I'm always happy to see another stepside that started in high school with all the '80s magazine cool factor and now is becoming cool again! My stepside went through a very similar series of stages from high school to now. The only difference was that the 305 in my stepside was out of a Monte SS, and I didn't have the actual car.
So you got the manual pedals, why not swap in an NV4500? The pedals are the hardest part of the swap!
Also I'm a little confused, did you ship the truck out to Colorado or did you move back to IL?
Also that Canyon is pretty cool. I'm very hopeful for the new rumored ZR2.
Ah ha, I had been waiting for you to chime in. As one of the few stepsides on here, I knew it was only a matter of time. Also since our trucks are similar, un-dented metal and fully built engines.
I hope the old girl is cool when she is done. Some things on it won't change in sprit of my vision on what a lifted truck should be. When I was a kid. The roll bar w/lights and Lund visor will be the most prominent of this. Come on, they both are winners of a manliness test! How can I
not keep them?!
Auto vs manual? Great question. And one that is deep intertwined with the next question/answer below.
I was waiting for someone to catch on that my truck is back in the flat land of IL and I live in Colorado. YEP! I am building a truck 1,000 miles away from where I live. I think you can call me crazy!
It's been a bit challenging to say the least. Mostly it has worked out well to this point because I have been able to do big stuff, but the small stuff is what I am confused on how to get done.
Right now it has rolled like this.
I buy, buy, buy and then I fly/ drive to IL and wrench for a bit. It has worked because I can buy the bigger ticket items and then work on it some. And then "let the pay catch up" as I like to say.
So this is where the trans comes into play. I will be changing the trans out down the road, but I had the trans rebuilt right away ( before this turned into such a big build - thank you everyone here at CK5 for that
)and just want to get the truck driving and under its own power again before I mess with it. Honestly, I just want a 6 speed, I don't really care if its stick or an auto. I never really have cared what kind of trans I had, sticks and autos both have pros and cons.
To say the canyon has been great would be an understatement.
I really can't get over how great these trucks are. They are totally underated, just as good as any taco I have been in..
I have left some things out of this thread as I didn't really feel they were relevant. One thing I probably should have put in was that I had an 89 s10 when I was 16. I bought it for the winter so I didn't have to drive the Monte SS. My father still had not found a decent truck to buy so he couldn't give me his.
Picked up a short box 4x4 with a 4.3. Really good little truck, every since then I knew the smaller gm stuff wasn't really that bad.
The canyon is actually my wife's. She says I ruined it with the big tires. So it has turned into our expo rig. Last year she went 3,300 miles in 10 days, camping out of the back the whole way. Performed perfectly. Well since I
ruined hers I told her I will buy her a used one a few years from now. Once they are out and have any bugs worked out, I would like to find a ZR2 used with about 20-40,000 miles in a few years.
Now since this should officially be the longest post I have ever written I will throw down a pic for those of you that suffered through my blabbing.
I don't think I ever posted a pic with the tent deployed on the canyon.
Mt Rainier National Park:
). My company has bonuses every quarter, sometimes they are size-able. My previous bonuses have went to bills.
...
Are you going to be working on it more now that you're moving back East? 
