My new pinstriping delivery vehicle....'66 Chevy SWB

[CRASH]

Beautiful...

Thanks Craig !

Absolutely stunning looking "rat rod"! Rat rod, can I call it that? Of course in the most respectful sense. I LOVE that truck!

No, you may not call it a rat rod. Lol ! Thanks for the compliments though.

Its cool as hell man, start drivin that bitch...

As soon as I can, it will be on the road.

Sweet, now drive that thing over here and hit up my toolbox

I'll get a hold of you as soon as it's running and driving and I'll get your tool box hooked up.

Aaron, that is SWEET! And excellent choices all the way around. Love it!

Thanks ! I'm real happy with how everything has turned out so far. Only thing I wish I would have done was bite the bullet and bought drop spindles/disc brakes. It's currently as low as I can get it without notching the frame in the rear and putting drop spindles on the front.

I'm glad I bought the '86 from you, Aaron.

I'm glad you bought it too, Yale. It's going to be nice to be back in an old vehicle.

Same motor? kept the 283? You driving it yet?

Yes, yes, and ALMOST. The 283 has such good oil pressure and runs so good I didn't want to pull it out. It didn't have much oil/dirt on it at all, so that tells me it either hasn't been too long ago since it was rebuilt, or it's been sitting and hasn't been run much. Either way, it's staying for sure. It runs like a fucking top, man !

Bitchin cruiser! Where is the pics of it lowered?

Thanks Steve. See my post above. The stock suspension on these trucks, with the trailing arm setup in the rear, doesn't allow for just a whole lot of lowering without c-notching the frame. And the front end has 3" lower springs that brought it down enough that I'm going to have to cut the bump stops nearly in half to have any travel !

Looks good Aaron!!!! Hope to see ya at the show this Saturday!

Thanks David. I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it out there with it Saturday or not. We still haven't started it back up yet to set the timing. Also need to charge the a/c once it's running again. I'm waiting on one of the guys from O'Reilly's to show up with some couplings to make a drain for the radiator. This radiator doesn't have a petcock to drain the coolant, so we're just going to put the drain in the lower radiator tube/hose that I made yesterday. And I still have to get the front end aligned so I don't kill these tires right off the bat.

I dig it. Bravo for the ac unit!

Oh hell yes on the A/C. I hit a home run on the swap that I did for the a/c and tires, so it was a no-brainer.

Looks good , moar pics pleeze

Thanks buddy ! I'll post up some more when I get to the house this evening. Just got the fresh air block off plates pinstriped that we made to close up the holes where the vents were. Also just got some pinstripes on the steering wheel and horn button.

-Aaron

[Silverback]

needs pin striping

[HarrisonTX]

Good to hear you're keeping that 283. They have their benefits. Im sure with a t5, it'll do just fine on the MPG. I'm actually real curious, and quite jealous.

Are you doing a door sign? I think a skull and cross bone, type sign, but instead of cross bones, do crossed pinstripping brushes. And maybe for the skull, a OneShot can?

[564826]

That grey gives it a very clean look and those whitewalls look perfect on it.

[bcoop]

Pure sex. Looks fucking good, Aaron.

[Randy]

looks awesome... clearer pic of finished product would be awesome.... my FIL has a truck similar to this but step side.... i want to get that from him before it rusts away..... and this makes me want it even more....

[coley]

Damn that thing is cool, bring it by the shop some time so we can see it in person. I had BA's powder coat my chopper frame and it came out real nice also.

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needs pin striping

Yeah, it's going to be striped up. I got a little done to it today, but my primary goal right now is to get it going.

Good to hear you're keeping that 283. They have their benefits. Im sure with a t5, it'll do just fine on the MPG. I'm actually real curious, and quite jealous.

Are you doing a door sign? I think a skull and cross bone, type sign, but instead of cross bones, do crossed pinstripping brushes. And maybe for the skull, a OneShot can?

Yeah, my dad had a '65 El Camino with a 283 and he put a T5 in it with a/c. It got 22 mpg with basically the same setup as I've got, except it had 3.08 gears and mine has 3.73's.

I haven't decided if I'm going to do anything big on the doors just yet. I'm planning on painting it, so I may just do some simple striping on it for now, and then after I paint it go all out and do the doors, etc.

That grey gives it a very clean look and those whitewalls look perfect on it.

Thanks ! I'm actually going to paint it the same color as the door jambs and door panels. It's kind of an ivory, off white. I'm kinda torn on whether or not I want to do a flattened clear on it. I am thinking it would look SICK flat ivory, with the gloss wheels and maybe doing a root beer metal flake on the roof. I'm getting excited just thinking about it !

Pure sex. Looks fucking good, Aaron.

Thanks Brent !

looks awesome... clearer pic of finished product would be awesome.... my FIL has a truck similar to this but step side.... i want to get that from him before it rusts away..... and this makes me want it even more....

Thanks Randy ! I don't know what the deal is with my digital camera. Sometimes it takes great pictures, and sometimes I get some blurry ass shit. I'll get some more once I get the grille put back in and get it out of the shop.

Damn that thing is cool, bring it by the shop some time so we can see it in person. I had BA's powder coat my chopper frame and it came out real nice also.

Thanks Coley ! I'll definitely bring it by once I get it out and start driving it. I won't use anyone else for my powder coating. Brian does an awesome job, and I did some trade out pinstripe work on his '52 Chevy coupe for the wheels.

-Aaron

[CRASH]

Got a little more done today. Got the lower radiator tube/hose on and filled it up with coolant. Fired it up and set the timing.

I've got some work to do tomorrow, so I won't be able to work on it, but the next time I can get up to the shop we'll get the a/c charged and put the grille back in it. My temp gauge isn't working, despite the new sending unit, so I'll have to chase that wiring snafu down.

Still need to swap out the master cylinder, and need a buddy of mine to come by to help me get the hood off so I can clean it all up on the under side and paint it.

Also got the carpet color picked out today so hopefully I can get Ronnie to get it ordered and get that put in soon. Here's some more pictures.












-Aaron

[grove rat]

i learned how to drive standard on my dads 66' 283 3spd

that's one sweet ass truck you built

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i learned how to drive standard on my dads 66' 283 3spd

that's one sweet ass truck you built

Ah, memories. Too cool. Thanks Mike.

I'm thinking about, instead of putting drop spindles up front to lower it, just cut the fender opening out of the fender and actually lower the opening about 2 1/2" to give it the optical illusion that it is lower in the front than it really is. That would save me $600+ !! So, that may happen before I paint it. I still need to do some minor body work anyways, before it gets paint, so why not add to the looks while I'm at it ?!

-Aaron

[Grimpala]

Ah, memories. Too cool. Thanks Mike.

I'm thinking about, instead of putting drop spindles up front to lower it, just cut the fender opening out of the fender and actually lower the opening about 2 1/2" to give it the optical illusion that it is lower in the front than it really is. That would save me $600+ !! So, that may happen before I paint it. I still need to do some minor body work anyways, before it gets paint, so why not add to the looks while I'm at it ?!

-Aaron

Why not cut the coil for 1" drop, then sink the lower spring cups 1" to acheive the 2" drop, then you don't have to do body work out the ass.

[grove rat]

Ah, memories. Too cool. Thanks Mike.
-Aaron

speaking of memories with that truck...

took me a couple weeks to fully be able to drive it with confidence. well of course a week later he has me run an errand for him and take back a car trailer(empty) that he borrowed from a friend. i was a little nervous but he said it's not really a big deal and to just keep your distance from the cars in front of you and make wider turns and watch your mirrors extra close. i drove it from the grove to east garland and without issue, when i pulled up to the guys house i breathed a sigh of relief...i should have known it wasn't gonna be that easy

well the guy i was taking it to wasn't there and the trailer needed to be backed up over the curb, around a tree and parked next to his house on a small slab of concrete

now remember i am new to driving a manual transmission, and this truck had no normal set up. here is how it was set up:

no power brakes(drums all the way around of course)
no power steering with a really small racing type steering wheel(my dad is 6'2'' and 300lbs so he put the small steering wheel for more room)
the clutch was obviously not hydraulic. i still dont know a lot about clutches but some spring broke off so he got a friend to weld up a strong bracket and used 2 trampoline springs to make it work. it worked prefect till he sold it but it was a fucking workout pumping that clutch pedal

anyways now that you get an idea of what i was driving you can imagine how fucking hard it was for a novice manual trans driver backing a trailer up for the first time with that clutch and steering set up. it literally took me 10 tries and probably 15 minutes to get it somewhat close/halfass on top of the concrete slab. his wife was watching me the entire time and could tell how frustrating it was for me and finally said to leave it there and she would have her husband move it when he got home. i was fucking exhausted! arms and legs were killing me... she was nice though and gave me some grape drank!

holy shit i can't believe i just typed out all that lol

[bobs94formula]

Man that is cool! I really like the Mr. Gasket valve covers. You don't see them everyday!

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Why not cut the coil for 1" drop, then sink the lower spring cups 1" to acheive the 2" drop, then you don't have to do body work out the ass.

There is absolutely no way I can lower it more by cutting the spring. I can literally put one finger between the bump stop and control arm. The problem with lowering these trucks more than about 5" by static drop, is you run into scrub line issues. I figured if I brought the opening down, I would still have plenty of suspension travel too.

speaking of memories with that truck...
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holy shit i can't believe i just typed out all that lol

Lol, I feel your pain. My truck is manual steering, manual brakes, and no hydraulic clutch. And this truck has bias ply tires, so it should be fun to drive !

Man that is cool! I really like the Mr. Gasket valve covers. You don't see them everyday!

Thanks ! I got the valve covers from a buddy of mine. The top of the fins and letters are engine turned. It's hard to see in the pictures though.

-Aaron