Nope... been way too busy and my cousin is currently borrowing my welder. It's on the list...loooong list with a lot of house stuff ahead of anything truck related.
Just so you know that list of house stuff never ends!
CK5
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My "Official" Stepside Restoration Thread and LS Swap 2021
- Thread starter Chevy305
- Start date
Just so you know that list of house stuff never ends!
Ugh I know. I'm hoping that I can get to working on it after the holidays.
beags86
Eastbound and Down
tomford
1/2 ton status
No, sold them awhile ago, and got a job in TX. Picked up an 87 K5 and when i moved home, shipped it. This is the first time its ever been out of the state. I'm the second owner.
That is clean
Good call on bringing one back with you, especially that one 
tomford
1/2 ton status
She's getting washed, filled up with ethanol free fuel and getting put inside for the winter. Having a garage is so nice. We will have to meet up this spring.
Tom
Tom
Did enough organizing today that we can park all 3 vehicles inside. (Fiances Jetta in the garage and the Silverado in the carport)
I'll probably end up moving everything around about 6 more times before I find what works best for me but for now it'll do.
I'll probably end up moving everything around about 6 more times before I find what works best for me but for now it'll do.
Glenn,
Allow me to make a suggestion: If you plan to work on your truck in that garage on a regular basis you would be really smart to buy a 5-gallon bucket of KILZ primer now. Clean everything out of there while it's still easy to do, plastic over a few small items that you don't want painted and just spray the whole interior with one of those airless sprayers.
It makes everything SO much brighter and easier to work on. I've been spending the last 2 weeks painting all my new garage areas by hand because I simply can't remove everything to use a sprayer this late in the game. It's a huge time waster, but when I'm finally finished in the next couple of days it's going to be awesome, bright (and warm!) all winter long....
-G
Allow me to make a suggestion: If you plan to work on your truck in that garage on a regular basis you would be really smart to buy a 5-gallon bucket of KILZ primer now. Clean everything out of there while it's still easy to do, plastic over a few small items that you don't want painted and just spray the whole interior with one of those airless sprayers.
It makes everything SO much brighter and easier to work on. I've been spending the last 2 weeks painting all my new garage areas by hand because I simply can't remove everything to use a sprayer this late in the game. It's a huge time waster, but when I'm finally finished in the next couple of days it's going to be awesome, bright (and warm!) all winter long....
-G
tomford
1/2 ton status
I got a 250amp water cooled tig welder if you need to use it.
I wouldn't even know which hole to put it in even if I had one. Lol that welder is way over my head. I'm still working with a small 110 mig. Though the garage has a 220 plug already so a mig welder upgrade is in my future.
I thought about painting. It's a good idea but it'll have to wait till the spring at this point. Besides I want to insulate the rest of the walls first.Glenn,
Allow me to make a suggestion: If you plan to work on your truck in that garage on a regular basis you would be really smart to buy a 5-gallon bucket of KILZ primer now. Clean everything out of there while it's still easy to do, plastic over a few small items that you don't want painted and just spray the whole interior with one of those airless sprayers.
It makes everything SO much brighter and easier to work on. I've been spending the last 2 weeks painting all my new garage areas by hand because I simply can't remove everything to use a sprayer this late in the game. It's a huge time waster, but when I'm finally finished in the next couple of days it's going to be awesome, bright (and warm!) all winter long....
-G
tomford
1/2 ton status
I hear ya, i watched some videos and started sticking metal together. So far so good
CUCV2
5/4 ton fun
Old stepsides Chevys are sharp. Can't wait to see what you do to it next.
tomford
1/2 ton status
What did you end up with for lift? 4" spring and 35's?
It's an all spring 4" Tuff Country EZ Ride lift with ORD shackles up front, Bilstein 5125 shocks, and a 2" body lift. So really 6" total lift
beags86
Eastbound and Down
So what's next on the truck?
New Wood bed?
New Wood bed?
Nah the new wood bed has kinda moved further down the list. As of now it sits with the transmission halfway in after having it sent out for a rebuild. I'll give a proper update as to what I've been up to in a little bit.So what's next on the truck?
New Wood bed?
Okay so back story on the transmission. When I upgraded to the NV4500, I bought it used and just stabbed it in. I really had no idea what kind of shape the internals were in but it ran smooth and shifted so I drove the hell out of it. And drive it hard I did, all the way to Silver Lake and back, twice! The first trip out to the dunes while climbing test hill, I hit it fast wide open in 2nd bouncing off of the rev limiter. I hit a dip that I didn't see from the bottom of the hill about 3/4 of the way up. Well all 4 tires saw daylight underneath them, my head met the roof, the alternator belt flew off and it popped out of gear. For those that saw it can attest that it didn't look pleasant... 
@swettysblazer @Dueling @Richcz28
Anyway I chalked it up to how hard that hit was so I didn't think twice about the transmission popping out of gear. Until later that day it did it again on another long redline hill climb. But didn't have any other problems with it since or at least until the next Dunefest. Again I started having the same problem with it popping out of gear only it started doing it more frequently and would start to grind going into gear. Since then it's gotten worse where it ground every shift. I've grown pretty tired of double clutching and rev matching all the time so I decided to pull it and have it rebuilt at a well renowned local shop. I was happy to have found this shop too as apparently not many trany shops mess with manual transmissions anymore. Pretty sad for us diehards.
So onto pictures:
This is what liquid synchronizer looks like
Decided to pull it through the floor with a hoist like I used to do for the SM465. It's a little more involved now with a carpet but it ended up working out well:
I found plenty of Silver Lake souvenirs hiding under the carpet:
@swettysblazer @Dueling @Richcz28 Anyway I chalked it up to how hard that hit was so I didn't think twice about the transmission popping out of gear. Until later that day it did it again on another long redline hill climb. But didn't have any other problems with it since or at least until the next Dunefest. Again I started having the same problem with it popping out of gear only it started doing it more frequently and would start to grind going into gear. Since then it's gotten worse where it ground every shift. I've grown pretty tired of double clutching and rev matching all the time so I decided to pull it and have it rebuilt at a well renowned local shop. I was happy to have found this shop too as apparently not many trany shops mess with manual transmissions anymore. Pretty sad for us diehards.
So onto pictures:
This is what liquid synchronizer looks like
Decided to pull it through the floor with a hoist like I used to do for the SM465. It's a little more involved now with a carpet but it ended up working out well:
I found plenty of Silver Lake souvenirs hiding under the carpet:
So I got the transmission back from the shop. Unfortunately it took longer than anticipated so I didn't get to finish putting it all back together before I had to leave for my next hitch at work. The shop had to replace 2nd gear, 3rd gear, and the hub they ride on in addition to all the parts in the master overhaul kit.
I got bit by the "Might as Well" bug so I thought I'd address a few things while the transmission was out.
First was the cross member. The chassis on my truck is an '84 so it came with the flat style cross member. On the NV4500 that leaves a large 3" gap between the transmission and the cross member. I used a piece of 3" square tubing to make up the difference. I never really liked that solution so I bought a "W" style cross member from a '85+ truck that has a higher mounting point and it uses a taller style tranny mount so no spacer is needed. I think worst case I'll have to drill a new hole of two in the frame to make it bolt up:
The second thing I wanted to do was install these new rear speaker brackets that I got a little while ago from
http://www.73-87.com/Parts/7387SpeakerBrackets/73-87 Cab Corner Speaker Brackets.htm
Pretty cool custom fabbed sheet metal brackets that allow you to run a 6x9 speaker or if you ask, he can cut them out for standard 6.5" speakers. Since that's what I have, I ordered the 6.5" speaker style. Finally I can get rid of the el-cheapo speaker box behind the rear seat! Moving the speakers outward will definitely allow them to breathe a little more since they won't be firing directly into the back of the bench seat and the grills won't be rubbing on it either. I mocked them up then pulled them back out and painted them to match the truck. You can see the cross member all douched in 2k Chassis Black as well:
I got bit by the "Might as Well" bug so I thought I'd address a few things while the transmission was out.
First was the cross member. The chassis on my truck is an '84 so it came with the flat style cross member. On the NV4500 that leaves a large 3" gap between the transmission and the cross member. I used a piece of 3" square tubing to make up the difference. I never really liked that solution so I bought a "W" style cross member from a '85+ truck that has a higher mounting point and it uses a taller style tranny mount so no spacer is needed. I think worst case I'll have to drill a new hole of two in the frame to make it bolt up:
The second thing I wanted to do was install these new rear speaker brackets that I got a little while ago from
http://www.73-87.com/Parts/7387SpeakerBrackets/73-87 Cab Corner Speaker Brackets.htm
Pretty cool custom fabbed sheet metal brackets that allow you to run a 6x9 speaker or if you ask, he can cut them out for standard 6.5" speakers. Since that's what I have, I ordered the 6.5" speaker style. Finally I can get rid of the el-cheapo speaker box behind the rear seat! Moving the speakers outward will definitely allow them to breathe a little more since they won't be firing directly into the back of the bench seat and the grills won't be rubbing on it either. I mocked them up then pulled them back out and painted them to match the truck. You can see the cross member all douched in 2k Chassis Black as well:
