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Cooter 1967 Ford wrecker project


Rollman

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Hello everyone, I just bought a 1968 Ford F350 and am starting the process of turning it into a 1967 Cooter Ford wrecker clone.  I hope to have it done in time to take it to Cooter's Last Stand this summer.  I have taken out the grille (I have a 67 grille in my basement) and other trim pieces, in preparation to redo a cab corner, fill in door mirror holes, then strip the old paint and repaint.  Then I will take the bed off of the black Chevy in the picture, and move it over to my Ford.  The grey Chevy wrecker will one day be a Cooter's wrecker as well, but it needs too much work and money to be done by July 29th.  

I am a farmer and we are soon to be starting our busy planting season, so I am up against the clock on my few days off, but I think that I can manage.  I will post pics of the progress.  Also, I've never painted a vehicle before, so my fingers are crossed.  It won't be a show paint job, but I think that I can make it passable.  I hope to see some of you in Luray!!!

FYI   The specific wrecker bed on Cooter's truck was very hard for me to find, as they were made by West Manufacturing from California (defunct long ago).  During my extensive searching, I found two, one east of Bowling Green KY (black Chevy)  and the other in Pahrump Nevada (Grey Chevy).  I am trying to keep this truck as true to Cooter's screen truck as possible.  His truck didn't have cab lights, but mine currently does.  I am trying to decide, should they stay or should the go?

 

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:previous:

 

Welcome to HNet, Rollman. I look forward to seeing your build progress.

 

Regarding the images - it may be better for you to sign up with an image hosting service such as Flickr, Imageshack, Photobucket, Google Photos etc. You should be able to find one that offers free hosting. Then you can post larger images.

 

PS. The blue Ford pickup in the background of the second picture needs a coat of white paint so that it's ready for Uncle Jesse :).

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HossC--Thanks for the photo tip, I will try that tonight.  Haha on the blue Ford in the background.  It is a 1977 F250 4x4 400M, my dad bought it brand new and it is still used regularly on the farm.  Tough truck.

Boss JD Hogg--In regards to brand of paint, I will probably use Dupont (Now called Axalta), because that is what the local body shop guy uses and I will buy it through him.  He will put on the cab corner and fill in the body holes for me, I just have a stick welder.  I was just going to use a random color of white, but I am not for sure on the blue-green color that Cooter used.  I think that I might just have to look at a bunch of color chips and pick out one.  Any recommendations that anyone has on the blue/green color would be appreciated.94897d1e065cfeb398156b6922f12de6.jpg

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Welcome to the HazzardNetRollman. We're sure excited to have you here and excited to watch the progress on your wrecker. These projects are always fun to watch. We've seen a few of them here but this is the first Cooter's wrecker I remember. Keep up the good work. By the way, what are you planting this spring?

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4 hours ago, Rollman said:

Any recommendations that anyone has on the blue/green color would be appreciated.

 

Most of the pictures I've found (screengrabs, models and replicas) seem to use a mid blue. That's what I went with on my Fan Art version:

 

CooterTruck2.jpg

 

I'm not sure if Cooter's tow truck had a matt finish, but it certainly wasn't shiny :).

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Boss JD Hogg--It probably is just a regular blue.  Dad and I have disagreements sometimes over what is blue and what is green.  I must be slightly colorblind.

RogerDuke--Dad and I are corn and soybean farmers.

HossC--Great detail on the FanArt!  That is what I want the grey Chevy to look like, eventually, after the GMC conversion.  You have the same wrecker bed as I do.

I had planned on finishing these trucks in the next 5 or 10 years (other projects ahead in line), but since Cooter's Last Stand is apparently the final Dukes event on a grand scale, I knew that I had to get my butt in gear.  I had been hoping that they would have held another event in Nashville (3 hours away from me) but that wasn't in the cards.

If anyone knows of someone who produces the Cooter door decals, I would be interested in their contact info.  If not, I have a local guy in the next county who could probably reproduce them if I take him a picture.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I just got the truck back from the body guy yesterday.  As you can see, it got new cab corners, the cab marker lights were taken off and holes filled to match Cooter's truck, and the various side mirror holes in the doors were filled as well.  The driver's fender is rusted through at the bottom and has a few small dents in it, but instead of fixing it, I am tossing it and will be bolting up a NOS fender.  I have ordered my sander and spray guns, the project will continue to be worked on as time allows.  I hope to have it painted by the end of June at the latest, then have the bed put on and painted by July 20th or so.

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As someone who lives in an area with red clay (and a very, very minor issue seeing shades of blue, usually the ones bordering on gray), the wrecker is blue and white, a medium to slightly bright blue. Hoss's images are actually pretty spot on.

The reddish color of red clay CAN actually give blue a dark teal tint. Don't ask me how, but I've witnessed it. My state is almost entirely red clay, and when you go down to the C&D erm... Chesapeake and Delaware Canal .... to go mudding and ha-bahing, blue trucks kinda take on that blue green tinge sometimes, depending how much water to dust ratio there is. I know it's weird, but it's true... you'd think it would give it a more purplish or ruddy hue... I think it has something to do with the way the red dust affects the light being reflected or something depending on the lighting conditions.

If you look in one of the wrecker photos, there is a layer of red clay dust on the vehicle. The other photo of the same wrecker is much cleaner as though it had been semi recently through the Hazzard Car Wash... or you know, an actual car or truck wash... or at least washed with something with some pressure.

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  • 1 month later...

We have had a lot of rain lately, so I have had time to work on the truck.  As you can see, I have sanded it down to bare metal, but I still need to go over it again to remove the remaining spots of primer.  The truck had the original primer, then red paint, then another primer and red paint, then the top layer of blue paint.  The blue removed easy, but the original paint took many, many hours to sand off.  I bought my paint and supplies at the local PPG store.  I will have to wait for another full weekend off before I try painting it, because I want two full days of painting time in case things don't go smoothly.  I don't know when that will be.

I have also been working on removing the wrecker bed from the black Chevy.  I am at a point now where I will have to bring up the cutting torch to break a few welds and rusted bolts before I can remove it.  The bed will need to be taken to the local welding shop for rust repair and installation.

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