1971 GMC Pickup LQ4 4L80E Ford 9" Box Chop

[AlexBC]

Well it's on the road again! The $1500CAD ($1,000USD) project that was a collection of rejected body panels from a friends build is on the street. I cut the frame and box sides, finished the 9" conversion. LQ4 and 4L80E were pulled from my 75 F100 2wd and rammed into this to power it. Very Excited to be driving it!

The rims and tires happened by chance, I asked a friend who worked at a dealer if they had any 275/40R18's for cheap. He found 6 in the system Cooper Zeon RS2's for $99CAD($70USD) each. I bought all 6. Then I needed rims. First I measured all the stock ride heights with the old springs and LS sitting in it. Then compared these to other members measurements for "stock" ride height. They I removed all the springs and rolled the tires under the truck. Lowering it until it looked right and the rubber sat where I wanted the offsets to be. I did a ton of searching and it came down the V-Rock VR8 Extractors or VR9 Terrains. I went with the Extractors in an 18x9.5 and kept the stock truck bolt pattern. All my tires are the same size and same offset.

Engine:

• LQ4
• Sloppy Stage 2 Elgin/Jegs Cam E-1840-P (LOVE THIS CAM)
• Pac1218 Valvesprings
• Holley 302-3 Oil Pan, This is the low profile retro refit pan but with 2 NPT turbo drains pre-tapped. It's also cheaper than the retro refit pan.
• 2 Bar Map and 2 Bar SD RTT Tune (Still DBW)
• AEM Wideband with output into AC Pressure Sensor to log AFR without pro HPTuners (Love This Mod!)

Axle Swap:

• Junkyard 75-78ish ford 9" from a pickup with a big cap 1310 yoke
• Junkyard Nodular 3.5 Posi
• Ebay Posi shim kit, shimmed to 100ft*lbs breakaway
• All Star Performance 31 Spline Long Axles (For the right bolt pattern)
• All Star Performance Axle Retaining Plates 72317
• Moroso Wheel Studs 46190
• Wilwood D154R Calipers with the single 2" Piston 120-14876 (70/30 braking) I found a kit on Ebay that came with pads, fittings and flex lines
• Basic Weld-On Rear Disc Brake Kit for 1978-88 GM Caliper, 1.59 In BS (These use Wilwood hats with Speedway Rotors)
• Weld-on Metric Caliper Mounts

Chassis:

• CPP 2.5" Drop Spindles CP4S3
• Ride-Tech Front Sway Bar ART-11369120
• Speedway 2" Drop Springs 91006102
• Speedway Rear Lowering Kit (Came with shocks, track bar etc.) 91006575
• T70623 Mirrors. Driver side works well, passengers side is useless.
• Speedway 58.5" Custom Driveshaft with all yokes and u-joints 1310, balanced. Swap the 1310 normal caps it comes with for Ford 1310 Big Caps.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do for paint. The truck is rough. I'm thinking of hitting it all with the black semi-gloss and then rubbing it off in the places I rub against it working on it and getting things in and out of the box. A light faux patina but only it actual wear areas. Open to thoughts.