Preparation and Removal of the Cab

Next up... Finish taking the cab apart so we can pull it off of the chassis and send it to Horvath Hotrod to be sand blasted.

Zach makes a great supervisor.. He runs in, barks a few orders and before you know it we're pulling more parts off of the truck!

Even Jen got in on the action! Taking off Dad's gun rack.. Classic! Back in the 80's didn't everyone have a gun rack in their pickups? :)

Out comes the front and rear windows.. Don't hurt the fuzzy dice!

Zach is always trying to get involved in the project. I do my best to keep him safe at all times.. He even wear's safety goggles! These kept slipping off his face, so we taped them on. There! That should hold'em! Hah! He loved it.

After getting the steering wheel off, Zach kept trying to figure out why it wouldn't honk any more. So we had to make a honking noise ever time he pushed it. That only lasted a few minutes, then we hid the steering wheel. heh heh

Zach helping his Grandpa.. Like I said.. he's an excellent supervisor. ;)

After everything was removed we could actually start lifting the cab off of the frame! Of course I wouldn't be able to do this without Zach's help.. But to pull the entire cab off of the frame I'd need a few more helpers..

Lucky for me, I work with some great guys who were able to help lift the cab off and set it next to the frame. Sorry I didn't get action shots.. I figured I might get hurt if I didn't help them lift it off of the frame.

We had fun, and the guys enjoyed seeing how far we've progressed on the project.

Here's the frame without the cab.. Amazing we've come so far!

Cab next to the frame.

We can do this!!

The old frame and engine..

The cab is much more fun on the ground says Zach.. Now I can run through it while Grandpa tries to catch me!

Interior shot of the firewall and bare dash board

The firewall is in pretty bad shape, so we're going to replace it with a new firewall.

Lets load this thing!

Ok, that was heavier with just Dad and I lifting it.. Thank goodness for dollies!

Road trip to Horvath Hotrod to have it sand blasted and prepped for its new firewall and floor boards!

New Parts

We received a few new parts today! The two front fenders, our new floor for the cab, and our new exhaust we've been impatiently waiting for. Things are really moving now! :)

Truck Tear down (Day 3)

Day 3 of Tear down:

Detaching the inner fenders and radiator brackets
Inspecting the inner fenders.. More rust than we'd like to have seen, they'll most likely need to be replaced.
Draining out the radiator took a while.. but it was good to see how clean the antifreeze was!
Check out all of that rust on the floor boards! We're going to have to replace the entire cab floor and firewall.
The seats and transmission cover came off next.
Then came the gas tank! This is only a few years old.. and was the last item we updated on the truck before deciding it needed a complete overhaul and general pimping.
Day 3 proved to be a success! We had a great time!

Truck Tear down

We've been busy since getting back from California tearing down my dad's truck so we can prep the body panels and cab for the new chassis.. Let me just say.. I've never seen parts come off so fast.. We have piles of bolts all over the garage floor.. Today it finally dawned on me.. "How am I going to know which bolts went here or there"!!! I know.. I know.. This is something I should have planned for and made a process to collect and label all of the bolts and attach them to the parts we've pulled off.. but its just so fun taking stuff a part! Who wants to organize the chaos when the sweet sound of a pneumatic drill is so inviting! I'll figure something out. In the mean time, here are some new pictures of the tear down!

Day 1 of Tear Down:

Removing the tailgate was the first part removed from Dad's truck an was by far the easiest task of the day :)
Next came the bed, after the bolts were removed we lifted it off and flipped it over so we could dismantle it.

Zach had a great time helping us take the bed a part. He pointed at the bolts and we would remove them.. then he would quickly try to taste the bolt before throwing it on the ground.. LOL!
The fenders and 90% of the bed were actually still in great shape!
So we packed the bed of the '58 into the bed of Dad's '97 so they could be sent to Horvath Hotrods to be sand blasted and primered. Later we'll sand them down and fix any small dents..

Not bad for the first day of tear down! We pulled quite a few parts off of the truck and were really happy with the condition of them which means we won't have to replace much.
Check out Dad's custom delux bumper! He made that! He's always been quite a handy guy.

Day 2 of Tear down:
We started off day 2 by removing the front grill, light bezels and bumper.
Then off came the drivers side fender.
My brother Jaren dropped in for a visit from Colorado and helped us remove the front passenger side fender.
Unfortunately this fender had some pretty bad rust and a lot of bondo in it, so most likely this fender and the other one will have to be replaced.

The truck after day 2 of tear down.

It was fun working on the truck with Dad and Jaren, and we're definitely looking forward to day 3!

Its finally here! The Chassis and Engine!

After waiting 6 months.. this moment has finally arrived.. Time to make the trek to San Bernardino to pick up the new chassis and engine!

We left on Friday 9/11 for a nice leisure trip to Cali.. Along the way Dad and I visited one of his old friends from high school (Randy Brooks) who owns Barnes Bullets in Mona UT.. Randy (in the picture left of my Dad) gave us a tour of his factory.. They make all sorts of different bullets.. even explosive tipped bullets.. I was drooling over all of the neat tools they had.. so cool!)



We also ran into a bunch of crazy aliens selling beef Jerky in Baker CA... Who can resist buying Alien Jerky? :)

We basically talked eachothers ears off over the 1200 mile round trip.. and would do it all over again in a heart beat. We discussed all sorts of ideas and plans for what we want to do with the truck. The next few months are going to be a lot of fun!

Ok ok.. enough sentimental father son bonding moments.. Here are the chassis and engine pictures!!!

The frame looks awesome. No Limits did a great job on the workmanship. It looks show room ready!

Check out the accent they did on the front suspension! Flames! Wuzzuup!

The new gas tank should make the ride a much more enjoyable.. plus I won't smell like gas every time I get out of the truck! Ah the memories..

We ordered the engine from Doug Herbert in North Carolina and had it shipped to the No Limits shop so we could save on shipping and handling fees.. which was also an added bonus because we were able to help the guys install it with the transmission and then finally to the frame.

Everything fit just perfectly! All I could think about was how the engine would sound fired up.. I can't wait to get this baby going!

Chassis now equipped with tires.. ready to go!

Ok.. one more chance to pose by the new chassis before the long drive back to Utah.

Check it out! We're still smiling! Because we're home!!!!

Now the fun begins!

We picked up the doors on our way back from California from Horvath Hotrods in Spanish Fork Utah.. We tore them apart last week and sent them in to be media blasted to remove any paint and rust to see if the doors are salvageable.. And luck has it.. they are!!! We've got a day or so of ahead of us for working out the details on installing the one piece windows and power window rollers.. As well as working out the details on repairing one of the skin panels (huge dent that needs to be cut out and replaced with a new piece of sheet metal).

I took the frame to Gaylons Drivelines in Lehi today to have it measured and fitted for a new aluminum drive shaft.. They said it should be ready tomorrow!! So once we get that we'll install it and then get to work on the exhaust.. (The exhaust should be completed getting polished this week then shipped to us soon hopefully..)

Then comes more tear down of the existing truck to have more of the panels media blasted..

Here are the rest of the pictures from our trip! http://graywaves.smugmug.com/Thunder-Pig-Restoration

Chassis is ready to be picked up!

Whooohooo!!! Good news! We have a frame!! I was told it has been powder coated jet black and the components have been assembled.. All No Limits has to do now is complete the installation of the dual exhaust and we've got ourselves a completed chassis!

My Dad and I are heading to San Bernardino this coming Friday for a father son road trip! I can't wait.. My cousin Neil has graciously offered the use of his car hauler, so we're excited to have a good reliable trailer to pick up the frame with. Today I got the oil changed in the 4-runner as well as new windshield wipers, filters, and topped off all the fluids.. Monday I'll get the tires rotated and make sure they're road worthy (they'd better be.. the tires are less than a year old).

So what exactly are we picking up? Well I'm glad you asked! :)

We started out just looking for a build up of a base chassis to update the truck from its current antique stage to a much more road worthy, high performance state..

The base chassis comes with 2x4 main rails and cross members, complete frame with sub-structure cab mounts, bed mounts, core support mounts, complete coilover Front suspension with Power rack & pinion, Fatbar 4-link rear suspension with billet coilovers, Outboard Power Brake system with pedal and remote full master cylinder, along with motor and trans mounts.

We couldn't stop there though, we've also added a new custom made 21 gallon aluminum fuel tank that sits at the back of the truck underneath the bed between the frame rails behind the rear axle. I also had them run all of the fuel lines to complete the job.

The back of the chassis is pro-street style which means that the shocks and mounting hardware are on the inside of the frame to allow maximum clearance for big #$% tires! :) Here's an example of a pro-street rear end. Note that this is not a picture of my frame, I haven't received pictures of ours yet.. but this is a very similar frame built by No Limit Engineering for a'56 Chevy Pickup.. It does have the same style and size Mickey Thompson tires on it though!

We also added a Currie 9" Ford Rear end with a Detroit Locker posi-traction, complete brake plumbing thru-frame fittings with stainless steel lines, had them mount the engine which we had shipped to them from Doug Herbert Performance Engines so they could attach the fuel lines, headers etc. I can't wait..

Once we have the frame back to Utah, the fun begins.. We'll completely strip down the original truck and start going through it to see what can be re-used in the restoration.. Anything with rust, corrosion or damage is getting tossed and replaced with new parts. There are a few local shops that offer media blasting at pretty reasonable rates, so we'll take the metal parts over to them to have them cleaned up to see what we have to work with.


I'll post some pictures of the new frame when we pick it up, so stay tuned!