The fitty-slick, aka, the incredible hulk

[Caveman]

Yes, its green. It's green because some high school shop class in NM did some half-ass bodywork on it while they were skipping out on geometry.

Previously a janitor's truck somewhere in New Mex, the color UNDER the green is actually SCHOOL BUS YELLOW. Sweeeet.

More to come, as work progresses...

That's green rustoleum on the fenders, and the hood has unknown enamel sprayed on with a garden hose... more drips & runs than your ass at a chile festival


Front stance courtesy of removing 3 of 6 leaves... sandblasted, repainted, greased, and popped 'em back on... gotta cut the bumpstops though... 1.5" of travel.


a glimpse of the overkill 9"... snagged out of my '89 jeep before I sold it. Overkill because its got Strange 35-spline axle shafts, a locker, and a Strange nodular iron 3rd member with 4.10s. Overkill because my bone stock 350 is probably woofing out about 150 horses. And yes, I have a complete set of 5 original rims, with 5 original dog-dish caps, and all the little tangs are alive & counted for... any takers?



Gotta get 'er cleaned up, and LOWERED more... more pics to come!

[milner351]

Re: The fitty-slick, aka, the incredible hulk

dude - for this summer - get it reliable and drive it!

it will take HOURS of sanding or stripping to take off all that paint - leave that project for winter!
(if your garage aint ready for said project - do that in the fall!)

[Caveman]

Re: The fitty-slick, aka, the incredible hulk

dude - for this summer - get it reliable and drive it!

it will take HOURS of sanding or stripping to take off all that paint - leave that project for winter!
(if your garage aint ready for said project - do that in the fall!)

Yeah, & I think the freshman assigned to sand the bondo used an angle grinder. DEEP scratches.

I'm gonna keep it kinda rat... much as I hate that phrase... the body work will take YEARS.

[fahrenschnell]

Re: The fitty-slick, aka, the incredible hulk

Sweet project....Needs more power 8)

Seth

[Scott Liggett]

Re: The fitty-slick, aka, the incredible hulk

It's green so it would match the janitor's uniform. ;D

[squirrel]

Re: The fitty-slick, aka, the incredible hulk

Nice truck! if I had any use for the set of original 57 wheels I have....

[Caveman]

Re: '56 Chebbie -- The fitty-slick, aka, the incredible hulk-o-junk

A little update on the green hulkster... The plywood bed was ratty, so I ripped it out, and gave it the heave-ho.

Here's a few pics of the process I did to clean it up, clean up the frame, and do a hack-job lowering on the rear end... all done last summer before the 500-mile trip up to Loring, ME for the LSR last August.

Here's the bed after ripping out the old wood... I left the sides for 'character'---plus they were bolted on with like 20 rusty bolts per side. Whatta PITA.



More de-rusting... drill with a wire wheel. yeeeeeha.



After cleaning and some rust-o-leum.



It's the big 9-incher ladies! Check the sweet aluminum shaft.



The redneck lowering job---8" long shackles. I couldn't go any lower, as the shocks were ALMOST bottoming out. Time for relocated shock mounts!

[jays67]

Re: The fitty-slick, aka, the incredible hulk

cool my fav body style truck

[cantvalve16]

Re: The fitty-slick, aka, the incredible hulk

Good stuff. I feel ya on the angle grinder bondo work. Got all that stripped off on mine now. Oh, and the angle grinder with wire wheel is a an old friend to me as well. Great project. Enjoy!

[terry russell]

Re: The fitty-slick, aka, the incredible hulk

man that is a cool truck
terry

[NAS Backyard]

Re: The fitty-slick, aka, the incredible hulk

Nice project! Good idea on the upgrades. Don't get rid of that spare tire set up on the fender , thats too cool to remove. I just got this one back after 19 years and its going back to the guy I got it from. He is drooling all over himself . I just sent him the pictures. He bought it in 82. This is "Butch"

[Caveman Tony]

I did a bit of interior decorating: stickers all over, a shifter, painted the floors, and oh, yeah, wrestled a tranny swap. No pics of the tranny swap, 'cuz I was thrashing. Did some wiring too. Yay. Still popped 3 fuses on the trip. Shoulda used more shrinkwrap.

[Caveman Tony]

A little late-night wiring...

[Huskinhano]

The last time I did late night wiring was on my wife's Subie in 22* weather in the drive way.

[Caveman Tony]

did a bit more work last summer/fall. Lost the photo card all the pics were on 'till yesterday.

Suspension/exhaust work...

The reason for the exhaust work:

cracked. Was wonderin' where that noise was comin' from. Apparently, the down tube had been smacking against the tie-rod on hard bumps. BAD.

New 2.5" glasspacks... headers... got rid of the old 1.75" system. Ugh.



New pipes.. fyi, next time... just buy the bends. (I'm a cheapass) Woulda saved me LOTS of time/Pain-in-the-ass, and welding wire to boot...


Custom cheapskate bends..




The old man, helpin' out with burnin' in some welds. With all the damn pie-cuts I made to get the bends right, we went through like 3-4 spools of welding wire, and it was getting to be a royal pain. Glad he helped out, plus he's a pretty good welder!



Sounds WAAAAY better now, and quite a bit more seat-of-the-pants power too.



Needed a new door handle... had some big chunks of maple laying around. Sawzall & sander time!


A little stain to give it some color, didn't come out too bad.

Rear suspension -- NEEDS to lose some altitude next....