Joe your so right they do have a Marvin the Martian look to them huh, never even noticed. For the bed, I'm going to cut up or down how ever you say it a '49 Chevy bed. So the told of the rails angle out and aren't just a roll or a flat to a roll like the 55-later GM beds. May notch the top edge to clear the 35" tires.....we'll see. Its not a deuce, and maybe you could call it a clone. But how many underslung, Caddy Flatty powered truck rods on 20"s have you seen rolling around?
I'm not much on big chops, but that ****er looks cool as hell! Should be a blast to drive. Something to consider with those headlights... is there a way to run a hidden motor to power those hoods? I dunno if you could take an old GM tape type window motor and hide the motor in a frame box and snake the tape up through the base. Run the hoods back to GM window switches and power them separately. You could literally have this critter winking or blacking out on demand. Either way, the whole setup looks great! I cannot wait to get rolling on mine.
I like your creativity here...lot of good/different ideas. Use of the mock is important and one thing bothers me, that's the steering. It looks like the front springs are pretty close to the tire and may affect the steering radius....or is it just the picture? Do you have a straight on shot? Good job.
Thanks for the good words. I dont have the spindles and brakes on yet so it does look pretty narrow, especially considering how big the tires are. The front tires will push out another couple inches from where they're out. It is a serious concern of mine, as I wanted to run cowl steering under the caddy exhaust. We'll see what I end up with. I may have to go cross steering to get the linkage down. Then will have to add stops to keep the tire out of the top of the leaf pack. All part of the mockup process. I'm sure I'll come up with a resolution or have to settle for 30 point turns to get into a parking space.....LOL oh the sacrifices to make it look good.
Yeah...the cowl steering may add to the problem. Cross steering would put the box inside the frame along with most of the linkage giving you more room. Oh well, more mock up!
I love the Marvin the Martian headlights! I think she'll turn out pretty bad ***, you now for a truck thats been done SO many times before and all! lol
Ok my friend if that's ghey I might just turn. Looks good, if I had a cyclone layin' around you'd be on your way up to visit. but don't sell yourself short if you want a quicky get one you can always use the S truck rear for mockup and swap the quicky in when it finds its way home.
From what I've seen of your rides, I probably know the answer but is this one going to be painted and finished out w/ interior etc??? I hope so, I'm in love with those wheels and tires!!!! Maybe that's part of my peter puffin. Mootz
Really like the wheels..... and the way it mocks up.... Just a thought since I doubt this is a lightweight rig, with those tall tires that 8.5 10 bolt probibly looks really small/ dinky.. a 15" rockwell out of a 2 ton narrowed might look just right with those big tall tires... think of it as a m***ive 9". Another option if that is too big is the 10.5 rockwell (father of the 14bolt chevy) that chevy used in the late 60's in 1 tons a little rare but also looks like a big 9" from the rear, and you should be able to find both with 4.11 gears and a locker/posi for less than 500$.. then you have to narrow it... (could be fun to mess with people telling them its a rare ford truck rear.)
First mockup and your truck already has a name thanks to those headlights. Get to work and get "Marvin" on the road. Don't forget your Illudium Q-38 space modulator.
Mootz, you know it man. I don't believe in the primer for long term. Frame, ch***is and drivetrain will be bright shiny black. Lots of hard parts sprinked throughout will be polished aluminum here and there. Creme wheels, with nice shiny black body. Its feels so good to put all this stuff together and stand back and realize that your vision is going to work. The crazy shocker for me was how much time and money and mental investment I already have in this thing and just realized on Sunday that it will work. Now I just need to take it all back out of mockup and start TRUELY ***embling my erector set and only rely on the visual in my head to make it look the way I envision it. Everyone thanks for all the feedback, it got my peter all puffed back up!!!!
what kind of car at disney world did you get those wheels from? something they were actually driving, or, one of the rides? R.R.
What front axle ya gonna be running? Sticking with the 40 chebby axle or a F-1. In the front you just restacked the stock spring pack? Really gonna be watching this build keep us posted.
Caddy Flatheads to me scream "Tank" as in our good Uncle Sherman Tank. Man.....where was I going.....with this....
rubberrodder, I've seen the wheels and the ride. It was an old ride that let you drive an actual running car around a circuit but there were rails or curbs or some such that kept you on the path. Great fun for kids. Talking with Wyatt, he some how got word they were putting the kibosh on that ride and got his hands on those wheels.... He must have some black magic he is working to get some parts with such a cool history. PS I have it on good authority, because I've seen it, that his hubcaps are held on with sheet metal screws. But you will have to ask him about that one.
i'm really diggin it. It's gonna have a cool style to it, it seems to me that it's almost commiting you to add lots of nice little details to it... taking it past "another low truck", and into something really unique and timeless.
Sorry for the confusion in my typing, I possess "the ****" at that. The wheels are not from a ride at Disney, the rear tires are though. They are 700-20 Denmans, that I haven't found for sale anywhere. The ride they were on was that old "Granny's Car" where the kids can drive the Jalopy. The road that they drive on has a 8" tall rail running down the center so you can't drive the car off the road. Kinda cool..... I've gotten a lot of PM's about the wheels heres what I can tell everyone. The wheels I'm told came off a truck in Alberta, but I got them by way of another rodder. They are 20x4.5 with a 5x4.5 BP. They were made to accept snap in hubcaps and the wheels had 5 clips. Most of the clips were gone when I got them. And the clips were odd and I couldn't find a source to replace them. I have a handful of OG International caps that came with them but they were in REALLY bad shape. I decided I could run Ford caps and had to get creative on the retainers to say the least. But now the install is clean and the caps stay put. I was going to run the stock "I" beam axle and ream the kindpins to accepts Ford spindles but they are narrower at the knucle and would have needed a sizeable spacer. So I got an econoline to ream and then narrow. Didn't like that either. So I thought about building saddles to "U" bolt a '40 Ford axle to the leaves. Whats on it now though is a simple "G***er" straight tube axle that I got from Speedway. As for the spring pack. Yes, I just blew it all apart and restacked it in reverse order on the other side of the main leaf. BINGO! Or I certainly hope so. If not, at least I'll have some bad *** pieces to part out and do a duece with right? LOL
To quote Peter Griffin.... Frickin' Sweet! It truly is amazing to see one's vision come to frui***ion.
Looks great, I vote for the quickchange..............good idea on those water bottle shin protectors!
Looks great! I like the frame, it looks "tuff". Anyone think those headlights would've caused a stir seeing those on a hot rod back in the 40's/50's. HA! That was funny...
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