2 wheel peel / rebirth of a short bed c-10

[sweetk30]

took off what was left from some dumb a$$ hooking a tow chain there at 1 time and pulling 1 rivit off and twisting the crap out of the rest of it.

going to make my own beefy one and also have steering box brace mixed in with it.

thanks tho buddy.

got the replacement cab in the shop today and did a little tourch time on 3 broken / cut / frozen bolts got them out just fine

then cut off wheel / flap wheel 40 grit grinder / some measuring and fitting and went from rusted out cab corners to nice and solid cab corners. and 1 tiny patch in left rocker next to cab corner seam line to rocker.

 

[sweetk30]

few more pics.

right side was not as bad as left was. but had small bubble little higher up on back side that wasnt threw yet but i could see from inside so cut him little higher up than left.

also as you can see few spot weld holes drilled to match factory style . and had to trim the back side of both repair panels as the body line was off 1/4" to wide to the center of the cab. would have looked funny. so i cut it off and rebent the flare / lip just like factory.

 

[sweetk30]

last few for today .

next time fix right cab / cowl area little patch needed . and weld shut the ash tray door and also the fuel tank switch hole. also few extra holes i dont need.

 

[Chevy305]

nice work

 

[rob h]

Nice job bret, its comung along real nice. Did you ever get a hold of wheatley to do your tune..?

 

[sweetk30]

god dam fu*ker wont reply back on emails and or answer phone so screw it. i will spend my cash on another guy lots like on ls chat forum i am on.

tunebyfrost is his biss name. 150 got turn off stuff and power tune .

and rolling frame ready to go to blaster tusday night after i swap the rims/tires for basic rollers.

 

[Kainedogg]

Really good build brother. Will be following along intently. Just started on my wiring harness. I see where you have the green and blue connections for the ecm where as I have the red and blue. How much were the dingo mounts and do you have a part number so I can order mine today as well ('84 C10) What trans x-member are you going with if any? I already have 20's on the truck but drop spindles and a flip kit are next...soon as I rob a bank.

 

[sweetk30]

dirty dingos site has motor mount section and just find 73-87 2wd and click them.

i am making my own cross member to be a beefy one and act as a mid frame cross member and tranny mount.

also then you prob have cable throttle over electric like i do.

just rolled the bare frame and gutted cab down to the media blaster tonight around 6:30ish . should be done wensday night in no problems.

hope to do some major work on it this weekend. got full energy suspension for the whole truck to swap in . and set motor/trans in place for mock up . fix some stuff ./ customize on the cab .

 

[sweetk30]

back from the blaster friday night. was dead tired from long week so got pic's sat when i went in to work on it.

 

[sweetk30]

some rust out spots but all the major is SOLID easy fixes for the rusty sections.

 

[sweetk30]

then on to the fix of the bad spots. top pass side winshield hole.

fyi if you want a good peice of patch panel for all the spots like i did with 1/2 lower cab corners just go buy the big cab corner repair sections that go part way up in the back of the cab.

the left over stuff i didnt use on the cab corners worked 100% on all the patches and just minor tweeks to shape otherwise it was made for it.

 

[sweetk30]

then pass side upper cowl area just above the blower motor spot.

 

[sweetk30]

next was on to the gas pedal cable square hole close off and wire hole close off with small rust repair area all in 1 .

this is were the extra cab corner stuff come in REAL handy . opened up the 90* radius and turned about 45* off center and fit in like a glove.

fyi if doing electric gas bedel AKA : DBW swetup dont fill in the bottom hole for old gas pedel it will get reused if you modify like i did.

 

[sweetk30]

DBW electric gas pedal modification.

cut off lower section of orignal truck pedel rod just above spring resting on pedel.

then cut off DBW arm with 3/4" past the center of radius on bottom of radius and dead in the center of top of radius.

then make middle section left look like this . and its 3 1/8" top length give or take . and bottom is 3 1/4" give or take. also it gets fliped over 180* from orignal way it was made. 90* bend over lip now on bottom side.

weld it all up and cool down quick as dont wana melt the DBW guts.

then it will bolt in with stock lower gas pedel hole to DBW lower hole and drill 1 new upper hole and its good to go VROOM . gets pedel about dead center and depth of old place.

 

[sweetk30]

yes i did bevel the weld joints before welding as its important.

and make sure before welding on it clears the mounting plate at full throttle. i had to trim before a tiny bit.

also weld on the old gas pedel rod and pad to make it look like it was to be there almost like factory. and pad even floats like before and bottoms out on flex like it did .

 

[sweetk30]

also had few holes starting at bottom of winshield frame at pinch weld.

fyi the glue that holds the BIG rubber gasket in for the winshield does go bad over time and let water sit in there.

i was able to plug weld these up and 1 little patch used from underside up to bottom on driver side biggest hole.

 

[sweetk30]

also started playing with droping the rear .

droped on bump stops with springs disconected for funny ha ha ha .

had to cut the head of the shackle to hanger bolts off with tourch and then air hammer the bolt out. rusted in a bit and bushing delaminated from rubber. otherwise the spring eye bolts all come right out easy .

still have to pull the leafs and swap in the energy suspension bushings in place of the rubber bushings.

but got drop shackles on and she is 2.5" lower in the rear now. will have to modfy the cross member in the bed floor to clear the shackle swing tho. but not sure yet if not down were i want it i will switch to a flip kit and back to stock length shackles .

 

[C/Kjunkie]

Nice build you got going there. I love dropping LS engines into box styles. The last 2wd I did was a 4.8/4L60E into an 86 SWB. It was a blast! Mild dyno tune with headers, it surprised alot of people. LOL! One tip I got for you, make sure you tell you tuner to delete the rear O2s. They can set it up on just the front and save you from having to run cats. Truck manifolds work great,but see if you can snag a set of F body;s from LS1tech or somewhere. You'll only pick up 3-5 hp with shorties over the F Body manifolds and FL will net you about 20hp. If you want a little more spice for little cash, stock Z06 cam and yellow Z06 springs. Comp 918s are a even better swap and you can find them around for 125-150 slighty used.

Soon as I get my Burban on the road, I'm stuffing a LQ9/ T56 in my wife's 93 GMC.

Good luck, I can't wait to see it on the road.

 

[sweetk30]

thanks man

already removed wiring for rear o2's and plan on it in reflash.

also got motor in today for test fit and found truck manifolds do JUST clear. and the trick to fitting the driver side in looks like cut off the 1 inch below the flange were the pipe is welded to it. then take and flip the pipe 180* so the 90* turn from factory just before cat fits and weld it up. going to try this after dinner.

motor all the way forward at this point on dirty dingo mounts. needs to go back just a bit. and its also twisted 5* or so as it didnt loosen the pass side mount to block. that will make pass side fit better and not kiss the frame rail.

and the frame gets wider as we go back so it should only get better for fitment as we slide motor back.

 

[sweetk30]

also since i dont smoke or use it for storage i cut up the old cabs glove box and made a nice patch for the ash tray hole . someone had it out already and twisted to hell so figure why not ditch it now. filled in the fuel tank switcher also.