Mo' truck pictures!

Friday evening the sun decided to peak out of the clouds for just enough time to pull Thunderpig out of the shop to see it sparkle! I have to say I just wanted to climb in the cab, shut the door and keep drive off into the sunset.. I can't wait for the truck to be finished..

What does Lightning McQueen say in the movie Cars? "Kachow"... Well this is what Thunderpig says.. "KAAAAACHOW!!"

The gap between the bed and the cab has been tightened.. It looks a lot better now.

You can see the ghost flames really well in this shot.

We added a tachometer next to the gauge cluster.. I wanna know when I'm red lining Thunderpig! ;-)

The fenders align really well with the back of the roll pan.. Now we just need to finish the passenger side of the bed walls and the inner wheel wells and the bed will be ready to paint!

Thats one sexy look'n truck!

Here is the passenger side of the truck.. Just a little more work on the bed sides to do.

Here is Eric showing me how they knock down the edges on the flames when they polish the truck. We have three layers of flames on the truck which means that the pain layers tend to stack up on top of eachother.. You can actually see the edge of the flames.. Here Eric is sanding the door with a 1000 grit sandpaper block.

Next up is the polishing.. this heats up the paint so that everything smooths out.

And there you have it! Though its hard to see in the pictures, the door looks smooth and shiny like new!

Look'n Good!!

With the bed and fenders looking so good its time to see how it looks on the truck! So here are a few great shots of the truck with the bed set in place.. I don't know.. what do you think? It's looking pretty awesome huh! Hopefully in a few more week's the bed will have a nice coat of paint on it to match the rest of the truck!

Fenders are almost ready!

The fenders have been through a lot.. They've been cut apart, welded back together, sanded down, primed, then re-cut apart, welded back together, then sanded, and primed again.. A lot of work, but well worth it.

Here Dad is pointing out the prep work he had to do on the inside of the fenders to remove the welding joints so they'll look as good as new after they're primed and painted!

Only a little more sanding left to do!

Here is Ryan holding one of our fenders up against another Chevy so you can see how much the fenders were extended..

Tadah! These fenders are ready to be mounted on the bed!

Bow Tie Front to Back!

The truck looks great.. But I have to say.. its missing something.. oh yeah!!! The hood emblem! I've went back and forth on what to do with the original hood emblem.. Its pretty pitted from over 50 years of road debris and storage.. So I put it on just to see what it would look like with the new paint job.. and you know what.. it still looks awesome.

Here's the hood without the hood emblem. It looks good, but the hood emblem really sets it off.

I'm going to have Joe send the hood emblem off to a shop in Colorado to have it refinished.

The dash is set in place and the RPM gauge will set nicely next to it.

New key switch from a Nova to replace the old switch.. The original was really warn out.

The truck is gonna really turn a few heads by the time we're finished with it!

I love how the back end of the truck is turning out. The bow tie tailgate and role pan looks great.

The extra styling of the bed corners are really coming together well!

Are we done sanding yet?

This week, Dad has been at the shop helping out on the bed of the truck. It's to the point where all of the metal work is finished.. So that leaves lots and lots of sanding to do! If all goes as planned, the bed should be ready for primer by this weekend! Then Joe will make sure it sets on the chassis the way we want it to, and will start building the frame for the bedwood to mount to.. Thats gonna be cool.. Wait till you see what we're going to do!

Here's what the Bed looks like at the moment.. lots of bondo! I always have a hard time imagining how the truck will look when its in this state.. We need to paint this thing! :)

Dad sanding the passenger side fender. Considering how much modification these fenders have went through, they look really good!

The bed sides and inner fenders look great.. Probably one more day and the sanding should be finished! Then its time for paint!

And speaking of paint, how about a few more pictures of those ghost flames! ;-)

This is a great shot of the passenger side door.. you can barely see the flames, but they're there! When the sun hits them just right, you won't be able to miss them!

The front fenders and hood really look great. I believe there is going to be one more clear coat that will go on the truck then this part of the paint job will be finished!

Red hot flames!

Thought I would share a few pictures my Dad and Joe have taken of the flames on the truck.. Its hard to get a good picture since these are ghost flames and they're meant to blend in with the truck.. but here are a few of my favorites!

Check it out! The flames look great.. you can even see my Dad's reflection on the paint!

This is a side shot of the front drivers side fender.. Pretty awesome how the flames turned out.

This is a shot of the drivers side hood edge.. This truck really looks great with the new flames on it!

This picture shows how curvy Thunderpig is.. with its new paint job it really looks amazing.

Here's a shot of the front of the truck where the flames begin.