Powerslave's 66 SWB LS1 laid out with PB

[powerslave]

I finally decided to start a build thread now that I'm actually getting some progress done. I've gone 10 different directions with my truck, but it's finally all coming together. It started as a longbed but I cut the frame down and found a short box on craigslist. The truck was poorly bagged when I bought it, so I ended up re-doing most of that as well. I figured that since it was already bagged, that I'd save myself some time, but I ended up spending twice as long fixing everything. The truck had a 350/350 setup that I pulled out and replaced with an LQ4 6.0 and 4L60e. Afterward, I put an LS1 intake on it.

I've been a tourist in here for the last year, but decided to start a build thread. Anyway, this has been my project for the last 8 months, so here's the pics.

[powerslave]

More pics of the truck when I bought it

[powerslave]

The first thing I did was shorten the frame. I jacked it up and welded 4 legs on the rear section of the frame that I was going to cut off so that it stayed straight with the rest of the frame. After I cut it, all I had to do was slide that section of the frame forward. I beveled the edges, welded it, made a fish mouth plate for the outside and boxed the inside.

[powerslave]

more pics of the frame

[powerslave]

Inside pic

[powerslave]

If I would've known how far I'd end up going with the truck, I would've pulled the cab off by now, but my dumbass kept working around it. Anyway, I started with a Porterbuilt trailing arm cross member. Who would've known that I would've ended up buying every single part he makes for my truck, lol.

I had to take a pic of the crossmember because it's like taking a pic of artwork or great scenery. Tree huggers take pics of squirrels and waterfalls, and car guys take pics of nice welds and clean rides.

[NEWFISHER]

I like the seat!

Looks like a few areas to spend some time redoing. Tuned in.

[powerslave]

Originally Posted by NEWFISHER

I like the seat!

Looks like a few areas to spend some time redoing. Tuned in.

It's funny you say that because the seat was one of the big sellers for me, lol.

[powerslave]

I was about to cut my long bed sides down, dreading the amount of work that was ahead of me, when this swb trailer conversion came up on craigslist for $300. I dont think I could've been luckier on this one.

[powerslave]

There's nothing worse that trying to get a couple of your buddies over at 11pm when you're ready to lift the bed onto the truck, so a friend of mine came up with this cool idea. He built this one-man-bed-lifter-upper weldment that is adjustable and fits right underneath the lip of the bed. Then you just use a cherry picker to lift it and move it around. Pretty slick.

[powerslave]

It's always cool to see how many lugnuts you're actually tucking up into the fender

[coulter]

killer project so far man!!! ill be watching

[Dinos63]

very nice!! and it was nice to meet ya Saturday!

[timmytimm3]

I'm in for this one too! Nice truck

[19GMC66]

Cool truck and can't believe you found that short box for that price!

[powerslave]

Originally Posted by 19GMC66

Cool truck and can't believe you found that short box for that price!

I still have the trailer and plan on putting my longbed on there soon and then sell it.

[Ta2Don]

Smoking Fast Progress!!!

I'm in too!!!

[powerslave]

Thanks for all the comments, this site has been really helpful on my build

[powerslave]

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Smoking Fast Progress!!!

I'm in too!!!

Lol, thanks don but it hasn't been that fast. I've been working on it for about 7 months, but i just decided to start a thread yesterday

[orngsikL]

sweet project!

[MadRatt]

pretty Kool build.. I'm watchin this one for sure...

[powerslave]

Fitting this LS was a pain in the ass. Luckily I found a block at the swap meet for $80 with the cylinder wall blown out of it. I spent a lot of mock up time, mostly on the oil pan and headers. I ended up raising the engine about an in inch and moving it forward an inch or two. I had to raise it because the pan was either hitting the ground in the rear of the steering rack in the front. I even bought a low profile Moroso pan.

[powerslave]

I bought a set of Corvette C5 headers, and that was a joke. They were way too wide to work with my frame, so I stayed with the factory truck manifolds. A couple of the LS forums say that those are pretty good exhaust manifolds. I did end up cutting off the drivers side flange and rotating it and changing the angle a little and welding it back on.

[powerslave]

The reason I had to move the engine forward was because the 4L60e is sorta big and because I raised the engine, it was hitting the firewall/trans hump area, even with the high hump trans cover.

[powerslave]

I finally got the engine/trans mocked up and got some new exhaust flanges to mate up my exhaust to the new manifolds. Now it was time for some sheet metal work.

I sandblasted the cab and found a crapload of bondo in the drivers side B pillar, so I found a donor pillar and swapped them out. Also welded the fuel filler as well.