JHTreyIII's Class 1 Build - 1981 Chevy Pickup

[JHTreyIII]

Well it's been 5 months with no updates here. I picked up a new motorcycle and it pretty much absorbed most of my summer, LOL. Now that it's getting too cold to ride or work on the house I've got a little time to kill. I cranked up the heater in the garage and got a couple things done. First thing I did was braze on some tabs to mount the rear bumper up. I also threw some hollow tube braces from the mount tabs to the bumper side returns, that should give the mount tabs a little extra strength.

Then I went to work on those dang sliders that I've been avoiding for months. Here you can see the adjustment I made for the new skid plate. I mentioned before that I picked up of the TSS's smooth skids. I also slid it forward to help with a binding driveshaft. Here you can see how much I slid it forward. I also built them this time with both front and back raised upper link mounts. TSS's skid doesn't have upper link mounts so I needed them in the front too.

Then I took them and beat them into shape on the anvil. They're not pretty like some of the ones you buy but that's okay. They look pretty good for not having a metal break.

Then I bent some rod and brazed up some sliders for them.

Here's how they'll look from the bottom. You can also see my new TSS smooth skid in this photo. Everything will be mostly smooth across the bottom of this thing, hopefully it will hang up a little less.

All in all I think they turned out pretty nice...

 

[JHTreyIII]

Slowly working on this little, neglected rig. Got the front axle mounted up, still need to move it forward a bit. Also got the front bumper installed last night.

 

[johnnyh66]

Dang Trey, you are getting good at this!
(a-hem, I need some sweet kick-out sliders for my tiny Jeep... my birthday is coming soon :mrgreen: )

 

[fr8cture]

I almost bumped this thread a few days ago. Good to see more progress.

 

[JHTreyIII]

Johnny, come visit me in Aurora one of these days and we'll make you some! They're pretty simple. I probably even have enough material laying around for them.

I know, this thread and rig has been severely neglected. I've spent more time working on my real rides than my scalers lately. This truck really doesn't even need much work at this point. I just need to get it done!!

 

[JHTreyIII]

Okay I finished up the links last night. Here you can see my raised upper link mounts.

An overall of the chassis with the bumpers and sliders painted and mounted.

She's got a nice, smooth, flat undercarriage now...

And just some shots with the body mounted up. I need to mess with the suspension still so the ride height is good. I'll wait until I've added all the missing parts back since they'll weigh the rig down some.

 

[JHTreyIII]

Working on the rear suspension. Had to use some limit straps to keep the axle from dropping too far. With the shocks mounted where they are there was too much travel. Lots of droop performs but it was so much it was causing my driveshaft to bind...and it's not super scale.

 

[Die-Laughing]

Clean & simple styling and well thought out. Cheby!

 

[JHTreyIII]

Making a little progress...

 

[joe122]

That one very well thought out build.....very cool.

 

[Die-Laughing]

Spaghetti

 

[Reflektr]

Cheby winning!!! Looking very shnazzy my fellow Chev pal... Waaaay more shnazzy than mine that's for sure! Mine's all hack-jobby comp-cut and yours looks like it just rolled off the lot in 1979 ; )

Keep up the good work man. I'll be watching!

 

[JHTreyIII]

Thanks guys. She's going to look a little beat up when I'm done with it but not quite like it was before.

 

[Jeckler]

Is this the same truck that's in the video you sent me the other day?

 

[JHTreyIII]

Yep, same one. That video is almost 3 yrs old.

 

[JHTreyIII]

I feel like this rig needs some silver wheels...something dated looking though. I don't want modern looking beadlocks. There isn't a huge selection out there of 1.55 wheels though. These are some that RC4WD offers that are similar to what I want but they're 1.7's. I'm not sure I want the tires to look stretched. This is sort of a design you saw on a lot of trucks back in the 90's.

 

[JHTreyIII]

Or I could just leave them white steelies...

 

[Jeckler]

I like the silver M/T's. If you stay with white though, I say paint a rim stripe on them.

 

[JHTreyIII]

That's a good idea! Most of those white steelies have the blue and red pinstripe around the bead. I don't think there's any way in hell I could make that look good though. It would need to be soooo tiny and hard to mask. I sure can't do it freehand and make it look presentable. My hands aren't steady enough for that.

 

[JHTreyIII]

Here's a picture of my '72 blazer. It's a little tough to see the wheels, but this truck is even older and this style goes well with it.