It's June 2006 and I just made plans to have my dream truck build by Hill's Hot
Rod's in Lubbock, Texas!
I took a road trip to meet the owner Jason Hill for the first
time. Since I had previous taken some other parts to get worked on at another
shop,
I decided I was going to take some parts with me so if they got a chance they
could start working on them. So I loaded up my doors.
Soon to be Shaved.
Need to smooth out all the spot welds.
Attention To Detail
Shaving the lower bodyline.
Close Up Shot
Smoothing out all the spot welds.
The doors will be completely smoothed out on the inside. Eventually
the lower bodyline, and the door handles will be shaved, and the top
of the doors corners will be rounded off.
The door pinch will also be welded up and smoothed out to give the
doors a seamless look.
There is a lot of work just going into the
doors,
so hopefully some of the small details can be finished at the very
beginning of the build.
Welding up everything!
Smoothing out all the spot welds.
After unloading my doors we went into the front office area of the shop
to discuss my plans and list of mods. I told Jason what my truck meant to me
and where I was headed with the build up. I showed him a few magazines with
some custom Dodge Rams and I went over what I would like to change on mine
so it would be different from the ones that had already been featured.
Since it was June 2006, I asked Jason if it would be possible to have my
truck ready to start showing in the "Under Construction" class starting in
April of 2007.
He told me that it shouldn't be a problem, so I asked about having the truck
completed by November 2007 for the Sema Show in Las Vegas.
Again he said it shouldn't be a problem.
Awesome! I'm finally in the right place! My dream truck is finally going to happen!!!
Slamboree In Norman,
Oklahoma. A few months later in August at Slamboree I had my
Lincoln Navigator remote control model on display next to Mark's
"Instigator".
Mark Whiteskunk won "Best of Show" Truck, and Jason
Hill won
"Best of Show" Car.
I have no complaints going from one Best of Show builder to another.
I talked to Jason Hill at the show and he told me that my
doors were almost finished!
One Lean, Mean, Clean 3.18! The plan for this engine is to make it a reliable
driver with some minor performance mods, and a Super Charger will also be
added!
(Not pictured: A brand
AC condenser, radiator and a high output alternator.)
I was already prepping the engine for paint at the first body shop,
and once the engine was pulled it was taken apart and smoothed out.
The engine was pulled with only 61,993 miles!
The entire engine block will be
smoothed out from front to back and top to bottom.
Any brackets, castings lines, or other imperfections that don't
belong will be grinded
down smooth.
Polishing The Stock Intake Manifold.
The stock fuel rail will be replaced with a polished
billet fuel rail which will be mounted using custom brackets.
The mounting points are located at
the base of the intake. The same bolts are used to secure the
intake to the engine.
The stock fuel rail mounting tabs will be cut off, grinded down, and the
intake will be reshaped and enhanced for a smoother appearance.
There will be no "humps" on top of the intake, once this is
complete it will somewhat resemble a Hemi intake with an air
intake located in the center.
It's a lot of work, but it's the little things that make a huge
difference!
More details to come on this
modified intake!
Polishing The Stock
Transmission.
"You're doing what to a Dodge transmission?!?!"
That's right, I'm going to polish the transmission.
I know Dodge's are notorious for having terrible transmissions, but I've
never had any problems with it. So I started smoothing it out...
Style Points Anything and everything that will interfere with a smooth clean look
will be grinded down and smoothed out and then polished.
There is a lot of
molding and casting numbers that need to be removed before it gets
polished.
I have no idea how
many hours this has taken me, but this is just one
more detail that will push this
project over the top!
Details, Details, Details!
Just a small sample of my work in
between stages before it gets smoothed out even more for a high
quality shine that is clean enough to eat off of!
More on this later...
Smoothing Out The Drive Shaft. Shooting for chrome...
Smoothing Out The Differential. Shooting for chrome...
I decided I want to chrome the entire differential. I know it's going to
take a lot of work to make this completely smooth without any pits.
Depending on the chrome shop, they should be able to help aid in filling
in the pits once it's ready to be chromed.
The majority of this has been
smoothed out for now.
At a later date the entire thing was again smoothed out and
most of the pins holes were grinded down to a smooth finish.
More on this differential coming soon!
My 2 Cents Worth... Even though my work is not complete in these
pictures (yet) I like to think that I do quality work with
everything that I do, but according to a lot of people... "I have way to much time on my hands."
Sure I won't get the same praise as a glorified welder or a
painter, but if you don't have good prep work, your end result will
suffer.
So where do you draw the line between "too much time" and quality? Just
wondering...
"Good work ain't fast, and fast work ain't good."
Need to do some tedious
grinding?
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