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Project Blue Truck: '83 C20 - Rolling Chassis

Here are the aforementioned pictures of the flange.

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There's 1" of stick out past the wheel lip on stock H1's.

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I also bored out the other spindle. I've been putting it off because I have to take such light passes with slow feed due to needing 6" of boring bar hanging out of the tool holder. It's a very "boring" job.:haha:

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And a picture to show how much spline engagement there is.

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You will also notice my lathe is much cleaner. The 10" of rain we have received in the past 2 weeks has jacked the humidity up to 100% and everything was dripping wet.:doah: I took the lathe down to nothing but the head stock and the bed and dried, cleaned, and prodigiously oiled everything to try and keep the rust away. I had to do the same for the drill press.
 
I hate to tell you this, but it's going to rain all day today and tomorrow too. Every river in GA will likely flood by this weekend. Ocmulgee was at 19 ft. Friday and flood stage is 22 ft. (I think.) :eek1: At least our drought is finally officially over now.
 
K5 Jess said:
First pick looks like a clay pigeon! :dunno::D i hate humidity!
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I need to hurry up then before someone levels a shotgun at my hubs.:eek1:

supersize75k5 said:
Just wanted to say hell ya, awesome fab :thumb::thumb:
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Thanks man!

andyblack said:
I hate to tell you this, but it's going to rain all day today and tomorrow too. Every river in GA will likely flood by this weekend. Ocmulgee was at 19 ft. Friday and flood stage is 22 ft. (I think.) :eek1: At least our drought is finally officially over now.
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I live about a mile from the Altamaha. With all the rain, it's looking really good now, there were 20 ft tall trees growing in the middle of it before hand. All 4 of our ponds are pouring out the overflows. I really wish the truck was done so that I could go play.
 
I think yall were in a lot worse shape than us. Especially the Altamaha. My dad lives on the tiny little Alapaha River and it's been almost dry for about a year and a half.

You can't get anywhere near the Ocmulgee. Places where I like to off road are completely submerged. Don't worry, all that water is heading your way. It should be there in 3-4 days. :D
 
andyblack said:
I think yall were in a lot worse shape than us. Especially the Altamaha. My dad lives on the tiny little Alapaha River and it's been almost dry for about a year and a half.

You can't get anywhere near the Ocmulgee. Places where I like to off road are completely submerged. Don't worry, all that water is heading your way. It should be there in 3-4 days. :D
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The Altamaha made it out onto the flood plain for the first time in several several years.

I got the skeleton of one of the lower links cut out and welded up today. Tomorrow I hope to skin the sides with 3/16ths to box it in and put the tube sleeves in, I'm still debating on 3 or 4 sleeves.

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No close ups because I had some issues with sheilding gas and alot of weld had to be ground out and redone; it's not too pretty in some places.:haha:
 
Sleeves in.

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Side plate on.

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Welded out.

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Once I get the welds on the sleeves ground down flush, I'll squirt some Rustoleum on it and call that one done. Oh, other than getting a machine shop to chase the threads since they warped from the heat.
 
Got the finished link in primer, but I just couldn't find the motivation to knock out the other one, so instead I moved on to the upper links. The driver's side will use a tower, but the passenger side will need a half-tower-half-third member deal.

The angle iron is just for mock up to figure everything out.

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I'm going to raise the engine so that I can bring the crossmember up to give myself a bit more up travel. It is currently mounted at stock height, does anyone have any idea how much it can be raised before getting into the firewall or hood? I know the 8.1's aren't commonly swapped into these trucks (or anything else for that matter) but I assume a 454 is about the same size.

Thanks!:thumb:
 
I ended up building the new mounts 1.5" taller than the other ones. Maybe there wont be any fitment issues with the front of the cab.

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In other news, I weighed the completed lower link and it came in at 40 lbs, which is 5lbs lighter than the same length of 2.5" x .5" DOM.
 
Do you have any body lift? Vacuum or Hydroboost brakes? I know the the tall valve covers will interfere with the brake booster.

Martin
 
82355 said:
Do you have any body lift? Vacuum or Hydroboost brakes? I know the the tall valve covers will interfere with the brake booster.

Martin
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No body lift and the truck will have Hydroboost. I guess if anything hits when I set the body on, I'll just make another set. Third times the charm.:haha:
 
Can always move the hydroboost over if needed. When I was originally planning on rockwells in the Sonoma I was going to lift engine 5"/cases 3" (drivetrain sat flat or slightly down in the front) so I could have some uptravel. I didn't want to lift rig any higher and if I put rockwell in at current setup only had 1" between chunk and oil pan. I planned on cutting floor and a remote air filter to keep hood as low as possible. I found it was easier to sell it all and build a buggy though.... ;)
 
They physically they are the same size. But keep in mind, they dont use a conventional style cooling system. The heads are fed with a crossover tube and the waterpump pumps into it. So remember that when you are mounting it. And remember the low oil light sensor as well. Plus raising it you might run into intake clearing the hood problems as well. Do yourself a favor and dump them crap manifolds. GM had to install heat shields on the factory motor mounts because the manifolds back it up so bad it was melting everything. A set of headers and it is so much nicer. And, speaking of that, I just finished an 8.1L with headers, an XR270R cam, bee hive valvesprings, roller rockers and studs, milled/ported heads and ported intake and new rings and its a totally different truck. In a few days its going to the dyno for its final tune and im curious to see what it pushes now. I do know it smokes the 33in BFG M/Ts for a block or two almost.

Those valve covers are low, but the coils are mounted on them making it fairly tall. So you may have to do a custom coil mounting setup.

And EVERY SINGLE D#MN BOLT IS METRIC ON THAT THING. Stupid as can be, and a PITA when searching for bolts. So dont lose any.
 
MNorby said:
Can always move the hydroboost over if needed. When I was originally planning on rockwells in the Sonoma I was going to lift engine 5"/cases 3" (drivetrain sat flat or slightly down in the front) so I could have some uptravel. I didn't want to lift rig any higher and if I put rockwell in at current setup only had 1" between chunk and oil pan. I planned on cutting floor and a remote air filter to keep hood as low as possible. I found it was easier to sell it all and build a buggy though.... ;)
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I noticed the mock up heim only had about an inch to go before it hit the frame, so I backed down from 2" to 1.5" which should give me plenty of clearance with the crossmember, and hopefully the rest of the stuff under the hood. I'm trying to keep the amount of suspension lift below 8" which is higher than I would like, but the chunk just sticks up so damn high, and I'm not willing to push the axle in front of the harmonic balancer. But I guess you know all about that, hence the buggy.:D

454Sub said:
They physically they are the same size. But keep in mind, they dont use a conventional style cooling system. The heads are fed with a crossover tube and the waterpump pumps into it. So remember that when you are mounting it. And remember the low oil light sensor as well. Plus raising it you might run into intake clearing the hood problems as well. Do yourself a favor and dump them crap manifolds. GM had to install heat shields on the factory motor mounts because the manifolds back it up so bad it was melting everything. A set of headers and it is so much nicer. And, speaking of that, I just finished an 8.1L with headers, an XR270R cam, bee hive valvesprings, roller rockers and studs, milled/ported heads and ported intake and new rings and its a totally different truck. In a few days its going to the dyno for its final tune and im curious to see what it pushes now. I do know it smokes the 33in BFG M/Ts for a block or two almost.

Those valve covers are low, but the coils are mounted on them making it fairly tall. So you may have to do a custom coil mounting setup.

And EVERY SINGLE D#MN BOLT IS METRIC ON THAT THING. Stupid as can be, and a PITA when searching for bolts. So dont lose any.
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The though had crossed my mind about needing a cowl hood to clear the intake. Maybe I didn't go too terribly high. I haven't read too much about modded 8.1's so please post up the numbers when you get them!:bow: And the metric bolts are a bit of a pain in the ass.
 
Well, I can tell you it would rape a factory 8.1 all day. Its amazing how much better it runs now. But I will let you know here soon. A few days or so.
 
454Sub said:
Well, I can tell you it would rape a factory 8.1 all day. Its amazing how much better it runs now. But I will let you know here soon. A few days or so.
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Awesome!

With the new motor mounts, the frame becomes the limiting factor.

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Oilpan clearance is much better, there should be plenty of space to incorporate an oilpan shield to keep logs out. The timber from our farm was just cut, and driving through the trees in my white truck, I constantly have to get out to pull limbs and stumps from the under carriage, so I hope to keep that from happening with this truck.
 
On the sonoma I was going to lop frame off at the firewall and tube out the front too, is that an option for yours?
 
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