Here we go again. I still have my Dmax street rod but I got the itch to build something different a few months ago.
Rewind to October 2014, I had a 65 Lincoln Continental that I was going to put a Dmax in but changed my mind after realizing how much I was going to need to butcher the car. Felt like it needed more of a purist to do it justice. So I sold it to a guy who drove over from Nebraska to pick it up. Bye Bye Lincoln.
Later that month I found this gem on Ebay, I surprisingly won it, so me and a friend jumped in the truck and drove 14 hours to Yuma,AZ to pick it up. Apparently it spent most of it's life as an Air Force crew line vehicle. Clock only showed 90K. Kinda cool to hear the history on some of these older workhorses.
It sat for over a little over a year until I decided I was ready to get back in the shop for another build.
In December, I took the body off, yanked the engine/trans/rearend. Gave the engine/trans to a friend (it ran, LOL) and scrapped the rearend since it was bent.
The plan is for an LLY Dmax, 4l80E, 10-bolt rear. Bagged on 22's to cruise around, tow, camp in, whatever. Basically drive it until someone decides they want it worse than me. The body is clean with minimal dings/dents and only a little rust in the back doors that I've already partially fixed. No body work, no paint. Might just poly the rusty body to give it that brown leather look. Sorry for novel. Here's the pics.
8" Rear Notch to get ride below the stock monster truck height it was at.
Got an IFS and steering box from an 91-92 GMC Vandura 2500 then bought 6-lug hub/rotors from Summit to match the rearend bolt pattern. Narrowed up the IFS track width 14" to get decent turning radius at ride height. Since I narrowed it so much I had to build a new front chassis section to mount it and clear the wheels and tires. The wheels are just $200 craigslist cheapies I bought to roll it around the shop, mockup, etc but now I think they might stay. They're silly Fugly on most trucks but they kind of fit the feel of this thing.
So... now a Dmax wont fit in the middle of that skinny front suspension and I don't want to tunnel the entire floor to allow it to sit higher. Here comes a mid-engine.
Just fab'd in the motor mounts today and cut the floor to fit the engine/trans.
Here's a pic of ride height with the wheels so you can get a feel for how low it'll be should be able to go +4"/-5" from there with the bags to get over bumps or crush ants.
Got some 53 Cad front/rear bumpers. They need narrowed and the "tooth" grille removed but they should fit the look I'm after. Here it is mocked up for fun, it obviously needs a bunch of work to look right.
That's where it sits now. Wrapping up major fab then I'll make the bumpers fit, then I have a 60 Lincoln dash that is going in, along with 6 captains chairs I got from the same Vandura the IFS came from. I'll update as major hurdles get jumped.
Rewind to October 2014, I had a 65 Lincoln Continental that I was going to put a Dmax in but changed my mind after realizing how much I was going to need to butcher the car. Felt like it needed more of a purist to do it justice. So I sold it to a guy who drove over from Nebraska to pick it up. Bye Bye Lincoln.
Later that month I found this gem on Ebay, I surprisingly won it, so me and a friend jumped in the truck and drove 14 hours to Yuma,AZ to pick it up. Apparently it spent most of it's life as an Air Force crew line vehicle. Clock only showed 90K. Kinda cool to hear the history on some of these older workhorses.
It sat for over a little over a year until I decided I was ready to get back in the shop for another build.
In December, I took the body off, yanked the engine/trans/rearend. Gave the engine/trans to a friend (it ran, LOL) and scrapped the rearend since it was bent.
The plan is for an LLY Dmax, 4l80E, 10-bolt rear. Bagged on 22's to cruise around, tow, camp in, whatever. Basically drive it until someone decides they want it worse than me. The body is clean with minimal dings/dents and only a little rust in the back doors that I've already partially fixed. No body work, no paint. Might just poly the rusty body to give it that brown leather look. Sorry for novel. Here's the pics.
8" Rear Notch to get ride below the stock monster truck height it was at.
Got an IFS and steering box from an 91-92 GMC Vandura 2500 then bought 6-lug hub/rotors from Summit to match the rearend bolt pattern. Narrowed up the IFS track width 14" to get decent turning radius at ride height. Since I narrowed it so much I had to build a new front chassis section to mount it and clear the wheels and tires. The wheels are just $200 craigslist cheapies I bought to roll it around the shop, mockup, etc but now I think they might stay. They're silly Fugly on most trucks but they kind of fit the feel of this thing.
So... now a Dmax wont fit in the middle of that skinny front suspension and I don't want to tunnel the entire floor to allow it to sit higher. Here comes a mid-engine.
Just fab'd in the motor mounts today and cut the floor to fit the engine/trans.
Here's a pic of ride height with the wheels so you can get a feel for how low it'll be should be able to go +4"/-5" from there with the bags to get over bumps or crush ants.
Got some 53 Cad front/rear bumpers. They need narrowed and the "tooth" grille removed but they should fit the look I'm after. Here it is mocked up for fun, it obviously needs a bunch of work to look right.
That's where it sits now. Wrapping up major fab then I'll make the bumpers fit, then I have a 60 Lincoln dash that is going in, along with 6 captains chairs I got from the same Vandura the IFS came from. I'll update as major hurdles get jumped.
