Blueballz build thread

[ironadict]

Choppin it like a tree. Thorbros stuff came in. And I can say they are legit. These link bars are the beefiest I've seen. The frame mounts look to be 5/16" plate instead of the 1/4"-3/16" most places make. Got my lower mounts welded in.
Yeah I know I should have the axle mocked up. When I had it taken apart to rebuild it I washed it out and left it to dry out side and the scrap metal guys picked it up. Talk about ****ty luck! So I was able to find a new housing and that should be here next week. Here's some picks of what I've been up to.

Rear upper shock mounts set up

[ironadict]

Welding on lower link frame mounts.

[ironadict]

I like the fact that their hanger tabs are bolt on but they held the bar too close to the frame so I would have had to notch for the bag. I didn't want to notch the rear frame rails so I moved the tab hanger out about 5/8", used the old bolt holes for plug welds and welded all the way around. Now I should have 5/16"-3/8" clearance between bag and frame.

[jaws61]

Cools awesome and keep up the great work.

The only fitment issues with the ls engines is you pretty well have to you the F body camaro oil pan with a lowered truck like yours or mine..
I went with long tube headers, to get to the mustang ii front end but i think i should have an issues here.

Ls is the way to go to my opinion but im new school.. lol

[ironadict]

Thanks. Yup that's what scotts hotrod tells me. Part number 12628771.

[ironadict]

Got a little more done. Drilled out the axle tabs for the upper arms so the bars won't be spaced so far apart vertically. With the stock holes the bars would have been 10" apart and that would have had my tabs and bar end sitting 2" above the frame rails. Since that's where my tank is going I want to keep them as close to the height of the frame as possible. So this will put my tab and bar sticking up just 1/2". Plus now I have the choice of running bars parallel or top bar angled down slightly.

[ironadict]

Finished the upper bar tabs and mounts. Fabbed up a cross member for the center of the frame with a notch for the driveline. Once installed I'm going to connect this cross member to the 45 miters on the tab mounts and that should help to stiffen up the frame a bit. There will also be the trans cross member in there some where too.

[ironadict]

2 more pics.

[Rednek13x]

looking great man!!

[ironadict]

Thanks rednek13x. Its getting close to being done with the frame.
Your longed is rad by the way!

[lower50's]

Nice job so far. I like your thought process.

[Dieselwrencher]

That's a very nice truck to start with and awesome fab work!

[ironadict]

Thanks guys!

[ironadict]

Got some more goodies in today. Getting the tabs welded in. Kind of working backwards from what I've seen most people do since I didn't have the dif housing. So I raised the lower bars to ride height and used some extra sheet metal to weld them to the frame parallel to each other and at ride height. Then I put the tabs on and leveled them out and tightened the bolt and welded a piece of metal from each tab and to the bar that way they we locked in position and I could set the axle onto them and position it for pinion angle before tacking. Then moved in the upper bars making sure they were parallel and then tacking. When it came to welding them in I welded one side of one tab on one axle tube then moved to other side and so on and so forth while using wet rags to keep tubes from getting to heated.

[Nut Case]

Blueballz

Boy oh boy, you and I think alike. Over kill is way under rated. Love it.

Keep on keepin on

NC

[ironadict]

Thanks nut case. It sure is! I'd rather take twice as long and measure twice as much and build it once than cut corners and build it twice.

[ironadict]

Tabs all welded in and lower shock mounts done. Once thorbros ships me my watts I'll get that set up and be sand blasting and putting back together rear end with 370 gears all new seals and bearing and new brake parts.
Also got the front cross member/ away bar mounts fabbed up and welded in. Scotts hotrod send these L brackets that bolt to the frame to mount the sway bar on. The front of my frame is so wavy though that they didn't sit right so I chopped their brackets down and welded them in kind of as a gusset.

[ironadict]

got my tank in from tanks inc. and i was stumped how i was supposed to install a filler neck, in tank fuel pump and sending unit into a tank with only 2 holes. Well it turns out the sent me a carb tank!! Thanks a lot. To top it off i took the day off work saturday to drive to san jose and pick an l33 engine and trans. Get there and find out they sold it to someone else even though I told the guy i was coming on Sat to pick it up. Really pissed about that. They said they have a new arrival tahoe or denali though that a tree fell on with a l33 and 2 wd in their other yard. Supposedly it has only 90k on it and compression is good all around. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[ironadict]

figured I could at least use this tank to mock up for the frame. so got on doing that. took the old shock mounts off one of the old crossmembers and moved it to the back of the frame and then just used a piece of angle iron up front. Hopefully I'll have enough room for the watts if I EVER get it from Thorbros.

[ironadict]

cam shopping for when i get this engine. I've narrowed it down to 3 cams. I know a little about cams but I'm by no means a guru. From what I understand though these are all low enough lift to use ls6 springs and stock pushrods. They have a nice slightly lopey idle the asa more so I think and all will require a stall of 2400-3500. If any one has experience with any of these I'd love to hear it. Again, going in a alum block HO 5.3l l33 engine.

texas speed stage 3 low lift- https://www.texas-speed.com/p-5004-t...-camshaft.aspx

towards american muscle "ASA" cam 110 lsa- http://howardscams.com/i-24076702-ho...-camshaft.html

or the btr stage 4 truck cam- https://www.briantooleyracing.com/tr...ge-iv-cam.html

[mongocanfly]

heard a lot of good talk about the btr series cams..i know a couple of guys running them..they're happy....and they sound good..

[ironadict]

Thanks mongocanfly! Yeah I like the sound of em. I'm kind of hesitant because I haven't seen much on dyno numbers. I like that the Texas speed cam has a dyno video and sheet of it gaining like 50hp in a stock 5.3. I'm gonna keep researching that BTR though.

[ironadict]

Finally got the watts link in. Took a lot of fitting but it's in. Tomorrow I'll get the bag over bar mount set up. The watts is massive though. Thorbros makes some heavy duty ****.

[Kim57]

Looks like a real nice set up.
Kim

[lower50's]

Big but looks like it will work well.