Page 20 The Torture continues
I got the inner wings modified now so they fit over the independent suspension ok and started the task of filling and flatting *Groan* I am quite chuffed with the finished product and it shouldn't take too much more work at the body shop before a shiny top coat can be applied. er I hope!
I then got to looking at the grill. I milled loads of ideas in my head mostly trying to find a real quick easy fix? The original grill has a flat section on the top V part that has 6 holes in it so a stainless trim can be affixed to it... I just didn't fancy that, so what could I do? I did see a guy at the Northern swap meet who could make me a set of bullet style knobs I could fix to the holes? Hum?... That would look neat eh!! I also thought why not move the centre part back flush with the air deflector panels behind, just a minor change but neater to my eye. As seen in the last page I cut the centre out and welded it flush and also leaned the bottom in more so it looks more racked .. now what? After mucho head scratching I thought angle iron to create a peak to match the bottom.. Yeah baby!
To get the grill to fit now it was flush I had to remove the top louvre on the air deflector panels so the wont deflect quite as much air ;o)
My only regret was I didn't leave this peak in the centre I got all health safety conscious and rounded it off.. bad bad move and has spoilt the effect ... but it is too late now it is done still looks cool but could of looked cooler. Boo Hooo typical me though eh!
I just tacked pieces of small angle to the straight sections while I worked out how the hack I could make the double curvature middle bit??? From the first picture you can just see I made them out of three separate sections to get the desired curve. Then it was filler and flat time again.. Jeez how I hate that laborious task.. and there is plenty more to come!!
Yeah "Hum?" the body shop phoned me the other day,,, "Holmsey" ! Come up to the shop I have a pressie for you! I must admit though shocked at the prospect of a painted Bonnet to look after throughout the rest of the body prep and build... I was fucking impressed!! Wow what a finish and what a goddamn superb colour... Just what I wanted.. Only trouble is I spent many hours just looking at it and not doing any work on the rest of the Truck.
This is actually how the Truck looked Feb 8th. I dusted a coat of black on so I could do a final sand Its looking pretty good but with this colour I have chosen it needs to be super good as it sure shows up any imperfections.. I can now see the attraction of a Suede paint job and the Hard core style is now very appealing.. but to late ;o{
To break up the bore of flatting panels I made up this steering bracket to give the column some lower strength utilizing the brake pedal box... Would look nice chromed.. er but it will get painted.. black! Oh yeah I forgot to put a photo on of the side where the lovers for the heater were now they have been removed and a cheeky shot of the painted bonnet.
Tis a cool colour aint it. Looks different in changing light but the photo on the right is more how it looks really it is very Gold the green on the left photo is to show the finish as it doesn't look that colour at all. The guys at the body shop, said they just wanted me to see the colour, they intend to redo it later and smooth the minor imperfections. That cant be felt or seen under even a spot light but get it at the right angle in sunlight and wham a couple of ripple show up.. Must be the type of paint and colour as its a gold candy type paint over a white base. I love it and it does inspire me to soldier on but it is a massive undertaking and I would never of attempted it if I had truly known what a build like this entailed... that's for sure!
I dug around on the cab cowl and found to my horror a quarter inch minimum of gob as the cab vent has been welded shut without the gasket of course but without it it sat low and instead of lifting it they filled it.. So I now have the task of sorting that after I had the bonnet shaped to fit Grrrrrr yeah the whole top of the cowl was covered in a very thick cover of filler. Nice job but not what I want.. I wish I could refit the original style cab vent as they look cool. But this one has to many parts missing and the top is in a very buckled state. "Shame" Yeah there is some work ahead body prep wise.
Can Iloose a few years and go back to Bangers please. that was so much more fun this hobby is a chore!