Thread: Kiwi C Cab comes to life

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Ok here we go my c cab build thread
life of this old rod started in the 70s as a bucket & was rebuilt in the 80s & now rebuilt again to fix a lot of problems, I brought this about 5 years ago & had a lot of fun in this time I noticed a few things going wrong over this time so I thought it was about time to give it a birthday, so this is where I started I removed the motor & box so I could change the power glide to a turbo350 while mounting the box I found a problem I broke the housing so off to a friend to get it welded up in the meantime I lifted the car onto axle stands only to find some ugly stuf under the car, Rubber fuel lines cable tied to the chassis, wiring with 5 pecies solded together to make one wire etc etc etc. I also found the wood was coming away from the body & the body was delaminting so off came the body this is when I decided to make a new body I started this 18 months ago working every second weekend when I was well enough (Ive had a few health isues) so this is a couple of photos of lives journey
1980s south island New Zealand
motor 350 chev
box turbo 350
diff 56 chev
intake twin tunnel ram
front end 60s HR Holden

2005 north island New Zealand

motor & box out


body off

shot of wood comming away from body

mocking up of new body some steel framework etc

thinking about a blower??

fenders on to see how it looks

doors

tail light mounts the orignal T ones didnt work so I made some new ones

vinle roof padded with 10mm foam


base coat on looking good

in paint shop

time for the mural thanks to Steve Levine I asked Steve to paint this & said I wanted a old shed with a still & some hillbillys with moonshine & once again he has outdone himself so many people have seen it love it
the reason for the mural was the orignal name on the car was Midnight Experss

the start

the finish

next upholster all done at home in my garage 367 buttons Italan crushed velvet very 70s haha
here is the machine we made the buttons with


& one button x 367

front seat

rear cabin

under seat

brass & copper left over from the still

orignal lights

a good shot of the mural

& two from youtube
DSCF4351.AVI - YouTube
DSCF4351.AVI - YouTube

still to come brass radiator
brass fire wall
& last Drive the hell out of it

Looks good, got to be lots of hours putting all those buttons in the upholstery!!! Good luck getting the rest of the brass in there, looking forward to seeing it all done!