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71 pickup, 52s,63s boatside etc

jimmy1984

jimmy1984

1/2 ton status
Joined
Jan 12, 2007
Posts
152
Reaction score
0
Location
Napa CA/Oconomowoc WI
Hey everyone figured id stop in here and start a build thread after being a lurker for several years. I started off on this forum with my 84 Jimmy which I beat on all through highschool and now has been passed onto my brother as his first car. The second I gave him the truck I promised my self I would find another that suited me better. It had to be a pickup and it had to be presmog.

Well after a few months of casual searching I stumbled on this gem, if you can call it that.
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I went to check it out and well it was rough... actualy rough is an extreme understatement. I actualy almost wrecked it on the test drive.

I was driving around the block and the steering basicaly quit on me, the most shocking part was that I went back and asked the owner if he knew about it and he agreed it was alittle loose. He had no idea what was wrong but had been daily driving it on the highway for the last several weeks.

I took a closer look and the U-bolts holding the axle to the springs were completly loose so instead of turning the wheels the steering was just moving the axle front to back...:eek1::eek1::eek1:

Well long story short I overlooked the death trap and ended up talking him down on the price. And ended up buying it, the cherry on top was that he had an actual longbed for it that I could pick up later. we shook hands and the truck was mine.

Here it is after I picked up the bed
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Ill have alot to update tommarow as ive been working on it for a few months so stay tuned!
 
looks like a solid platform to start with, I'll be watching to see where this goes, subscribed:pimp:
 
Thanks Everyone! lets begin the process of catching up on what all has actually been done to this truck in the last 6 months.

So when I first got the truck it had a 350 out of a 78 chevy which ran like a top, and mated to that was a Turbo 400 which was mated to a np205.

Now the problem was the 205 was divorced and ontop of that it didnt realy look like anyone put any thought into it.
I decided right off the bat that that drive train was gettin pulled

heres some shots of that mess.
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That mount actually looked pretty good I may end up reusing that.

So I searched craigslist and actualy found a guy looking for the exact setup I had and he wanted to trade for a Sm465 with a 205 all hooked up.

Well thats exactly what I wanted so my setup was pulled out and we were on our way to do the trade.
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And the setup I was swapping for
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Im in! Sweet looking rig. I think that tube bed looked sweet
 
After much heavy lifting, cursing and knuckle busting the new tranny was in :D
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When I swapped in the sm465 I knew from the begining that It would have a hydraulic clutch setup. Basicaly I toyed with several different options in this order

1) Novak Clutch setup But Im to cheap and a DIYer at heart
2) regular belhousing with a mounting plate and cobeled together stock hydraulics. I tryed this and my mounting plate bent and the clutch fork didnt move...:doah:
3)rethinking novak kit but then I remembered im cheap again
4) While I was out of town afriend of mine found a bellhousing for a hydraulic clutch set up at a junkyard and got it for me :woot:

That setup worked but that ment pulling the tranny out again and swapping bellhousing also I had to get a new slave cylinder because the slave I had from the old setup was from a different year then the new bellhousing.

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Ill have to get some pictures of the clutch pedal setup but basicaly I just pulled a clutch pedal assembly out of an 80s chevy and mounted it to my firewall.
You can kinda see it in this picture
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Shooting off on a tangent here for a second but did I mention this truck has a SUNROOF!:D

Or as my GF refered to it as an "escape hatch":haha:
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So onto the suspension, the truck has 4 inch blocks in the rear and 4 inch lift springs in the front.
The plan was to put 63s in the rear and in the process move the axle forward about 12 inches.

Now I searched and searched and couldnt find any documentation of anyone doing this so I kinda just did it with alot of help from a good friend of mine.
I put in an order with DIY4x and alittle bit later these goodies showed up at my door.

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I used a oxy torch and blew through all the old suspension hangers in no time
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then started the rebuilding process.

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The front mounts

Then I had to make shackles to mount the rear
I started with some 1/2 inch strap material... ya i know overkill but thats what the steel place had for a good deal
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I drilled some holes then cut them apart
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ready to be welded the center tube is 1.25

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Mounted and ready for a spring
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tada!!! Axle mounted and moved forward a total of 12 inches!:woot:
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Royjones- I did keep the front and rear shaft but unfortunatly I dont have the shaft between the tranny and transfer case.

Stay tuned for more changes theyre all just itching to be uploaded!
 
On your rear spring hangers may i suggest putting a plate over to the bottom of the frame.

Its basically tyeing the bracket into 2 legs of the frame. Those square tubes dont actually have a ton of surface area and over time they may lead to some pretty severe cracking from the flex of the suspension being transferred into the frame
 
Great progress!

Do me a favor and put a radius on those shackles you just built....

Homemade shackles look a bit too "homemade" when they are left looking just like the flat stock they were made from. More importantly, those pointy ends will tear a hole in your head at some point when you are crawling around under your truck working on other things! :yikes:

BTDT....I think GM was a bit sadistic back in the old days.... They out pointy bolts on all the old crossmembers and I was perforating my head on them all the time. I don't have a lush, thick head of hair to hide all the injuries either! :haha:


-G
 
Blazenzuk- Im definatly planing on gusseting those im sure they would start to crack over time also one heavy smashing on a rock would bend them up im sure.

Greg72- Thanks for the heads up on the shackles my buddies been giving me a hard time about that also. im definatly planning on rounding those corners. I still have to replace all the bolts in the suspension with longer ones as the ones in there are alittle to short and not grade 8. So when I have it all apart again Ill definatly take care of it.

If you look closely you can find alot of temporary solutions to things on this rig as Im building this in a friends garage im on a time crunch when ever its in there. I work on it for about a week straight every 1.5-2 months and at the end of each week it has to be able to be driven out of the shop.

If You guys see anything else that doesnt look right please let me know, it could either be something I did or the PO but either way itll get fixed.

Thanks everyone more uploads yet to come!
 
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