Easter Weekend Updates!

Well first off.. just to get it off of my chest... HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!! Ok, now that I have that out of the way.. Check out what the Easter Bunny brought us this year!!

Fenders permanently installed, power antenna installed, brake lights installed (with power) and chrome bumper and hood ornament installed and polished! And thats just the beginning! There are a whole bunch of other goodies in the basket not even mentioned.

The truck is now sporting a finished set of fenders! They are now permanently installed on the bed. You can just barely see the black fender welt bead along the edge of the fender where it attaches to the bedsides. And on the inside of the bed you can see the stainless bolts connecting the drivers side fender to the bed.

Ooooh! Look at those snazzy exhaust tips that are now attached as well! All we need to do to finish the exhaust system is to connect the exhaust pipes to the exhaust tips.

Check out the LED tail lights! They're now installed and look great!

Zach had fun watching them blink.. and blink.. and blink..

Joe has been working on the stainless steel angle strips that will attach to the outside bed walls and around the inner wheel wells. This is no easy job working with stainless steel, but Joe is a great welder and has made great progress.. He almost has the drivers side completely finished.. Then he'll start on the passenger side.

Here I am with Zach and Logan.. The new chrome bumper and grill look awesome..

The hood emblem is original, but has been re-chromed.. Later we'll paint the bow tie to match the color of the truck.. It's gonna look awesome.

The power antenna is now installed in its new home (behind the passenger door of the cab).. Originally it was on the passenger side front fender and was not powered.

This is the power antenna from our 4-runner.. I was in an accident earlier this year and the insurance company replaced it.. Turns out, the only thing we needed to do was buy a new mast for it.. The motor unit was still good and works out great for Thunderpig!

Seat modifications (update)

The new seat brackets are complete and should work out perfectly. Next up is the upholstery!

Seat modifications

The seats are almost ready to be upholstered.. Joe is working on some brackets which will allow us to properly mount the seat to the new cab floor.. Since these are Ford Ranger seats, the cab floor is completely different than our Chevy, so the old seat brackets won't work.

This is the drivers side seat.. All four mounting points need to modified to fit the cab floor.

This is one of the new rear seat brackets.

The two front mounts had to be straightened to mount properly.

Zach says.. I don't know why you need to modify anything, this recliner seat is perfect for watching cartoons on.. Lets take it home and test it out!!

I love it when something gets painted!

The interior and tailgate received a little love this week.. Another layer of paint was applied to the interior of the cab and the first coat has now been sprayed on the tailgate which means we now have a fully painted truck!

Here is the dash after it was hand sanded with high grit sand paper.

The rear window and ceiling was also hand sanded and is now ready for the second layer of paint.

The tailgate at this point has only had primer applied to it.. There was a small dent in the face of the tailgate that was tough to get out, so it didn't get painted earlier.

The dash looks awesome with a fresh coat of paint applied. It really brings out the depth and gloss of the candy apple paint with all the contours in the dash.

Check out that tailgate! Looks pretty sweet all nice and painted..

The Chevy bowtie looks cool and gives the truck a subtle but not too over the top modern style..

Fitting the bedwood

Check it out!! We now have wood in the bed!! And let me tell you.. it looks awesome.

The wood and strips needed to be trimmed by about an inch to fit the new dimensions of the bed.. Also the outside planks had to be cut to fit around the tubs.

As you can see, now that the bedwood is cut, the hard part is trying to fit the edges together to secure the bed to the box.

Here is a picture with the wood and strips laid out next to the bed header panel (near the cab)

Now that the strips have been laid out, Joe will use a TIG welder and tack the angle strips in place and secure them to the bed and fenders..

Vroom Vroom!

Zach fell asleep on the way to the shop so Logan took full advantage of the situation by running around the shop and checking out Thunderpig.

You can see Logan checking out the rear wheels of the pickup on the left and there's our 4-runner on the right .. We had Joe replace the front and rear bumpers as well as the hitch after an accident that left the 4-runner feeling a bit like the middle layer of an oreo cookie.. :-/

Logan loves the wheels on the truck.. He always runs over to them and checks them out when he visits the shop.

Here's Logan motioning for us to give him a fist bump.. He was thinking, "Sweet ride Dad!"

He then jumped right into the drivers seat to pretend to drive the truck.. You could hear Logan repeatedly saying "Vroom Vroooom!" while he moved the steering wheel back and forth.. He really had a good time.

We were actually just saying today that Logan is about the same age now (1yr 2mo) as his brother Zach was when we started restoring the truck!

Since today was nice outside, we decided to pull the truck out of the garage.. That was exciting.. Instead of just pulling the truck outside we took it for a quick spin around the yard.. The seats aren't bolted in and the fenders, and mufflers aren't on the truck so we couldn't take it on the road, but it sure was fun to be riding in the pickup again.

Check out the video of Thunderpig in action! Just wait till this baby hits the pavement! :)

Seat options

Picking out the right seat for Thunderpig is crucial.. Because the inside has to look as sweet as the outside of the truck.. Right now we have two options.. Both have good and bad things about them in which I'll try to explain.

1. Bucket seats from a Chevy Silverado
- Safety - The bucket seats come with a built in shoulder harness and the jump seat even has seat belts -- yeah!
- Seats 3 - Jump seat fits nicely in the center, and comes with a cup holder -- yeah!
- Fun for 2 - As far as we can tell, the jump seat doesn't fold down as an arm rest.. -- boooo!
- Fit - The seats don't fit very well - They're slightly larger than we have room for which would require modifications to the jump seat to make it more narrow so the drivers seat would line up with the steering wheel. -- boooo!

2. Bucket seats from a Ford Ranger
- Safety - The bucket seats would have to use lap belts since the cab is not reinforced for a shoulder harness and the seats don't have a built in seat harness. Also, there is no seat belt with the jump seat -- boooo!
- Seats 3 - The jump seat is attached to the drivers seat and is quite small (most likely only a child could sit there) and without a seat belt for the center this would probably rule out a 3rd passenger anyhow -- boooo!
- Fun for 2 - Without a doubt, the seats look and feel nicer than the Silverado seats, and with a fold down arm rest and plenty of leg room, the ride would be quite comfortable for the driver and passenger -- yeah!
- Fit - Lower profile seats give us more leg room in the cab, and are more narrow than the Silverado seats which give us more options for seat mounting -- yeah!

So as you can see from my pros and cons list above, each set of seats come out with 2 pros and 2 cons.. why are these decisions never easier.. lol!

Check out the pictures and let me know what you think.. Keep in mind, the seats will be completely torn apart and new material will be used for the leather upholstry.


Silverado Seats

Here I am testing out the Silverado seats.. -- With the jump seat removed, we were able to set the seat perfectly in place.. with my arm out the window, and my other hand on the steering wheel, it definitely passes the "I'm ready, lets get this truck on the road!" test :-)

Side view of the seats setting in the truck.

View of the entire seat - They set further forward than the Ranger seats, but to be fair, the seat isn't actually sitting in its proper mount position (seat back is pushed back further than it would end up being also)

Here is the jump seat -- If only that sucker could fold down!

Ranger Seats

Zach gave these seats his approval right away and tried out each seat 5 or 6 times.. Of course each time would require opening the door and running around to the other side to open that door and close it behind him..

You can tell the seats are smaller than the Silverado seats, but they're quite comfortable.

See how much further back these seats can be positioned?

Since Logan was asleep we weren't able to get him in this picture, but he would have fit well on the center arm rest. :-)

Zach was making vroom vroom noises and the only complaint he had was that he couldn't reach the gas pedal.. He tried starting the truck twice! Thank goodness we installed that battery kill switch! LOL!

Yeah, someday him and his brother are gonna have a blast in this truck.. oh... boy.

Here's Zach trying to figure out how to get the truck into drive.. yikes.

So what do you all think of the seats? I'm still not sure what to do..