C30 Project Buildup

[CruzinHigh]

Holy crap, you're really getting into this ole gem aren't you!

I've been enjoying the post bud, keep up the great work!

[exilous]

I didnt get any pics loaded at home cause my internet is down. But I will get the pics up I dropped the whole front end out of the 78 today and completely tore it down. I found out I need a lot more stuff to put it back together. I need the A arm bushing which I kinda figured I needed, i dont need the bearings they are in excellent shape. gonna buy some new calipers cut the rotors and take it apart and sandlast everything. Hope to get a lot of the small stuff sandblasted and painted tomorrow and maybe by the afternoon I can start reassembling everything so long as the parts store has the a arm bushings i need. My dad has a brand new set of coil springs and i got all the front end parts ready to put together so tomorrow should be a very busy day. Hope to get some pics up later.

[exilous]

Ok here we go. it was a hectic few days runnin around chasin parts droppin parts off sandblasting painting prepping oh man... to sum it all up in the last few days i got all the parts i need in including my pistons and rings so i just gotta find some time to run out to the machine shop and get that squared away. I dropped off the clutch and flywheel to get ground and fixed up and stuff. i tore down sandblasted needle scaled cleaned prepped painted watched paint dry then painted again watched it dry again and began assembling the front end. its almost done the lower A-Arm shaft kit one the passenger side binds up a bit before I get it bottomed out so something isnt right i have to check into that a bit more. hopefully that will be done tomorrow. Then I have to solve my spindle problem which I posted in the suspension forum if anyone wants to take a gander at it I am kind of stumped. Once that little dilemma is solved I should be able to drop the new springs in hook everything back up and paint everything AGAIN and roll it into the trailer for safe storage until its time to get bolted onto the truck. So I am going to be busy at my shop taking the engine and trans out of the frame taking the front end out of that truck cleaning and painting the frame putting the new front end in and hopefully by that time I will have the engine rebuilt painted and the trans rebuild and painted mate them together and drop them in. HOPEFULLY. if everythign goes right this should be all coming together in the next 2 weeks or so. Either way I'll cut to the chase here are some pics.



These broke the bank at a woping $325 for all 4 shaft kits combined...I nearly cried.

the 60 over pistons are in that brightened my day.

Everything is all assembled just waiting for the main carrier to dry it took a few hours before that stuff got installed and not all got installed...hopefully tomorrow I might meet the rest of the success and get more pics up on that stuff.

[BigHemi353]

very nice and glad to see your doing it right. how are you prepping your frame? i just painted mine yesterday after 3weeks of cleaning. i am quite happy with the turn out. painting leaf packs tonight and next week will be axles. i'll get my pics up soon enough. Very nice job and you are an inspiration...since your makin me look bad! lol j/k great work!  Andy

[exilous]

I havent even started on the frame yet. Seeing as how its at my shop and not here at my house I dont have the best tools at my disposal the best I can do is wire wheel the heck out of it and just throw the paint on. Hopefully that isnt too far off but honestly I m running out of room for my parts, I have no room for the engine and trans that are currently in the resto truck. It's alll slowly taking shape I can sort of see the end but I have a long way to go.I had 4 major hurdles in my mind that I figured would take the longest, the rebuilding of the front end, frame modifactions rebuilding of the engine and then the cab. I was planning to finish up by the end of may but...that is definetly not happening. looking more like june but if i make no deadlines the last I have to make is my birthday in september so its gonna be done before then I hope. hahah

[exilous]

Ok well today I got tons done and met more failures along the way but that is to be expected. I took the engine adn trans out of the C30 at the shop,then I took the front end out cause I wanted to check the whole spindle situation and they are the same spindles and hubs/rotors all 1 piece. I MIC'ed both sets of rotors I have and yes BOTH sets are just below the minimal thickness. like its weird they are within a few thousandths of each other. The 78 had brand new Timken bearings and such, and my 85 had brand new pads...well slightly worn but not bad in any way shape or form. Very upset I have to throw that stuff away, I figured I would have been able to at least scrape by with reusing some parts but Ialas I ahve to order all new stuff tomorrow...ON a lighter note I dropped off my block to get bored it comes to $160 for the boring and cleaning, and he is going to look around his shop for a forged 350 crank he says he has one. told me for $100 I can get a forged crank, I figured I can't go wrong with that deal. Should be getting the block back late next week he said. So as soon as that rolls in I will get some pics up on that...but between now and then not only do I have to order the innards of the engine but I have to get the frame prepped painted and get the front end back in it. So I have my work cut out for me but I'm starting the rassembly process so I've made it nearly full circle. I can't believe I have stuck with this project for so long. I usually lose interest but I don't know whats keeping me going. Well lets cut to the chase...here are some pics!!!

[BigHemi353]

I just painted my frame and was really happy with it. What I used to clean mine up my frame one of these abrasive rust and paint wheels.

This one i have a picture of is just a single but the doubled up version is much better and takes more abuse. They work better on the paint rather than rust but I mainly used the wire wheels on rust.  After about 3 weeks of working on the frame after work i finally said it was time to paint. i prepped it with dx579 and washed it again and then shot my paint. it turned out pretty good. ill post pic soon in my project thread. Nice progress man, Andy

[exilous]

Ya ive seen those, home depot has them, i bought one for my 3 inch angle grinder and it worked great when i did the roof part of my project. Stripped paint great. And I used it on some of the painted parts of the frame. But then again I'm not looking for perfection on the frame its going to be a work truck so I'm scuffing and cleaning  whatever I can then just laying on a few layers of rustoleum. I'm gonna be replacing the fuel lines and all the brake lines while i'm here as well. Better than having to do that later on when its a PITA. haha. Anyway I got the radiator support nearly complete all wire wheeled down just got to remove the mounts take it off do the bottom in primer then paint it gloss black. I'll get some pics up later I hope, I'll be headin to the shop shortly.

[exilous]

Ok, here is whats new, Well this will teach me to buy stuff off ebay I bought that complete kit for my front end...well turned out that the upper ball joints the shaft diameter that is supposed to have a snug fit in te spindle was too small... i found that after i had to get new lower ball joints because instead of needing a press fit they fell through the holes for them..I was pretty pissed off needless to say. After that dilemma i got my dads spring compressor tool which happens to be broken, one of the clips is broken but it still works. I compressed the first spring got it in not a single problem although i was scared crazy i thought it was gonna pop on me. Nope the second spring popped on me, twice.  Scared the crap out of me. Got it the third time clamped everything down tightened everything up. I went to pick up my hubs and everything...the guy ordere the wrong hubs had to wait another day. That brings me to today I got everything together and hooked up. It looks like a front end again I am very happy. First thing in the mornin i gotta sandblast the trans member bring that to the shop paint that and toss it into the frame. slide the front end under it and bolt everything back up. It is starting to feel like the end is near but really its not, i still got lots left to do. Once the front end is in any spots I missed and anythign i didnt do i will pretty much just paint the whole front end one more time. I put the layers on pretty thick and so far for the whole front end and the whole frame ive used half a quart, I expect to use a good portion of that tomorrow when i second coat the frame and repaint everythign on the front end again. I forgot to get pics of the frame after I painted it this morning, it looks real nice. So here are some pics of the front end being rea-assembled.

[Laderhosen]

Keep up the installments!! Enjoying this thread. 

[exilous]

Ok so its been quite sometime since I posted here. New news would be the front end is installed tires are on and its sitting on its feet again. I decided to go all out na dput the A/C setup into the truck. So I literally spent all day mocking up tearing down cutting and grinding and finally got it to fit. Put all the ductwork in and the tube that goes under the steering column doesnt fit. That made me rather unhappy. Looks like the wiring and the metal clip and stuff is bigger than whats on the blazers. I dunno I will see what I can do to make it fit. If not oh well. So I tore it all down and started chopping off all that nasty black crap off the firewall which took a long time. And I remember reading a thread about peopel neatening up firewalls and removing seams and stuff. Well I figured while I was there I would give it a go and I pretty much got the whole heater box side cut welded and de-seams so it looks pretty good I just gotta do some more grinding in the morning and it should be set. My goal is to make it all the way to the trans tunnel with welds and if all goes well make it with the primel and bondo as well. Havent heard anything about my engine or even my clutch from either machine shop, i expected to hear from both of them early in the week but i have not. Maybe next week but if not I do have plenty to do to the inside of the cab firewall and the frame before I can proceed forward. I can see the end its so close. OH! on a better note i recently finished working on my buddies 67 mustang doing a nice resto on that so that frees up a bunch of extra time to devote to my truck. not to mention i can now gain the assistance of my friend and his brother on my buildup. So i hope to get this stuff moving along and i hope to be driving it by the end of the month.  I will get a ton of pics up tomorrow.

[Captkaos]

The Duct under the dash is the same for all same gen trucks regardless of bodystyle.  How was it fitting bad?

[exilous]

it needed to move at least an inch closer to the column, it will be a few days before I get that back up again beacuse I took everything back apart to work on the firewall but as soon as I have everything re-installed I will get some pics of it.

[exilous]

Didnt get much done today, made a scrap run worked on the firewall some and a bunch of little stuff. Finally got my clutch and flywheel back so now i just gotta wait on the engine, then i gotta start ordering stuff for that so i can build it finally. Hopefully tomorrow will be a slightly more productive day. And without further ado, the pics i promised from yesterday.




The next vehicle to get chopped up since im done stealing parts off it. haha.

[Laderhosen]

The next vehicle to get chopped up since im done stealing parts off it. haha.

Don't dooooo itttt!!!