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I've been working on this thing for a little bit, and since it was kinda-sorta loosely inspired by the 'Freakshow' custom Chevy pickup (which also sporst a Chrysler front end, and John Teresi is building a replica of it as we speak), I figured I'd post a few in-progress pics, and something of an explaination.
The initial idea started out by chance. I happened to have a Moebius '55 Chrysler body and an R&R '57 International pickup body facing each other on the workbench. I happened to notice how they were almost exactly the same width, and I wondered how the Chrysler front end would work on the Binder. At first I'd planned to use only the Chrysler nose, but I didn't think it would work well with the International's sculpted fenders. So it seemed a full frontal transplant would have to happen...
After I had grafted the Chrysler front end to the International, I noticed that the Chrysler's stock trim lined up perfectly with the A-100 Golden Jubilee Custom bed side trim. That had to be some kind of sign, right?
Of course, I had to bridge the Chrysler trim to the IH trim, so I used some D-shaped styrene to make a new side spear, and tied it into the upswept trim over the taillight coves. I also decided to incorporate the Chrysler's rear wheel openings and rear splash apron/bumper mounts. I used the same D-shaped styrene to create the new rocker panel line.
After all of this, I felt that the truck looked a bit ungainly with the stock-height top, so I took four inches out of the roof. It still needs quite a bit of bodywork at this point, but you get the idea....
And the 'Freakshow' inspiration? I'm planning on putting a gigantic supercharger on top of the 392 Hemi, and decking the truck out in a wild paint job, with wide whites and a rocker-scraping stance. The body looks like it's going to be the hard part at this point. I guess we'll see. Again, I hate bodywork, but I always seem to take on projects which require a lot of it... hopefully it'll be worth the effort this time.
