I bought this truck about five years ago from the second owner. He'd had it about 15 years and had purchased it from a good friend who special ordered it new. It was basically stock, but cut, when I got it. Originally it was chrome yellow with a parchment interior. I added power disc brakes, an np435 tranny, installed the bucket seats, and a soft top, along with a ton of little stuff along the way. It was, and is, is my driver but...the doors were out of alignment so bad that the passenger side wouldn't even close all the way and I knew that there was some rust, I just didn't know how much, so I decided to do the body and frame restoration. I figured I could spend the same amount of money on a new car that is boring and depreciates or rebuild something that is unique and fun that is appreciating (plus it's my business vehicle: a huge tax advantage!).
O.K., here's some of the highlights:
302 with Rouch heads, Holly carb, Edelbrock intake, cam, balanced, headers, bluprinted, full custom build, true rear wheel 300hp/375ftlb.
NV3550 5 speed tranny
D20 with semi-custom twinstick
3.1:1 Power Steering
AutoMeter gauges
The body was in pretty good shape when we started, I found a little bit of rust in the front side of the door posts and under the windshield hinge. All the sheet metal is original with the exception of a new 'glass hood. The body was media blasted down to bare metal, it had been repainted, stock chrome yellow, once so there wasn't layer upon layer to deal with. The only body filler was a little bit in the drivers door, it looked like maybe a box or wheelbarrow had fallen against it. This was easy to fix from the backside with a hammer and dolly. There were a ton of holes we had to weld up, everything from filling the antenna hole in the fender and patching a 2" c.b. antenna mount in the rear quarter panel to 1/8" -1/4" holes drilled all over the place. I can only guess the previous owner like to mount stuff everywhere. I was never happy with the gas caps sticking out of the body but I was also never fond of the big billet caps either. Both the billet caps. as well as the '77 style gas filler doors still interferred with the flare. I didn't want to cut a section out of the flare. I also didn't want to lose the front tank so to go to a filler behind the taillight only solved the rear tank problem. I found some gas filler doors that were available with a 3" round spring latch door, push to open, push to close. The caps have a spring loaded center flap that allows the pump nozzle to be inserted without needing to remove the cap. These doors were aligned on the body, out of the line of the flare, and painted, so they virtually disappear. I mounted a 1974 BMW 2002tii radio antenna on the windshield frame. It looks perfectly period and it eliminated another wart I never cared for on the body.
While the body was removed, I sandblasted the frame and painted it with POR15 and a satin black topcoat. I did nothing with the differentials, they're going to be replaced anyway. I may steam clean them and hit them with a little c.b.p. (cheap black paint) to dress them up a little for now.
The body underside, inside and engine bay were all LineX'ed, the latter then painted to look more like stock. (Colored LinX isn't available in California)
The color is a pale gray/green, 1962 Volkswagen Fontana Gray. These photos don't really show the color very well. I installed all new chrome and reassembled it with all stainless hardware. It has a 2" suspension lift and a 1" body mount lift.
Thanks for all the positive feedback.
Oh, the wheels/tires are as follows: 15x8 Sendel & 31x10.50 Pirelli Scorpions with about 50% tread. The wheels are very similar to Eagle series 058.
http://www.eaglewheels.com/058.htm
I had to keep the project moving because I was down to either sharing our XTerra with my wife or my motorcycle and bicycle for transportation.
I hope to make it Sacto for the February 5th get-together.
