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Skinny Chicken Rebuild

Posted: Mon May 16, 2022 2:49 pm
by HillBilt
I lost the original build thread on the truck, so figured Id fire one back up, as the truck in in need of an overhaul. Most of you on here are familiar with it anyways but Ive been poking around on it again as it has sat neglected in the back corner of my yard under a tarp for the last 2 years. the truck was in need of a new motor and i flip flop back and forth for 2 years on whether to make the change to a LS platform or keep the bigblock in it. A good donor bigblock camper special came up on market place and that's the start of poor financial decisions that proceeded. :homer:

Re: Skinny Chicken Rebuild

Posted: Mon May 16, 2022 2:52 pm
by HillBilt
Quick recap: the truck took a pretty good beatdown at the 2020 Insanity Fab winter challege, I was running a friends rental motor. a few weeks after back at home there was a ice race that we entered for fun and was the last time I drove it before pulling the motor back out and pushing it to the back yard.

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Last time I drove it, i drove the wheel right off it :smokin:
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Re: Skinny Chicken Rebuild

Posted: Mon May 16, 2022 2:59 pm
by HillBilt
Rear springs needed to be replaced, so got another set from the junkyard-58" Ford 1/2ton 2wheel drive. Cleaned them up, and also had a bent passenger side axle tube that I used my forklift to straighten out, but don't have any pics unfortunately
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Finally got the door off. Was a pain as it wouldn't open
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Also want more rear storage. I dont plan to race the truck anymore or for a while anyways, its time to get back to some fun trails and snowwheeling as its what it was built for. So i need more storage. I decided to try to mount a TMR basket above my fuel cell, which meant i had to relocate my fuel fill. Pain in the ass. I had to pull my sending unit out and swap over to 2" NPT as only thing I could get at the time
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Re: Skinny Chicken Rebuild

Posted: Mon May 16, 2022 3:06 pm
by HillBilt
Got the diff cleaned up and slung back under it. Painted up the basket.
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I just built some simple mounts off the top cell mounts for the basket, then routed a fuel fill hose to the new filler location. After completing it and putting fuel in it I then realized that I have no way to check my fuel level now, so will have to come up with something later on :lmao: :lmao:
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Re: Skinny Chicken Rebuild

Posted: Mon May 16, 2022 3:13 pm
by HillBilt
Moving onto the rear bed: I wanted to move my batteries to each side of my cell to free up bed space. So started on the new battery mounts. Pretty basic, added the fire chicken for some flare :pimp: also got to use the new TMR Machete bender for this, after figuring it out its a pretty nice tool.
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Re: Skinny Chicken Rebuild

Posted: Mon May 16, 2022 3:24 pm
by HillBilt
Got the crusty Winnebago motor cleaned up with some fresh paint and new cam bearings
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Dropped that bitch in, with lots of swearing and prying might I add. Block Castings must be +/- a few thou :flipoff:
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Re: Skinny Chicken Rebuild

Posted: Mon May 16, 2022 3:28 pm
by HillBilt
Got a new door put on the passenger side and painted up
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Mounted up the TSLs. much better than the farmer tires. I also forgot to mention I raised the ride height a couple inches as well.
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Re: Skinny Chicken Rebuild

Posted: Tue May 24, 2022 3:36 pm
by HillBilt
Got the motor buttoned up and did some shock adjustmentsImage

Loaded up and headed out for Maylong
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Did some FSR crushing to get some learn time on the efi but not a whole lot until we hit the trail for some snow bashing
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Re: Skinny Chicken Rebuild

Posted: Tue May 24, 2022 3:41 pm
by HillBilt
Truck ran mint, no real issues other then running on 7 cylinders for a bit from a loose plug wire. Broke trail for the most part.
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Re: Skinny Chicken Rebuild

Posted: Tue May 24, 2022 10:03 pm
by Scott Cee AKA 2drx4
Nice. Looks like it was a beauty day out there.

Re: Skinny Chicken Rebuild

Posted: Wed May 25, 2022 7:20 am
by Scoobienorth
So awesome seeing this out again

Re: Skinny Chicken Rebuild

Posted: Wed May 25, 2022 12:10 pm
by Snowracer
wicked to see the skinny chicken back in action :smokin:

Re: Skinny Chicken Rebuild

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2022 10:43 am
by Snowracer
so another rebuild after the rebuild ? :poke:

Re: Skinny Chicken Rebuild

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2022 3:25 pm
by pointsnorth
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Like the third post he said no to racing lol


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Re: Skinny Chicken Rebuild

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2022 7:01 pm
by Scoobienorth
pointsnorth wrote: Wed Jun 15, 2022 3:25 pm Image
Like the third post he said no to racing lol


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If hillbilt gonna keep racing like this I’ve got a pair of garbage cans, otherwise known a grand Cherokees that I’d sell. Got to be cheaper and less work than rebuilding this every race