Starting Project Hot Rod Truck

Today, we're starting a brand new project to build an awesome 37 Ford like this.

We're going to one of the best glass rod builders in the nation to pick up the rolling chassis for our new hot rod truck.

And then for a little inspiration, we'll stop by a good guy show to see what's cool. That's all today here on trucks.

Yeah.

Hey, welcome to trucks. Obviously, we're not in the shop. We're up here at Legend Motors Downs design to check out their facility.

Now, these guys manufacture some of the finest fiberglass rods out there and we thought it'd be pretty cool to give you a little tour.

Now, we're gonna show you how they build these vehicles every step of the process which you may wanna pay particular attention to the trucks because a 37 Ford, just like this one is the start of our next trucks project. And when we're done with it,

we're gonna give it away and it'll end up in one of your garages

in

this 50,000 square foot facility downs has been making fiberglass molds of different car designs for 30 years so they can then reproduce a huge variety of parts in a relatively short period of time.

It starts with what they call a plug taken from an original part.

Then it's customized to give it the downs touch.

And from there molds are made from the plug. So reproductions can be made in the mold and Lamination building.

We talked to Jr Singleton, a 20 year employee of down who walked us through some of the process,

the resin transfer system that we have, which um you can have gel coated surface on the inside of the part as well as the outside.

There's a, a male mold and a female mold.

Um

advent tubes for the air to migrate through. As you put the two moles together

inside of the female side of the mold, you add a um flexible glass called Rovio

and you put the male side of the mold down into the female

and um close it down with

um bolts to seal the molds together.

The resin transfer process leaves you with a part that has an inner panel as smooth as the outer, which is particularly nice when you're building a showpiece.

Now, this is the female side of the mold and this is the male side and just by looking at these molds, it's not hard to figure out why these cars look

so straight right out of the molding process. These molds are perfect. The 67 mold

for the Corvette we just finished is the most complex mold ever designed. Here down

26 sections, we had to bolt together

to reproduce that one car,

believe it or not. This is a Corvette body. It's already been molded and is getting extra layers of glass in key structural areas for added strength.

Once the bodies are cured, the outer mold comes off and reveals a finished looking replica. But this is far from a finished body. It goes through a series of steps that includes removing the windshield slugs, trimming, molding, flash off the edges and generally shaping things to spec before the body gets joined with floors.

And not only do they pop out cool fiberglass street rods and muscle cars but look, they make the cape for the Superman monster truck.

How cool is that?

Since everything is prototyped and designed ahead of time downs has jigs for all their frames that are assembled in the fabrication shop.

Every frame is fully boxed for strength and a custom finished look with suspension systems that are made to order from an amazing list of options that downs offers including air rides, coil overs and downs own independent suspension.

The body and the frame meet up for the first time at the fab shop which also serves as the R and D shop and there's a lot more going on here than just street rods

when we get back. It's more from these creative hot rod builders and designers stay tuned.

Hey, welcome back to trucks. We're at Legend Motors Downs design giving you guys a sneak peek at some of the cool stuff these guys got in the works including this retrofit 67 vet body that'll sit on a late seventies Corvette frame.

Yeah. Ok. It's looking a little like government work here, guys. Tell us what's going on.

Well, we're in the middle of,

if you wanna change over process here. Um, if you've seen the 67 Corvette in the other building,

we're actually gonna make

that 67 vat fit the newer style frame. Um

I'm not sure what years we're covering on the frames like 63 3, 82. See that car we have set up over there is built on a newer chassis. Now, what we're doing is we're designing a floor pan

so you can mount

it on to the old style

that body, whether you got that Morrison chassis or just a regular old 72 chassis.

Ok. So when it's all said and done this 67 body is gonna be sitting on that 75 frame. Yes, sir.

It is. Like I say, we'll get that floor pan modified set down on there.

And then from that point on, we'll have a new floor pan mold where we bolt it down to that body.

Bring on the body like this right out of the mold and it'll snap on

basically like a giant model car. We have all I'm not, I'm not kidding. That's true. We have it all designed where it fits in snaps in. We have peaks on the pan over there or just snaps down like a model car. We'll glue it. Continue on with the build and down the road. We go like a fiberglass automotive toupee.

Yes. Something of that nature.

It was amazing to see all this R and D happening on Classic Muscle when Downs is really best known for the pre war Street Rods. We actually caught up with Jamie Downs while he was building a prototype clay model interior of their 69 Camaro tribute car.

Well, our company started back in 1980 with my father Jim Downs and uh he had 25 years

experience of building Corvettes, which are made out of fiberglass.

And when he was tired of that business, um he came across

four or five molds that were for sale and thought he knew enough about fiberglass to

make some street rod bodies and do it for a hobby. He uh made a body out of each mold.

And back in 1980 went to the street Rod Nationals and set up in the swap meet area. And before he knew it, he was taking orders, he sold all of them and turned it into a business overnight. Now, with the merger with Legend Motors, I've been given a good opportunity to

branch off into some newer vintage classic cars like the Camaros,

the

Ka

uh the Midyear Corvette 63 to 67 vets and the 59 vet.

Now the tribute muscle cars are nice but we're into trucks and Jamie was the driving force behind the concept of our 37 Ford project truck

in 1999. I designed that pickup cab and

it's been a pretty big hit. We won best new product of the year. Two years later, we did adapt a 40 nose to that pickup. I like the looks of the 37 even though there's quite a few of them out there, it seems like it's still popular and it turns heads more than the forties did.

Legend Motors Downs design has got their roots deep in the past and their finger on the pulse of the future of this industry. Fusing to

timeless designs, classic muscle and honest street rod sense.

Over the past 30 years, they've

honed and refined the process of making replica cars and from what we could see, they've got it down to a fine art and this, well, this is our truck, a 37 Ford pickup replica that's already chock full of custom modifications. Like these mini Cooper headlights, one piece hood, a chop top, plus they made room for our 22 inch wide steamrollers out back. We got shaved doors handles

and a gel coat finish that rivals a lot of paint jobs we've seen all in all. They've set us up with an incredible foundation to build on and make one very cool street rod pick up for one of you guys. What are you waiting for? Let's get this thing on the trailer. You got it.

So we loaded the 37 onto the trailer and headed home itching to get started on this project. And let me tell you along the way, this truck turned some heads everywhere we stopped. It was like a car show in the parking lot.

That is awesome. What kind of wheels are those in the back? Those are Mickey Thompson's.

Yep.

That's beautiful though.

That is absolutely cool.

Black leather.

No, no, I'm wearing yourself. I'm with you. I don't know. There's the

fact

those are brand new mini Cooper headlights

so they refit the fenders to fit them so you can aim them properly. You can see at night and it's a cool custom look. It is cool.

So no back seat for this. No,

not even

very cool man

up next.

It's the good, the big and bad and the really ugly all from the good guys show. Stick around.

Hey, welcome back to trucks. Obviously, we're still not back at the shop. Saw the good guys show happening from the road had to come check it out. But um

we don't have tickets, so uh we'll hop in the fence,

hurry up,

I'll check that out.

I thought you were supposed to get the tickets. What tickets?

Now? A good guys car show is not just for cars there's always some great trucks on hand that we can draw inspiration from.

And this 1940 supercharged Willie's truck caught her eye right off the bat.

Jeez, that's a rat rod if I've ever seen on. Now, these guys showed up trying to pass themselves off as Montana Police with their paddy wagon rat rod. Now there's, there's skid marks and then there's skid marks. Ok.

He ran into a wet road on the way up here and he got a little excited, but it's ok because

at least he made it. He's got his own clothes line.

It's not answering.

He's got caller ID. He knows who it is.

Gm, this is Kevin from Truck TV. Um, we're digging in 61 here. What's the price call me?

Cool truck.

Is it a late model chassis?

78 Chevy?

It doesn't look like a 78 Chevy. So you drove it to the van? No, unfortunately, there's no leg room for a taller guy like me. So we trailer down to Olson and I drive it everywhere. I go down here. I have a solution. I'm short,

I'll drive it. You can get in it. Ok. You can drive it done.

Now, here's something that's almost over the top. This is an early twenties

cab truck sitting on a late model chassis. Um, yeah, this is, this is the Taj Mahal of

cab trucks.

This is awesome. Who needs sheet metal?

I think the windshield glasses out of a front end loader or a backhoe or something

small block, dual quad.

You probably get what you're asking for. It looks good.

You got your own car show here, don't you?

Looks like a

37 Ford. You got a Chevy pickup. You've done the car show thing before having it. Yeah, he's got the lawn chair. He's all,

he's all

he's rocking. He knows the drill.

Now, here's something really nice. This is Robert Garrison's home built 56 Ford F 100. Got built it in his garage. Everything is hand done from the upholstery to the top shop to the paint job, rubbing it out, everything done at home. Now, that's what I'm talking about.

Now, we've done wooden bed kits before, but Robert's approach is really unique.

Uh The bed is bamboo. It's laminated strips, the bamboo,

uh they originally were grown in China and it was imported uh into

San Francisco and I bought them

and I accented it with uh the, the darker strips or uh mahogany

that I put in there just to accent it.

Now, the pink salmon color is a little odd, but I think we found some real inspiration

here

and I'm digging this five window. This is the body style man. This, this says this is Hot rods. This is cool. Yeah.

Flat paint, big cab. Put any engine you want in this thing.

Yeah, let's make a cool street truck man. Yeah, no doubt.

Nice.

Looks like an

Ashanti

column,

late model bench.

Yeah, I believe this one's a driver.

Yeah, he, uh, he stole an S 10 and stripped it and put it inside

of here.

Yeah, he's not afraid to park this anywhere. Yeah. Chrome and chrome on the grill.

Chrome cover that up.

As I could see, it just laid out right on the ground. Absolutely. Running boards on the pavement

that make a cool project.

What you think

that was a set up for a later show

after the break, we'll come up with a plan for our new Hot rod truck project.

Hey, welcome back to trucks. Well, we finally made it back to the shop with our new project H RT which quite literally stands for Hot Rod Truck.

And now that we got some great ideas and inspiration, here's what we're gonna do.

Well, this thing's gonna need some motivation and we could probably fit any engine we wanted to down in here. But this thing started out a Ford. We're gonna keep it that way. We're thinking a hopped up small block would be right at home.

Now, we saw lots of great ideas for lighting out on the show field. But downs design has already got us a great head start with these fenders that accept modern mini Cooper headlights. But for turn signals, we have all kinds of options. We could mount them into bumpers, we could use traditional style vintage lights, we can flush, mount them into the fiberglass, but whatever we decide to do, we're gonna walk you guys through it. Step by step. Now, we've shown you these wheels and tires before

and we had to put them on something

20 by 16 inch one piece aluminum wheels wrapped in 33 by 22 inch wide rubber.

So with a built small block to launch it

and bear brakes all around to stop it. Well, these rollers ought to be right at home on this truck now, this is a rolling chassis, but it's far from finished. There's still plenty of opportunity for great projects that are gonna make H RT A one off custom truck that anybody would be proud of have in their garage. And don't forget when this truck is done, one of you are gonna win this very project. So keep watching over the next few months as H RT goes from this rolling chassis to a finished custom street truck that'll turn heads just as easily as it'll turn those massive twenties out back. So, the most important thing that you guys can do is go to power block tv.com and sign up to win this thing.

If you guys are running a turbo 400 automatic in your street rod or project truck, the low car has got something cool for you.

This is their turbo 400 electric cable kick down kit. It's the same great quality that we've come to expect from low car and comes with a cut to fit braided stainless cable that's lined with Teflon for extended cable life. Now, all this bolts right up to the stainless steel carburetor moni bracket and return sprint kit that they also offer. Now, this setup is adaptable to almost any manifold including tunnel ramps and blower manifolds. But the coolest thing about it is that it doesn't necessarily have to be mounted to the side of the transmission case. So if you're running a really clean detailed street rod and you want to remote mount this thing, you're good to go as long as it's within 48 inches of the carburetor low cars, electronic kick down kit for turbo 400 runs. You about 80 bucks.

Hey guys, here's a tip for you that'll only cost you a cheap calculator and will help you decide what gear ratio you wanna run in your project truck.

Now, to figure

MPH, use this formula

multiply your target RPM by your tire diameter, then divide that by your rear axle ratio, multiplied by your overdrive ratio times 336.

Now, since we know we want our target RPM s to be 2000 and our tire size is 33 inches,

that half of the equation will stay constant at 66,000.

We also know our Richmond Tranny has a 0.62 overdrive.

So by plugging in different gear ratios, you can find out how fast you'll go at 2000 RPM.

We're looking for a cruise speed of about 70 to 75

MPH

with a 411 gear ratio. We're rolling at about 78

MPH

by jumping up to 450 sixes. We're at 69 miles an hour

and when we split the difference with four thirties, we hit 73

MPH

there. You have it. You can plug in different numbers and play around with rear axle ratios to see what suits your project goes the best. Thanks for watching trucks. We'll see you guys next week.