She'll have the same rear fenders she had ... 'cept they gotta be so heavily modified we're gonna let the body pro at the street-rod shop do it when she goes in for paint.
24 gallon fuel tank the shop made to fit. And workin' on the mount for the spare tire. Pretty much fills up the backend ... but ain't got nuthin' else to put there so it's all good.
Front coilovers and air bumpstops are done. Kinda sorry pics tho ...
Had dual bat'tries jammed under the hood but the mount wouldn't clear the coilovers. So Bob and the TNT crew manufactured a new one that they're gonna market now.
Suspension was completed and then completely torn down so all the parts and pieces could be powder coated. The shop's got it's own humungous powder coatin' booth since they manufacture their own parts. Pretty friggin' convenient.
Anyways ... thangs is shapin' up and final assembly is almost completed.
This place is phenomenal. Got some big dunes to let the ponies run. This thang would run circles 'round my ol' Cruiser. Stroker Hemi's are cool. Real cool.
But they also got rocks here. Which makes it a perfect place for a trial run. The new suspension works. REALLY works.
Lots and lots of folks snappin' pics of the Turd. But this here's by far my favorite. This is Bob from TNT Customs takin a pic of his creation. He's definitely the proud father!
And it's damned-fine to see some White Trash here. Cam was the first person I saw when I pulled into the gig. And got me a big ol' hug from Woody.
So when I got back from Utah, the Turd went straight into Signature Customs ... a high-end streetrod shop located here in Cheyenne. Just flew home today and went right to the shop for a look-see.
First order of bid'ness was to fab up a new floorboard where we had to cut the old one out. Sunk in a section to allow for the spare tire to sit lower so as to not block the line of sight of the rearview mirror. Check out the ribs on the front edge to blend into the remains of the stock floorboard. It's cool and hell for stout. The section of original floorboard that remained between the new section and the tailgate just looked funky so they cut it out as well and added a lil' sunk-in tray. Looks to be just right to chunk a tow strap in there to keep it handy.
Task 2 of 3 is to HEAVILY modify the rear flares to work. This was quite the design challenge but they came up with a real nice one. The work on them has barely begun but here's a photo anyways.
These folks have done work before on jeeps for TNT Customs and they are truly masters of workin' sheet metal. The third task for this phase will be a new tailgate to replace the gay one that's been on there.
Then someday, this will also be the shop that sprays the show-quality paintjob.
Flloorboard's now all done. Also added extra metal to both sides of the sheetmetal on the outside of the tub below the tailgate gasket in order to support the new tailgate they're gonna build.
So now it's time to finish up the flares. This one's been welded back together where they sectioned it to shorten up the overall length to accommodate for the smaller wheel opeinin'. Then clamped on and high-dollar cardboard pieces cut to figure out the plan.
And then proceeded to cut up my brand-spanky new corner armor.
Hope to get some more pics in a coupla days or so.
Streetrod folks are cool cuz they don't use no bondo.
It ain't done yet ... but this here pic shows the gist of it. When custom stuff's so well done that it just looks like it natur'ly belongs ... ya know ya picked the right folks for the job.
So now both corners are done and both flares welded back together. Still held on with Vise Grips but that's next on the agenda. Gotta trim the inside edge to exactly match the wheel openin', check for clearance at full stuff (and trim accordingly), and then bolt 'em on.
Next up is to build a custom made tailgate. Folks at Signature Customs decided to just build from scratch.
Here's the framework ...
Tricky part is ain't none of the jeep's got straight panels. So the tailgate has a sweepin' curve both horizontally and vertically in order to match up.
Then they made the outer sheet metal skin and we're piecin' in the center section of an old CJ tailgate so we got some nice raised letters.
Fella had hell tryin' to blend in the flat section of the CJ tailgate into the new curved outer skin without distortin' the raised letters. But they do great work and it shore is purdy.
Still got lots of work to finish the tailgate but they're just gonna keep peckin' away at it.
