53 3100 Project - My first truck build...

[hobo]

Have posted questions here-and-there, so I thought I should start a build thread to capture everything together. For starters, I wrench on mostly Harleys as a hobby and I've had a few muscle cars (68 Camaro, 69 Chevelle, and a 69 Nova). I'm a hospital worker by day, ride/wrench on my Harleys as stress relief and I'm a private pilot that does an Angel Flight about once per month. Soooo.....I say all that to make clear that this is all pretty new to me. I'll be learning a lot as I go, asking questions, making mistakes, and hopefully making progress.

Here is the girl getting trailered to my garage. Previous two owners didn't do much to her. She sat in garages, and the person I bought her from didn't really know any history or what had been done.

[hobo]

This is how she had sat in the previous owner's garage. He had good intentions, but I think he knew he had bitten off more than he could chew and the project never changed from when he had bought her.

[hobo]

We get it home, and have to take the obligatory picture with my son in front of it. Pretty sure he was talking to me and not ready for the picture, but I was looking at the truck. I have 17 year-old Boy/Girl twins. My son is pretty excited to help me with the new hotrod project. My daughter, on the other hand, thinks it's kinda silly that we're hotrodding "Tow Mater" from the movie Cars. LOL!

[hobo]

Not sure what one of the previous owner's obsessions with the color green was, but it's evident all over the truck (but that will change).

I'll probably keep the keg gas tank for now, but the green straps will need to change color.




Speaking of green, I wasn't sure what to make of the green steel rails in the bed. Come to find out the frame is notched (which is all new to me - all my previous muscle cars had stock frames). This one happens to sit on an S10 frame. Not a huge fan of the skull/web/green thing, but the only thing I'll change sooner-than-later will be the color.




And speaking of green AGAIN, I was told that the truck had a newly rebuilt, 30-over 350 that had never even been fired. The previous owner said that in a way that I should have been thrilled, but from all my Harley builds I knew I would be tearing it down to see what the builder had actually done. This is a pic of the motor when the truck arrived in my garage and me showing my son how to tear the motor down to see what was inside a few days later.

[hobo]

No radiator or support, so that will be one project:




You might be a redneck if:




Previous owner used some welded-on supports up front for the fenders. I'll likely try to use these as I fab up my radiator support bracket as well.

[hobo]

Engine teardown was a little underwhelming. I knew I would probably be making some changes, but it turned out I would be making more than planned.

While the heads have been redone with new valves, casting numbers showed that they were the old 70s smog heads. Not really what I want on this project. Aluminum heads would be ordered, and something along the lines of 64cc chambers and 180cc runners for a good quench.






Pistons ended up being some standard P1534 flat tops (10:1) but I was seeing some rust and scores in the cylinder walls. Moisture had probably entered in through an open valve over the years:

[mongocanfly]

good thing you tore into that engine ....wow...there's always the LS option...
def needs some bigger rubber...

[whitedog76]

Did you ever figure out what frame you had? Is it just a shorty S10?

On the engine. Have you thought about just doing a crate engine? GM still offers small block crate engines, at a very reasonable price. By the time you figure in machining, new parts, etc... You may be money ahead. Not to mention, everything is new. You can always throw a bigger cam in if you want some more go-power.

[Advanced Design]

Hobo, welcome! Like Greg said, it is a good thing you checked the engine. And working with your son, showing him how to do things right it priceless. I’ll be tagging along for the rest. Have fun!

[hobo]

Well, a lot has went on in a year life-wise but not much truck-wise. Luckily I'm getting back into it. Got sidelined with a 2002 Z06 project, a Harley project, and then moved to a new place with a much better shop!

The new shop:



The truck getting a ride to the new place:



Inside the shop as I was moving in:



And a small "man cave" corner I'm finishing up, since I have too many toys/projects for a big man cave. :-)

[hobo]

Truck had some bad boards, and some PO had decided to paint everything green. I wanted to get a look at the obvious notched frame and see what was going on under the wood.

[hobo]

I'm open to any suggestions from those who have "been there done that" regarding my notched frame and rear end. Looks to be a stock open S-10 7.5 rear. I'm considering checking the local boneyard for an 8.8 but might just leave it for now and put my money into finishing the SBC to get things "running, rolling and stopping" while I work on the body in the meantime.

[slammed57]

Man hobo... sorry for all the issues you are running into.. They all can be fixed, just goin to be more time and money involved than you thought it would be... But you can do it. I'll be following

[joedoh]

shop is awesomo!

[8man]

Nice shop and great project.

[hobo]

I wanted to see what this bondo buggy had underneath all the layers of paint and plastic...

[hobo]

I've mig-welded heavier steel over the years and do pretty well, but the thin sheet metal is causing me some grief. Watched a number of Youtube videos and I'm getting the process down, but luckily I have plenty on this old truck to practice on.

After quite a while of welding, hammering, grinding (repeat), I made it this far with the previous owner's square metal patch.

Question for welders: I'm assuming I should be trying to fill in every smaller void with new metal, even though there are no "holes" left - correct?

[MiraclePieCo]

Originally Posted by hobo

Question for welders: I'm assuming I should be trying to fill in every smaller void with new metal, even though there are no "holes" left - correct?

Not really. Repeated welding will increase the likelihood of distortion, and then you'll still have to grind those welds down, possibly excessively thinning the base metal. Those voids ultimately will be filled with primer-surfacer, or if too deep you can skim them with bondo.

[mongocanfly]

It would be much better if it was solid....but not a deal breaker.....it could be filled over...when your welding this thin stuff you'll have much better results if you use a copper backer....
Did you cut out the po's patch or just weld up what he put in?...you might have better results cutting it all out and start over with some new metal...

[hobo]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

It would be much better if it was solid....but not a deal breaker.....it could be filled over...when your welding this thin stuff you'll have much better results if you use a copper backer....
Did you cut out the po's patch or just weld up what he put in?...you might have better results cutting it all out and start over with some new metal...

Thanks Greg! I am getting a copper backer, which should help. I tried welding in his patch, but plan on cutting out the other stuff and putting in a patch of my own. I've also priced the fender lower patches (somewhere around $80/$90), that i may try if I can't improve what they did. It's a rat-rod kinda build anyway, but I'd like the practice of trying my own repairs while I wait on the block from the machine shop...

[hobo]

I decided to start grinding around a PO patch that was raised up on the fender. Not sure "why", but a PO had spot-welded a square patch over a rust hole.

So...I'll cut the rust out and get some more practice cutting and welding sheet metal patches...

[8man]

Good for you cleaning up the PO work.

[hobo]

Originally Posted by 8man

Good for you cleaning up the PO work.

Heck, I might be making i worse but at least it's good practice for me... :-)

[hobo]

Learning as I go, but made some more progress on the rusty fender last night. Now to find some sheet metal to cut and fill the hole. This was also my first time ever cutting "bad" area out and trying to fill it with a patch. We'll see how that works out tonight I hope...

From this:




To this:


To this:

[Matt_50]

I'm still new to this too. Took me forever on a few spots. Better than bondo lol