1970 SS454 build

[Dtret]

I get a little nervous when I get to this point. Now that you get to see the things you didn’t before. 

[Leghome]

12 hours ago, halogrinder said:

Dropped it off at the sand blasters to get a little cleaned up. The dude is more excited than I am over it. I guess we all get excited over things sometimes 😂

I hope he knows what he is doing I have seen to many sandblasting jobs that have destroyed pcs and parts over the years

[halogrinder]

oh, I've been down this road as well and was definitely bit in the backside. 

Don't use FastBlast at 7558 Dillon St, Houston, TX 77061. Why should you not spend your hard earned money at Fast Blast in Pasadena Texas? I Asked to have the body blasted and expoy painted. What I got back was a body that wasn't completely blasted (it's on a rotisserie, and can spin 360°, so no excuses on the ability to reach any angle) and parts of the body weren't even primed, and left bare metal. The entire reason to do this was to start fresh with a clean and sealed body before paint work. I was just going to take it after expressing my displeasure of the job, but they asked for a second chance to do it over. Now I'm even concerned over the quality of the material used as well. Two original door panels are severely warped (besides the foam and paint that was left on them) that will need to be replaced, and I assume I'll have 10-15 hours of rework manually cleaning, sanding and re-primering areas that we're neglected or missed. Overall poor experience. Disappointed more than anything, on the amount of rework and additional expense I'll have fixing this correctly.
DO they have the ability to good work? I think so. They have the equipment and experience to do it perfect. The Attention to detail is missing. If I paid 1/2 of what I did I'd completely accept the faults, as I'd expect that type of work. Owner refuses to admit he is wrong in any capacity.

 

I ended up finding out that the hood was warped to hell, and the grill wasn't properly blasted and I ended up replacing it due to the detail work needed. He was an argumentative person with short man syndrome. It was a terrible experience. I have sand blasting PTSD now lololol

 

So, this place which is right down the street and I've had them do some powder coat work is *only* doing the bottom side and the wheel wells, along with a quick blast on the inside of the tub to give it a tooth for POR15 to adhere to. 

 

FWIW^ that is for SEO for google to find that and bind it to his business relevancy.  

[halogrinder]

sheeeeeessssss baaaaaaaaaaack and they did a great job. B&C coatings- 826 S Persimmon St, Tomball, TX 77375. I asked them to hit the bottom of it, the wheel wells and to lightly hit the inside so the POR would have a tooth and I wouldn't have to scrub it manually. *WELL* worth the cost. Fast turn around. So I got to seam sealing- using some AC Delco original body gap and seam sealing stuff. Same consistency as regular ole' caulking lol

 

underside was a bit sloppy. firewall, i masked off to make it look neat since I'm gonna have the bodyshop paint the firewall with body color. 

Underneath I'm still undecided on the product I'm going to use for underbody coating. I was thinking of having the guys at Line-x do the bottom, but IDK if I want to do that because of cost. 

I don't want to use the crap out of an aerosol can- due to coverage, using 10-20 cans, inconsistent results, and the last few times I've used stuff from 3m or duplicolor I've not been impressed with it- never dries and is goopy.

I think I'm gonna run raptor lining on it. 

[Michael Boyte]

Wow Alex, I think it looks fantastic, they did a great job and that was a really fast turnaround. 

[jft69z]

1 hour ago, halogrinder said:

guys at Line-x do the bottom, but IDK if I want to do that because of cost. 

I don't want to use the crap out of an aerosol can- due to coverage, using 10-20 cans, inconsistent results, and the last few times I've used stuff from 3m or duplicolor I've not been impressed with it- never dries and is goopy.

I think I'm gonna run raptor lining on it. 

 

Personally, I'm not a big fan of truck bed liners underneath the cars. Too thick, plus it looks like ....bed liner.

See if your paint supplier has some type of 'Hot Rod Black' paint on the shelves. It's a catalyzed semi-flat/satin paint, perfect sheen for chassis, under hood, underneath, etc. Very durable stuff, and goes on like butter, real easy.

I used Distinctive Image HRB, but that's because my jobber has it and recommended it. Works great, and a lot of the shops around here use it as well. SEM also makes their version, plus many others (even Amazon has a few that seem to be rated pretty good). Something to consider, especially since you're doing such a great job on it with everything else.

https://www.distinctive-image.com/copy-of-color

https://semproducts.com/product/hot-rod-black-kit/HR010

 

 

[Michael Boyte]

I'm with you on that Joe, when I see bed liner on anything other than a truck bed, I can't help but to wonder, what on earth are they trying to cover up or hide with that thick crap! Definitely a RED flag for me. 

[420ponies]

My Herculiner looks kinda like what they used at the factory. We sprayed it and used a spatter gun,5/16" nozzle (3/8" hose inside of 1/2gallon glassware with tin top and sealed hole). The only reason I used it on my Monte is mine is a driver, and the roads up here aren't the best (and to protect it). I do have to get under it and pressure wash it every year , check for spots, it was in pretty good shape after we replaced what panels it needed, (rear floor under seat, left side part of the trunk, small area on passenger floorboard. Still looks good after 20 yrs coming up next spring . I would have used  the stuff from Eastwood , the semi- gloss that Joe is talking about, but,I would have been fixing it every year for roads around here. I wish they could make the lower body trim out of rebar, it's so bad here on some roads!

[Leghome]

The shop that did my 72 in 2013 is now using a product called Lizard Skin on the bottom of most cars

[halogrinder]

Ran out of GM seam sealer- got some Upol fantastic seam sealer from the parts house. Ran out of that too lol. 4 tubes total now. Probably need 1-2 more to get the trunk and inside done.

Got the corners of the cowl and wheel wells done today. This stuff is thicker than the GM seam sealer- and it strings a lot more. A good word for it-it's more tacky? Sticky? Stringy? 

If I wanted a petite bead, and easy spread- I'd use GM sealer. If I wanted something that was gonna go on thick or wanted better adhesion, I'd get the Upol fantastic

The only downside of sand blasting is..... (guess)

The sand lol. 

So, flipped it over completely and have been knocking out the crap/sand/dust/random things. 

Bought raptor liner. It'll look good, I promise

Depending on weather (and schedule) depends if I spray it tomorrow. Need to mask off a bunch of stuff, find some tarps, put it back on the trailer and get it out into the grass away from the cars, and a Tyvek suit lol

[420ponies]

Sometimes you wonder just how much of the stuff you need. If I think " 4 of these will do ",I buy 8 and return 1. And when I started seam sealing ,I kept going over the car ,making sure I got it all. My friend Dan was the boss, and if he didn't like it, you'd be doing it over!!  Looking good!

[Rob Peters]

The more posts you do and pictures you post I keep getting more and more impressed with your work and your attention to detail. Wish I had the time, money and talent to pull something like that off.  As I have said before, impressive work.

rob

[halogrinder]

1 hour ago, 420ponies said:

Sometimes you wonder just how much of the stuff you need. If I think " 4 of these will do ",I buy 8 and return 1. And when I started seam sealing ,I kept going over the car ,making sure I got it all. My friend Dan was the boss, and if he didn't like it, you'd be doing it over!!  Looking good!

This is true. I thought 2 tubes would make it. Probably gonna be 6 by the time I'm done. 

[halogrinder]

Today was productive as hell!

Last night I slopped POR15 all over the roof while it was upside down. Then got to thinking I should poke my head in the truck. Do you know how convenient it is to have the car flipped over? I got the bottom of the deck lid, trunk lip near the latch, and let the paint get under the nooks and crannies that gravity would've prevented it. 

Then this morning I flipped it over and slopped the floor and tub down. I am officially done with the POR15 😂 

[halogrinder]

This afternoon I was waiting on my truck to come from the body shop. I'm glad it didn't show up or I wouldn't have gotten this done. I bagged the car and masked it all off, then shot the raptor liner on the bottom. It looks fantastic!!! 

[Dtret]

Awesome. Looks great. The rotisserie is a pretty handy tool for that. 

[Michael Boyte]

Looking good 👍, as stated, rotisserie is the route to go !!

[420ponies]

3 things done, lots more to do but, this is a major accomplishment! Lookin' good!

[Michael Boyte]

Good looking truck you have there , appears to be in really good shape based on the exteriors condition.  It's getting rather difficult to find the older trucks in that condition and a 4 door to boot.  In a single word... NICE 👍 

[halogrinder]

1 hour ago, Michael Boyte said:

Good looking truck you have there , appears to be in really good shape based on the exteriors condition.  It's getting rather difficult to find the older trucks in that condition and a 4 door to boot.  In a single word... NICE 👍 

This is how I bought it 😁 

The plan (originally) was to find a 15+ 2500 ram, cut the body off and leave the firewall/floorpan and graft it onto the Ford's body. That way I could run the rams seats and Interior/electronics/etc. I was waiting on auctions/eBay/copart for a truck- the ideal candidate would have been a rollover or hail damage/vandalism....something that ran and drove but the exterior was smoked.  

I sold my raptor in anticipation of my Lightning showing up...the market was hot and I sold it for 8k under what I paid for..with 50k miles on it.  But my Lightning delivery kept getting pushed back. Then one day I thought to myself, what would it take to get the red truck going after sitting for a year or so behind my shop.

So, I got it running in an afternoon and really, it didn't need hardly anything other than some hood hinges. The old man I bought it from had kept up the mechanicals of it spectacularly. 

I buffed the living [censored] out of the paint and it didn't look half bad, to be honest, minus the dents and patina. 

I drove it like this for about a year...all 7mpg and a quart of oil every 150-200 miles 😂 completely stock in all it's 400m gloriousness of im assuming about 130hp on it's best day. 

I have a Dragy GPS and it did a 0-60 in about 18 seconds, and a 1/4 mile in 24 seconds at 65mph. Seriously...It was definition of pawpaw truck 😂.

It ATE oil and having a shop, I have a nearly unlimited supply of random oils that need to be disposed of- so I did it thru the tail pipe. Yes, that's 75w90 gear oil and it made the oil pressure needle move at least. 

So, I bought a Gen2 coyote drivetrain because the 400 was on its last legs. It knocked and had a drinking problem.

Initially I was just going to replace the engine- just sling the coyote into the engine bay and it would probably get 20 plus miles a gallon along with being moderately quick. A sleeper perhaps. 

Then I got to thinking why don't I throw a front axle underneath the front end and turn it into four-wheel drive. 

So while looking around for a front axle I found a chassis from a 16 f250. Instead of robbing the front axle and being stuck with a floppy factory frame, drum brakes and a Dana 60 that had a different bolt pattern in the rear I decided to take the body and put it on the super duty chassis instead. 

I did this in 10 work days so it was "make it run, not pretty".  I drove it in on a Friday and drove it out two Fridays later. 

Pick the body up, roll the new chassis underneath it, Mount the drive train, cut the frame, make body mounts, Make a fuel system work, build exhaust, fabricate steering, ETCTC. 

I redid the interior, got the air conditioning working, and drove it for a couple years It's got about 6,000 mi on it since the swap.

I tossed some 4.88's in it, because with 37's it never used 5th or 6th gear. Now, it's got plenty of gear and cruises at 70 with ease. Got the tow/haul and manual shift up/down sorted out thru the factory harness, too. 

I was going through a car wash and the drivers mirror glass fell out. 

Have you heard the story of "if you give a mouse a cookie"?

Well the mirror fell out so I need to find a piece of glass - but the mirror struts were bent and the door was pretty beat up - so if I replace the mirror glass I'm going to replace the mirror struts - if I do that I'm going to replace the driver's door - so I'm going to do that I'm going to have to paint it - probably can't match the patina, and if I'm going to paint it, I might as well fix the rust in the roof - if I do that I might as well repaint the bed and the truck - If I do that I might as well fix the rest of the rust - and here we are now...... See, you could basically say that a piece of mirror glass made me paint the truck. 

I'm on my way to pick it up right now, Actually. I have some Kooks long tube headers, and a Roush supercharger that's patiently waiting at the shop to be installed. 

I also have a cradle mount 4 link 12"  suspension lift, and 40" nittos but I'm undecided if I'm going to install that stuff (yet) 

So, that's the story of the red truck. I have a fetish for old Ford trucks. This is probably my 12th? 73-79 ford. 

[Michael Boyte]

That's too cool 😎, I love it and would love to see it with some 40's.  I've got the 37 Nitto  Ridge grapplers on my 19 3500 6.7 Cummins Ram (it's got all the goodies ) . This is my third set now. I plan on changing the front bumper and going with the 40's next go round. 

[halogrinder]

It's currently got 37's on the king ranch wheels. The 40's I found are forgiatos with 40x15.50r24's..... what a difference in physical size and weight. The supercharger is needed to turn those stupid things 😂 

 

[halogrinder]

I'm not dead! I've just been busy! This new shop/remodel/life is kicking my [censored]! 

[halogrinder]

Body shop is moving right along, and I've not touched the drivetrain. I need to get in gear to match the timing of the body getting done. I'm way behind on personal projects

 

 

[halogrinder]

Bodyshop told me to go hunt down a right fender. Anyone have one floating around?