The bed is finally fabbed up. A framed hartz material covered bed cover is in the process of being fabricated. We plan to have it piano hinged near the cab for easy access to the battery, fuel tank etc... The motor is coming together nicely. We plan on using 50's Pontiac tail lights on the rear for a clean look. Here's a few pic's:
hey koz. truck is looking really cool, can't wait to see it in paint. but now i gotta ask since you know i'm a customs guy, does this mean we'll be seeing fryguy's buick soon? been waiting to see you switch gears from all the hot rod builds. oh, and i thought buddy palumbo said he was gonna "kick you in the junk" if you didn't have a car this year for wildwood!
I have everything ready to go on the Buick but I need to get the Kess truck out of here because the Buick is so large it takes two bays to get around it. Pauley has been super patient as I have run over time on two projects now that were supposed to be simple and got way out of hand. (Rods have a way of doing that). The Kess truck is scheduled to be out of here in two weeks and the Buick will be in next. I'm also finishing up a neat '34 Dodge sedan for Bulldogue on here and have Clints '36 pickup chassis and drivetrain well under way. There are also several motors and trans along with some banjo rears in various states of machine work/waiting for parts, which are all behind Fryguy. Wouldn't be so bad if this wasn't a one man shop. I'm just so glad and appreciative I have work! Looks like Buddy is going to have to kick me! What's even worse than going to the fall run in the family trickster is that the "Race of Gentlemen" is on the beach in Wildwood this year two weeks after and I'm not going to have wheels for that either! The Fab 50's weekend is two weeks later with the street action along with Lou Christie, Danny and the Juniors, The Drifters, Gary Lewis and the Playboys and the Stylistics and I'm driving a Mazda.... Oh Shit!!!!! (By the way, super good weekend at the shore, October 18-19 if you have a sled. Damn cold in an open car!) I will say the roadster does look really cool even though it is taking up some space here, it is not for sale, which is unusual for me. As time goes on I keep thinking of cooler and cooler stuff to do to it. I'll be back on the roadster as soon as Fryguys Buick is here and I can squeeze some time here and there.
The paint was going to be a Kirker hot rod black but we decided to change colors as black is too common. I decided to go with an Eastwood Gold Digger Metallic and change the engine color to a to custom mix of Eastwood's cast iron and black engine paint. Here's a couple pics of the engine and frame...
I would add, On my screen the color combination is not near as stunning as it is in person. The Gold is just perfect for an early '60's thing and the slate color just sucks the engine into the chassis. The color is a cross between Tom Branchs' deuce and the Cotati Roadster. I know this has been covered a hundred times here on other threads but I can't say enough about the Eastwood Urethanes. For a driver, they can't be beat. The course metallic in this color needs a clear coat to dress out, but the colors are dazzling and the stuff "lays out" very nicely. I am having a bit of an issue with keeping the metallic in suspension, but this is common among finishes with this much metallic and pearl in the formula. Much like candys, you need to be constantly aware of film and overlap. And you can't beat the price! As soon as a project starts to become more "finished" effort and prep expand expotentully. This frame looked sweet in black. As soon as the color went on, back to another 8-10 hrs. of prep. Everything shows but well worth it. I can't imagine the effort required for a Ridler or AMBR contender.
I remember us talking about Kirker and I'm sure it would have looked good but the gold is gonna be much better,,looks good. HRP
HRP: Looks like your 32 pickup truck is Kirker? Looks great! Man I love that black! I painted my motorcycle the Kirker Hot Rod Black and it came out great. The paint is really durable too.
Time to assemble. I have the chassis ready to go. The paint isn't hit with the wheel yet but I can get a lot of this together while it hardens enough to get a nice rub on it. I shot the back in chassis black to make it recede under the truck. I am working on aligning all the chassis components of a center line and getting the front and rear suspension square with the world and locked down. Most of the hardware is stainless so everything gets polished as it goes together. The gold looks like it's made of glass. The layout on the color break reflects the body lines when the cab is on so the black will get lost in the shadows.
It was great to meet you today and check out the shop Koz. That gold really does jump right out at you in person and the fab work on this truck is top notch! I for one can't wait to see this one come together, Kess is going to have one very cool truck.
need more paint pictures! i got to get back up to your shop and see this before it's gone. love the color.
Outstanding- I really like this truck, especially appreciate the footwells and little touches to make it fit an apparently, um, full sized fella. Ghost channel- is that a new phrase you coined there or just one I'm not familiar with?
"Ghost channels" have been around for years but I never new a name for them so I just made one up a long time ago and it stuck. On most channels the frame is dropped into the body and the floor sits on top. You lose in leg room whatever you dropped the car, usually 4 -6 inches. If you ghost channel, the frame rails are reworked to follow the contour of the body and the floor pan stays at the same place or lower. With the floor down you can get the car lower and not lose headroom or affect scrubline as the floor sits flush with the bottom of the rails. In the old days this was done, mostly on pre '35 coupes and roadsters, by sliding the frame inside the car and welding it solid to the existing floor. There are still a lot of these around. It makes things very low for no money and could be done n a driveway, so it was popular back in the day. What I do is just a variation on the theme. If there's a right name for it maybe somebody can shout out. I've never heard one. This frame has a combination of things including a 5" "ghost" channel, a front sweep, 2 3/4", and front 1 1/2" and rear 14 1/4" Z to get it to set on scrubline, exactly. I left 1/8" for variation in the inspection garage floor as a "safety" measure. The last one I did like this we set right on and when we went for inspection I had to put 65 lbs. in the tires to get it to pass. The only thing that kinda' sucks is the suspension is way up in the box, like on most trucks of this type, and it doesn't leave a lot of storage area in the bed. If we were on bags, which were not, there would be nothing left. You won't realize how low the truck really is until we get some shots outside the shop.
Getting ready to shoot the cab tomorrow. I'm going to lay five or six coats of Slick Sand on in the morning and try to have it ready for Gold by tomorrow night.
Cool. Seen a model A with a similar color combo and style build this weekend. I should see if I snapped any pics of it. Looking great, cant wait to see it with more color!
Yo SPDJNKY are those Radir slicks on the back of your Avatar? I'm trying to decide which ones to get as I think the Firestones don't exactly have the sidewall I like but they are the right diameter. Those look real sweet! drmrman, I'd love to see some pics of that truck!
Apologies if I missed it...Koz, did you reduce the height of the bottom windshield band at the cowl? It looks shorter than stock.
I did. I forget the exact amount but it's in here somewhere. The dash was dropped an equal amount and the floor lowered as well. I like the way this looks and it allows me to meet Pennsylvania DOT requirements with a harder chop.
The Jalopy Journal
