I figure it's about that time..

[skoffice]

I should start my very own build thread for my '64. This is what I started with about 5 months ago. Bought it for $650.





Here I have my LQ9 that was originally going to be turned into a stroker for my '67, but I decided to go with an LSX block so this will be my daily driver now in the '64. Stock bottom end, Clay Smith cam, double roller timing set, ported & polished oil pump, roller rockers, ported and polished heads, LS1 intake manifold.





Got the super dooper Hydroboost setup, some abaer valve covers, C&R heat exchanger, coilovers for the rear, CPP Mod drop spindle/disc conversion kit with 3" springs, Afco 31x19" aluminium radiator, Ron Davis dual Spal fan setup, power steering conversion, shortened the frame to be 2" shorter than a shortbed wheelbase, 4L65E trans...

[skoffice]

[63 extreme low]

LOOKS SWEET, why two inches shorter? Post more pics!

[skoffice]

That's all I have at the moment. I should have pics of all my rear end parts and Autometer cluster this week. I'm shortening an 8.8 out of an explorer (cheapest strong axle I could find with disc brakes) on Monday, so I'll have about a 58" wide rear end, enough for some 315's. I'm going with a shorter wheelbase just to be different. I'm already going to be cutting the longbed bedsides down so why not right?

[A.T. RockDriller]

Originally Posted by skoffice

That's all I have at the moment. I should have pics of all my rear end parts and Autometer cluster this week. I'm shortening an 8.8 out of an explorer (cheapest strong axle I could find with disc brakes) on Monday, so I'll have about a 58" wide rear end, enough for some 315's. I'm going with a shorter wheelbase just to be different. I'm already going to be cutting the longbed bedsides down so why not right?

It sure seems to be about time, skoff.
We sure could use a bunch of pic's.

Maybe not of your rear end......but..... after you been here awhile, You can send us those, too.

[Avidyn]

Very nice. Where did you get the motor and trans from? I'm going to be putting an LS3/4L65E in my 63 once I can pick it up from storage. Also, what about the motor mounts?

[DPowers]

Sharp

[sams60gmc]

wow sick truck man
excited to see more

[scotts62]

Oh yeah thats going to be awesome! Looks good!!!

[skoffice]

I got the engine and trans from a totalled '05 SS Silverado with less than 10k miles My buddy actually got them first and sold them to me. Its an 4WD transmission, but I'm going to make a special tailhousing on the lathe for it.
Thanks guys hopefully I can get it fired up in the next month or so and hear this little guy run!

[skoffice]

Oh and motor mounts I just made the adapter plates that are the triangular shaped ones. I saw a thread somewhere on here that shows you how to do it. Just used some 3/16" plate. The piece where the motor mount actually bolts to the frame and crossmember, where the single large bolt goes through, I had to elongate the hole upward about 5/8" for it to fit, since this engine sits a tad bit wider with this configuration.

[jason65]

Looks great, motor is awsome.

[ruffrida2005]

dude that is sweet I cant wait to see it finished. You may ask the mods to move it into the builds and projects section.

[skoffice]

The radiator is an Afco 31"x19" so I had to do some cutting of the inner fenders. The fans are a Ron Davis shroud with 2 Spal 12" fans. I picked that up on eBay for $100 The body was really straight. The driver door has a big dent and I already found 2 front fenders (mine had a lot of rot) but other than that I hot tanked all the sheet metal and everything came out looking brand new! I was very relieved. How do I go about doing that ruffrida?

[skoffice]

Well I got my backing plate finished for my gauges. I just took the old lens and traced it onto some sheet metal and cut it out. I'm going to use the old screws to hold in the back. I also shortened my axle tube the other day. I'll get pics of that soon when I get the link tabs on and the truss made. Oh also got my sender in my fuel cell last night. I think I'm going to use some tig rod and bend it around to keep the foam from moving over toward the float valve.

[cl08]

Skoffice,

You ever get your 8.8 installed? If you were using small tires do you think you would have still had to narrow the rear end?

I too am wanting to use the 8.8 D2 or D4 rear end from an Eddie B.

[skoffice]

I haven't gone to get it from the shop yet. It's all mocked up and done, just need to throw some welds on it. I've been dealing with my daily driver (98 Cherokee) being down. It finally let go after 195k and so I just had to build a stroked 4.0 for it Now that it's back to drivin I should be starting my 4 link this coming week. I believe the 8.8 is only about 60" wide WMS to WMS whereas a normal 12 bolt is only 1 or 2" wider. So normal smaller tires is definitely an option. It's a great rear end, disc brakes, posi, 31 spline shafts, and easy to identify what's inside when you're at the junk yard. The little tag on one of the dif cover bolts tells you what's inside, for example, the one I got has 3 L 73 on it. The L means limited slip and the other numbers are the gears: 3.73. The downside to these axles are that they are still C-clip, and the 5 x 4.5 bolt pattern. A guy could weld on the big bearing 9" outers if he wanted to, eliminating the C-clips. I have been doing a bunch of sanding on the inside of the cab this past week, hopefully get some primer on it today and shoot some paint this weekend. I uncovered a rotted out cab corner on the driver side unfortunately. Debating on getting the patch panel from LMC or just welding up the hole in it and gob it up with some fiberglass We will see how it plays out. My goal for now is to get the interior finished so I can just shut the doors and focus on everything outside.. I'll have updates and pics by Monday!

[cl08]

Originally Posted by skoffice

I haven't gone to get it from the shop yet. It's all mocked up and done, just need to throw some welds on it. I've been dealing with my daily driver (98 Cherokee) being down. It finally let go after 195k and so I just had to build a stroked 4.0 for it Now that it's back to drivin I should be starting my 4 link this coming week. I believe the 8.8 is only about 60" wide WMS to WMS whereas a normal 12 bolt is only 1 or 2" wider. So normal smaller tires is definitely an option. It's a great rear end, disc brakes, posi, 31 spline shafts, and easy to identify what's inside when you're at the junk yard. The little tag on one of the dif cover bolts tells you what's inside, for example, the one I got has 3 L 73 on it. The L means limited slip and the other numbers are the gears: 3.73. The downside to these axles are that they are still C-clip, and the 5 x 4.5 bolt pattern. A guy could weld on the big bearing 9" outers if he wanted to, eliminating the C-clips. I have been doing a bunch of sanding on the inside of the cab this past week, hopefully get some primer on it today and shoot some paint this weekend. I uncovered a rotted out cab corner on the driver side unfortunately. Debating on getting the patch panel from LMC or just welding up the hole in it and gob it up with some fiberglass We will see how it plays out. My goal for now is to get the interior finished so I can just shut the doors and focus on everything outside.. I'll have updates and pics by Monday!

Yeah I would love a 3L73 (D2 axle code). I think the 4L10 (D4) would be good too, but I am going for highway miles so it might be a bit much. Better yet I will get one out of a v6 with an open 3.73 and just put a mini spool in it.


I know you are going to get alot more power from 6.0, but for a few years the stock 5.3 with a possible cam, stock 8.8 with c-clips will be fine for me. I had a 5.0 poontang close to 400hp that had 3.73 gears with the c-clips and I never had a problem. I am sure I was border line breaking it.

Post the pics up when it goes in. I am either going this route or impala/caprice brakes.

I also am going to the boss 338 route, I will machine the hell out of the wheel or disc doesnt matter to me. I have access to some huge lathes/free labor so truning some stuff down is no problem. I know you want the wider wheels, but I really cant see that wheel fitting your truck. Maybe without that center cap. BUT hey to each his own, prove me wrong.

Your truck is tits.

[skoffice]

I have a lot of faith in the 8.8, my friend had one in his race car that was just welded up and he had close to 500hp and that thing held in there launch after launch with no problem, thats kinda what was the deciding factor for me haha. I also have a couple lathes at my shop but I'd just rather have something that I know will bolt right on, plus it will be different. And that's just the back wheel in the picture, the fronts have a way different offset. I asked about the center cap and they told me that they will fit just fine since they are usually putting these wheels on 4x4 trucks and they cover the big hubs on the Dana 60's so I should be good.

[skoffice]

Got the first coat of paint on tonight..

[markeb01]

Very impressive, a lot of activity all over the project. Should be a lot of fun when it's all put together.

[skoffice]

So I got a few pics of the interior all primered. It's by no means perfect, but it's in pretty good shape. Needs a little more touch up work on the back wall and around the stereo hole. I did a little fiberglass work around some of the rotted holes in the floor too but I won't dare display that for fear of embarassment. Hopefully I can get the paint and start getting color on it this weekend. I also got a few pictures of the 4.6 in the Jeep for the hell of it. And lastly, I think I found the wheels I'm going to run. I was really wanting to go with the Boss 338's and have been following the thread/group buy but it seems as if they still haven't gotten the wheel right yet Plus the 10" rim isn't wide enough for me out back haha. I stumbled upon these Fuel Octane wheels on eBay last week. They are 20x12 out back with 4.75" backspace (makes for a nice deep lip) and 20x9 up front with a 5.75" backspace. They are an off road wheel but that doesn't stop me. I love the look of all black wheels, not much of a chrome guy. The best part is the company that sells the wheels gets them in as blanks, and they will drill to whatever lug pattern and bore size you want! That means no worrying about the hub bore up front, and the mix match lug patterns I'll have! And not too bad on the price either, only $1K. Next update should be bringing the axle home this weekend and slappin some paint on the interior..

[dallas71]

Awesome truck!

[skoffice]

Ok ok I have been keeping my hopes up and FINALLY the tubing showed up at the shop today! The shop is about 60 miles away so I will be going up there tomorrow..errr.. today now haha. In the meantime I finished welding the truss to the diff with the tig and got the brakes put on and the axle back together. So I will try to have pictures up no later than Saturday morning since the trip to the shop for me is usually an all day ordeal haha. Oh and also got my wheels ordered a couple weeks back. Going to be making a trip down south Sunday-Wednesday for some vacation to Disneyland but on the way home they might have the wheels ready and machined. I'm hoping but I doubt they will be done. I did some measuring in the rear and they are going to be cutting it VERY close lol. Anyone have any input on tire size for the rears? I don't want the tire to be sticking out past the lip of the rim TOO much. 1/2" on each side would be IDEAL. I think these rims are going to be an overall width of 13" so I was thinking of running something like a 325/25? Any input would be very appreciated cuz I've never done street tires like this before.. I'm used to huge 42" off road tires or 33" slicks haha I don't get this whole metric ratio stuff.

[skoffice]

OK... it's done! Got the links bolted up just now and everything roughly squared. All I need is a camera!!! I'll have my girlfriend snap some pics with her iphone in the morning since I pretty much have a junk phone right now.