73-87chevytrucks.com
73-87 Chevy _ GMC Trucks => Members Rides => Topic started by: ToreyC on October 08, 2011, 10:36:06 pm
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Well, the project has finally started. I posted a while back about the project i was fixing to be taking on. First, a little recap. I have an 81 long bed chevy that my dad bought brand new in 81 and has now passed it down to me. This over all plan. First, tear down the entire truck. Convert it from 2 wd to 4 wd. I have 1 ton axles that i'm going to put under it. Once everything is mocked up for the conversion, i'm going to have the frame and axles sand blasted and powder coated along with any other parts that need powder coated. I'm going to run new brake and gas lines, and replace anything in the suspension and steering that needs replaced. With the body off, i'm going to coat the bottom of the cab and bed with a rust preventer, do all body work, and then put back together. I have a donor truck with a 400 small block that will be rebuilt hopefully pushing at least 450 hp. For the paint, i am going back stock. Blue, with a white stripe on the bottom. Out side will be pretty much stock (with the exception of the lift and tires, more on that in a min). For the interior, i am going to have a custom dash (look like the 66 models) with a middle console and box behind seats for subs. in dash dvd player, window and lock controls in middle console. Completely custom. Now for the lift. I plan on putting a 12" lift and 44" tires. It's gonna be a beast. This will be a long process, as i have never done anything like this before, so it will be a learning experience, and it's gonna hurt the pocket book a little bit. Anyways, i'm sure there is something else i meant to say but have fortgot, but i do plan on keeping this thread updated and am take as many pics as possible. Some of the builds on here are awesome, and all of you guys are great with helping everybody out, so i'm hoping yall can help me when i need it ( which will be quite often ) haha. Now i'm ready to get started!
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I have been in the process of getting a building for my business ( Heating and Air Conditioning ), and i finally found one. 1300 sq. ft. shop with an office and a bathroom. Although i did need a bigger building for my business, i really wanted one so i could move this truck inside and get started on the big project. I finally got moved in and got to start the tear down process today. So far i got the hood, both fenders, both doors, bed, core support, front and back windows, and the entire enterior stripped down. Tomorrow i have a guy that is hopefully going to come help me lift the cab up. I plan on building a cart to put the cab on so i can roll it around where i need it. Here are some pics of the truck after a days worth of work.
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Pics?
Oh, I see you added some. ;D
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Well, you got a good project in front of you.
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sounds interesting. i bought a 1976 K10 with 8 inches of lift, 35 inch mud tires. It has a 350 with a sm465 transmission. It has an updated 1982 body. I paid $500 for the truck not knowing if it even ran. I wish i had a place to work on mine. Keep us posted and good luck.
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Well, i was able to work on the truck again today. With the help of a guy i know, i was able to get the cab completely off of the frame, and get the engine and transmission pulled out. I do not have the knowledge or tools needed to convert this truck from 2wd to 4wd, so i am getting the help of a local company called ATX Customs to do the conversion for me. I will talk to the guy tomorrow to see about him getting started on it soon. I will visit him often and get pics and update yall on the progress of the conversion. While he is doing that, i will be starting on the body work, so stay tuned.
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Well, you got a good project in front of you.
It is definately a huge project in front of me. Thanks for stopping by.
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What would be better is if you could learn some stuff from the company, since you have to pay them it would be nice to learn how to do it at the same time.
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sounds interesting. i bought a 1976 K10 with 8 inches of lift, 35 inch mud tires. It has a 350 with a sm465 transmission. It has an updated 1982 body. I paid $500 for the truck not knowing if it even ran. I wish i had a place to work on mine. Keep us posted and good luck.
Sounds like a nice truck. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for stopping by.
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What would be better is if you could learn some stuff from the company, since you have to pay them it would be nice to learn how to do it at the same time.
The good thing about the company that is doing the work, is that they are about 5 buildings down from my new office building. Which means, since my business slows way down in the winter, i will be spending a lot of time at his place watching and learning. I am always trying to learn anything i can about whatever trade i can, so i will definately be visiting very often. And the guy is very cool and won't mind me stopping by all of the time.
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I was able to get out in the shop for a short period of time this evening. I got all of the brake lines, gas lines, wiring harness, gas tanks, and any supporst that can unbolt taken off tonight. I am slowly moving towards the 2wd to 4wd conversion. I hope that part of the build will start by next monday at the latest. I know it's kinda slow and boring right now, but i can't wait to be able to post some pics of some good progress.
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Where is the best place to buy new pre-bent brake and gas lines as a packaged deal? I am also wanting to replace any hoses on the truck that i can with the braded stainless hoses. Any ideas on the best place to purchase these items would be appreciated.
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Anybody?
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I've never bought any, always make my own. When I did my chassis without it was real easy, actually a treat compared to making lines for repairs.
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Inline Tube or Classic Tube has pre-bent lines....
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Thanks for the tips guys. I'm not opposed to bending my own lines. That may be a cheaper route. I'll have to do some research. Thanks for the tips. Just an update. I am still waiting to get my chassis down to the 4x4 guy. In the mean time, i have started body work on a 72 Super beetle that i have. I need to get it painted and put back together so i can sale it while my chassis is at the shop. I'll keep ya posted.
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Im taking a poll on what color to have my frame powder coated. I would really like some input on what everybody thinks. I originally was just going to do black, but i have seen another frame online that was blue(not the same color blue as my truck) but it looked really sweet. I will have to find out how much color powder coat will add to the bill, but i would really like some input if you guys have some time. Thanks.
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If you are building a show truck, match the to the body, if you are building something you plan to drive, Black.
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Good Tip. I want something that i can drive. It will be a daily driver, but i want to be a head turner. I'm re-doing this truck from the ground up and i do'nt want to cut any corners. I want it to be very nice and i want it to last a long time.
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Just a small update. I got the frame down to the guy that is going to turn it into 4wd. I am going to go down on tuesday and help him with the tear down so we can see some good progress. I'll post some pics as we get started.
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I got the frame down to the guy that is going to turn it into 4wd.
That's great. Take plenty of pictures of the conversion. I am guilty of not documenting that process, I wish I did. Pictures and details as you go would help people who are doing this or considering it.
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I voted for the silver frame. I think that would look cool with the blue body.
I am painting my '77 K-30 blue granite metallic with a gold metallic frame. I think it looks tough, and I have received many complements on match up of the two colors.
You should paint the frame silver if for no other reason than to separate yourself from all of the other blue trucks on the highway.
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I voted for the silver frame. I think that would look cool with the blue body.
I am painting my '77 K-30 blue granite metallic with a gold metallic frame. I think it looks tough, and I have received many complements on match up of the two colors.
You should paint the frame silver if for no other reason than to separate yourself from all of the other blue trucks on the highway.
I think silver stays cleaner looking off road mud and dirt doesn't show so much
one of my trucks blue cab frame and axles gunmetal gray with blue shocks
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I know it's been a long time, but things have been pretty crazy lately. Started snowing so work got busy for me, and the guy helping me with the truck has been slammed to. We did get the front end pulled out from under it and got the new 1 ton axle placed on jack stands under the frame. We have all of the measurements needed (we hope..haha) to get the front leaf spring hangers in place, then we will get the rear leaf springs mounted. We have to start making progress, because i want the conversion done, everything powdercoated, and the whole chassis put back together with the 12" lift by about jan. 20th, so we are going to buckle down on it next week. My camera broke, so i will take some pics with my phone as soon as i can. Thanks for the patients and thanks to everyone who has answered questions for me in other threads i have started.
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Jan 20, that means you will have to buckle down. Keep us posted.
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As everyone learns, projects usually tend to take a lot longer then you hope. This is no exception. We did not get to work on the truck for a quite a while, but really hit it hard friday and saturday evening. We got the custom front leaf spring hangers cut out, bent, and welded up. We had a lot of cutting and prying to get the old bumber brackets off of the front of the frame. My dad built a bumper and grill guard and decided it would be a good idea to use c-channel for the bracket. He placed the c-channel around the front of the frame and...you guessed it, welded it to the frame. Even filled in the holes for the factory bumper mounts with welds. Took some time, but we got it cleaned up. I also found a spot on the frame that where the bottom part of the c-channel frame had been bent down towards the ground, so we spent a good amount of time getting that straightened back out. We got the front front spring hangers measured and tacked in place. then measured for the rear hanger. We cut a hole through the frame and welded in a piece of 1and 1/4 pipe through the whole. Then we will put a bushing in the pipe be able to mount the leaf spring hanger. Still to come next week is fine tuning the placement of the engine crossmemeber and mounts and the transmission support. I do have some pics and will get them posted by this evening when i get to my office. I hope i didn't miss anything. THanks for looking.
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WOW, sounds like Dad wanted to be able to run things over without damaging his truck. ;D Very glad to hear that you got it taken care of, and pics are always a welcomed site, visual progress pics are always better.
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WOW, sounds like Dad wanted to be able to run things over without damaging his truck. ;D Very glad to hear that you got it taken care of, and pics are always a welcomed site, visual progress pics are always better.
He lives in south Texas and there are a lot of deer on the highways. He actually hit one a few months ago in his work truck. If they didn't have grill guards down there, there trucks would always be messed up. This thing could have ran into a brick wall and wouldn't have hurt it a bit haha. I've been tryin to post pics for hours, but i can't get them small enough for this site to load them. I'm not giving up yet tho.
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Go to photo bucket and load them, then link to to this site using the insert image icon under the "B" bold button.
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http://s1169.photobucket.com/albums/r505/ToreyC21/
First time tryin to post pics from photobucket. Lets see if it works. Thanks for the tip bake74
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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.
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It worked, nice welds.
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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.
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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 )
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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...
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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
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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.
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Here is the 6.0L and 4L80E I picked up.
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This is where the engine sits mounted to the frame.
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These are the motor mounts that my buddies at ATX built for me. I think it turned out nice.
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The front end with the axles and all suspension removed. This is when we did the gear swap.
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Truck on jack stands. Should be close to ride height once the truck is done.
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And some of the goodies in place. Front axle with the lift installed
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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.
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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.
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Just came across your thread. I like a lot of what I see and hear! I'm planning on going in a similar direction once I get around to restoring mine.
I can sympathize with your plight: my truck also came from my dad, and he welded on the front grille guard, as well as a rear tow hitch. We build them so they can run through anything they can't go over! I also had a crack in my frame, a vertical tear from the bottom that went about halfway up. I drove it for 2 & 1/2 years like that. I'm glad you're going through yours, pulling the body off, cleaning it up. In the long run, you'll be glad you did.
As far as painting the frame, silver sounds good with your blue. I'm probably going to do black with my frame, as the truck will be silver.
I've also considered a 6.0 LS swap. It's uncanny how similar your build is to where I want to go with mine. All that said, sounds like you have a good plan going forward, the right people helping you, and a large amount of patience and determination.
Have you considered the NP 205 for your t-case?
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Just came across your thread. I like a lot of what I see and hear! I'm planning on going in a similar direction once I get around to restoring mine.
I can sympathize with your plight: my truck also came from my dad, and he welded on the front grille guard, as well as a rear tow hitch. We build them so they can run through anything they can't go over! I also had a crack in my frame, a vertical tear from the bottom that went about halfway up. I drove it for 2 & 1/2 years like that. I'm glad you're going through yours, pulling the body off, cleaning it up. In the long run, you'll be glad you did.
As far as painting the frame, silver sounds good with your blue. I'm probably going to do black with my frame, as the truck will be silver.
I've also considered a 6.0 LS swap. It's uncanny how similar your build is to where I want to go with mine. All that said, sounds like you have a good plan going forward, the right people helping you, and a large amount of patience and determination.
Have you considered the NP 205 for your t-case?
That is pretty crazy how close the story line is on our trucks. Good luck to you on your build. I started tearing this truck down in 2007 and am just now making some decent progress on it. It is very time consuming...unless you have an unlimited budget. The NP 205 was my first thought for the t-case, but if I am understanding everything correct, the adapter I would need to make that t-case work with a 4l80E tranny cost over $1300. So if this is true and there were a better t-case for close to that price range, I would rather do that. I'm just trying to get some ideas on what would be the best bang for my buck. Thanks for the input.
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Considering you only have so much of wheel well opening to work with, that tire looks fine if that is going to be the ride height.
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Only thing I can think of for your t-case, is get a 2wd 4l80E, and mate it to a divorced NP 205. If not, then perhaps an Atlas is your best bet.
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Considering you only have so much of wheel well opening to work with, that tire looks fine if that is going to be the ride height.
I think I agree with you. I don't feel that this tire would look too small on the truck. I'm hoping to get them ordered next week!
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Only thing I can think of for your t-case, is get a 2wd 4l80E, and mate it to a divorced NP 205. If not, then perhaps an Atlas is your best bet.
So is a 2wd 4l80E the only way that the NP 205 would work? The 4l80e that I got came out of an all wheel drive Yukon.
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I've got 40's with 11" lift with a lot of articulation and I can get the front tires to just barely rub on certain off camber situations, with that being said that's without bump stops in place. Not sure if this helps you.
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The 1991 1 tons came with 4L80E/NP205's so the adapter is out there, just not sure how easy it is to find or how much it will cost.
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Well, once again the project has stalled for quite some time. I am finally getting a little more done on it, so here's the latest updates. Finished the suspension and finally got my rims and tires. Hopefully this picture uploads prioerly.
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what you find out about the 4l80e? i been doing some research and just trying to get all facts straightened out. from what i understand you can make the 4x4 4l80e work and you can also make the 2wd work. just each one takes a different adapter and maybe a spacer
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what you find out about the 4l80e? i been doing some research and just trying to get all facts straightened out. from what i understand you can make the 4x4 4l80e work and you can also make the 2wd work. just each one takes a different adapter and maybe a spacer
Best of my knowledge (there are definatly more qualified people to answer this) you can use the 4x4 4L80E wit the proper adapter that is very expensive, or you can use the 2wd tranny and a divorced transfer case. I actually went with the Atlus t-case due to the fact that it cost about the same as a 205 with the proper adapters would have cost. It should be arriving any day now and i can marry it to the transmission that i had fully rebuilt.
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after getting the lift and axles installed, the end sat way lower than the front, so i took the shackle front shackle hangers off of a 4wd rear end parts truck i have and mounted them on my 2wd frame. Then we i bought a shackle flip kit and mounted that as well to get the truck to sit more level. Here is a side view of the stance with suspension and new wheels and tires in place. (notice that is a 6' ladder beside the truck bed)
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the front might of been sitting higher due to no motor and springs not settling
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the front might of been sitting higher due to no motor and springs not settling
we actually had the motor and tranny installed during the process of trying to get the most accurate ride height.
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ok, was going off the picture