61 Days to Goodguys

Posted by pikesan on Nov 29, 2007 in How-To & Tech, Vintage Rides | 0 comments

Written by MyRideisMe feature Member: Mr. Freeze

Let me start off by saying that I didn’t think that Goodguys Scottsdale would be the premier show for this build or that the truck would set new standards in the hot rod world. Goodguys was only a time goal for this build. The 40 Ford Cab was purchased for some parts for another project and then it was to be discarded or sold. The more I looked at it the more I thought that it would be a neat build. A friend and I started building the 2×3 box frame Z’d 6” in the front and 14” in the rear and after only a week we got it rolling. We chose a 292 Y-block and for that eye candy factor topped it off with a 6 deuce intake. After some deliberation we decided that this ride would be much cooler with a three speed. Out back, we chose a 56 Ford 4:11 truck axle with 56 front brakes. But it was soon pushed to the side for another project.

Here’s where we sat so far…

It sat for a while and soon I was looking at Goodguys coming and all of my friends were asking if the truck would be done? With less than 3 months to go I decided it would be done. Now keep in mind I said this truck rolled, but that was about it. For you future builders I would just like to say building a rolling frame and mounting a body and motor is the easiest part of the build. Plumbing, wiring, paint and body work, fabing mounts, choosing all the parts, not to mention the plethora of hardware that needs to be installed and the inevitable part failure… These are the things most new builders overlook in their time goals. Well, after procrastinating for another week or two I thought I’d better get going. I looked at the calendar and I had only 61 days left to build and I had work, kids, Halloween and out of town family to deal with and not to mention the almost week I lost due to a foot injury.

Here’s the progress of the pickup body and the dash. Instead of using the beat up 40 dash, I cut down a Ford Falcon dash. Think it’ll work?

The next day I called a friend to help with the body work, I would rather have surgery than do body work! And I started on the build. It seemed to be going well and I was making great headway. I have built over 30 cars so I was sure I had all of my ducks in a row. The skies were blue, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping and then….. The foot gave out. I could hardly stand let alone walk and climbing in, on, over and under the truck was just about out of the question and there was less than 3 weeks to go. A week later the foot was feeling pretty good and I went back to it. OK, 2 weeks left, plenty of time…. Right? All I had left was to finish paint, plumb and wire, fab a gauge panel, upholstery, wood in the bed, bleed the brakes, oh wait I mean rebuild the brakes, mount lights, and um let me think, oh yea, a lot of other stuff! So I hammered on. After a week I was ready to fire the motor, keep in mind it was now Tuesday and the show was in 3 days. I turned the key and with an unknown intake and carb setup and no re-tuning the motor fired on the first turn and settled into a smooth idle. After a few seconds I pulled the throttle and it snapped with response and settled back into a smooth idle. A load was off my mind. OK, mount the radiator and put coolant in and we’ll call lunch…..right? I put the water in and re-fired the motor to bring it up to operating temp. It went off with out a hitch, no problem, perfecto………right? It was time for lunch so off I went. Upon returning I noticed the half gallon puddle under the trans. What Tha???

I started the hunt, all new freeze plugs, so that couldn’t be it, the seams around the heads were dry so not a head gasket, hoses were tight and dry so not that. So only one thing to do , Fire the motor and wait. Well it only took seconds to find the problem; it was a large gaping crack in one of the water inlets in the rare Dragstar intake. Well for those of you that are not familiar with this intake removing it was not my definition of fun!

So what to do? I got out the ol’e Dremel tool and opened the gap a little more , drained the water and applied a liberal amount of JB Weld. I went on doing other tasks and waited until the next day for the JB to dry. Wednesday morning, 2 days to go I was ready to try again, 3-2-1 I fired the motor and …………………

The worlds most powerful squirt gun!!!!

All I accomplished was a new mess. With only two real days before the show and only 4 or 5 hours of work left and an all day affair with the intake and no time for a shakedown run I was beaten, tired, in pain and generally bummed out so I called the build.

I took Thursday off and on Friday I drove my other cool but not overly exciting 40 Ford pickup to the show. I spent time in the swap meet where I purchased the very cool T-bird polished valve covers for the Y-block and in the vendor areas and some time looking at some cars and then headed home.

(It must be rough… to choose which cool 40 to drive!) Here’s the new (swap meet) valve covers.

OK, ready for the exciting part?

11:30 Friday night, my friend Jeff came over to drop off some water and soda for me to take in to the show. We were looking at the truck and talking about the disappointment of it not being done. And then it happened, Jeff asked, “What it would take to get it there tomorrow?” I said, “are you nuts?” he said “yea” we briefly discussed what needed to be done and at 12:04 AM we went to work. I told Jeff that if by 2:00 there wasn’t a good sign that we would call it a night. 2:00 came and went, I had the intake off and repaired and we were down to the nitty gritty. We plugged on and we were seeing the finish line. At 4:47 I painted the final body parts (glad it was flat paint) At 5:03 I fired the motor put it in gear and for the first time the truck moved under it’s own power. I would love to tell ya that I hopped into it and drove it to the show but I was way beyond tired so we trailored it to the parking lot and drove it in . The truck got good attention and my friends were in shock as they saw it drive in but the question you’ve gotta be asking yourself is “was it worth it”? YES it was worth it!!!! You rarely hear true Hotrod stories anymore and this one I was a part of. I got a cool hotrod met my goal and shared the event with my friends new and old. What more could you ask for?

Mr. Freeze.

(click to enlarge any picture)

From Pikesan: It would be easy to call BS on this story if I didn’t know it was true. Somehow, after not sleeping, Rob (Mr. Freeze) beat me to Scottsdale and was waiting for me near the entrance. He looked like tired but happy and was thoughtful enough to bring one of his sons. Thanks to Jeff for helping Rob get his truck done. I’m pretty sure Jeff did it cause he knows Rob would return the favor without asking. He’s a great friend to have.

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