Need help with restoration...

[bazkook]

I'm restoring a 1970 C10 step side and I need some advice. The truck has a I-6 with a 3 speed on the column but I plan to put a V8 in the truck,a 700-R4 transmission,a 12 bolt Eaton posi rear end(with the original 3.73 gears),and several other things.
I want to stick to the following guidelines when working on the truck:
-Street legal,of course
-Maintain drivability:plan to drive on weekends and special occasions(such as when some ricers around town need to be taught a lesson or two),at least 10 mpg,not to rough to ride
-Able to run at least high 11s in the 1/4 mile(hopefully better than that)
-Lighten the truck but keep the AC and other comforts,weight savings in other areas
-Keep the cost of the restoration below $20K

With the above stipulations in mind I ask these questions:
1.What would be a good engine for the application? I want to use a crate engine but I plan on using nitrous and that would void the warranty on most crate engines. I would like to stick to small blocks but I would be willing to use a "smaller" big block if it came down to it. I was considering the 490 horse 383 made by MAS Performance but I still exploring other options.

2.What would be the best way to lighten the truck up? I thought about replacing the steel front end with a fiberglass one and the bed or rear fenders with fiberglass also but I am concerned about the fiberglass shattering if I were to wreck the truck. What material would be the strongest and most durable but would give the most weight savings and bang for the buck?

Any advice would be appreciated. I believe that's all the questions I have for now but if I think of any more I'll post them. Thanks!

[rage'nrat638]

better go big block to see lower than 11's
alum heads ,alum intake , alum water pump, every thing aluminum you can find..front roll pan..fiberglass hood...alum radiator..you get it..

better figure on a 9" rear end posi
hd drive shaft.. all the safety's

[rage'nrat638]

o yea...welcome to the board., from chicago il

[PanelDeland]

For 20K you may have a bit of trouble getting to 11's.You can also look into tubular control arms,lightweight wheels.Fibreglass doors.Also check when you think about using fibreglass components because many are made for racing and don't have the stregnth to stand up to street use.This also depends on what you start with.A decent truck body will not require as much costly bodywork as a rusty shell.Check on the 67-72 board for a thread on drag trucks.There is a lot of good info there.

[bazkook]

Thanks for the info and the welcome! Whatever engine I decided on I was going to get as many aluminum parts as possible. A mechanic told me that an aluminum radiator won't save you very much weight and that it wasn't worth it. I trust the guy's advice but I want some more input before I make my decision. How much weight will alumninum save over cast iron or steel parts? Can you get aluminum body panels and if so,are they durable and street legal?
BTW,nice truck you've got there,rage'nrat! What's exactly am I looking at in those photos? Engine? And what kind of exhaust system is that? It sound just plain nasty!!!

[bazkook]

I know someone who had a 68 stepside with a 350 and he spent about 5K on the engine. He had a 150 shot of nitrous and with it he ran mid to high 11s easily on slicks. With a big shot of nitrous and slicks you could probably run 11s fairly regularly couldn't you? I forgot to mention I'm getting a great deal on some Mickey Thompson ET slicks;a $100 for each including tubes.

[rage'nrat638]

that engine that you listened to was a dart 638 c.i. 850 h.p.$20,000 just for the engine.
it was great till i blew it up...the kiss of death..piston thru the block..
rear ladder bar's
ford 9" rearend
hooker headers two mufflers on each side..and it still sounded like indy
that truck's got over 50.000 invested


backhalfed..
ladder bar/coilover..
9" ford w/ 411 gears
magna flow 500 pump..
9"35 spline rear end 4:11 gears. coming soon
33x18.5x15 m.t. e.t.streets
th400trans.ultra bell.trans brake.tci.h.d. output shaft
hipster converter 3600prm. stall
638 c.i.dart engine10:1 comp.850 h.p.
canfield heads (alum)
comp. cam 718/729 lift
stefs alum oil pan
callies 4.3/4 stroke crank
KB pistons
eagle rods
edelbrock 454t.d. intake
1250 dominator
all msd ignition
a/c on this rage'n rat
Upcoming Modifications:

new harwood scoop
new paint
redo brakes (all disk) going to manual..loose vac.pump
install new ford 9" rear end..remove 12 bolt

...

Owner Comments:

[rage'nrat638]

one of the truck...better get out your wallet

9.89@143mph 1/4 mile

those days are over...running a 496 with a very nasty cam and the ness goodies to make it work..

i spent 10,000 just fixing busted parts after the 638 install.

figure out what you want to spend...double it and you will be right inline

no drug is better than the rush you get launching at 5800 rpm heading dowm the 1/4

better have some good brakes to stop it...a rear shoot sure helps


questions just ask,,,your pal mark

[Daubs]

Old racing saying goes something like this: "want to save pounds...start by saving ounces" or something like that...you get the point.

Go aluminum on anything and everything you can. Water pump, brackets, intake, heads...heck, even Alum block if you can afford it. But you will spend lots on an Alum block. Lighten where you can but don't sacrifice safety. Knew a guy who wanted to drill holes in his frame to save weight. Seemed kind of crazy to me.

Check out GM Performance Parts for engines. They have some really kicking 572 Big Blocks that crank out 600+ HP. And whatever you can to improve traction / hook up at the line.

[bazkook]

Man that's an awesome truck,ragen'rat! I wish I had the money to do that! Was the damage too bad? I would very pissed off if I had invested that much and it blew up. And 850 horses!? I bet it was pretty hard to hook it!
I included some pics of my truck. It's going to need a lot of body work so I just figured I'd replace the body panels with lighter ones. Can you get aluminum body panels? If so I might go with them. Luckily I know someone who can do the body work for me cheaper than most people where in the area and do it better as well. He did his son's stepside(unsure of year) and it turned out very nice.

[rage'nrat638]

they make a complete one piece floor pan for your truck..
hook up no biggie i have a 350lb plate mounted in the frame rails right over the rear end look up on the rear end picture you will see it

[bazkook]

Originally Posted by rage'nrat638

they make a complete one piece floor pan for your truck..
hook up no biggie i have a 350lb plate mounted in the frame rails right over the rear end look up on the rear end picture you will see it

What's the floor pan made of? Steel? Aluminum? Do you think a machine shop could fabricate parts for my truck out of aluminum?
Good thinking about the plate. That probably made it a whole lot easier. Do you have any more videos of the truck?
Here's a link to some awesome vids of a 67 stepside with a 383. It even outruns a newer Ford Lightning on the 1/8 mile! Don't try to download all the vids at once;I don't think the guy has a lot of bandwidth for the page.

http://www.geocities.com/my67c10

[71Dragtruck]

Originally Posted by bazkook

What's the floor pan made of? Steel? Aluminum? Do you think a machine shop could fabricate parts for my truck out of aluminum?
Good thinking about the plate. That probably made it a whole lot easier. Do you have any more videos of the truck?
Here's a link to some awesome vids of a 67 stepside with a 383. It even outruns a newer Ford Lightning on the 1/8 mile! Don't try to download all the vids at once;I don't think the guy has a lot of bandwidth for the page.

http://www.geocities.com/my67c10

That's 383 STROKER's truck, he's a member on the board runs a 150 shot of nitrous, nice truck. You have a really tall order for your $20k budget, main points being: Drivability, not too rough a idle, A/C, and last but not least 11's.

[71Dragtruck]

By the way, nice camera angle Ragin.

[krue]

Welcome to the board from South Mississippi! As far as I know no one offers aluminum patch panels, would have to be custom and there goes your $20k budget.

[bazkook]

Originally Posted by krue

Welcome to the board from South Mississippi! As far as I know no one offers aluminum patch panels, would have to be custom and there goes your $20k budget.

I'll ask around at machine shops and see if they can fabricate aluminum panels for my truck and if so how much they will charge. If it is over my budget it might not be much over.

[krue]

If you want to try your own hand at it, check out the guys over at www.metalmeet.com

[TugOwar]

Howdy and welcome from South TX. What part of Ga?

If I may say so it seems you might be trying to do too much at once on a pretty limited budget. Why not take care of the body and safety issues first, a good 290 horse crate for some reliable, streetable fun. Then as time and budget allow build that big honkin power plant you'll need for those 11s. Just a thought.

[bazkook]

Originally Posted by TugOwar

Howdy and welcome from South TX. What part of Ga?

If I may say so it seems you might be trying to do too much at once on a pretty limited budget. Why not take care of the body and safety issues first, a good 290 horse crate for some reliable, streetable fun. Then as time and budget allow build that big honkin power plant you'll need for those 11s. Just a thought.

Washington County,GA in Middle Georgia. I appreciate your advice and I want to do the body first but a mechanic who lives next to me suggested I do the engine first and then the body so that the body will not be damaged when putting in the engine. I can build the truck as wild as I want it(have over 50K availabe) but I don't want to break all my college funds on a vehicle!
I could probably go up to $26000-$27000 and I can save a lot of money also. My neighbor would cheaply do most of the work that I can't do and the stuff I could do he would show me step by step.
I don't know about prices elsewhere but the prices for auto parts and body work seem to be pretty low around here. For example, to install a full Flowmaster 40 series exhaust system on my 2002 Dakota with a 4.7L only cost $325 total and that included stainless steel tips. I don't know how much labor would cost in other areas but I've read in magazines how JUST the systems cost well over what I paid for everything!
I still think it's possible to break into 11s on my budget if my friend managed to do it on the same budget with basically the same truck. And I can live with rough idle. Hell,I like it when your truck rumbles more than others;that's when you know you've got something special! Finally I think you can still get some drivability as well. The truck might not drive like a Cadillac but at least it gets around!

[N2TRUX]

I think you would save yourself a lot of money buy starting with a truck that was in better shape. No matter how cheap your buddies uncle's friend does body work it adds up quickly.

Look for a truck with a solid cab and save lots of money....

[bazkook]

Originally Posted by N2TRUX

I think you would save yourself a lot of money buy starting with a truck that was in better shape. No matter how cheap your buddies uncle's friend does body work it adds up quickly.

Look for a truck with a solid cab and save lots of money....

I would start with a better truck but it just so happens that the truck used to belong to my mother's dad,who died a few years ago, and it has a lot of sentimental value. That's the main reason I want to restore. I know my mom would be tickled to death if it was running again since she learned to drive with that truck. She said if you can drive a 3 speed on the column you can drive just about anything!

[bazkook]

How about a Ram Jet 350 with either a blower or turbo? About how much power do you think that will make? I've finally accepted the fact that it will be hard to break into the 11s with my budget but if a 12 second truck will be most of the stuff around here that will be the way I go. With the Ram Jet 350 with a blower or turbo and 700-R4 transmission what kind of gas mileage could be possible? I'd drive it daily if it got good mileage.

[glock35ipsc]

Nice girdle shot! Hehe

[bazkook]

Scratch the above ideas about the engine. I've decide to go with a 383 and build it very closely to one that was built in the September 06 issue of Hot Rod magazine. They build a 500+ hp 383 but instead of using a COMP Cams flat tappet cam and iron heads,like they did,I'll probably go with a hydraulic roller cam and aluminum heads. The most horsepower they go out of the engine was 528 at 6300 rpm but with aluminum heads and a roller cam power could most likely hit 575 or more. The only reason they didn't go with aluminum heads and a roller cam was that they tried to keep the total engine cost around $5000.
Also what's the best way to fit a newer CD player in the truck without modifying the dash much? As far as I know Scosche doesn't sell a kit for trucks as old as mine. Summit Racing has a Pioneer head unit that replace an oversized factory radio.Here's a link to it:
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...0&autoview=sku