My tranny swaped that turned into a huge project

[BeaverBanker]

Well i was going to wait till i had more done before posting, but i changed my mine.

Story and background first.  This is my first chev 4x4..always been a older chev fan growing up around them just never bought one till a year ago.
So i bought this 1985 6.2 700r 3/4 ton 4wd for a grand,, it was a little rusty(what i thought at the time)..no brakes. Anyway i redid all the brakes and got it safety sticker. anyway i drove her hard for 6 months. in and out of the woods..hauling stuff around. Herd some weird sounds from time to time but blew them off. Anyway one night i was cruising and the truck went to shift into third and all it did was rev. So i had to drive 20 miles home with just 2nd. Anyway i found out online i brunt the 3rd/4th ban out, due to the shift down cable not being hooked (the start of the last owners hack jobs). I was fed up with auto and wanted to do a stick swap. i found out it was cheaper to buy a parts truck for all the stuff i need. So i picked up a 1973 rusty gmc k25 350/465/205 3/4 ton for $800 that had been off the road for 20 years and only had 74K miles. so my plan was  sell the 350 & axles, junk the rest keep the 465/205.
Anyway one day i went to start the diesel and it wouldn't start... so being mad i said im done with diesel crap. And planed to swap the 350 as well.

To make a long short this is what my plans are now. to make a very good looking weekend warrior on a very low budget(university being my funds drain)  6" suspension lift via rear lift blocks & front drop brackets(which im going to make). a 3" body lift not pucks built into the cab and frame. So a total of 9's. 37" Bf krawlers, Tare down the 350, added some goodies assuming all dyno 2003 is right, should be 275hp at 4000, and 400lb-ft torque at 2300. Swap to 70's front end course because they look way cooler.

Any here is the stock truck



And the parts truck


The parts truck is completely in pieces. Sold and scraped a lot.

So i started by separating my frame from body. When i pulled the diesel/700r/208 i could undo just about all the bolts with my fingers and discovered the wires to the tranny were cut.

Then started on the frame first. The rear cross member was toast. Replaced that with one from the 73 and grinded the whole frame with the angle grinder. Brushed on  flat black rust paint( Plan to spray later).


Fixed the body mounts holes where they started to rot


Then painted the sm465, np205 & drive shafts fire red (plan to paint the axles too)


switching my attention to the 350,
Riped it all apart



Picked a comp cam(x4254h), chrome valve covers, water neck & air cleaner performer intake, rebuilt q-jet, high output distributor, 8.8 wires, headers & 993 heads All for under $450.


I still have to redo the heads, and gasket kit , then ill put the motor back together

I picked a front clip & doors from 79 that was a year old for a trade on 4 tires.





Picked up some stuff for the inside of the cab:

I got theses kick butt seat free from a 76


I modified my gauge cluster to accept a 2" tach


I picked up some no name speakers for $15 buck


The last owner put a coffee tray holder in the dash pad


Picked up cb & whips


Changed over my door panels to my new doors


When i started removing the inner cab plastic. All i found was rust and many patches






So prepped for repair by coating all of it in rust eater

[77c15]

Sounds like you have your hands full...we have a similar fate, though. I wound up stripping my 74 down to the frame to use whatever I could on my new 80 after the engine blew. Good luck to you and your project....keep us informed.

[Fordeatinz71]

wow, that's one heck of a project, but it looks like you are diving right in...right on!  keep us informed, i wanna see how this one turns out!

[BeaverBanker]

Well i changed some stuff around in my original post,

But tonight My father and i started working on the patches,, He kinda took over so i took pictures and had some cold ones.

Made cardboard pieces and transfered them to the metal


Cut them out using the sheers and the plasma cutter.
Also decided to cut my shifter hole at this time



My old man then welded them in




Only got one done but it was the worst, turned out good. Not near show truck quality but 100x better then how i found it. Ill cover all the seams later with seam sealer and rock guard

[hotrod24]

looking good man

[Blazin]

Looks good. That cab was rusty awful high up. How is it in the cowl area and the fire wall at the cowl / fire wall seam? Around the bottom of the windshield? Looks like the cab clearance lights have been leaking for a long time.

[BeaverBanker]

The clearance lights seals have some cracks, im going to take them off and put them back on with silicone, somebody also added a sun roof down the line so it could leak thew there as well. the windshield seal area is just light surface rust. the cowl had one small hole where a screw went threw, and a large on under the windshield on the passenger side. the fire wall i only noticed  one small hole, but the corners have been patched before.   But the heavy road salting and salt air don't help with the rust

[Blazin]

Sounds like allot of work. Couldn't find a better cab?
New seals for the roof lights are pretty cheap. If you chose to reseal the old gaskets use windshield urethane not silicone. 3Ms 8609 or = other brand would work for them. Same for the sun roof, if the original installer used silicone it most likely leaked.

[BeaverBanker]

Couldn't find a better cab?

I was going to, but good cab costs a $1000 , because they are brought up from the states.
Mine is costing me around $100 to fix. Wont look as nice when you pull away the plastics, but gets the job done $900 cheaper

[80stepsideguy]

On the sides, once you put the carpet in  and the kick panels you wont even notice the work,, now your parts truck was that cab in bad shape?From the pics it looked pretty solid.

thanks
pat

[BeaverBanker]

yah, different spots of rust, more or less equal.
somebody already redid the rockers and cab corners on this cab plus it has good glass and i have the papers.

[BeaverBanker]

well finished some more patches inside the cab.
Decided to start with the driver pass under floor.
This is how it was



Removed the floor braces and cab supports



Welded a piece sheet of metal over everything to give very solid floor to work with for the new body structure.




its its all done it should be 20x stronger then stock, plus 3" of lift

[1983stepside]

wow looking good man keep us posted on what your doing

[Captkaos]

This post is 10 months old....