1981 SWB Stepside Build

[dagnabbitt]

This is the truck the day I got it, its actually at a bar I stopped at before I even got it home.

It was in a little fabric quonset hut in a little town near where I work, I got it for a very good price. It had not been registered in 20 years, basically one of those barn finds that I always dreamed of.

From the wheels to whatever they were doing with the interior, if this truck were a music compilation, it would be called "Greatest Hits of the Nineties".

Truck was originally an I6 but they put an old 350 that they had lying around into it. The box seems to be pre-75. The gauge cluster did not work and I found that it was because it wasn't original to the truck, along with the bezel... I think it was also pre-75. The grill they went the other direction with: not an 81, but around an 85.

Drip rails removed or never there, and an old tonneau over the box seems to have kept the wood in good shape. Paint looks good from 30 feet away.

[Palf70Step]

Nice looking truck. My 81 also had the front grill/bumper/etc replaced with an 84 when the original owner had a fender bender. What makes you think the bed is older, the gas filler? If I were to guess, yours may have been redone with a parts truck like mine was, but they left the drip rails off when it was repainted.

[dagnabbitt]

Thanks! I've been watching your build thread too, interesting how they made so many of these trucks and so many of them were blue. Mine was originally that sort of baby blue that I always think of it as "government blue" since it was popular on base models. The Bombay blue that is on it now was just sprayed over the the old paint.

This truck is certainly a base model. Vinyl non-folding seat, no headliner: aside from the automatic transmission, I can't find an option on it. Wish it had dual tanks at least, filling it up every couple of days is a bit of a drag.

The gas filler leads me to suspect that parts of the bed are pre-75 yes, or that the PO was making an aesthetic choice when he was buying parts for it, maybe he just liked the look of it. The truck came with an incorrect set of 73-78 door panels, and as I said the 74 gauge bezel - it has that faux woodgrain veneer on it - makes me think that PO just really liked that era of squarebody.

[Palf70Step]

Far as I know door panels interchange between all models. If it has a fuel door on the driver's fender than it is at least an 80, but I think 81 was the change year on the fillers. If you can see you vin thru the windshield and the dashpad has the opening for it, then you have later model dash pad and the prior owner mave have just changed out the dash bezel. I believe 73 and 74 had amp meters not volt gauges, so that could be a cue also. I pieced together several dash panels to get all my gauges finally to work. Not sure what year everything is. If you know what your looking at you'll see some slight differences in the gauges fonts, etc.

[Matt Man]

Originally Posted by dagnabbitt

This is the truck the day I got it, its actually at a bar I stopped at before I even got it home.

It was in a little fabric quonset hut in a little town near where I work, I got it for a very good price. It had not been registered in 20 years, basically one of those barn finds that I always dreamed of.

From the wheels to whatever they were doing with the interior, if this truck were a music compilation, it would be called "Greatest Hits of the Nineties".

Truck was originally an I6 but they put an old 350 that they had lying around into it. The box seems to be pre-75. The gauge cluster did not work and I found that it was because it wasn't original to the truck, along with the bezel... I think it was also pre-75. The grill they went the other direction with: not an 81, but around an 85.

Drip rails removed or never there, and an old tonneau over the box seems to have kept the wood in good shape. Paint looks good from 30 feet away.

Nice truck I am partial to 81's as I own one as well. The grille is a 83-84 and is one of my favorite grilles of the 80's trucks. If the bed has the gas cap then yes the bed could be from a mid to early 70s or the fender could be from a earlier bed. Drip rails were standard in 81. What are the plans for the truck?

[dagnabbitt]

Sorry I have neglected this thread, I got caught up in my 1968 C20. I should always focus on one thing at a time, but never do.

This truck has been steadily improved, though. I bought a new dash pad for it, and using a Classic Industries cover, had the seat redone. It also folds, now. Some door panels from the junkyard, and a wood grain Grant steering wheel simply to remind me of high school.

Mostly creature comforts, in other words. This is the only truck I own that you can have a conversation with a passenger in without shouting over wind noise or the howl of the drivetrain; I am not kidding. I am looking to make it my daily driver.

In terms of driveability I located a 1991 700r4 for a hundred bucks and had it rebuilt with a shift kit and 2200-2500 stall: it is built with "corvette parts" as they say. It became a new truck over night. Even with the tired old 350 the tires break loose not just in first, but when shifting to second, too. The best part though is that I drive the freeway and highway 30 miles each way to work and with that fourth gear my rpms are way down.

As to that tired old 350 - if it even is a 350 - it is more than just tired, it is done for. It has so much blowby that it is frankly hilarious at this point. I installed a road draft tube just to get it home the other day, and when moving it from my driveway to the street I have to put a quart or two of oil in it. No one can accuse me of acting too soon on this engine, I waited until the truck was undrivable.

I am refocused on this truck: after much deliberation and consultation with the forum, I have ordered and received a new 355 from Blueprint. I never supposed I could afford this option, but it turns out that staying out of the bars for a year and a half due to world events (and quitting smoking) was just the ticket. Nuff said, check out the below!

[The Rocknrod]

Nice engine. I bought a blueprint for mine. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of everything, having heard internet gossip. Purrs like a kitten.

[LT7A]

Good power and torque with that engine. That'll be fun.

[dagnabbitt]

I ran into the previous owner of the truck, he likes what I have done with it so far.

My conversation with him solved the mystery of the gas filler being a simple cap. Apparently the truck was stolen at one point and when it was recovered the drivers side fender was smashed. The only fender he could find was one without a gas door, so he simply cut a hole in it and welded in the filler. Honestly he did such a good job you couldn't tell that it wasn't factory.

[Palf70Step]

Very kool learning the history of it. I will miss my 81, but the history behind my 70 made it the one I will keep forever.

[Willowrun]

Is the new motor in?

[dagnabbitt]

Wow, I have really not been keeping up on this thread. The motor is in.

The engine install has not been without its hiccups: I was chasing a transmission fluid leak and a coolant leak for awhile. We figured those out.

I loved the engine immediately, though, it has so much power: particularly in a little tin can like this truck. It is obvious that I need to put sway bars on this truck, and posi is on my wish list for sure.

Anyway, after a couple thousand miles of blissful driving, it started running and idling rough. It has been difficult to tune and/or time, and it had a whine like the kind you might hear through your radio from the alternator at startup. Then later, it would become a high-pitched shriek.

It was a vacuum leak, and it was surprisingly difficult to trace. After initially thinking it was the carb itself - I swapped the Holley for an Edelbrock I had, and it still happened - we found it was just under the carb: the intake gasket.

We took the intake manifold apart and surveyed what had happened: the gaskets were being sucked right in. The type of gasket used was a layered or laminated one, and it seemed like it was delaminating. I was surprised that they used such a cheap gasket on an engine like this. BPE sent me another set of the same gaskets, but I elected to use Feld Pro ones instead.

Long story short is that the engine is running well again, but I am looking for the correct bracketry to set my TV cable with this Edelbrock carb. I want to give the Edelbrock a try, I did not particularly like the Holley.

[LT7A]

I really like this little truck. It's cool that you broke it out of its nineties spiral, haha. BTW, not to get personal but since you mentioned it above, congrats on spending less money at the bar and quitting smoking. That's not easy to do.

That intake gasket is crazy. I'm betting that they did some machining during the engine rebuild that opened the gap between the intake and heads just a little. Hopefully a thicker gasket of a better material solved that problem. Any other updates?

[dagnabbitt]

Thanks for prodding me, I need to keep up with this build thread!

The update is that Blueprint has taken good care of me. The company's service is good, but sporadic. I can tell that they are growing at a fast rate, it is hard to get hold of anybody, but when I have, the service has been great. They sent me a cheque for the shop time to fix the above. It took several months and about 10 phone calls, but they did.

But boy there is a lot going on with this truck. After getting the intake back on it promptly developed an oil leak which really looked like it was a rear seal but which turned out to be the pan gasket. While it was in the shop getting the leak fixed, I added a really thick front swaybar to the front, I am looking for one for the rear.

I then drove it a total of maybe 10 miles before I discovered I have no manual 2nd gear and no overdrive. Likely the 2-4 band. So it is currently at the tranny shop again. If my trans guy will warranty this 700r4 I will install a posi rear end while it is there.

The truck is getting slowly dialed in though, and the engine is rowdy. It is super fun to drive, I just need to get it to stop leaking and breaking! I will try to post some pics of the work done soon. Meanwhile here is a picture of my Slurpee in an Edmonton Oilers cup sitting on the bedrail. I set it there when I filled up and was at least 3 miles down the road before I saw it in the rear view mirror, I have no idea how it stayed in place.

[dagnabbitt]

Truck is back in the shop for the winter... although it is unseasonably warm here, I might be able to take it for one more spin next week.

It has been at the transmission shop for the last little while, though: the 700r4 needed some new parts. I apparently burned out the 2-4 bands. Since the trans build is 3-4 years old they did not want to warranty it for me, but I do go in to get my TV cable checked by them twice a year, so they gave me a slight break on the cost.

To console myself with this repair, I also had the rear gears changed. It was one wheel 307s before: now it is a posi with 373s. It really is a fun driving experience. It might just be my imagination, but the way it takes off from a dead stop is different, now. I also have to be careful going around corners, it wants to break loose and swing rear of the truck around.

I still, however, have an annoying oil leak coming from the back of the engine after I have run it. It is not the rear seal - trans has been in and out - so I am thinking it is the oil pan again. No oil when it sits, just when I have run it. Engine is clean. Oh well, we will figure it out.

[geezer#99]

UV dye works to find leaks like yours.


https://www.amazon.ca/Universal-Fluo...d07f6562a6f13a

[Shifty One]

If the little truck gives you too much grief, ship it on down to Arizona...(I like it very much)

Cheers!

[Palf70Step]

She looks good though!

[dagnabbitt]

The truck hasn't had a good last couple years. In 2024 the only driving this truck has had is about 4 trips to the transmission shop.

After getting the 700r4 rebuilt again it developed a leak that could not be traced. After replacing lines, seals and the pan itself, we eventually concluded that the case was cracked somewhere. The transmission shop was at a complete loss to explain it. So, I asked them to build another identical transmission and replace it completely, which they did at no charge. When I got it back it had no shift kit in it, so I took it back. When it back again the TV cable was set incorrectly, so I took it back one more time. I think we are happy with it now, and hopefully my transmission guy is sick of me.

The truck still has that engine oil leak, though, and I think it must be the intake manifold in the rear of the engine. We have looked virtually everywhere else and that was the last thing on the engine that was monkeyed with, we must not have run a thick enough gasket. So I will pull it off again some time this winter.

In the meantime, though: this weekend I pulled the driver's side door off to replace the pins and bushings in the hinges, a little task that I had never done before on a squarebody. The door was rattling quite a bit on the highway, both up and down as well as left and right. I discovered that the hinge bolts were not particularly tight, in fact one was finger tight. Never seen that before. I am not sure if the lousy hinges loosened the bolts or the loose bolts ruined the hinges.

Anyway the hinges themselves were pretty bad to I rebuilt them with a Dorman kit off of Amazon. Removal of the upper pin was simple, it more or less fell out. The lower pin needed a lot of persuasion. End result is the doors sit really nice and don't move anymore.