Block mount! very cool.

 

Great detail and fad work!!!

 

That's awesome, the hairpins and rear links look like an old lugged bicycle frame. Lots of metal finishing time invested for sure.

 

amazing work and innovative ideas. Hope more pictures from the side are posted to get a better view of that roof line

 

Supercool! Please keep us posted as this moves along.

 

So nice. Thanx for posting pix of this project! Gary

 

umm, umm, umm, WOW!

 

Kev, Very nice no very Sweet build ! That thing is very very slick looking. I too am going to try to use the Y-Block mount. Let Mike know his work is the BOMB !

41 Dave

 

Congrats to Mike! I like the look of the hairpins- that's really unique and very well executed. They are very high-performance looking! Is he going to get them chromed? I hope so... the wedge chop is sweet too!

 

Mike is NZs own metal magician , seemingly turns the vintage tin into something awesome and inspirational . Anything he touches seems to turn to gold. (not without a lot of skill and effort) My son has a 28 closed cab in the she so this is a real inspiration to start moving some metal around, just need to get my boy to stop chasing girls and Jappas.