Rotten 66 Farm Truck Build

[jdorrough]

The shop that installed my exhaust did a great job (Economy Auto in Ashland, VA). The X-pipe was a tight fit but they made it work and I'm happy with the sound, look and performance. After I was finally able to hear the motor notes vs the obnoxious open headers, it became pretty clear I had something ticking within the engine. It didn't take me long to find the problem when I pulled the valve covers. Cylinder #1 had a broken intake valve rocker. I'm pretty confident it was shipped that way from Blueprint, but there is no way to be sure. The piston wasn't black from firing and the headers weren't blue from heat on that cylinder. What I will say is that Blueprint Engines didn't flinch when I called them to explain the issue. They stood by their product and didn't try to point the finger back at me. I had a new head with all the gaskets shipped to my shop within a week. Honestly it ran good on 7 cylinders, when all 8 started playing nicely it's just insane.

[jdorrough]

I read different post on here trying to determine the best way to paint the lettering on the tailgate. There didn't seem to be a consensus so I went with the approach that made the most sense to me. I started by cleaning up the spot welds it was shipped with. I then primed the whole thing to give me some protection on the bare metal and to have a nice base to paint on. I then painted just the backside of the tailgate black. I put down 3 light coats. If I were to do it again, I'd dial those up to 3 or maybe even 4 medium/ wet coats. I then shot the whole thing in red. This is where the fun started. I wanted to balance letting the paint dry enough vs the clear coat window so I started sanding around the 5 hour mark. I wish I'd have waited a bit longer. I wet sanded with 600 grit which was much harder than I expected. It took me about 4 hours of sanding to get all the black showing. I sanded through in handful of spots that I fixed with a little brush. I finished by shooting a tack coat of red on the inside and clearing the whole thing with 2 wet coats. It's not perfect by any means but I'm happy enough with the final product.

[jdorrough]

Finished Pics.