hurtlocker truck - intro

This is the perfect time to show you the Hurtlocker Truck.
About a year ago a neighbor was banging on this old '56 chevy truck.
Usually it is me that is making all the noise,
pissin off the neighbors with hammers and grinders,
so it was kinda funny being on the other side.
Anyway I tried to keep my distance as to not get involved,
but that's impossible for a gearhead to do,
especially since he was just murdering this poor truck,
basically stripping it down to the frame, engine and body.

So after a couple conversations and alot of internet searching,
we decided a donor car swap would be the best.
There are alot of kits out there,
but its easy to drop 6 or 8K and still have a pile of parts.
I had been studying a couple corvette suspension builds-
Project PT-57, 1957 Chevy Pickup C5/C6 Corvette Suspension - Page 2 - LS1TECH
1957 Chevy Pickup Tubular Chassis - Corvette Suspension - Truckin' Magazine
1955 Chevy Series 2 Truck | Custom Classic Trucks Magazine Article at Automotive.com

And all of a sudden we scored a running low mileage '85 corvette on craigslist.
With a 350v-8 and a 700r4 tranny, this was exactly what we needed.

donor 85 corvette

Ken was super stoked about this,

and we ripped it up pretty quick.

Best comment when listening to the Grateful Dead -

"This song Suuckks!!"

Best comment when working while I was gone -

"Oh yeah I had some music, Hip Hawp..."

Ken and the donor corvette

Did I tell you why it's called the Hurtlocker Truck?

Well Ken is in the Navy, the EOD section - Explosive Ordinance Disposal,

the guys that diffuse bombs, mines, crazy shit.

When "The Hurt Locker" movie came out,

he said, yep that's pretty much what its like.

As a matter of fact, not even 2 weeks after that above picture,

he had to ship out to Afghanistan for 6 months!

Meanwhile I've been chipping away at this thing.

If you clicked on those other build links, 

it's obvious that it can get out of control really quick.

The idea with this truck is to keep it as stock corvette as possible,

so the front end is clipped and the rearend has stock mounting points.

Than if anything needs replacing its a quick swap, not major surgery.

Also, the GM engineers designed the suspension  to compete with european sports cars,

so why screw with it?

That's the reason the engine is so low and set back,

with the increased weight and height, hopefully it will still drive like a corvette.

Corvette Truck

So this is about as far as I am right now.

Actually right now the body is off the frame, and the hard to reach welding is almost done.

Also the firewall is getting finished.

Holy shit the firewall is a battle.

For some reason I had this great idea for a removeable firewall, like a van.

I've been chipping away at this firewall for the past month or 2.

It has been dubbed the "elephant man" as it looks like it from the inside.

elephant man

That whole piece unbolts, so it will be easy to repair the distributor or valve cover gaskets etc.

Also there is a tranny hump that unbolts too for easy shifter access.

The insane thing is there is over 30 ft of welding and grinding needed on this thing.

I am on the last couple hours at least, its just on and on.

the hurtlocker truck

Hopefully will get the front fenders/hood started at the end of the week,

and also the brake pedal/master cylinder.

Something else to update you all with!

TP