Off Road Race Truck

[Neil Morgan]

I know it's not a restoration but it's certainly not collision (well not yet anyway!) so I thought this is as good a place as any for this thread. I'm bringing this to you well on in the build because this is 'my bit'.

You'll notice my profile says San Diego and the UK well when I'm in SoCal I stay at the family commune/man cave/hot rod/race shop owned by my co-father in law (his daughter, my son) in East County San Diego. I get to spend approximately half the month in either country which is great. Ted is an ex national motocrosser from the 70's and 80's and now he's an old geezer like me he races off road trucks as it's a lot less perilous to the body. He started building this truck a couple of years ago based on an early 90's Ranger, the initial fab work was carried out national spring in El Cajon by Ted and his buddy Bill (yeah, Bill and Ted!). About 80% of the way through the chassis build Ted brought the truck home to its newly completed race shop.

Here's a couple of early (crappy phone) pics





Thats's Ted at the back.

I volunteered (I think) to do the body work & paint. Unfortunately I didn't take too many pics early on but after paint stripping and DA'ing the Cab.







I shot a couple of coats of black epoxy, followed by a little bondo where necessary and then a couple of poly coats. After block sanding the poly with 150 I followed on with a couple of coats of gray epoxy that I mixed a little black into some white to create.

 

[Neil Morgan]

The door panels were terrible and the fit of the fibreglass panels needed a little work (ahem) but it was staring to come together







In these pics the fibreglass has been fitted.... ish but otherwise untouched.

 

[Neil Morgan]

I didn't take any in progress pics of the next stage but all the panels got fitted as best they could, straightened a lot, and then sanded - first with 80 then 150. Two coats of epoxy white followed on everything which was then blocked and a couple of coats of poly on the fibreglass panels. More block sanding, a little putty and two more coats of epoxy. Making the fibreglass look good without lots of bondo/poly has been tricky. They lead a hard life and flex a lot but have to look the party too - Ted tells me I'm too fussy and I'll cry when he rips off the first panel in a race .... he's probably right.











I've laid out a couple of lines but I'm not happy with them, the colors are decided though - SPI bright Red over SPI white with a graphite gray stripe between. The grills and vents etc will be detailed last with matt black.

 

[Bob Hollinshead]

Looks good! What chevy powerplant?

 

[Neil Morgan]

Looks good! What chevy powerplant?

383 with all the good stuff - forged crank, rods, pistons - 10.5:1, Roller cam & rockers, MSD, Race holley, custom headers etc. backed up by a bullet proof TH400. 9" rear end and custom drive shaft.

 

[Bob Hollinshead]

Cool! The fab work and suspension is killer. I see it's got a truck style turbo400 with the bolt on yoke-maybe there's less chance of seal failure having the slip in the driveshaft or maybe that design offers more travel? Very cool project.

 

[Neil Morgan]

Block sanded all the panels to 400 and masked off the cab using the Norton blue as recommended by Rusty/Brian - good stuff and although it's not quite as taut as I'd like - I'll blame the roll cage



One coat of white epoxy thinned 10% shot through my WS400 with a 1.4 tip - lays it down like base coat, beautiful.



followed a few hours later by three coats of activated SPI white basecoat.





As you can see from the last shot we don't exactly have room inside for anything other than the truck, however painting outside under eze-ups on calm, warm SoCal days isn't too bad - we end up with very little dust and virtually no bugs. A large homebuilt booth is on the cards tho' before I start my '84 dually parts chaser.

 

[Neil Morgan]

Three coats of white later and temporarily assembled to lay out the tape.



A whiter white you will not find - great product.

Time for SPI Red - oh my, the pictures can never, ever, do justice to such a beautiful colour - this was the first time I'd used it and never had the opportunity to see another in the flesh. Three coats of activated red and things were starting to look more like a race truck.



The centre of the hood a the grills were going to be detailed later - this is closer to the true colour.



By the end of day one I'd shot the epoxy sealer, three coats of white, masked off again and three coats of red. Here's some panels doing as I was at the end of a long day - resting.

 

[Bob Hollinshead]

That will be a tough finish for that truck! nice work!

 

[Neil Morgan]

Bright and early the next morning and the red was unmasked.



Not easy keeping a line across so many panel breaks but with a few pairs of hands we managed ok. More masking and a gun metal metallic stripe was with a little airbrush shading at the edges to give a little depth.

 

[Neil Morgan]

Three coats of Universal clear later and things were starting to look a lot shinier

 

[Neil Morgan]

A few days later it was time to detail the hood and door panel grills with SEM hot rod black SPI flat black will be on our next order). The last things these guys want is reflections from a shiny finish when racing in the desert sun for hour after hour.

 

[Neil Morgan]

No cut and buff on this thing, it's an off road race truck that's going to get a tough life and besides three coats of universal lays down pretty slick and looks way nicer than those wraps. Unfortunately on the morning we put it together for the first time it was pretty dull and grey (yes it does happen in SoCal) so the colours don't 'pop' in these pics. However once she's completed we'll be getting some pro pics done in a suitable desert setting.

 

[Neil Morgan]

The truck had it's race debut at the Jacume GP a few weeks back and won it's class by six and a half minutes first time out. A few things broke and a few lessons were learned but it wasn't bad for a first proper shakedown - it's only going to get faster nthego:

A few sheet metal parts were added last minute so we've a little more painting to do but here's how she looked on Race day.









We got a lot of feedback on just how nice she looked rolling off the trailer at her first race meeting, a lot of 'where did you get that red' and 'best looking truck in the pits' - I'm also pleased to report how well the UC held up on what has probably been it's toughest test. There was an awful lot of brush and trees on the course and she came away with only a few minor chips scratches, a jet wash and a bit of localised buffing and she's good to go - as ever I'm hugely impressed with all the SPI products used on this project.

 

[crashtech]

:encouragement:

 

[SofaKingShiny]

What a great project! Keep up the good work and the pics coming please. I love seeing good paint and good craftsmanship go into something other than a garage queen. Keep having fun!

 

[bomccorkle]

Nice wheels for sure!! (Btw love the handle^^^)

 

[Senile Old Fart]

Very nice !