New from upstate PA

[92C1500]

Hello everyone! I won't go into much detail about myself, as the trucks are the main topic.

I'm 23 from upstate PA just across the NY border in the twin tiers area. I'm a novice mechanic, and get most of my knowledge from my father who used to work for a GM dealership and was a mechanic for 3 different 24 hour races at Watkins Glen international in Watkins Glen NY in the 80's. My First vehicle was a 1980 Chevy C10 RCLB with a 305/TH350 that was later swapped to a 307. I've since moved on to a 1992 C1500 RCSB 350 TBI with a 5 speed. I've had it since November 2010.

My truck started it's life as a 350TBI with a 700R4 and 3.42 10 bolt open rear. Before I owned it, someone swapped it over to the 5LM60 5 speed that existed before the NV3500.

When I got it it had 132,000 miles. I've just recently rolled over 184,000 miles. Since I've had it I have done routine maintenance and tune up stuff. As well as put a 2.5" dual exhaust on it, 17" wheels with 255/60/17 tires, broke the rear end once (chewed ring gear teeth off from too many 2-3 shifts that broke the tires loose) and swapped the gears out for Yukon 3.08's (a mistake looking back now), put a new clutch in, a rear hellwig swaybar, 2" lowering shackles, and most recently put new head gaskets and an intake gasket in it as well as gasket matched the intake manifold and radiused the TBI for more flow.

The truck is in great shape and was originally from TN and has minimal rust. By minimal I mean surface rust is just starting to appear in the cab corners and that's it. There are some fixable dents too.

I have plans to improve/modify it further. I picked up a 1990 454SS rear end about 3 years ago which is a 14 bolt SF 9.5" ring gear with 3.73 gears and 5 lug axles. It had the stock gov-lock in it, but it was replaced by previous owner with an eaton locker unit. I also picked up just this past year a low mileage (~63,000 mile) NV3500 5 speed out of a 97 C1500 that is super clean and has the better design compared to my 5LM60 5 speed (1 shift rail instead of 3) and an internal slave cylinder design that elimates the clutch fork/pivot ball problems my 5LM60 can experience.

With my tax return this year I'm planning to put new tires on my wheels as mine are bald, and go with 275/60/17 this time around, and pickup a low mileage 350 Vortec, toss a cam in it, upgrade the valve springs, and put a carb on it and get rid of my TBI system as well as the other neccesary swap items. I also plan to put a set of longtubes on it with a new exhaust system as well. I'll be installing the rear end and new 5 speed with a new heavy duty clutch of course too.

Aesthetic wise, I want to lower the truck further to an overall 2/4 drop. Put a roll pan on it. A tonneau cover. a lip spoiler (RST silverado/Sierra style). The 454ss/Sport package front air dam with fog lights. a 2" cowl hood. And different headlights/taillights. As well as possibly paint it. I'm undecided on color, but I like Satin black/matte black quite a bit.

It's going to take a long time to do all these things, but it will be worth it. I've always loved chevy trucks and can't imagine not owning one. My favorite is the 1967 C10 RCSB.

I'm sure I'm going to have quite a bit of questions along the way and you'll probably notice some new threads from me after reading over this. Hopefully you guys can help me out!