Looks good. What did you paint the frame with? And is the engine going for stock, or??

 

Hi Gary,

Eastwood Rubberized Rust Encapsulator - Black Aerosol was used for the frame.

Yea staying mostly stock on the engine. upgraded the cam and pistons a bit and having it balanced.

 

What kind of paint did you use on your frame? I know the average for most of us FTE guys use POR-15, but I heard that that's only meant to go on rusty stuff, never anything that is fresh bare metal, apparently it won't hold up.

EDIT: Sorry, just read what you posted to Gary. Nevermind .

 

And boy does it look pretty!!

 

Sure does look good! What intake and water pump are those?

 

Hi Gary,

The water pump is GMB 125-1230P High Performance Series Water Pump I got off amazon. You won't believe this but, I got it for $16.00!!!!



It's at $65.00 now...

I'll have to check the rebuild invoice for the intake. I went with the re-builder's advice on that. Apparently the original had a little hole in it...

I've had a pretty good year and this has now turned into a complete frame up restoration!

I was able to scavenge a lot of parts off the donor truck. Like the Dash pad! it only had a little crack at the speaker hole and the restoration guy said he could repair it easily. that alone paid for the donor truck!

 

That sure is a good price on the water pump! I kept hitting the "Buy Again" button so you may get several of them.

But, is the pump aluminum? The write up says they are available in aluminum and iron.

As for the intake, I wondered what it is because it doesn't say. So it is a generic? Looks good and kinda fits with a "stock but sleeper" build.

 

Yea its aluminum! The restoration guy was shocked! I saw the same one at Summit racing for $85.00

He kept saying, "there has to be a misprint..." then when it came in he said, "I can't believe it, I thought there was no way it could be the same pump!"

It was either a mistake in the pricing or I just got luck with the timing and it was a special...

 

Cool! I'm going with an aluminum water pump as well. With the intake and water pump you have a good weight savings.

 

Thats what the restoration guy said... LOL

it is awesome because he is as stoked about the project as I am! He talks about the truck and the little things he is doing with excitement! He even gave me the air cleaner as a Christmas present!

He is actually clear coating everything before he installs them to keep them cleaner longer.

 

A little more progress

 

Looking good! I wish I were to that point.

 

Hey Gary, Thanks! I wish you were too!! LOL

Lets talk about wheels and tires for moment.

My dad's truck has the 16.5 inch wheels and the donor truck has the 16 inch wheels. I was thinking of keeping stock wheels, from the donor truck to make finding tires easier. I found a guy that will sandblast and powder coat them for like $50 a wheel. The restoration guy seems to think an aftermarket set of new wheels and tires would be a better option. There is a place called Zeke's right around the corner from my house that sells really reasonable package deals.

Does anyone have any suggestions, opinions or general comments about tires and wheels. A good size to replace the originals maybe?

 

Several questions and cautions come to mind. The first being if this is a restoration or restomod? (I know the answer, but have to ask.) If the latter then you are free to use whatever tires, and then wheels, you want.

Then, determine what size tires you want. If you want larger tires be aware that the old wheels are a narrow cross-section and are probably too narrow for larger tires. You can go to tirerack.com and check the size wheel whatever tire you want should have. But a narrow wheel will cause the tire to bulge on the sidewall, so it'll touch the radius arm or frame earlier in a turn. And, the tread will be arched so the wear won't be flat across it.

After selecting the tire you can then select the wheel. But, if buying new wheels you may want to go with larger diameter ones as finding 16 or 16.5" tires may not be as easy as 18's or even 20's.

 

I know it has been a while since I've come to update things here. My resto guy had some setbacks and progress slowed to a crawl. He is making better progress now and, as of Saturday, should have painted the interior by now. He has all the small stuff done, like steering column, pedal arms and brackets, kick plates, etc...

Gary Wheels are very interesting topic, this has definitely become a retomod and we're taking some liberties but nothing that can't be undone later. Like we've decided to paint the grill, mirrors, doorhandles and bumpers. The feeling is that, they can't really be used anyway because of their condition but, if it was unappealing later those things could be swapped out with chrome later.