History on the "C" Cab
The Specs on the car as follows: Ford 302 V8 / Edelbrock Performer 4v manifold and carb / Ford 9" rear / Ford C4 Tranny / mild stall converter / Sanderson headers & mufflers with ceramic coating / 31x18.5" Mickey Thompson rear tires / approx weight of vehicle is 1400 pounds
We bought the car in May of 1999 it was in fully working order, etc. we drove it home the night we bought it. The man we purchased the car from bought the car down in the Florida Keys (which is about a 6 hour drive from me). He bought it from a Harley shop down there, they were using the car as a advertising banner (take note of the paint on the before pics). Which is really kind of a cool idea, I mean a business write off and a cool car to drive now and then :-)
After having the car for about a month we decided that the paint and a few things had to go. The paint job was really shabby and had alot of chipping and blistering etc. (I didn't want anyone to think I had done the painting on it!!). So out came the DA sander and that's where the fun began. We started sanding and rewiring the car just to name a few things. We also decided to remove the keg fuel tank that was located in the back compartment (you had to open the rear door of the car when filling, etc... not too handy). We replaced it with an aluminum rectangle 13 gallon fuel cell, and added a fuel gauge to the instrument cluster, and also added an external gas fill topped off with a polished stainless steel gas cap. We then took note of the rear tail lights they were very dim and not very noticeable. So we decided to add an extra set, we used 41'-48' Chevy lights from a shop called Speedway, they are real glass lenses and stainless bezels and screws - they look nice and are built nicely too. Also we changed out the headlights from the rectangle type to the dietz 7" round kind which look a bit more classic.
We also decided that the interior partition wall didn't look too hot, and made it difficult to see things in the rear view mirror, so we decided to take the wall down to about half it's original height.
Well after looking and trying to decide on paints and paint colors, we are going with an extremely bright yellow which is a Sherwin Williams Ultra 7000 basecoat/clearcoat application.
We finally got to shoot the Yellow paint on 1-30-00 and we shot 2 coats of clear on 1-31-00. We used a total of about 3 quarts of paint (thinned) on the frame and the car. And the 2 coats of clear was 1 quart of clear, next weekend if the weather permits we plan on shooting another quart of clear to the body. Needless to say the car will have plenty of shine and plenty of protection with all that clear!
The approximate cost of the paint and painting materials to date is between $600 to $800, which includes the primer, primer thinners, and hardeners, yellow basecoat, basecoat stabilizer, clear coat, clear coat hardener and clear coat reducer.
The bench seat you see in the car is a Ford Aerostar van seat, with alot of cutting, chopping, shortening and welding we got it to fit in there nicely. Not bad for picking up this seat at a yard sale for $2.00 and in the hotrod books they want $350 - $500 for a seat frame!
Installed a red top "Optima" battery, and I must say this is the best battery I have ever run. I can let the car sit for a few months and get in and it fires right up. I have never had a dead battery since I have installed it! It's worth the extra money for one of these! The reliablility, 0 maint., no corroded terminals, etc just to name a few of the advantages! (Check my link page for their web site address)
More too come soon...