Restoring the old "58 TT" to spec TT

[Shannon]

Ok, so here it goes , recently acquired the old 58 Thing motor sports TT. Raced a bit in SCORE,CODE, but mostly in MDR, truck sat in Thing Motor sports shop for a couple years collecting dust and rust. The truck is under powered for TT but won some MDR races and an MDR championship,also won Jacume Code race and had a respectable finish in the Baja 250.
Bouncing back in forth in my brain what to do with it.. Class 7 or Spec TT, settled on Spec TT due to a few factors.
1. Weight
2. Cost( not that much more)
3. Competition
No plans to be a full time racer but I have unfinished business with the Baja 500, and the Baja 1000 is .. the Baja 1000.
If all goes fast and stars align would like to race 2017 500.
As always it's about time and funds, I'm not going to kill myself with either to make it happen.
The pics are as in current condition .
I thought it would be fun to post up here the restoration. So.. here we go.

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[Dezertpilot]

Wow, lots of work to be done, good luck! what will you be changing?

 

[Dirty Harry]

Somebody is getting a lot of WD40 and Scotchbrite pads for Christmas!

I like your plan, seems like a lot of fun on a reasonable budget.


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[Rory]

Well would you look at that, a complete truck that's pretty much intact! Childsplay......hahahahha. Just kidding Shannon, cool ride and looks like a fun project. Looking at it there will most likely be more involved than you think once you get into it, they always are......

 

[Zac Reish]

What did it look like in its prime?

 

[Blood Eagle]

What did it look like in its prime?

Some photos here but I remember it originally being a Ranger.

New Look For Thing Motorsports

 

[baja619]

Well it did have Ranger Skin Panels but that is about it. The Truck was built from the ground up with a space frame tube chassis and no frame rails.

 

[Shannon]

It will be the Chevy body, there is no illusion on how much work is involved, truck has sat long enough, it has to go to frame anyway. A lot of scotch brite needed , a lot of nuts and bolts, and I'm going to attempt to put the truck on a bit of a diet too. Most likely get to work on it in the next week or so . Will post pics when progress is made.


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[Shannon]

Changing motor,header, motor mounts, going back to BFG 37" KRT, and looking for places to drop weight with out sacrificing durability. A lot of options on the table .. will make decisions when I get the truck down to frame.
It has a 10" ring and pinion , Culhane TH 400, and a lot of good parts.


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[baja619]

Get after it Shannon!

 

[Shannon]

Get after it Shannon!

I'm suppose to be having the football team I coach do some"team building" and help get it all rust off so I can paint it where ever I can.. hopefully in the next couple weeks, I'm trying to figure out where I can buy the motor and make sure it's legit , that will be the biggest expense as in the most expensive single part . Hope to see you around.


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[SPROCKET]

I would fully strip and sanblast then apply steel it or even just spary paint. good luck !

 

[Shannon]

I'm fully stripping it, no sandblast though.. too messy, the steel it will be here in the next few days


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[retroblazer]

I used to hear Tony Cortes talk about this truck. It sounded like it was well sorted. Should be a blast.

 

[51rcr]

walnut blast it. that's the perfect thing to start with. almost easy. put a junkyard LS to play and have fun till ya have a spec motor.

 

[Shannon]

walnut blast it. that's the perfect thing to start with. almost easy. put a junkyard LS to play and have fun till ya have a spec motor.

Truck almost down to frame , I will get some pics up when it's at bear frame , I should be getting a Spec motor in the next month or so


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[Shannon]

I used to hear Tony Cortes talk about this truck. It sounded like it was well sorted. Should be a blast.

There are a lot of good parts, some stuff needs updated, Tony had a huge part in getting the truck dialed in , when Frank and him raced


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[pwerwagn]

Cool to see a non-ifs truck getting updates to race!

Will this be the only beam spec tt?

 

[Shannon]

Cool to see a non-ifs truck getting updates to race!

Will this be the only beam spec tt?

I have no idea, we will run with beams and see how we stack up


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[aiiraciing]

Maybe I'm thinking of a completely different truck and have them mixed up, but didn't this start out as an A-arm Ranger that later got J-arm?