1978 Silverado Epic Technology Frame Off Restoration

[kvn1011]

That rendering looks good!

[Stitch]

Is your truck going to have 30" wheels and be that out of square? It's going to take alot of metal work to make your truck look like that 'rendering'.

IMO a rendering is a drawing of your vehicle of what it's final look when you are done building it. That rendering looks more like a cartoon caricature of your truck with the exaggerated features. I don't mean to offend you or the artist but to me that's not a rendering. It's gonna be a cool picture none the less.

[ERBSIX]

Originally Posted by Fat Hoe

Is your truck going to have 30" wheels and be that out of square? It's going to take alot of metal work to make your truck look like that 'rendering'.

IMO a rendering is a drawing of your vehicle of what it's final look when you are done building it. That rendering looks more like a cartoon caricature of your truck with the exaggerated features. I don't mean to offend you or the artist but to me that's not a rendering. It's gonna be a cool picture none the less.

You're entitled to your opinion.

The main thing I was after with this was to be able to show people what my vision for my truck was without having to show them 20 pictures of different trucks and say: "I'm using this from this one, and that from that one..."

Have you seen any of the renderings Truckin' Magazine have? They are all like this. (btw: the artist: Sammy James of Minnesota Fastlife will have a rendering in the August issue of Truckin')

The drawing is not going to supply a CAD file that I'm going to cut sheet metal off of. I just need a visual to show people.

[Stitch]

I know what you're saying about the reason for the rendering and I understand that. The rendering he is doing though IMO looks like a cartoon. Once again IMO a tendering should look like a picture of the truck. That's all I was getting at. And to insinuate that his renderings are good because he's had his stuff in truckin' is meaningless. Have you seen some of the stuff they publish in that magazine? Lol. Like I said in my previous post, I think the drawing will look good. I just don't think it'll look like a picture but more cartoonish.

Check out Carter Hickman's renderings and you'll see what I'm talking about

[ERBSIX]

Obviously this is not a C10, but the photo made an easily Photoshopped image to show how I want my roll pan to look.

Rollpan:

I want LED taillights (red, not white) which match the body line on the side of the truck.

Also, I do not want a license plate holder. I want to have a flip up/down setup so I can make it disappear at shows (or for pictures).

Backup Lights:

I have also though about having a smaller set of white LED lights which would have the same L shape but fit underneath and inside the angle of the larger red ones (shown).

BUT, I think I like the simple and clean setup of just having taillights like this picture.

[kvn1011]

i like the taillights! those will be nice mods!

[ERBSIX]

This thing is really starting to come together and look just like what I wanted!

Check out the smothness of that front roll pan and the removed & smothed turn signals beneath the headlights!

Man, I cannot wait to get this truck done!

The circle in front of the tire is the exhaust.
I saw an oval a while back that you cut out of the bed side and it has a single tube in, and it turns it into dual outs. I cannot find this anywhere, has anyone seen it?

Anyway, enjoy the pic!

[menace121978]

rendering looks great buddy!


NOW GET AFTER IT!

[mcmlxix]

Looks good. I like the smooth look ... not sure where you're at but around here if you try and register the truck and you shaved marker lights they may not allow it...

Check out these lights that can be painted over and blend in but keep you legal ...
https://anvilauto.com/product_detail...tom_lens_69cam

[ERBSIX]

Originally Posted by mcmlxix

Looks good. I like the smooth look ... not sure where you're at but around here if you try and register the truck and you shaved marker lights they may not allow it...

Check out these lights that can be painted over and blend in but keep you legal ...
https://anvilauto.com/product_detail...tom_lens_69cam

Dude! Thank you so much for that link!

I had an entire conversation with RandyP in this thread (link) about these lights and he could not find them except on Motorcycles.
And with all my Google powers (see my sig) I could never find them anywhere!
Thanks a million again!

I want to hide the turn signals in the front too.

I will check with MODOT or Department of Revenue to see whether I can legally shave them or not.

[ERBSIX]

Alternator belt broke off last night.

It had been squealing like crazy for a few weeks.

I am just SOOO glad it didn't break anything inside the engine compartment.

Oh well. The truck made it home with no problems, shut off the A/C & Lights to make sure I didn't kill the battery. Gotta go by O'Reiley or NAPA tonight to get another.

Joys of an older vehicle.

[Matt Man]

Originally Posted by ERBSIX

Joys of an older vehicle.

x2 easy to fix

[ERBSIX]

Originally Posted by Matt Man

x2 easy to fix

Epic amen!

[palposity]

Originally Posted by ERBSIX

Alternator belt broke off last night.

It had been squealing like crazy for a few weeks.

I am just SOOO glad it didn't break anything inside the engine compartment.

Oh well. The truck made it home with no problems, shut off the A/C & Lights to make sure I didn't kill the battery. Gotta go by O'Reiley or NAPA tonight to get another.

Joys of an older vehicle.

That's no fun. Was it just the belt that was bad or did the bearing freeze up in your alternator? I've had that happen where the alternator no longer spins freely and causes the belt to break.

Hopefully it was just the belt though.

[ERBSIX]

Originally Posted by palposity

Was it just the belt that was bad or did the bearing freeze up in your alternator?

Just the belt. Alt. is fine. Spun it when I got home free-wheel with no problems.

[palposity]

That's good news.

[smokedat]

Damm u got some skills Chip Foose beter wach out

Originally Posted by ERBSIX

This thing is really starting to come together and look just like what I wanted!

Check out the smothness of that front roll pan and the removed & smothed turn signals beneath the headlights!

Man, I cannot wait to get this truck done!

The circle in front of the tire is the exhaust.
I saw an oval a while back that you cut out of the bed side and it has a single tube in, and it turns it into dual outs. I cannot find this anywhere, has anyone seen it?

Anyway, enjoy the pic!

[ERBSIX]

Originally Posted by smokedat

Damm u got some skills Chip Foose beter wach out

Woah?! Just to quote, I am not doing the render, Sammy James of MNFastlife.com is doing it!

Just want to make sure everyone knows that.

Also, he is on this board, Sammy James.

I am working on re-doing his website right now as he will be featured in Truckin' Magazine August 24th.

[ERBSIX]

Sammy James of MNFastlife.com did an AWESOME job on my truck!

Now, I just have to scrape together the cash to keep working on it!

Particular notes:

Shaved turn signals, marker lights, tail lights.
Shaved bumper! (never seen this on a 73-78)
The gauge-less interior!
If you can see the "square" with the small EB (my initials) inside it,
that is a 21" touch screen monitor that will replace all the gauges!

[WigglesTheHoly]

damn those deletes and the interior redo are going to be alot of dough. But it is a badass design.

[ERBSIX]

Originally Posted by WigglesTheHoly

damn those deletes and the interior redo are going to be alot of dough. But it is a badass design.

I plan on doing all the work myself. So not as much money as if I hired it.

[kvn1011]

How are you gonna do the touch screen gauge panel? That will be a slick idea! Side note, I saw a 55 Chevy at camp n drag and it actually was started using a touch screen without a key, the key was removed alltogether! awesome concept that you have going on though!

[ERBSIX]

Originally Posted by kvn1011

How are you gonna do the touch screen gauge panel? That will be a slick idea! Side note, I saw a 55 Chevy at camp n drag and it actually was started using a touch screen without a key, the key was removed alltogether! awesome concept that you have going on though!

Basically I'm going to have to do some interesting hardware creating, or finding.

With a fuel injected motor out of a late 80's truck it will be a little easier than the carbureated. But essentially all the analog inputs, like spedo, tac, etc... will have to be input into the PC somehow. I'm fairly certain something like this already exists to convert that analog input into a digital one.

Then I just have to write a software application to accept the digital data and display it in a cool way on the computer screen.

I too would like to see the key eliminated in favor of pitch-matched voice recognition software and/or thumb print analysis. However, that might be too lofty.

Regarding all the other controls, most of the things are digital, like the power windows, power door locks, etc... and I just need to find a simple software-to-hardware solution to make a program send the correct signal via whatever means to the hardware piece.

Again, it won't be super complicated. I'm just hoping I don't have to create all this stuff from scratch. I'm pretty sure some of these applications already exist and I will just have to retro-fit them for my application.

[ERBSIX]

I couldn't NOT share this.

Arduino Powered Speedometer

I want to figure out how to accept an analog input from the factory speedo cable, but this is totally another option!

For those of you who don't know what Arduino is.

[ERBSIX]

If you are watching my build, please see My Present Dilemma of Having 2 Trucks on a 1 Truck Budget, and comment! Thanks!