Thunderpig's first car show!

Today we took Thunderpig to the UVU Auto Expo at Thanksgiving Point. We had a lot of fun and were so greatful to have so many friends and family stop by to say hi and check out the truck.

Whats that? It's Thunderpig!!!! :)




Dave Towner with Dustin and Zach

Jen's parents flew over from California to join us for the show too! Here they are hanging out with my Dad and Logan


Joe and Donna Horvath gave us a framed picture of Thunderpig the way it looked when my Dad first bought the truck from the City of American Fork.

We didn't have the bed in and the upholstery wasn't quite finished, but overall, we still had a great time at the car show.. We're looking forward to more shows this summer. (hopefully the truck will be finished soon!)

Thunderpig's Test Drive

Well, tomorrow is the big day!!! The UVU Auto Expo car show at Thanksgiving Point!

I really didn't want to have to trailer the truck to the show so we decided to take the truck out on a few test drives to see how road worthy the truck was.. Wow, were we ever impressed..

My dad getting ready for his first drive in Thunderpig in over 2 years!!

Joe checking everything over one last time before we hit the streets.

Here we go! This will be our first official test drive (out of the parking lot) since we started working on Thunderpig over 2 years ago! Check out the other videos below of the truck on the road!

Joe and I decided to put some more gas in the truck before driving around town.. We put in 100 octane fuel in the truck to prevent engine knocks and to make sure the cylinders were firing at their peak performance for the initial drives.. I think we put 6.5 gallons in the truck which cost $50 big ones!! Zoinks!

My Dad took this video of Joe driving Thunderpig.. I love it, Joe slowed down to stop in front of his shop (Horvath Hotrods), and someone yells "Light it up!" So he does! Vroooom! And the tires stick to the road! :-)

This is my Dad cruising in Thunderpig.. Look at that smile! I apologize for the screen size, the video was taken on my phone.

Of course when you first start to drive a new truck like this you will always find a few leaks to fix afterwards.. Luckily nothing major.

We were able to drive the truck home and made it without any trouble at all.. I even had two guys pull up along side of me wanting to race!! Too funny.

Upholstery updates

More progress has been made on the upholstery.. I was hoping we'd have all of the leather into the truck in time for the UVU Auto Expo this weekend at Thanksgiving Point, however there were too many things for Monty to cover in leather for us and he didn't have enough leather to finish in time.. We have another hide on order and should be able to complete the upholstery within the next few weeks. Here are some of the pictures taken of the seats, new dash panel and head liner.

This is the seat (image taken on 5/15/11) before it was covered in leather.. Here you can see some of the work that goes into a new seat design.

This is the seat back. As you can see, we also drew in lines on the leather using chalk so Monty can stitch in the new design for the seats. This really gives the seats a more sporty style. The same lines will be sewed into the seat bottoms as well.

Ta-da!!!! The leather has now been stretched over the seats and then set in place in the truck for test fitting.

We also have the leather now wrapped around the lower dash panel. Having this panel in leather helps tie in the colors of the cab interior better as well as hide the AC unit and lines.

As you can see, the seats in combination with the leather dash panel (now installed) really compliment eachother..

The headliner is also now installed on the ceiling of the cab.. All that is left to complete this is to have leather trim installed around the edges of the headliner.

Stay tuned as more upholstery is installed in the truck!

Thunderpig sure does clean up well! :)

This weekend is the UVU Auto Expo at Thanksgiving Point. We're planning on taking Thunderpig there for it's big debut! But before we can do that we need to finish the upholstery, install the stereo equipment, install the bed, and polish and clean every last nook and cranny we can get to. It's gonna be tight, but if everything goes as planned we'll be there.

This will be Thunderpig's first car show so we've gotta be ready to go.

The truck looks great after some polishing with the orbital buffer.

The flames really stand out now with the paint nicely buffed.. Did you see the hood emblem? Its been painted (black exterior with red bow tie).

Dad has been polishing the truck all day long.. and it really looks amazing.

Wow! I can't believe how clean those windows are now! Good job dad!

Here is Ryan giving the gas tank a new shine.. Since the bed wood will open, the tank needs to be shiny like new! :)

Dad wiping down the top of the truck..

Even the engine and it's engine compartment is now sparkling! I can't wait till tomorrow..

Now that the truck is clean... Where is the rest of our upholstery and stereo installers?

Painting the tail lights

Yes you read the title of this blog correctly.. We're gonna paint the tail lights!! Joe and Eric have been talking about this for months now.. But I've been hesitant since I know it will decrease the brightness of the lights as well as make them difficult to see by our local law enforcement officers.. After enquiring about this to my neighbor who is a police officer, he agreed that as long as I have lights I should be good to go.. So lets do this!!

The first thing to do is to sand the LED tail lights making them flush with the roll pan.

Both tail lights are now sanded and when you rub your hand over them, no noticeable dips or edges can be felt..

Then a thin layer of paint is applied, followed by the clear coat!

Now for the big moment.. where are the lights!!!!???

There they are!! Sweet!!


Zach was checking out the back of the truck, and asked where did the lights go? heh heh! That's cool.

We have a dream!

Check out what we've got in the works!! Our bedwood hinge is almost finished! Soon the bed will be installed and the center 4 boards will be able to open up so others can see the frame under the bed! Pretty cool! :)

These are the center boards of the bed that will lift on a hinge Joe is building. Only the boards shown will open leaving the remaining boards of the bed in place.

Here is the hinge installed in the center boards.

Here are the boards installed in the truck.. The outer 4 boards will have to remain in place since they physically touch the outside edge of the bed and tub where the stainless angle strips will be mounted.

This is how the bed wood opens.. We haven't yet mounted the hinge to the bed, but we're close!

As you can see, plenty of the chassis can be seen with the bed open.

New cab headliner material for the cab

Here is the new cab headliner our upholsterer Monty put together.. I wasn't expecting flames for the interior of the cab but it could work. I'll have a better feel for this once I see it installed in the truck.. I'll take more pictures of the headliner once its installed and and post them on the blog this weekend.

We have headlights!

Hot off the press.. The first light assembly is in and those candles are bright! The second headlight assembly (on its way from Colorado) should hopefully be installed later this week.

Interior updates

Joe finished the new lower dash panel which will be covered in leather and will hide the ductwork and AC components under the dash.. It also gives us a new mount location for the AC vents and the musical car horn I built for the truck back in high school. We also now have the sound deadener installed and are ready for the carpet to go in.

Drivers side view of new lower dash panel. The panel wraps to finish at the doors.

Blurry shot of the center of the new dash but gives you an idea of how it looks across the truck.

Passenger side where the new lower dash panel contours to the shape of the original dash panel above.

This is the installer from Pro-Audio in Provo Utah.. He's installing Ballistics Sound deadener on the floor, firewall, doors, and cab interior panels that will be covered later by upholstery.

The new sound deadener should increase the sound quality of the stereo system, as well as keep out the road noise. Ballistic sound dampening is about 20% thicker than other sound deadeners and is about 50% cheaper too which is why it was recommended for the truck. Can't argue with those numbers! :)