Whole Truck in Raptor

[jeremy.farlow]

All of the Benz’s I’ve had were compliments of my dad. Good cars, but too rough or too many miles for the dealership to take on. My brother got the best of them, an 89 300 CE with a bunch of miles, but it ran great and the body was straight. He totaled it. My personal favorite was my black on black, African warlord special 420 SEL I bought for $1500 and sold for $3500. I’ve no interest to get into the car game as a salesman, used or otherwise, but my dad tried his hardest. I can’t say I turned a PROFIT on all of them, but I always broke even. And a lot of my scumbag friends wound up with FAR nicer cars than they deserved. Dad “aged out” at the dealership in the last economic upheaval and has been scratching away at his own used car lot since. It’s opened me up to a far wider array of cars that nobody else wants anymore. Culminating in my “new” CHEVROLET here!!

Sorry, not sorry to get so far OT, I hope every one out there is staying safe and sane and healthy.



Jeremy

[jeremy.farlow]

Did the bumpers in black:


Jeremy

[Mike81K10]

White Whale - Moby Dick or just Moby for short!

[jeremy.farlow]

Got the doors back on and second to last full coat done today:


I had to pull a bag off to show a friend that I OFFICIALLY have a big boy truck:


If this stuff is half as durable as it claims I’ll be a happy boy. Really happy that I’ll be able to start reclaiming my shop next week when I can start putting things back ON the truck.



Jeremy

[jeremy.farlow]

The rear windows were installed and sealed by committee. Keeping with the 20’ aspirations of this truck they came out... alright. The SEALING part is the problem. I bought this thing with weirdo rust. At this point part of the exercise is to... I’m not sure... but I’d just as soon not have any more rust.
Some clean-up required.
My dad and girlfriend will claim their parts of the process and I don’t think they caused permanent harm.
Mostly I’m glad that most of the big glass is back in place and unbroken. The windshield still has to go back. I pulled all the glass myself, but invited others to blame in case WE broke it going back in. See what I did there!!?!
Sidebar: Whatever GM did obviously didn’t work as evidenced by the rust I hopefully curbed. Ultimately WE opted to glue the glass trim in with black weatherstrip adhesive and then to caulk the body to glass trim in with black silicone.




Jeremy

[Shifty]

Looking good Jeremy!  Keep up the fine work....once you all recover, that is...

[jeremy.farlow]

I didn’t have too productive of a day today. Got A door put together:






Jeremy

[JohnnyPopper]

I wondered what the three holes were for; Port holes!

I would black them out, just saying...

Nice work Jeremy!

[jeremy.farlow]

I’ve never had luck getting paint to stick to aluminum. Not over the long run at least. Generally I’m a fan of “blacking things out”, as evidenced by my “white-privilege” levels of tint. One of the options the truck had was the “executive” windows. They came fairly dark from the factory, but I added another layer of 5% tint to the very back windows and 20% to the doors. Haven’t done the vent windows as they still need some work. I went ahead and got wind deflectors, if they stop the vent windows whistling I’ll probably just tint them and call it a day.




One of the reasons I bought this thing was to have something I could stretch out in the back of on lunch breaks or during downtime. A home away from home if you will... pretty sure I won’t have too much trouble catching a few zzzz’s in the back now.




Jeremy

[jeremy.farlow]

I’ve also made up my mind. There is one thing this truck NEEDS!!!
Longhorns!!!

I’ve decided a set of them will be my first frivolous purchase once I have an income again.

Also wanted to show off one of the only things i masked off when I painted.


This sticker and where the hinges mount. Everything else got paint.




Jeremy

[Shifty]

Cool little save...

[jeremy.farlow]

Thankee... it’s always in the details. This is an American truck. Made in America. I’m proud of that.
I’m NO machinist, but I do own and operate a lathe and mill. Machine work is one of the few places where imperial measurements still rule. Additionally, In my day job we’re still primarily imperial and SAE-based. I’m fully aware how Mickey Mouse the imperial system is, but I’m COMFORTABLE with it. I’ve been pleased that so far the only metric fasteners on this vehicle are a smattering of self-tapping screws that require a 7mm nut-driver. Otherwise it’s all SAE and I’m okay with that. I’m aware that the US is the only country still using imperial... but we’re also the only country that’s put men on the moon...

Hope everyone out there is staying healthy. I’m personally mainly hoping I can stretch this project and my savings out until this thing is over.





Jeremy

[JohnnyPopper]

I’ve never had luck getting paint to stick to aluminum.

Jeremy

Sorry, meant behind the aluminum- The vents on the doors. Would look much better.

I like the aluminum look, Custom!

[jeremy.farlow]

Right on.


Yeah... I’ve got a ton of aluminum 1/8” perf metal. I was thinking cutting inserts of that and sticking that behind the “portholes”... I thought showcasing the factory louvers would be cooler than its turned out to be.
I thought you meant blacking out the panel I made. I would love to if I thought I had 1/2 a chance of executing it well. Anodizing would be the only thing with a snowballs chance and my parts aren’t NEARLY clean enough for that.

Copy blacked out behind the portholes.

Check blacked out mirrors:

Also check new fender painted and installed.

I’ll get a picture tomorrow, bumpers are black raptor, like the mirrors.

I swear I am not on the raptor payroll.

I also will attest that if this stuff doesn’t prove highly durable I will be VERY UPSET.


Hope everyone is still healthy, safe and SANE! I’m distancing, but thankfully I’m not limited to home. I drive across town twice a day...

How long until things get REALLY weird???




Jeremy

[jeremy.farlow]

These should probably go into the interior section, but the dash is painted in raptor, so...


The hanging LED is not a permanent fixture, just helping out on the black hole the interior is becoming.
As white as this thing was not terribly long ago, with most of the interior trim in place it’s GREY on the inside.
I’m real happy with the job I did on the headliner. Funny aside, when I bought this truck I got it shipped to dads lot. His initial offer was that he had some take-off tires I was GOING TO buy and that his headliner guy was coming by and he’d have him redo the headliner for me. $1000... tires and headliner. Anyhow, the headliner guy refused the work, too many old plastic bits, the part itself was TOO big... no thank you.
So I bought some vinyl and a gallon of contact cement. Turns out super77 works way better. Several cans of that layer here’s the result. So far it’s defying gravity. I hope that continues.

Here’s a close up of the mirrors in raptor.
I’ll probably hang the rear bumper in the next couple days, the front end has come further apart.

The next couple of days are likely to be more of taking the truck apart.

Phase I was initially meant to be interior. It grew to interior, paint and windows. I swapped from an auto-lock, auto-window, auto-mirrors truck to a full manual lock, manual-crank window, still auto-mirror truck.

Phase II is brakes, dual battery and relocate, and disassembly for phase III
I’ve got a set of four-pot Wilwood calipers that’ll fit the front perfectly.
I’d like to use the existing front calipers on the rear and have four-wheel brakes.
I will lose the parking brake.
I’m pretty sure I can figure out a pinion brake. Pretty sure I have everything save the master cylinder on hand.

Phase III engine.



Edelbrock multi-port EFI.
VERY mild, roller cam
4130 rockers and pushrods
Eagle full forged reciprocating assembly
AFR heads paid for, in hand whenever California opens back up.

0.060 over. Stock throw. 496ci. Oval ports. Small cam. Basically Gen VI stock replacement. 112cc chambers in the heads with 0.045” copper head gasket.

I’m a little aggressive with compression.

I live in the south, Hotlanta, but I have

No plans to tow

And an O/D transmission w/ 3:73 rear gears

Hopefully Edelbrock has their anti-knock calculus figured out.

Engine will be in engine section, remaining interior pictures may find a home in that sub-forum. Hopefully I’ll have some cool brake pictures as well.

I hope all of you are still safe and healthy.



Jeremy