81 Scottsdale build thread

[frotosride]

Definitely a great start. I do like the build and dream of the days I can add a SB to my collection, along with a crew cab.

[Scaryfastatx]

I've been on vacation since the 17th, but the kiddos went with my parents on Monday so finally had some real chances to work on the truck

I was gonna start replacing the leaking power steering hoses and valve cover gaskets

But i found a giant rats nest under the battery and behind the distributor, so i ended up cleaning out rat crap for like 6hrs, finally got the engine bay cleaned up and power washed, it's looking pretty great.

I found why the valve covers were leaking so bad, previous owner cranked the living daylights out of the bolts and completely squished the gaskets out 

I started scrubbing and power washing the lower front end and sprayed it with undercoating

[Scaryfastatx]

long overdue update

the truck had a rat infestation previously, as such there were a lot of eaten wires, plus the previous owner fixed a lot of the wiring with Home Depot stuff

I ended up completely redoing the wiring with an AAW classic update kit, and it was pretty great to install, there are a few places I wished they hadnt preterminated stuff, like on the headlights, but overall, the experience was more than Painless... (sorry couldnt help myself)

I had finally thought it was ready to go, but then got gut punched by some white smoke (http://forum.73-87chevytrucks.com/smforum/index.php?topic=39463)

With that done and out of the way, I replaced the leaky steering gear, got the brakes, suspension sorted and it finally passed inspection!

Past few days, I went ahead and did some patina restoration, I got some Penetrol and scrapped off the remaining peeled of clear coat and its looking pretty great, really happy with the resulting look

[JohnnyPopper]

She Lives!

Funny how fast two years go by!

[Scaryfastatx]

She Lives!

Funny how fast two years go by!

Yes it does!

Especially when the wife is starting to get annoyed by the monthly Rock Auto bill haha

[Shifty]

Looks outstanding brother! 

[Mike81K10]

Your truck was an awesome find.

[Scaryfastatx]

Your truck was an awesome find.

Thanks! Didn't seem like an awesome find when I was knee deep in the problems haha

But yeah turned out to be a good truck

Looks outstanding brother! 

Thanks! I'm really happy with how it turned out

[Scaryfastatx]

With the truck finally running reliably I started turning my attention to the bench seat project.

 I started off by hand measuring stuff but getting the angles and radii measured was a pain and there were a lot of different measurements from passenger side to driver side, was hoping to just mirror the design of the adapter brackets

So I called in my buddy who does 3D scanning to build aero surfaces and spoilers for cars (King Performance 3D). He came in and 3d scanned the truck floor and the bottom of my new bench

With the 3d scans and cross referencing my manual measurements I started cranking on the bracket designs




I then started looking for crash loads, only published ones I could find are from racing series rulebooks. But my friend who works at GM told me some numbers they use for Specs, did some analysis and finally got ready to quote. Normally I use Jiga, but their suppliers quoted a bit high so I went back to redesign to reuse a lot of parts so I went from a lot of unique brakets to just a few that I would weld together

Final design mocked up in CAD



With the concept finalized, I used some CAD (cardboard sided design) to make sure the sitting position was good and validate the design before spending money



Then quoted and ordered a prototype set of brackets
Got the welded up and painted



I was about to install them then decided to paint the interior to try and match the exterior, exterior is a candy blue but I'm no painter and it was a pain to not get runs so I found a pretty close match regular paint so just used that

[Scaryfastatx]

Finally the moment of truth, would it fit



There were a couple places where it didn't want to go in but after some persuasion and putting in the bolts in a sequence I got it bolted down

Then because I'm dumb and forgot that I used the seat belt anchor holes I had to take the center 2 bolts out to install my seat belts

Thankfully they fit ok

Side note, guys don't buy Safe-T-boy belts, they SUCK
fitment sucks, install instructions suck, they aren't long enough on the retractor side and the inner part is too long. JUNK

So finally got them in


And then got the retractors in

Here's the before:


He's the after

[Shifty]

They look pretty darn good!

[Scaryfastatx]

They look pretty darn good!

Thanks!

I'm really happy with how it turned out, I do wish the brake pedal was lower or adjustable on these trucks but oh well

Built in fold down cupholder/arm rest is a game changer