Project D350 Build Thread

Thanks guys.  Hey, Mikey... you're welcome to swing by whenever you want.   October 10, 2008.   Blood Drag made it's West Coast debut this year in So Cal.  Even though I wasn't a member of Freaks yet, they knew I wanted to go and made sure I got there.  Chris a.k.a. Pierced Boy loaned me his trailer and Fat Jap let me use it truck to pull it there.  The day we rolled out, a handful of Freaks showed up at my shop to help me load up.  Bad ass if you ask me.   So apparently I wasn't taking how too photos at the time because of the Blood Drag time crunch... but I fabbed up the rear bag mounts on the notch bridge bars and on top of the axles upper link bars.  What you can't see in the photos... the lower bag mounts so that they articulate backwards when the truck lays out to make room for the bars and more importantly, if I have a bag blow out, all I have to do is unbolt the tops, tilt the bag backwards and unscrew it.  I've timed myself for the hell of it.  I can change out an air bag in the rear with hand tools in just under 3 minutes.   The truck was loaded and ready to roll and I decided I really wanted to show the truck with fenders.  But they don't fit with the wide ass Mustang GT wheels.  So I quickly split the sheet metal along the lower body line to allow the wheel to push the fender out.   Looking back... D350 never should've left the shop... but somehow I picked up a trophy for GaugeMagazine.com's Editors Pick.  My first truck, My first show, My first trophy.  I'm not complaining!   Sorry for the lack of build photos, but here's what D350 looked like at Blood Drag Rancho Cucamonga.     Street Source got a little antsy and shot the truck before I could even get the fenders on.                   AND NOW IT'S OFF TO FORBIDDEN 09!!!  SEE YOU THERE.  I'M LATE!!!     

How much lift are you getting in the rear with your watts setup?

damn....looks great man....really comin together quick

I love the wide front fenders!!! Looks MEAN!

Damn man that is one badass truck!

 This build thread is the shit. you have some really good ideas awesome project.

--------------------------------------------- Originally posted by pmiller How much lift are you getting in the rear with your watts setup? --------------------------------------------- The lift in the rear is limited by my bag set up and not the watts link... which is about 8 inches of travel.   If I had mounted the bags on the bars, the watts link would allow for upwards of 1.5 feet of lift.  It's a pretty neat device to watch operate.  I'll take some video at some point.   By the way.  Just got back from Forbidden Fantasy '09...  a very nice show indeed. 

Ok I'm pretty much going to bring this thread up to date once and for all.  It's annoying posting old photos all for the sake of keeping everything in order and not leaving anything out.  It's depressing actually.  I've done so much work that looking at old photos brings me down.   So here we go... here's a few months worth of work packed into one tiny thread entry. Hang on!!!  Every entry after this is CURRENT!   After Blood Drag Cali, I immediately started work on the fenders.  I split them, measured them and welded in the filler plates.       I jacked up the outer body line when welding in the filler piece so I reshaped it using steel rod.     At this point I was pretty happy with how the truck was coming along so I cleaned the shop and brought in my camera gear for an Under Construction photo shoot of my own.     Next, I began the body work on the fenders.  People have disagreed with me (and more will) but I see a lot of similarities between the front end of this truck and my favorite car of all time... the 68 Camaro.  That said, my intent with these fenders was to mimic the look of the Camaro even further.  I intend to take styling cues from the Camaro when I build the grill and headlights.  I'm kicking around the idea of using a 68 Camaro front bumper.  We'll see.       While I had the welder and the body filler ready to go I decided to plate up the door handles.       Under the truck... I finally came across the right combination of parts to create a rack and pinion steering system.  I have to modify a header to make room for the steering shaft but that comes later.         This generation D50 came with a long bed ONLY.  Bull crap.  It's ugly.  So i shortened it 7 inches.   FLASH BACK!!!         Yes... I messed up my gas door.  I don't want to hear it.  I got impatient, things got hot...  I'm fixing it later.   Inside the box, I built two custom square air tanks.  Together they equal just under 10 gallons.       I amazingly came across my dream wheels with tires at the junkyard.  I think they where mislabeled at $300.  I kept my mouth shut!!!     Another problem I have with the bed is they got lazy with the fender wells apparently.  Notice in "FLASH BACK" photo above... the front fenders have a nice Camaro-like fender flare... but the bed just goes straight back.  Also bull crap.  So I cut up an extra set of front fenders and stuck them to the bed sides.  I don't have a photo of the fender graft welded yet but it worked out SO smooth!  I never expected it to be so easy and look so good.  I'll take those photos in a few days.     And here's just a couple photos I snapped for the hell of it...                   That's it!  Aside from the bed fender grafts, we're up to date!  I'm satisfied!  Sorry I didn't explain much.  If you have any questions, ask.   Later!           

nice project.  cant wait to see the front end come together.

truck is badass man!