Danny Boy is BAACK! w/ '55 Big Window

[dubie]

Hey Dan, I thought of you when I saw the pictures of this today

[dubie]

Profile

[Dan in Pasadena]

Wow Tim, thanks! I especially like that profile picture because if I'm unable to use my Torq Thrusts with the IFS kit I bought, the likely back up will be original Rally's lime these or possibly with early dog dish hubcaps.

I've also considered keeping my truck in a light green; though likely not a metallic. I rally do like the look of this truck. The almond color roof sets it off nicely. That's a GMC grill on this truck, isn't it?

The green colors I've found that I like best so far are these:



I like both colors on the hi boy. Not sure if I'd use the wheel color, the body color or both.
The VW color is called Iceland Green I'm told from 1954-55 so exactly era correct.

[dubie]

Nice color, and the truck is wearing a Chevrolet grill

[Dan in Pasadena]

Dubie's what's with the signals? He closed them off and put I the small rectangular ones? I guess that threw me off. Still like the truck though.

Thanks on the colors. Not certain I'll use green but I'm leaning that way more and more.

[tmoble]

Here's the green that sort of got me started on my trk after all these years (decades I guess. owned since 1983?

[Dan in Pasadena]

Ha ha, tmoble, those photos are MY photos fom the Brothers meet out here year before last! I'm pretty sure Fabguy here knows the owner pretty well. That is a BEEOOOTIFUL truck too.

I'd thought of going into the sea foam/turquoise range and I REALLY like it but I worry I'd get tired of it faster than some other colors. I feel the same way about a yellow bordering on a school bus yellow. I truly like trucks in that color, especially '56 F100's but I think I'd tire of it too soon. It's all in my head I guess.

[tmoble]

Wow, your photos? I had no idea, I saw them online somewhere and instantly wanted to do up my truck like that. Small world I guess. When I originally did the Camaro stub on my truck I rounded up a different frame and did the sub-frame on it. At that time I was still into red so while I had the clean frame on jackstands I painted it red. Now if I want to go some sort of green/turquoise I'm going to have to repaint the frame. Bummer. So then I thought to go to the Roman Red/India Ivory but really don't want red, so settled on some sort of clean white with red trim. But then saw your pics of that panel again and wanted to go back with that. Do you know what the name/year of that color is?

[fabguy]

Your right Dan, that is my friend Norman's panel. I can find out the color if you'd like. That panel has airbags, MII front suspension and a 235ci engine with dual carb setup. It is a lot better looking in person than in any pictures.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Thanks for chiming in Mike! Really nice to hear from you. Are you rolling your eyes over me being fickle and changing my mind from C4 to an MII setup? Guess I'm impulsive, oh well.

How goes YOUR panel project?

Yeah I totally agree that Norman's panel is just stunning in person. I LOVE, LOVE LOVE his upholstery. Whatever that stuff from the Mid Fifties cars is called - "brocade"? It reminds me of '57 Chevy cars. Great if you can post the exact color name. I'm sure plenty of guys would like to know.

[tmoble]

yeah, like me. to me that's a a real knock your eye out deal. I'd be interested in any detail on it. I've seen other seamist green, but they didn't look that good. I wonder if he used some tricks with the primer/underlay color.

Is that Nomad upholstery? Seems Norman has a real eye for what makes an outstanding combination.

[tmoble]

Dan, I didn't know you were dumping the C4 deal for am MII. What's up with that? You're giving up a lot there in terms of driveabilty, handling, serviceability, brakes. There's boatloads of upgrade stuff available whether it's eye-candy or hard core handling.

Our trucks are much heavier and have a significantly higher center of gravity than the old MII. I never could get myself to feel good about stuffing a compact car front under there. That's why I ended up with a Gen2 Camaro front and C4 rear. I'm an old dirt track racer and have beaten the you-know-what out of those Camaro clips for decades. I have a lot of faith in their strength and the suspension geometry is known good.

Think about it this way: If you had to drive 1000 miles of non freeway roads and had a choice of a MII or a C4 Vette which car would you take?

[Dan in Pasadena]

I'd drive what I could afford!

But seriously, there never was a "deal" for a C4 IFS setup. I had told Fabguy I'd go with C4 components when he found a good Vette at a local wrecking yard for himself and noticed another in the yard he recommended I buy. Mike (Fabguy) even offered to help me install it. BUT, things changed. My daughter and daughter in law both got pregnant with their first children, I had expenses related to that - life got in the way.

I rethought whether I should spend the money right then (this was nearly a year ago) so I decided to hold off. Cut to now and a new-in-the-box Fatman Fabrications IFS kit popped up on CL and I acted on it.

I consider the argument that MII's are too light duty for our trucks to be a red herring. There are LOTS of 55-59's with these kits on the road doing fine. Ogre seems to be totally happy. Besides, the aftermarket kits share nothing with an actual Mustang II from the 70's except basic design approach. Different strokes, man!

[NEWFISHER]

To my knowledge, the aftermarket "M2" style kits are just that....a style like the old M2 set up and not the same old parts. They are also like the 64-92 Chevy trucks, just a tubular style am but same concept and similar geometry. Vette stuff is cool, but for me It would turn my truck into a car and hauling/pulling as much as I do it would get parked more than driven. It comes down to what system works well for each individual and thier budget. Im starting an Ls 5.3 build and leaving the straight axle. I like the feel and am comfortable with its farm truck limitations at higher speeds.

[Dan in Pasadena]

I think "back in the day" - an annoying expression - maybe the late 70's and early 80's(?) guys ACTUALLY took Mustang II parts out of the junkyards and installed them on hot rods. There were a lot of MII's in the junkyards then. I'm fairly certain there aren't many anymore.

I'm guessing those parts works pretty damn good or an entire industry wouldn't have been built around the idea. But I DO see that those parts would not really have been heavy enough for a truck and particularly a truck that will be used as a truck. Fortunately, mine won't. The biggest thing it'll likely ever carry is a few flats of flowers or a 4x8 sheet of plywood from Home Depot.

I honestly feel very comfortable with an MII kit from a known longstanding aftermarket fabricator like Fatman's, Heidt's, etc.

[G&R's57GMC]

Dan be sure to figure in the total cost from the wheels to the chassis on the MII kits on what it take to complete the install.

Then compare what the total cost is to what the NoLimit Wide Ride kit includes .

Besides that, One has to like the look of the too narrow, sucked in track the MII kit has .
To me it just looks wrong OR they were going for the funny car look .
That would make some sense if the theme of the truck was that of a full on drag truck.

Think of it this way The narrow track of the '59 Chevy compared to the wide track '59 Pontiac .

Chevy made the car body wider in '59 but kept using the '58 chassis verbatim for cost reasons. Pontiac on the other hand used the same basic chassis, But spent a few bucks more and widened the track to fill the body and get better handling .

There are wider control arms available for the MII and they also use the T-Bird R&P but as the say " for just a few $ more".

Keep shopping until you ether find what your looking for or go crazy trying to keep the cost in line.


Oh ya, BTW

[Dan in Pasadena]

Glen,
There is no "shopping" anymore. The selection process is over.
I already bought the Fatman Fabrications MII kit. Over the last couple years I've looked at and researched the Wide Ride kit (too expensive for my budget), the Scott's kit (pricey AND too low for my taste, though beautiful) and the Flat Out kit. For varying reasons I didn't opt for these kits and I purchased the Fatman kit for $1800.

It's REAL clear that several of you think this is a mistake and though I appreciate your honesty I've made my decision and if it proves to be a mistake I'll realize it during or shortly after installation. I hope this doesn't come off as having an "attitude" about the various comments but I've simply made my purchase. I was excited that I'd done so; and if truth be told, it's kind of a downer that I'm getting so many judgements for it.

Having said that, I've seen plenty of MII installtions in TF trucks and never had a quarrel with how they looked. And if I end up being unhappy with it, I'm the only one that has to live with it.

[ChuckDriver]

Dan,
I've seen a lot of trucks and street rods with the Fatman MII style suspension installed in them, everyone that I've asked has been very satisfied with them. So I think you made a wise choice!

[Dan in Pasadena]

Thanks very much JJ. Nice to hear something positive.

[G&R's57GMC]

Hay Dan,

Congrats on your purchase . Now go put it in and enjoy the ride .

Keep us posted on the install and of course lots of photos too ppPlease .

[Dan in Pasadena]

Well, I came home today excited to find that "Brown Santa" had been here and delivered my new-in-the-box Flaming River stainless steel steering column!

Excitement quickly turned to upset when I opened the end of the box and saw THIS:


Pulling it out of the box and yes, it's brand new and all looked good except the head unit which had been damaged in shipment and flat spotted badly on one side:



I've PM'd the seller and hopefully he put some kind of insurance on the shipment or UPS will do something to make me whole for this damage. We'll see. Wish me luck, gentlemen!

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by G&R's57GMC

Hay Dan,

Congrats on your purchase . Now go put it in and enjoy the ride .

Keep us posted on the install and of course lots of photos too ppPlease .

Thanks Glen. Yes there WILL be lots of photos - mostly for me so I can brag that I installed it myself!

I'm currently gathering all the necessary parts I can think of. I need special brackets to mount the power steering pump on Camel Hump heads with no accessory holes, PS pump itself, part(s) to reduce pressure for the Ford R&P rack, pulleys for PS and AC (future), engine mounts as I understand I will have to remount the engine. "Stuff" to flip the rear end, I'm sure there's more I haven't thought of yet. Everyone feel free to chip in reminders if you know.

[Russell Ashley]

"PS pump itself, part(s) to reduce pressure for the Ford R&P rack"

Dan, I'm not sure that reducing the pressure is mandatory. I talked to Justin at Scott's and he said that they don't do it when they build a car. Also, Dave (DWCSR) said that he didn't think it is necessary when using a GM car pump. I haven't done anything to my pump and so far it woks fine and I don't feel that "twitchiness" that I have seen mentioned. If anything, my steering is stiffer than I would like so I wouldn't want to lower the pressure.

[tmoble]

for your P/S pump check this out. in fact for any aftermarket/cross-breed/mix'n'match bracket setups Alan Grove is the King. I've had his P/S bracket for short water pump small block on my truck since 1993 when I did the sub-frame. nice deal, well braced, short belt. He understands how to make stuff so it works.

http://www.alangrovecomponents.com/S...Short_Pump.htm

scroll down to # 400L. sorry, no individual page/link the way his site is set up.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

"PS pump itself, part(s) to reduce pressure for the Ford R&P rack"

Dan, I'm not sure that reducing the pressure is mandatory. I talked to Justin at Scott's and he said that they don't do it when they build a car. Also, Dave (DWCSR) said that he didn't think it is necessary when using a GM car pump. I haven't done anything to my pump and so far it woks fine and I don't feel that "twitchiness" that I have seen mentioned. If anything, my steering is stiffer than I would like so I wouldn't want to lower the pressure.

Yeah, I guess I'm not sure its "mandatory" either but I have read numerous times over the years that either the steering would be too sensitive, a connection will leak, or kit manufacturers themselves say you should lower the pressure. Its a minor consideration i think both in terms of work and cost(?) I'll likely hook up the lines without addressing it and see how it goes.