" Hot Wheels"

[ibad57]

Hot wheels just the name inspirer’s wild and outlandish car and truck designs. They were around longer than I have I think. Ask any car guy and “yes I remember” comes to mind.
Well my name is Tim Light and a certified car Nut but I prefer to stand out in the crowd. Lots of purest like to see the old style auto left unaltered and I do appreciate that option but to appreciate some thing you must admit its lack of expression.
We all like to personalize our rides to our needs or likes. In this build im calling Hot wheels I will be restoring a 72 Chevy c10 long wheel base and when I say restore I mean only the parts needed to give me a canvas or basic shell to start with.
I have been an auto tech for longer than I care to remember 25 years ago started building custom Trikes this will be my first truck restore or custom. I’m 51 and move at a slower pace now and my disability is finally catching up with me but I continue to set goals for my self and this truck is on my bucket list.
I have been working on this truck since 2007 but limited income made progress slow but im to the point where I would like to share it with fellow members. I found this web sight several years ago and found its members and information to be informative and very helpful. Thank all of you! The research I done here im sure has saved me cash and wasted labor.
I will start with my plans for this truck
1 I wanted extra cab space so extended cab was in the plan requiring long wheel base truck
This required shorter bed they seem to be in demand
2 I wanted better ride with lower stance require air ride this would work with tilt bed idea!
3 to call it Hot wheels it had to be tricked out some way and I decided to ad tilt front end as well as tilt bed.
The tilt bed will help load power wheel chair.
4 Tilt front end will require lots of detail to engine bay shave firewall of gouty air conditioner and nasty wiring as well as relocating the cooling system.
5 custom interior reflecting the wood bed would be a must as well as quality sound
6 custom port windows for extended cab as well as rear seats.
7 thought about power rear port window.
8 a custom air conditioning from limo cheaper than aftermarket.
9 Power windows and shaved door handles.
10 better braking system 4 wheel disc sounds like a plan.
And most of all some fat rear tires for that mean look.
Then an awesome paint job
Now that’s a hell of a bucket list. I will take it one day at a time hoping to enjoy it along the way.
The next 2 picks are photo chopped for inspiration because as the work gets the best of us we need to see the goal to keep on going and occasional drink don’t hurt either.

[ibad57]

I bought this long wheel base off e bay love the step side bed the curve fenders are sexy when it comes to body lines
I always like the grill from 69 with grill bar so im using it in place of the 72.
The plan is to extend cab so I found donor cab and found that I needed 22.5 inches off the bed
so I put the saws all to work and started cutting after lots of measurements.

[ibad57]

Both cabs would require rocker panel replacement as well as new support braces underneath.
After considering how to cover the rear cab I decided use the original door skins theses doors needed some work anyway but buying two new for the front would supply me with skins and less body work on lower doors. My local junk yard supplied me with two port windows my choice ended up being Nissan king cab windows. After lots of saws all blades and several brewskys I made them fit but would need some skin grafting to meet the factory curves.
So I welded cut and measured then cut and weld some more then added sheet metal until it started to look like it would work. Next added long hair glass for strength and then dynaglass for smother look.
Turns out I had to shave gutters so new roof line would create rain drop off.
The wing on back of cab was not part of the plan but needed for roof line to work turns out a few friends liked it.

[ibad57]

There was more rust in typical spots like around windows were metal was replaced I guess its normal to find more than you expect!

[ibad57]

To this point rear window is in lots of air file and some blending of body lines needed next i will post some of the frame off restore

[ibad57]

I will post more dinner is served

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Looks pretty good does look like the frame needs to be a little longer inorder to give some distance between the rear cab wall and the step fenders..