D^3 Dad's Down and Dirty 1955 Pickup, Nerd Rods C4 on the Cheep

[rat_rod_russell]

After the show we got Georges truck on the lift, The C10 wouldn't' start so the owner took it home to finish the wiring so I didn't have to work on that one's exhaust like I though I was going to. So the next step was to get the cab off Dad's truck and get started on the turbo plumbing. Here's the start of that while dad works out the cab's final sheetmetal so when it goes back on it will be with final paint.







Later
-Russell @ Nerd Rods

[rat_rod_russell]

Update 2016 Mar 09

With most of the mock up done I needed to coat the mild steel parts on the exhaust. Just some 2000°F exhaust paint because in reality the turbo is going to be way hotter than that and basically nothing will survive so this just gets us by for the short future.




On a slightly obnoxious side, the injectors were raw steel and I only noticed because on the side facing the front door in the shop they had rust on them. So I has to blow a few hours taking them all off, sanding the rust off by hand, making them off and get them painted. Just one of those 2-3 hours added to the punch clock that we do all the time.




This is the intake to the turbo from the cowl induction. This is a tiny bead to work as a lock for the silicone coupler between the two. Just turn the TIG way down so the bead builds up instead of burning in.




And on to a boat load of turbo and exhaust photos.

[rat_rod_russell]

Paint prep is also going on at a rapid pace.



Later
-Russell @ Nerd Rods

[rat_rod_russell]

Update 2018 Mar 02

I know, I'm in trouble. I keep forgetting to post updates here. We've gotten further on the truck but I’ve just been slammed these last few years with life in general and Dad’s project has gone to the back of my head while I try to get customers projects done and delivered. So cliffnotes and photos. Acutally these photos are from most of 2017, I have more I just need to get taken care of.

All the photos in a nice little JAVA viewing deal are right here.
http://gallery.nerdrods.com/Projects/03_D3/07/


Body and Paint, we built a small paint booth out back.

[rat_rod_russell]

Cab Installed







Fuel Tank and remote filler neck




Working on the brakes and the hydro e brake







Installing a larger volumn oil pump for the turbo and oil cooler





Working on the turbo inlet piping for the front side of the turbo and the cowl air induction







Lots and lots of vacuum lines and plumbing bits




More sooner than later with luck,

[wfo guy]

If Dad is like me, he'll be pretty happy when finished. Especially after a burnout that brings all the neighbors to life.

[rat_rod_russell]

Not dad's truck but something else to pay the bills and keep my skills honed.

These are from a few days ago. This is probably one of the nicest exhaust I'm ever done with all the subtle details and fit. The exhaust hangers are my own billet design that use two Stainless Works exhaust bushings so you can mount them at any angle instead of having to be directly above like normal You can mount them on any surface and then have the tubes swing out from there or the mufflers as is in this case as well. You can also use it as a split like I did on the pair of pipes under the differential.

2.5" Stainless mandrel bend
Flowmaster Delta Flow 50 Series Muffler
Summit Racing V Band Clamps
Vibrant Performance Flex Joints
Melrose C4 Conversion Headers
(raw and coated, I'm looking for stainless to use on my chassis but I can't find anything that fits currently)
All back purged while tig welded.


Complete galley here.


And check out the bling on the chassis. These photos don't do this metallic justice!
(these are from a few weeks ago when it came out of the oven and got its suspension installed)



__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _________________________

And the exhaust photos.
(These are from yesterday, October the 15th)











I need to finish up the video I did about this exhaust with a 430 and 480 horse LS3 crate engines so you can hear the difference. I have a 525 LS3 in the shop as well but I think he's going with louder mufflers on that one. We'll see.

Later
-Russell @ Nerd Rods

[rat_rod_russell]

Pretty Pictures pretend like I'm getting something done at least. Right?

-Russell

[rat_rod_russell]

*slow heavy metal music intensifies*



We started rearranging the shop for a new toy. I flipped off the lights after moving the mill and lathe farther in and saw this. Doom metal started playing in the back of my head shortly after and I snapped this one.

[rat_rod_russell]

Wow, I didn't realize how bad I was behind. Forgive the mix of cell phone photos. Its been all I could do to keep up with the old dude and the shop work load.

First some refined inner fenders were in order. This time out of aluminum to help shave a bit of weight off the front. There are a few revisions in these photos so if something looks a bit different one to another, its probably Dad scraping a set and moving to a fresh start for one reason or another.








Moving onto getting all the boost tubing mounted. I opted for stainless over aluminum this time for reliability compared to my previous builds. The goal is that the truck will be Dad's daily so a few things like this are acceptable for the peace of mind if give if you hit a road gator, or small animal that will roll up under the truck and screw something up.






With all the items we need to hook to vacuum or boost references we had to cook up this manifold to have them all functional. Waist gate, Blow off, Boost controller, MAP sensor, Boost Gauge, and Vacuum booster but only one large port on the intake.




Next we finally decided to just dump the whole front core support system and just start over. It was just easier that way for this project. We have a small ish radiator but we have a very large oil cooler with an oil thermostat as well to prevent it from over cooling but we can bump that down a bit if we need to cool the engine off a bit more. The new ZR1 has a smaller radiator than this so we're not too worried about over heating. The main goal was to block off as much area and force air through the radiators. We might do some brake cooling as well with all the extra real estate under there.














The next thing I wanted to look into was reducing drag and wind noise and the front cross member, sway bar, and frame tubes were a perfect thing to cover up to stop the harsh wind noise from hissing over the sharp edges of these components so Dad started working on a noise pan. I think we're also going to do a bit more of a belly pan as well when we get it a bit further along.






Finally after having her on the ground for a while I realized how much work we've been doing around the shop instead of on the truck so I snagged these for guys who are interested to know what the low stance will look like and this is about it.





We're getting ready for new toys so the truck is getting a new home in the shop. We should have it ready to rock shortly and I can get back onto the wiring to get her fired up for the first time.

And anyone who want's an easy link to all the photos and just wants to flip through them you can click here. https://gallery.nerdrods.com/Projects/03_D3/08/

Later,
-Russell @ Nerd Rods

[wfo guy]

Very good! I like the front pan. It would have been interesting for a before and after comp. to see actual noise reduction.

[rat_rod_russell]

Very good! I like the front pan. It would have been interesting for a before and after comp. to see actual noise reduction.

I might do it,....
for science,
you monster.

[rat_rod_russell]

Almost done with this one, then I get some time to work on Dad's truck again.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrBLgk_g-Hh/

[rat_rod_russell]

Left Friday the 14th, and just got back.

Something followed me home. Can you guess what it is?

[wfo guy]

Cnc mill, water jet, plasma cutter, etc.

[rat_rod_russell]

Cnc mill, water jet, plasma cutter, etc.

Ah, but not just any plasma cutter. At least, not a 2D plasma cutter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz1IlPLV4jo

[wfo guy]

I'm excited to see how you will use this.

[rat_rod_russell]

I'm excited to see how you will use this.

well, first it'll look a lot like this. ;)

[rat_rod_russell]

Almost ready to produce some product!

This idea to redesign two of our body mounts came to me while talking with dad looking at a customers 55 sedan on the subject of body bushings specifically. We have to grind a few of them so they will fit inside the canisters.
But what if we didn't have too?
What if I could fit it to the frame rail in such a way?
I went to the computer and cooked up these to see if I could make the idea work. From conversation to parts on the table to see if it would work, 2 hours tops and that's because we had other things to do that day as well. Having this capability in house is a dream come true after designing DIY frames for over 5 years now. Look for more redesigns and upgrades coming soon.

[wfo guy]

Now my mind is in gear. What will it take from a customer view point to have something done with that tech. ?