MrBeast
Explorer
This build has been a long time coming. This truck is very special to me, and there are more than a few reasons why.
The first of which starts with a 6lb ball of fluff.
I named him Palex, The back story is ever since I was a little kid I had wanted a German Shepherd, my parents put a dog that I had down and agreed to get me one, but never did.
When I was 25 I bought palex after doing some research and finding a breeder that seemed to have a good offering that was born into what I would also consider a good enviroment, definately a puppy mill by no means.
I paid a good deal of money because I wanted a dog that was smart, healthy, who could live a good long happy life. I feel as though that is what I got.
Fast forward a few years the pup and I wound up out on the road trucking, we visited about 46 states, traveled about 110,000 miles, and had some very interesting experinces. Because I was able to spend so much time with Palex, he was a very well behaved well trained dog, when I got off the road I still continued to take him almost everywhere with me and I never had an issue.
Somwhere along the way I flew out to Arizona and I bought this truck.
the truck is awesome, its a 72, has over a million miles on it, and came with a pretty built 454 in it.
Eventually I would convert it into a welding rig, and I would make some money with it doing a few jobs building gates and trailers and about what ever else came my way.
I did a few other modifications as well, I installed a NV4500 to help with the fuel mileage, and removed the spoiler that was glassed into the back of the cab.
This is one of the last photos I have of Palex, sadly November 12th 2008 some one killed him when he chased a cat out into the street early in the morning. The man was traveling over twice the speed limit (50mph)
It was pretty hard, and kind of silly in a way, but after he died I couldnt look at the truck for a long while.
It didnt help that a guy going down the freeway infront of me lost a piece of steel out of the back of his truck and I ran it over, my front left tire exploded, tore the floorboard out from under my feet, and caused me to take a ride down through the barrow pit.
Lots and lots of miles, and being tossed in the ditch at 65 mph with a welding rig on the back was too much for the truck, the frame tweaked pretty bad.
I took it apart to start fixing it, I was going to rebuild the frame, but as it was, I just couldnt go around the truck with out thinking about my dog.
It is funny how a pet can become such a big part of your life.
Anyways it has been 2 1/2 years and I recenltly sold my daily driver, so now I am needing to get another truck going for myself. I have a lot of parts that I collected over the last couple of years, I now have a Dana 60 front, dana 80 rear, NV4500, NP205, and the Cremdelacrem, a Cummins 12 valve.
I am going to start by constructing a brand new frame from 2x6x.250 rectangular tubing, I will then get the cab stripped down, fix the floors and replace the cab mounts and rockers, then get it all put togeather, plumbed up, wired up and running over the next few months.
The hope is that I will be able to take it from this:
to a 4x4 with a flatbed.
I am also planning on running the 10 lug equipment, and putting 19.5's on it.
The cool thing is, my instructor at school is letting me build many components for the truck for credit, so I can use my school time to work on the truck.
All said and done I think it is going to be a pretty cool rig, probably sunday I will have it in the shop and start pluggin away on it.
The first of which starts with a 6lb ball of fluff.
I named him Palex, The back story is ever since I was a little kid I had wanted a German Shepherd, my parents put a dog that I had down and agreed to get me one, but never did.
When I was 25 I bought palex after doing some research and finding a breeder that seemed to have a good offering that was born into what I would also consider a good enviroment, definately a puppy mill by no means.
I paid a good deal of money because I wanted a dog that was smart, healthy, who could live a good long happy life. I feel as though that is what I got.
Fast forward a few years the pup and I wound up out on the road trucking, we visited about 46 states, traveled about 110,000 miles, and had some very interesting experinces. Because I was able to spend so much time with Palex, he was a very well behaved well trained dog, when I got off the road I still continued to take him almost everywhere with me and I never had an issue.
Somwhere along the way I flew out to Arizona and I bought this truck.
the truck is awesome, its a 72, has over a million miles on it, and came with a pretty built 454 in it.
Eventually I would convert it into a welding rig, and I would make some money with it doing a few jobs building gates and trailers and about what ever else came my way.
I did a few other modifications as well, I installed a NV4500 to help with the fuel mileage, and removed the spoiler that was glassed into the back of the cab.
This is one of the last photos I have of Palex, sadly November 12th 2008 some one killed him when he chased a cat out into the street early in the morning. The man was traveling over twice the speed limit (50mph)
It was pretty hard, and kind of silly in a way, but after he died I couldnt look at the truck for a long while.
It didnt help that a guy going down the freeway infront of me lost a piece of steel out of the back of his truck and I ran it over, my front left tire exploded, tore the floorboard out from under my feet, and caused me to take a ride down through the barrow pit.
Lots and lots of miles, and being tossed in the ditch at 65 mph with a welding rig on the back was too much for the truck, the frame tweaked pretty bad.
I took it apart to start fixing it, I was going to rebuild the frame, but as it was, I just couldnt go around the truck with out thinking about my dog.
It is funny how a pet can become such a big part of your life.
Anyways it has been 2 1/2 years and I recenltly sold my daily driver, so now I am needing to get another truck going for myself. I have a lot of parts that I collected over the last couple of years, I now have a Dana 60 front, dana 80 rear, NV4500, NP205, and the Cremdelacrem, a Cummins 12 valve.
I am going to start by constructing a brand new frame from 2x6x.250 rectangular tubing, I will then get the cab stripped down, fix the floors and replace the cab mounts and rockers, then get it all put togeather, plumbed up, wired up and running over the next few months.
The hope is that I will be able to take it from this:
to a 4x4 with a flatbed.
I am also planning on running the 10 lug equipment, and putting 19.5's on it.
The cool thing is, my instructor at school is letting me build many components for the truck for credit, so I can use my school time to work on the truck.
All said and done I think it is going to be a pretty cool rig, probably sunday I will have it in the shop and start pluggin away on it.
