[JayB22]

Daraven,

I purchased a complete, once running truck. I’ve removed all body pieces off of the frame. The cab is complete with all glass and doors still in place. The box and running boards were removed and the front fenders and grill removed. The frame can be wheeled around as long as I lift the back end up and drag it around.

The frame that I bought was not a complete truck. It’s got all of the running gear there though. There is a steering coloumn and and all power steering parts, pedal assembly, brake booster and brakes on all 4 wheels. 5speed t5 trans with borg and Warner diff that seems to shift good and allegedly worked fine when parked. The motor had a knocking noise so that’s why it was originally parked and sold. Most of the wiring is there but I haven’t went through it all to see what’s there or cut. I’ve been planning on a v8 swap with a carb setup from the start so I wasn’t so worried about the wiring.

The original idea with getting this frame/running gear was that the 4x4 track width seems to fit the fenders the best. With it coming with the 5spd and 4wd parts I thought it would be neat to keep it 4wd. I don’t really plan on using the 4x4 in the truck, I just thought it would be neat to build it that way. With it being the long bed 1 ton, I just had a vision of keeping a similar stance as it previously had, but making it ride much better and be a lot more fun to drive. I also like to go out dirt biking west of town and thought it would be a fun cruiser on the weekends. I’m not overly worried about using it in the winter or when it’s gross outside. I have newer trucks for that.

I’m not looking for a slammed truck or a jacked up truck. Just something with a sporty look to it and it would be nice if it would still fit under my 7’ overhead door. When I look at the 4wd s10 frame I feel like with the body on it the way it sits, it should give it a good look which is also why as long as I’m not risking safety, I don’t mind chopping up the cv axles to keep the post in to hold the wheels bearings etc in place and just use it as a 2WD. The front torsion bar gives me some flexibility to fine tune my stance as well if I need to slightly.

My budget is tight only because I don’t want this to get out of control. I like the idea of doing a quick modest build to get my feet wet with the project and get it running. My oldest daughter is turning 5 soon and anytime we are by the truck she asks what she can do to help so if I can get this completed in the near future maybe we can build it together and she won’t loose interest in it and we can drive around in it. It would be nice to do what is needed to get it safely driving around with a power plant that leaves me room to grow with the truck down the road. I see myself diving back into this 5-10 years down the road and trying to get a bit more performance out of it. But in the mean time I’d like to get a good running motor in it that sounds good and goes a bit when you want it to.

I know I kind of rambled on there but I hope that helps see my plan for the truck.