Project Arrested Development

[DeanTX]

Hi, I've been mostly looking on the site for a while and getting some great ideas.
About a year and a half ago I found a 1951 3100 5 window body and bed for sale. No dents and relatively little rust. Some rust out on passenger and driver floor, and bottom of cab corners, some rust on bottom of lower cowl area. It was what I was looking for since I did not need the engine or frame because I was planning on an S10 frame swap. Having just the body metal saves time to disassemble too. Engine will be Vortec full roller 350, 700R4 tranny.

While storing the body and all other sheet metal I located a Sonoma. It was a 4x4 but after seeing how a 4x4 turned out for Msaintg on here I thought it was a good deal.

Right now I'm thinking of keep the patina vs. painting. Please chime in with your opinion on whether it looks OK as is.

[DeanTX]

Since the frame was 108.X inch wheelbase, I extended it 8" by cutting and boxing in with 3/16 plates. The frame is on my trailer in this pic.

[Advanced Design]

Dean, good looking start. I vote patina. Oh yeah, like the project title...like the TV show?

[DeanTX]

Well it is an AD truck, and it's time to arrest the development of rust and fading where it stands lol.

This project will be slow going since I have no room to do much right now.

[DeanTX]

I fabbed one of this type of suspension on a previous build. Worked real good.

Got my 3 link rear suspension finished and sorted out. I wanted to be able to use the stock rear sway bar set up too, so I designed around it.
Result is about a 5" drop.

[DeanTX]

The brown santa came today!

[DeanTX]

Not much to update. I did install all new bushings and ball joints. Can't believe how huge the lower control arms are on the 4wd S10s.

Since I am converting to 2wd it required cutting the spindles from the front CV joints (same as msaintg did).

[joedoh]

nice work so far, I like the link setup.

[DeanTX]

Thanks Joedoh, love your truck!

Welded in gussets to the frame mounting point for the middle link bar. I also taped it off and sprayed it red. All the mounting points I added will be red so it makes it easier to follow what I did (except for the red rear sway bar stuff which is also red). Glad it worked out that I could use the existing cross member. It is plenty strong and needs to be. Pinion angle can be fine tuned by adjusting the heim joint here.

The lower link bars attach the the frame at the same point where the front leaf springs attached. Leaf spring mount was removed and 1/4" thick tabs were welded on. All heims are 5/8".

[DeanTX]

I knew I had seen another truck on here that had a 3 link rear suspension. Got some ideas from this picture. I forgot whose truck this was.

[DeanTX]

I started this project thread, then stuff came up and I didn't make much progress for a while. I have done a lot of work the past few months, so time to get this thread caught up. Gonna keep the patina, since it is mostly original paint. The cab was in great shape other than the floors and cab corners. So I cut out the bad areas, bought the panels and welded them in. For the battery cover I made a patch panel and ran a few beads across it. Same with the trans cover....I made a patch panel and bead rolled it, then fabbed up a tranny hump and welded it in.

I wire wheeled the entire bottom and then painted it, then sprayed bed liner to cover the whole bottom of the cab. I did weld in a length of 1x2" tubing across the back of the cab between the rear cab mounts for extra strength and to anchor the middle seat belt attachements.

While I was at it I welded up the gas tank filler hole.

[DeanTX]

With most of the dirty work (and I do mean dirty) done on rust repair and getting the outside of the cab finished, it was time to focus in the inside of the cab. The dash was in good shape. No one had cut or drilled much on it. I like a smooth looking dash so I made some sheet metal patches and welded up the radio holes. Then I filled, primered, smoothed and painted the dash. I did buy a nice Pioneer radio with bluethooth so I can answer the phone and talk etc. I don't yet know where I will put it but I ran the mic up to the window shade mount area.

With the inside of the cab prep just about done, I sanded and painted all inside surfaces, then put down sound deadener on 100% of the floor, the inside roof, and the area behind the seats. I installed a tilt steering column. I did some measurements for the column around the exhaust manifold area to be sure I had clearance, and I was surprised I was able to mount the column in the original depression in the dash, and have it exit in the original hole in the floor with just minor cutting to raise it about an inch.

[DeanTX]

Good idea Dan. I will likely replace them later if I find some cooler ones. New all metal vents from Trique etc. are like $80 each.

[DeanTX]

Got the firewall cleaned up. I must have had the cab and front end on and off a half dozen times getting everything checked out and aligned. I got the idea of the lift bracket from a post from Hussey. Worked great.

Truck came with a cool old "Vote" sticker on the back of the cab. Could have been from during the Kennedy-Nixon election! I'm keeping it on there.

[DeanTX]

Since I did not have a complete donor S10, I needed to figure out what would work as a brake pedal. I found that one from an 80s-90s Jeep Cherokee fits nice. I also cut out an 8"x6" square of 1/4" steel plate to use for strengthening the firewall for the pedal. I just measure for the bolts and center hole of the vacuum canister and drilled to fit it. I bolted it to the firewall with a bolt at each corner, then I bolted the vacuum canister and pedal through it. (I don't know why the picture is turned sideways)

[DeanTX]

The good thing about this 4x4 frame is that it is fully boxed front to back, and it also comes with big dual caliper front brakes. I did end up using 1" spacers in the back even though I had the wider 4x4 rear. I was able to fit 18x8" wheels on the back without adding wheel tubs. It is tight but it will not rub.

[mongocanfly]

Coming along nicely..I like that dash also..

[DeanTX]

For the rear bed wood, I got the idea from 99 to make the whole bed floor removable. This makes sense because there is a lot going on in the rear under the bed - the gas tank with the internal electric fuel pump and wiring for it, the adjustable coilovers, the end link holding the rear end where the pinion angle is adjusted etc.

What I did was order the predrilled bed strips, then painted them to match the patina of the truck. For wood, I got some cheap 80"x 6" x 5/8" cedar planks from Lowes. I think they were like $3.79 each. The surface of the planks were pretty raw, so I spent a lot of time sanding them smooth on one side. Then I made a concoction to darken and weather them to look more like barn wood. If anyone is interested in the recipe for the "weathering" potion let me know. After you apply it, it works in 5 minutes.

I took a router to cut down the edge of each plank 1/4" wide and 1/8' deep to nestle in the bed strips. Then I coated both sides of each plank with marine spar varnish.

When the bed planks were all finished, I layed them in the bed and mocked them up with the metal bed strips. Then from under the bed I determined where I could locate each horizontal brace. The braces were made of 1x2 finished oak for strength. I used four, one on each end and two evenly spaced in the middle. So I drilled holes into the oak braces using the pre-drilled holes in the metal bed strips. This keeps the bed floor all one piece for easy removal.

There are more pre-drilled holes in the metal bed strips, using the factory specs, then you would use up just putting in 4 cross braces. This is what I did with the other holes - I used 1 1/2" fender washers. I welded a nut to the middle of the washer, then inserted the bolt from the bed strip. All of the bolts were at a length that did not protrude past the bottom of the bed wood. Otherwise the bed would not lay flat on the crossmembers because of the bolts. I simply screwed the bolts onto the washers with the nuts facing up, to the inside, where they fit into the cracks between the bed wood planks. This way they help clamp the wood to the strips but are flush with the bottom of the bed.

[DeanTX]

The rear coilovers? The springs are 250lbs. I went back and forth on the springs because my estimation came up with 250 and I thought it should be more. The rear of these trucks are pretty light. I would not go over 300 if you want the best ride comfort.

[SSABMUD]

I just read my question and it did not make a lot of sense. Damn auto correct. Anyways you got my drift. Thanks.

[DeanTX]

Got the engine rebuilt and installed. Used stock cast iron exhaust because it clears the steering column without relocating it. Also, for the lower steering column I replaced the factory S10 rag joint section with a new lower section from a Jeep. It fits if shortened and had a U joint instead of the rag joint. I got the cab and front end back on the frame for the last time. Hood is on just to be sure everything is lined up.

[DeanTX]

Here is a side view of the back. For the gas fill tube I used a Suburban oval gasket since the tube is angled up. For some reason my iPhone makes the truck look bent from this angle. I promise it is not.

I decided to go with fuel injection since I had the new gas tank and electric fuel pump already installed. It's the FiTech 400hp model, which should be plenty for this engine.

[joedoh]

haha holy crap, your truck is gorgeous in two pages!

[DeanTX]

Here is a better angle of the back from the side.

I located a 1951 Texas Truck license plate. I hope the DOT will let me use it when it comes time to register the truck. On a previous project I was able to use a 1966 plate. The bolts holding the plate have LEDs to light the plate at night.

On the bed box, I had the front panel and tailgate sand blasted to bare gray metal. What you see now is the tailgate after I did some painting and rusting etc. to make it match the rest of the truck. I used some of the ideas from Ol' Sarge (Chris Klapp) to "age" it.

[DeanTX]

Thanks Joedoe, I've been following your threads, lots of good info. The reason it is gorgeous in just two pages is I destroyed my phone about a month ago and lost a lot of project pics, like making the exhaust/muffler, some pics of the engine/tranny in the frame. If you looked at Hussey's exhaust mine is very close, and my engine and serpentine belt set up looks the same too so I really couldn't add much more info anyway.

I thought I was on the home stretch when I got past the dirty nasty work of cutting out and replacing the rusted areas. Now I'm doing the wiring which means integrating EFI and Vintage Air with the new harness. It might be the most time consuming phase, and I like it
the least. It turns out wiring does not go well with my ADHD! For all connections I am both crimping, soldering and heat shrinking each little piece, which is tedious.