Thread: 53 Is back from the Body Shop

Tweet

We thought about painting the back bars green but Kari looked at a lot of photos where they were painted that way and never really liked it, but she loves the way it looks now. As for the chrome strip on the hood, I got out voted on that one by you guys, my vote is to leave it off. I thought it was getting over done on the chrome but I'll put it on for a few days and take it back off for a few days and see what I think.

Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

We thought about painting the back bars green but Kari looked at a lot of photos where they were painted that way and never really liked it, but she loves the way it looks now. As for the chrome strip on the hood, I got out voted on that one by you guys, my vote is to leave it off. I thought it was getting over done on the chrome but I'll put it on for a few days and take it back off for a few days and see what I think.

I'll throw in my 2 cents just for grins.....regarding the chrome strip, if you decide to leave it off, I think you need to weld up the seam and give the appearance of a one piece hood. If you're keeping the seam, I think it needs the chrome strip...

Sorry for jumping on this so late in the game but I just wanted to add that I think the green color is a bold yet great choice. I've never seen a Chevy truck in this shade of green and feel like it really brings it strong character. Had a great time reading through this thread while enjoying my coffee this morning - thanks for that!

With the strip.

Grill looks great with the chrome strip, as does the hood. Has a very classic look retained from the older body style. Without it it takes on an unfinished more modern and therefor more modded out truct. Keeping the style of the original truck just completes it for me. the chrome strip on the hood also breaks up too much green in one place, but also gives a nice compliment to the green, as chrome does with most color schemes.

Okay I think you guys finally convinced me to keep the chrome strip. I would like to say I'm building this pickup only for my eyes, but it's kind of like saying all pretty girls wearing skin-tight shorts and a tank top are wearing them only for their man to look at at no one else.

JB. I'm confused.. ( even more than usual actually!) all I said about the grille was nice work. I never mentioned colors.

I did offer an opinion regarding the hood strip chrome. I like it being there! Was there a different Mike that I missed?

Originally Posted by 34_40

JB. I'm confused.. ( even more than usual actually!) all I said about the grille was nice work. I never mentioned colors.

I did offer an opinion regarding the hood strip chrome. I like it being there! Was there a different Mike that I missed?

Oops!
Mea culpa!
I was in a hurry and misread / misunderstood your post.
My fault; forget I ever said anything.

Your truck is coming along nice.

Did a little more work on the 53 again today. Thought I would quick install the condenser fan,relay, and trinary switch. I also moved the relay for the engine fan to hide it under the hood latch panel with the other fan relay. The relays are on the opposite ends of the radiator because thats how it worked best with the wiring on the other side of the radiator. Quick a minute wiring turned into a all morning deal but it all works. It got to be kind of a mess of wires but I'm soo sick of wiring, I have self cured myself from wiring OCD when you can't see them.

I had a grill turn signal short to ground when I tried hooking up the park light wire. Found typical Taiwan Quality control with my bulb socket. I'll let the picture speak for itself. Worst part is I dropped the lens after I took it off to check things out. I doubt they will warranty the lens.

Shame about the lens just because of a cheap ass part.

The left light is better but leaves something to be desired .It's frustrating putting a lot of this new stuff on. When I put the new chrome grill bars on, they were ok but nothing great, almost not even ok, took some work to get them to fit. My old grill bars are in really nice shape and when I took them off I thought about putting them on Ebay. Now I think I will keep them and get them chromed when the new ones I have on turn to crap. So far I am impressed by the new rear fenders from Taiwan, good and thick metal. The new sides are from USA and they are very nice.

All the re-pops were supposed to get better when the OEM's decided to license the production of those parts.
But I think they just collected the fees for using the corporate names. I never saw any improvement to the parts I had been using.

Seeing the contacts in that light socket just makes me angry, what a waste and it isn't the first one that I've seen like that. The lights on my coupe were almost the same! I was replacing the sockets with an LED setup anyway so I was spared fighting with the lights. Or even returning them. I think you have a good plan to re-chrome the original grille.

I know this is getting the cart in front of the horse but I need some help with know what rim back spacing and offset to look at for the rims on this thing. It has the mustang II ifs and the track width is the standard 56 1/2. I am looking at 16 in with 4.00 backspace and 12 mm offset or 17 with 4.07 backspace and 11 mm offset wheels but I am not confident on the back spacing and offset thing. The more measure and check, the more I am unsure. I will license this photo of me to use for a pinup in your garage if what you suggest works.