81 Longbed 2wd to 4wd Conversion/ Frame off Restoration!

[ToreyC]

Well i think it worked, but it did not list the pics in the order to which progress was made. I am going to try again tomorrow to get the pics on my computer to a little smaller size and try this thing again. Bare with me.

[bake74]

     It worked, nice welds.

[ToreyC]

Alright guys, I've been away for quite a while now, but...I'm back. Fixing to get things started on the truck. In the time ive been gone, we did manage to get the front end mounted and replaced the rear end with a 1 ton axle. Next week, we are going to mount the engine and cab to make sure sure there is plenty of clearance. One that is verified, then we'll take all of that back off and mount my gas tank in the rear. From there, we will be tearing everything apart, and off to sand blast/powder coat after that. Slow moving project, but things are slowing down again with work, so i'll have more time to work on it. I'll be updating with pictures soon. Thanks.

[ToreyC]

Well, believe it or not, after a year of no posts, the build is back on! Hope yall haven't forgot about me. Last I posted we were getting the front Dana 60 in place to make this thing a 4wd. Well, that part is done and now I have lots of goodies on order and some of them have already came in. Heres a list of parts I have ordered-
Hydro-Assist steering
Disk break conversion
Rear mount gas tank
5:13 Gears
6.0L LQ4 engine
4L80E Tranny
Coming up this week, hopefully the steering will be mounted, gears set up, tank mounted in place, and engine and tranny started to get fit up. We are making custom engine and tranny supports and mounts so that may take a little bit of time. I will get some pictures soon and see if I remember how to upload them. A lot of progress should be made over the next couple of weeks ( even though I still have a long ways to go till completion )

[454Man]

This sounds like a cool build! Keep us updated. I been worrying how the 6.0 would perform in our trucks

What's under the hood??? If you have to ask maybe we shouldn't race...

[mrevo0]

also doing a 6.0 lq4 build , would like to know how every thing fit and how smooth it went,  We put a 5.3 in a 46 truck last winter and plan to finish the truck this winter

[ToreyC]

My friends from ATX Motorsports have made some more progress on the build. Since my last post, we have got the 5:13 gears installed in the front and rear axles. The rear axle was bought used and ended up being full of mud. Had to do some heavy cleaning to get in cleaned out to take the new gears. Then we found out all of the bearings were froze on, so had a hard time getting the hubs off. None the less, we got it done. The lift kit has been installed and is sitting on jack stands, and I must say, it looks good! The engine and tranny has been fitted up with custom motor mounts. we dropped the engine as low as possible to prevent having to alter the tranny tunnel since the cab is for a 2wd. The rear suburban gas tank is sitting inside the rear frame rails, but may have to do some more fabricating to get it low enough for the frame to accept the bed. We set the front clip on it to see what it looks like and try to determine the wheel and tire size. This truck has a 12" suspension lift, I would appreciate any input on what size wheels and tires you guys would put under it. I'm thinking right now about 17" wheels with 42" IROK Bias. My other big decision i'm trying to make is what transfer case to put behind the 6.0L and 4L80E tranny. Taking opinions on that as well. My buddy at ATX is wanting me to go with the ATLAS t-case. Which means lots of money and that's what I cant decide on. I will upload the pictures I have up to this point as soon as I can get them on my computer and figure out how to upload them again. Thanks for reading and thanks for any input you guys have.

[ToreyC]

Here is the 6.0L and 4L80E I picked up.

[ToreyC]

This is where the engine sits mounted to the frame.

[ToreyC]

These are the motor mounts that my buddies at ATX built for me. I think it turned out nice.

[ToreyC]

The front end with the axles and all suspension removed. This is when we did the gear swap.

[ToreyC]

Truck on jack stands. Should be close to ride height once the truck is done.

[ToreyC]

And some of the goodies in place. Front axle with the lift installed

[ToreyC]

Rear axle, lift and fuel tank in place. The tank sticks up above the frame rails, and I think it is going to interfere with the bed once we get it on, so that's what I was saying I will probably have to figure something out to get it down a little lower. Good thing is, with 12" of lift I don't have to worry about going too low with it. It dang sure isn't going to bottom out on anything. haha.

[ToreyC]

And heres where I want some opinions. This is where we set the front clip on the truck. My buddy had a 42" IROK tire un-mounted that we just rolled beside the axle to see how it looked. My question is, will this tire look too small with this much lift on it. My deal is, I do not want to go too big, like a 46"-49", because I would probably have to trim my fenders to make them fit properly. I do not want to get into that. I might be able to fit a 44" tire, but i'm not a fan of the width of that size tire. I would rather stay at a 42" because its a skinnier tire, and not trimming of fenders, but at the same time, I do not like a jacked up truck with tires that look waaay too small. So im curious to see if everyone thinks these tires would look just right, or if they would look too small for the height of the truck. And I apologize for the poor quality of all of the pics. All I have is my phone to take pictures with.