78 Big 10 on Wide Fives

[GoSki]

One more thing to do before we started painting. I had to clearance the bed floor support rails to make room for the drop shackle and leaf spring eyelet.

[GoSki]

At this point in the build we were in such a thrash to beat the clock, that I got even worse at taking pictures. But still, here a a few shots on the day we shot the primer/sealer.

You can see the two fenders here that have been prepped and waiting for a spray.

Also, I want everyone to take note of my very expensive paint booth and panel hanging racks. This is the type of investment you have to make if you want your paintjob to be at show quality levels.



Priming the two new bedsides

[GoSki]

Next up was to shoot the white stripe down the center.



The tailgate that came on the truck was so rotten it was unusable, Corey was able to find one on Marketplace closer to his house (we live an hour from each other) so he went and grabbed it for me and prepped it for paint. Here it is after primer and a coat of white. The key to used panels that were going to work for this project was to find something that had enough wear and tear to fit the rest of the truck, but not too far gone. This is harder than it sounds.

[GoSki]

Then came the big day, time to shoot the medium lime green.

Again, I used my very expensive paint booth, and my very expensive harbor freight spray gun, in order to create the best single stage paint job that $16 can buy.

What was very time consuming that you will not see photos of was the work that went into taping everything off to achieve the color change that I was after.

The bottom of bed floor, the underside of the wheel tubs, and the inside (between the inner and outer skins) of the bedsides were sprayed with black, while everything else got the white and green.

The doors and fenders got body color on both sides, and the hood just got black on the underside, with a light dusting of green across the front edge.

The trick to all of this was to know how much paint to lay down where we wanted it to be heavy, and then know how to fade it out as we worked our way to the top of the panels that would have seen more direct (perpendicular) sunlight. This statement applies to all 3 layers, primer, white, and green.


















Our approach for the inside of the bed was to spray it with full coverage, and then just be "not careful" when putting things in the back, this would very quickly start to wear the inside of the bed in a way that was natural. Corey really enjoyed tossing stuff into the bed and then saying "oh, sorry, I think I scratched it"

[GoSki]

A few days after paint I loosely bolted up a couple panels to see what it was going to look like. At this point I still needed to narrow the rear axle before I could set it on the ground with both bedsides on.









I was pretty happy with how things were going. I felt like the paint we laid down was going to give us a good foundation for the "artistic" portion of the program. I had confidence it was going to turn out the way I had envisioned.

[GoSki]

One more quick dive back into some mechanical stuff. Time to narrow this rear end housing.

A quick change is designed to allow for fast gear ratio changes, but it is also designed in a way that makes changing its width fairly easy.

The center section is made from cast aluminum, as are the "bells" that bolt to it. So the axle tube is made from steel, but the "cone" on the end of it is aluminum. The tube is pressed into the bell, and then through bolted with 8 bolts. So, in order to change the length you disassemble the housing, remove the bolts from the bell, then press the tube out. Once it is out you can cut the tube to length, then press it back into the bell, re-drill the holes, and bolt it back together. Then all you need to do is order axle shafts the correct length for your application.

When I had this all apart I checked the condition of the ring and pinion, as well as the bearings, everything looked good. I cut all the old brackets off the tubes, cleaned everything up and put it all back together. Reinstalled the axle seals, siliconed up the bolt holes and the center section to bell surfaces, then hit it with some paint and finally put it under the truck.

[GoSki]

Okay guys, at this point we were only a few weeks away from the show, and I still needed to get the doors reassembled, all the body panels on the truck, body gaps set the best I could with old bent sheet metal, the patina effects done, and the trim, grille, and lights installed. I didn't stop to take many photos, but I do have some from close to the end.

I was missing all the trim for the bedsides, but I had all the original trim for the front half of the truck. I looked for awhile to find used trim, but the story with this is same story I came up against with the used body panels, I was having a hard time. So I ended up buying new bed and tailgate trim, and then we had to get creative with the aging process for it.

Also, Corey worked some magic on the original emblems and he aged them and also changed the color scheme. I know the Cheyenne badges are supposed to be orange, but it just was not going to work with this truck, so we opted for the Scottsdale color combo on the Cheyenne badges.

Here are shots before we started any aging effects on the paint.

[GoSki]

Then patina, glass, trim, grille, bumper, lights.....

[GoSki]

Fall Revival Weekend.

[GoSki]

Day 1



Day 750

[hewittca]

I was exhausted by the time we got the truck to the show, but after the show and seeing these updates I'm motivated again! Time for the next push. So what's the goal for next year's show?

[GoSki]

Originally Posted by hewittca

I was exhausted by the time we got the truck to the show, but after the show and seeing these updates I'm motivated again! Time for the next push. So what's the goal for next year's show?

Drive it there, for sure.

[rodstored-72]

truck looks fantastic, amazing amount of work & engineering!! the repaint & "effects" look terrific. I was wondering where you got the replacement "big 10" decal?? and what is you association with racing... if able/willing to share?

thanks for the time to document & write up!! very appreciated!!

[Shifty One]

Very nice!

[GoSki]

Originally Posted by rodstored-72

truck looks fantastic, amazing amount of work & engineering!! the repaint & "effects" look terrific. I was wondering where you got the replacement "big 10" decal?? and what is you association with racing... if able/willing to share?

thanks for the time to document & write up!! very appreciated!!

Thanks for the compliments, and thanks for checking out the build.

I got the decals from USA1 Industries

I'm a mechanical engineer and currently in my 18th year working for Toyota Racing Development. I worked for several NASCAR teams prior to that. (From 2004-2008)

[GoSki]

Originally Posted by Shifty One

Very nice!

Thank you

[joesscamaro]

What a cool build and glad you got to at least take it to Fall Revival. Looking forward to future updates! I was supposed to go to Fall Revival this year, but plans fell through last minute. I'll look for you next Oct!

[rodstored-72]

Originally Posted by GoSki

Thanks for the compliments, and thanks for checking out the build.

I got the decals from USA1 Industries

I'm a mechanical engineer and currently in my 18th year working for Toyota Racing Development. I worked for several NASCAR teams from prior to that. (2004-2008)

AAaaahhh.. that explains it!! your build & engineering quality makes since now. I will check about the decals. thank you again for your time to share & maybe! ... see you at Dino's show in a week out here in PHX!! it would be very cool if you could make it! especially since "racing season" is done now!! .... !

[GoSki]

Originally Posted by joesscamaro

What a cool build and glad you got to at least take it to Fall Revival. Looking forward to future updates! I was supposed to go to Fall Revival this year, but plans fell through last minute. I'll look for you next Oct!

Thanks for checking out the build, updates will be a little slower now, but we are still making forward progress.

[GoSki]

Originally Posted by rodstored-72

AAaaahhh.. that explains it!! your build & engineering quality makes since now. I will check about the decals. thank you again for your time to share & maybe! ... see you at Dino's show in a week out here in PHX!! it would be very cool if you could make it! especially since "racing season" is done now!! .... !

Thanks very much for the compliments. Yes, season is over now, and we came up short by 3 laps. Disappointing for all of us on the Toyota team, but that is the way it goes sometimes.

[zicc1835]

subd....going to take some time to go back through this build thread ....great work great skills great documentation look forward to future updates

[GoSki]

Originally Posted by zicc1835

subd....going to take some time to go back through this build thread ....great work great skills great documentation look forward to future updates

Thank you, and thanks for checking it out

[GoSki]

Okay, lets talk about powertrain. I've already mentioned, (and shown) that this truck is going to have 3 pedals, but I haven't mentioned what I am planning on using.

In the beginning I was set on using an old 4 speed because I thought that would fit the build theme best, and I kept that in my head for a long time. But as the project wore on I thought more about the quick change rear end, the engine I had planned for it, and where I MIGHT end up driving this thing and it became obvious to me that I was going to want overdrive. So, it became clear that I was going to be putting a 5 speed in it, I have never really felt like I wanted a 6 speed, so I was never on the hunt for one of those, but if one had happened to present itself to me, I would have bought it instead.

As luck would have it, I ran into an old friend of mine at the C10 fall revival, and he had something for me. Andy and I worked together 20 years ago at Dale Earnhardt Inc. and I haven't seen him in probably 16 or 17 years, but regardless of that, he was still willing to give me a really good deal on a transmission he had laying around.

Andy now works over at Detroit Speed, and they happened to have a TKO 600 they pulled out of Road Runner that they were resto-modding for someone. He gave me a great deal on it, and now it's sitting on my garage floor. There is one catch, it's a Ford TKO, and this means I'm going to have to do a little work. That's okay though, it was still a good enough deal to make that work worth it. The transmission to bellhousing bolt pattern will not work with a traditional GM bellhousing, the Ford input shaft is longer, and the bearing retainer flange is a little larger. I have an idea or two for how I will fix all this, it might just be an adapter plate, or might be swapping out parts.

[GoSki]

Now we can talk about the engine.

I have changed my mind on this part of the project more than anything else. The truck came with a small block, and it ran fine for a 50 year old engine that had never been touched. For a little while I thought I was going to stick with that engine and give it a refresh, but after a few months I changed my mind. I ended up trading the engine away to my friend Pat in exchange for the wide five components that I used.

I'm going to take a tangent path for a minute and talk about the different engines I have considered putting in this truck, and some of my perspective on engines in general.

I have always really loved a high revving V8, I think they sound amazing. Working in NASCAR for years has placed me around those exact engines. Back "in the day" (2002-2006-ish) we were making 950 HP with a naturally aspirated 358 cubic inch push rod v8, and at one point they were turning 10,300 rpm, and they ran at that rpm for 500 miles without a break. To me, it's one of the greatest internal combustion engine feats. Those days are long gone, as it was deemed far too expensive to keep going at that rate, but nevertheless, it did kind of set the tone for what I think is cool.

That being said, this truck was never going to get something like that, those engines were dry sump, external oil pump, solid flat tappet, needy, high maintenance engines, just way too much for a street machine. But I did think for a little while that maybe I could build a de-stroked smaller displacement engine to try to mimic some of the sound. Then I thought for a little while about finding an old used SB2, then I thought about grabbing an old late model crate engine, something like a 602 or even a 604, because all of these options were fitting into that race theme that I was looking for. However, the prices on all the engines I just mentioned were more than I was looking to spend for what I would be getting.

After almost a year of chewing on it, I ended up deciding I was just going to LS swap it, I have done a handful of those over the years, it's easy, relatively cheap if you do all the wiring and harness mods yourself and reuse the OEM computer. So I went far enough to buy a small 4.8 LS from a Silverado that was headed to to the scrap yard. I brought it home and set it on the floor, and that is where it still sits, because a few months after I brought it home I started thinking this was also the wrong engine for this build, something about it felt wrong, and I knew I wasn't going to use it either.

It feels like there's really only one option left. If you have never heard a big block Supermodified, or even a big block dirt modified, you should check it out. Anyway, I flipped the script on myself and decided I wanted to hit it with a sledgehammer. I finally landed on just putting a big block in it, I can get the power and low end torque I want out of it without going into a crazy engine build that I can't afford. Again, I got lucky and one of my coworkers had a Gen 6 big block sitting on his shop floor. It came out of a 1999 C3500 tow truck, it's super greasy, and super stock. Right now the plan is to just go through the engine and make sure it's okay. Then the modification list is pretty short, at a minimum I'll put a cam in it, and I'll be swapping it to an intake manifold for a carbureted setup (remember early 80's theme). If the budget somehow allows, I'd like to go as far as aluminum heads, but right now that is a maybe. I'd love to say I could build something high compression that really pounds the ground, but it's just not in the budget. I'm going to try to make up for it with a good camshaft and a lot of time working on the boom tube side pipe exhaust I have planned for it.

[SCOTI]

Interesting choice on the motor. I didn't see that coming....