Ground up 86 4x4

[SGarage]

And you know what happened to the rest of the evening...It didn't matter to me though, I was happy to have the cab back on and be able to throw some cold ones back with the guys that dropped everything to set the cab with me.

[Bitzer!]

Now thats what I call an Xmas present!

[SGarage]

We were all out hanging around the garage today and talking about the history of that Chevy 4X4. The first rebuild project on it started in 2002.  Good projects take a long time to mature.

John's daughter Amber in September of 2002:






Amber today:



Merry Christmas everyone!

[thirsty]

Yeah...that seems like it was forever ago when we rebuilt the truck then. She was just a little garage brat then. haha She still loves Daddy's truck though!

I can remember after that rebuild saying "I'm gonna drive it like that for a while then paint it". I didn't lie, just didn't think I was going to drive it for years then do a frame off, then decide to replace everything except the axles and transmission.

[thirsty]

It has been like Christmas in the garage (if you like used Chevy parts  )
I had a whole shed full of parts so I lugged a bunch in and had to go through the boxes to find all the parts I need to put the cab together and wire it. I took my original cab apart years ago and have had a few parts rigs since too. So that shed was full of stuff, some real good stuff and some not so good stuff too. I got a lot of truck junk I'm realizing!

I had the garage all cleaned up over the holiday but this is what it looks like now. About half of the stuff isn't shown in the pic. This is actually sorted.


I put my known good harness in the cab along with the heater stuff and pedals. My harness had quite a memory to it from being coiled in a box for a years so I had to just let it hang in the truck for a day before putting it right exactly where it needed to go. The mice never found it in the shed so I was excited about that.



The wiring is almost complete now.

[bake74]

     Will be exciting when it starts looking like a truck cab again, soon you will have the dash back in and then on to windows and doors.  Never knew it was a stick, I prefer sticks myself.

[thirsty]

I also have an issue now with the interior. Since I changed the color of the truck my interior color doesn't look good at all. So my interior is now temporary until I can find another one in a color that matches. I was excited to have a nice interior for this. I have got my interior sold to someone as soon as I can find another. I want black but with the lack of these trucks around here that might be a hard find. Second choice is brown, then tan, then gray. Last option is painting mine.

Here is what I got for it a while back.


And the blazer seats that I was going to put on my old Aris seat.


The old seat brought in. It used to be nice but looks like garbage in the painted cab now.

[firefighter]

Well lookie who has a manual transmission. I don't see those too often. My current (drive while I'm rebuilding my other) truck is a 76 2WD 4 speed (granny low) truck and I love it. It's great to teach the kids and wife how to drive a clutch vehicle. I think all kids need to learn how to drive with a clutch if possible.

You've been making some progress!!
Do you have AC?
Are you using any type of firewall / floor insulating blanket or noise dampening material?
Are your tires 33" tall?

Keep up the great work.
I have a 4 day weekend this weekend and I hope to get a few things done.

[1979C20]

Those look bigger than 33's, I have 33's on my truck and they don't look nearly as big as those next to my girlfriend.

[VileZambonie]

Looks awesome! I would be afraid to let my daughter (if I had one) around my buddy's lol I'm planning on putting my cab on today if everyone shows up!

[thirsty]

Good guess on the tires, they are 33". Just the dash is A/C. the truck doesn't have it and where we live we don't really need it so to me it wasn't worth putting A/C in. Nice dash though. As far as the firewall I used my old insulation and floor will be painted with bed liner then maybe sound deadener under some insulation and hopefully a rubber mat. On the floor I only have the bed liner done around the edges. I wanted to get the interior in it first then do floor and let it sit for a while.

Those sm465 trannies are fun to drive. I have had so many stick trucks that I am sick of them now. Not this truck though  Somehow I keep getting deals on sticks for work trucks so I buy them but like I always say the next one will be auto...haha

Looks awesome! I would be afraid to let my daughter (if I had one) around my buddy's lol I'm planning on putting my cab on today if everyone shows up!

When it comes to the daughter...it's not my buddies that I worry about, it's the young bucks that seem to show up whenever she is at the garage 

Don't forget to takes some pics Vile. We've all been waiting to see that 74 again.

[jdl71]

Love, love, love the color. Lookin good!

[firefighter]

Thanks for the info. thirsty.
I'm going to use some sort of insulating / sound deadening material but haven't decided what yet. I've read quite a few posts from people here using many different products. I didn't really use anything when I rebuilt the truck the last time so using anything this time will be a bonus.

I'm really torn as to what I want to do. I have a 4" suspension lift and I know 33's would fit with NO modifications. 35's may fit with a little fender trimming. Just not sure if I really want to trim fenders and then what if I don't trim them enough and hit a nasty bump out in the timber and the tire catches the fender?
Will the 33's fill up the wheelwells enough to make it look proportionate?

I don't have AC either. A few days out of the year it would be nice, but all the added parts to have it don't offset what it would take to add it. Under the dash is way easier to work on without it.   

Have a great weekend sir.

[thirsty]

So today I didn't do a bunch of work on the truck. We did go to visit blazin though. I had talked to him about a windshield out of one of his parts rigs. It was about 70 miles away so SGarage and I loaded into his magnum and headed out. Talking squarebodies the whole way of course.

This is what we saw when we pulled in. Your typical NH plowtruck.


He had it all cut out just sitting in the truck waiting for us to show.


I got to tell you guys that I have dealt with blazin before, Genuine Nice Guy!
We talked about my truck and where I was at with the built and before long blazin offered to let go of some parts that I could use.
This is part of my new interior that I got off blazin. He even helped me out even though he said he didn't feel that well. Oh yeah forgot to mention is was about 15 degrees F. out this morning too.


This is some of the stuff back at the garage. It's going to look much better than the burgundy stuff that I thought I was stuck with. Good thing we loaded the windshield first, I probably would have forgotten it after getting the interior pieces.


Overall it was a great day. Drove down with SGarage, got to catch up with blazin, got the glass that I needed, and got some other great stuff for the truck.
Thanks again blazin!

[Blazin]

Not a problem. It all would have gone into storage and not got used for years knowing me!!!
I'm kinda of a packrat!!