Project Crewcut. 76 Crew cab shorty build

[slammedcrew]

I recently had the opertunity to purchase My old 78 crew cab dually that I built over 10 years ago and it came with a 76 crew cab for parts. Both trucks are almost rust free. My plan is to do a little work to my old 78 (black) so I can flip it to fund building the 76 (white) into a crew cab short bed. The flat black one is pretty much ready to go and driveable but the inside of the bed needs some love.

[slammedcrew]

heres a pic of the 78

[slammedcrew]

and heres the 76

[slammedcrew]

As I mentioned before, the 78 needed some love in the bed. It was previously bagged and the rear frame rails had been notched Massively (by myself 10 years ago) and the bed floor has been cut out to clear the rear dif so it could lay the frame on the ground. The guy I bought it from removed all the airbag stuff and put the leaf springs and coils back in the truck. I decided the inside of the bed would need to be smoothed out in order for this thing to sell.

[slammedcrew]

Step 1. Had a local steel fab shop bend me up some smooth sides

[slammedcrew]

then the false floor

[slammedcrew]

A little do it yourself Raptor bed liner and shes ready to sell

[slammedcrew]

Ok now that the black 78 is ready to sell its time to focus on the 76 (white). My build plans are

-Shorten frame
-Convert to 5 lug
-Remove 454/th400 combo
-Install newer 5.3/4l60 drivetrain
-replace doors with newer power suburban doors
-newer interior
-24in Billet centerline smoothie wheels
-Air suspension
-Nice factory style 2 tone paint job with all factory style trim

[slammedcrew]

Here is the truck as it sits right now. It has updated front clip with billet phantom grill, 454cid engine, th400 trans, beltech lowering kit and some alunimum wheels off another dually project. The interior is completely gutted. The truck runs great and drives but the flexpate is making some noise and the exhaust is missing the mid section between the headers and rear tailpipes. My plan for this week is to get the bed and front suspension off, shorten the rear frame rails 14in and hopefully find everything to get it converted to 1/2 ton 5 lug

[slammedcrew]

Got the bed off and the rear end out already

[slammedcrew]

Also removed the front spindles and suspension to make way for the 1/2 ton stuff

[slammedcrew]

Picked this whole 1/2 crossmember up from the junk yard for $50.

[mikev]

Keeping it dually or converting to SRW?

[slammedcrew]

Gonna convert the whole truck to 5 lug single rear wheel. Picked up a rear end out of a 78 2wd at the junk yard today for $125. Hopefully gonna have it in by tomorrow night

[slammedcrew]

Shortened Up the frame today. Built a makeshift jig to hold the rear frame rails in place before I cut and removed the 14in section of frame. This made life easy when it came to pushing the frame sections back together. Got it all welded up and now all thats left to do is fishplate the backside. Gonna hopefully get the new 1/2ton rear axle installed tomorrow

[mikev]

nice.

Blazer gas tank?

[slammedcrew]

Originally Posted by mikev

nice.

Blazer gas tank?

Not really sure what tank I'm gonna use. Do people usually use blazer gas tanks? I was thinking about just using a regular cab shortbed tank

[mikev]

Originally Posted by slammedcrew

Not really sure what tank I'm gonna use. Do people usually use blazer gas tanks? I was thinking about just using a regular cab shortbed tank

I'm going to try and keep dual tanks so I'll have to find a set of shortbed tanks when I get started.

[slammedcrew]

Todays progress. Mounted the bed to check body lines, got the axle perches and shock mounts trimmed off and installed the new perches with a 3" lowering block and shortened the brake line. Its starting to look like a truck again! The wheels and tires in the pics are just for mock up.

[slammedcrew]

Oh yeah and got the whole front suspension converted to 5 lug 1/2 ton

[slammed427]

Looking good! Imma follow along.
Posted via Mobile Device

[slammedcrew]

Todays progress. Finished plating the inside of the frame. Found a brand new air tank floating around the shop for another project that we didn't end up using so I decided to mount it in this truck while I had the bed off. Also made a reciever hitch and spray painted the frame

[slammedcrew]

picked up some killer interior out of a 1990 suburban today

[slammedcrew]

Got it down on the ground today to check the ride hight, without spindles it sits about 3.5" higher in the front so it sould be just about right when I get the spindles put on. Wish I could keep this white bed on the truck but it belongs to one of my other projects and Its really in to good of shape to cut up. So I bought another short bed parts truck just for the bed and gas tanks. Its not in the greatest shape but it will do. Hopefully I'll get the new bed put on tomorrow and start doing the body work on it

[slammedcrew]

Got the ugly new bed on today. It looks alot worse then it is, someone has previously replaced the lower rear wheel well openings (poorly) so I decided to cut the lower corners off the front fenders on my parts truck and grafted them into the rear lowers