Tail Lights – Part 1: The Weld

I ordered a piece of pre-cut metal from http://www.onlinemetals.com/ it came in and fit like a glove. As you can see I put down the longest weld ever on it to ensure I had attachement all the way across the tail pan. Previous to these shots I used a grinder (cuttting disc) to cut the lower lip away from the tail pan. The metal is some of the thickest I have seen on this truck at about 12 gauge. I now have my stencils for the tail lights stenciled in and will be using a sawzall to cut them out. More pictures to follow as the mini-project progresses.

Grip to Go

DSCN3498 a photo by nwaringa on Flickr.

I just finished up the rear end of the truck. It has some slight modifications to it including a Ford 8.8 rear end out of an explorer and some funky work with the leaf springs and shackles to get it low. The axle now sits on top of the leafs as opposed to under int in the stock IH configuration and I built some new lower spring plates to accomodate the shocks.

More pics below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a Seat

DSCN3464

Originally uploaded by nwaringa

Now that I have finished my terrible vendor blogging I want to get back to the truck. I mounted these guys up yesterday. To give lumbar support I added risers to the front on the seat track. As you can see (or can’t) the seat track is hidden. I mounted them far enough back so it gave me room enough to move the seat but kept the track it rolls on hidden under the seat. They worked out well and have integrated seat belts so I don’t have to drill nasty holes in my cab interior.

Mirrors

So I picked up this amazing spotlight that is going on the truck…

But also… Conrad Lanoue is just finishing up his fantastic stainless steel reproduction of my original mirror. It is coming out great (some pics below). It’ll look really wierd… but I am putting both the spotlight and mirror on the truck. The spotlight might look really weird and maybe out of place but I don’t care.

 

Eventually they will look like the pics below (but stainless). I am getting a mirror for the driver and passenger side (which currently does not have one stock).

 

Wing Windows

DSCN3459

Originally uploaded by nwaringa

Just finished up my vent windows. They came out nice with the black powder coating and the new green tint windows. These were tough to complete if you caught a glance of what I had to start with.