Jay's 54 6.0/4l80 C4 IFS/IRS

[jevonniespapi]

This thread has been long and coming for quite some time now. I remember being on here back 2003, lurkin over all the great builds. I have spent over 6 years overseas in the last 10 years, as I serve in the US Army, thus delaying my build.
This is my 1954 Chevy truck. My grandfather bought this truck back in the 60’s from his neighbor. After many years of service, she was parked in the 80’s. My dad was gifted the truck during his high school days, to which the truck was given a set of chrome steel wheels, and a poorly done paint job. At an attempt of keeping the truck original, and uncut, a boom box was placed in the center of the bench seat, with wooden cased speakers hot glued to either side of the top of the back rest… wish I took a pic of that!
My dad gave the truck to me conveniently while I was serving in South Korea, yet we always knew and called the truck mine. She hadn’t actually run since 1992, to where she received most of the abuse. All the glass had cracked, or had been vandalized. Everything started to rust (we wont elaborate about this). Of course I couldn’t get the truck moved, even after I left 2.5 years later. I moved to Washington DC. If you know anything about that place, you know that I did not have the ability to get the truck there. My parents began to put the pressure on me.
After a tour in Iraq and another in Korea, I finally came to Texas. Wow, what a great place. I had to pull another shift in Iraq before getting the truck tailored from Central California to Central Texas. Funny thing was, I did this on my mid tour leave from Iraq. I flew into Phoenix AZ, picked up my Silverado, drove the 14 hours, bought a trailer, and drove back to AZ. The truck/trailer/truck combo was parked at my father-in-law’s brother’s ranch for yet another 5 months, before making the trip to Texas!
Upon my return to the states, needless to say, I had A LOT OF ENERGY to get started on this truck.
The plan used to be to keep her original. It seems that too my parents, the only that ANYTHING is of any money value, is if its all original. This matters very little to me. I do not want to restore this truck, only to have it sit in the garage due to its impractical performance.
The plan is to have a truck perform as well as look good. 6.0L/4L80, C4 IRS/IFS, hopefully some great body mods, but we will see, as I’m learning pretty much everything as I go.




This is her right after I unloaded the trailer, I was off to get a donar truck for motor/trans.

[jevonniespapi]

This is the donar. 2008 Chevy 1 ton. Had 40K miles on it when it was rolled. Interesting thing was all the service recipts for every oil change/service was in the glove box.


Didn’t really fit in the trailer… but made the 3 hour trip.







This was all done in one day…. This is day two…








Gotta keep wife happy!




The end of day two. I recycled EVERYTHING!

[jevonniespapi]

Gotta grinding down rivits. Air hammer is your friend!










All this, and then I got distracted. Its not hard with me, but Im getting better. For the next few months, I started tinkering with this frankenjeep. I traded a quad for it, but didn’t realize the that frustration would come with the deal. Short story is: what a waste of time, and its now serving a church in south texas.

[jevonniespapi]

All in all, I was surprised at how many hours I actually have in the whole project. I may have 50 hours into the whole thing, but started almost a year ago. Where did the time go?

Anyhow, here is my attempt at a c-notched frame. I have plenty more plans to reenforce it, please bear with me... I have a question on another thread about frame height. Im worried this thing will be way too high after everythings all mounted up, SO before I actually make brackets, I need answers. Oh well, its a waiting game.

Please feel free to comment, or ask questions.

-Jay

[solidaxel]

First off, thank you for your service.
Welcome from So Arizona.

From the looks of everything you are going to have a great truck good for another 50 years!!!

Keep a list of all the additional parts you buy for the engine install into your truck.

Next project with me involves a LS engine and trans, so I will be listning and watching.

[jevonniespapi]

Originally Posted by solidaxel

First off, thank you for your service.
Welcome from So Arizona.

From the looks of everything you are going to have a great truck good for another 50 years!!!

Keep a list of all the additional parts you buy for the engine install into your truck.

Next project with me involves a LS engine and trans, so I will be listning and watching.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=457939

Heres a link to a buncha LSX builds. I learned all about how great these motors were when I got a camaro some time ago. Great motor thats for sure!

[Groyd]

I'm excited to see this build. I'm always intrigued by the corvette suspension swaps.

[duwem]

Great minds think alike:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=435302

Page 2 has the fun stuff.

What are you going to do for front mounting? I spent the money and bought install kits for the front and rear. Wanted to make sure all the mounting points were correct to get the proper geometry.

Are your rear half shafts iron? C4's used Aluminum only to my knowledge.

[jevonniespapi]

Ill have to check on the shafts- their pretty coroded.

As far as the front end, yes ima go w/ flat-out. Money is always an issue, plus i have other hobbies!

I saw your build... How high will the frame rail sit once everything is mounted up?
Posted via Mobile Device

[duwem]

No idea on height at this point yet. Still collecting parts.

[NICK51]

If you need help let me know on the C4 stuff.. check out my build on photobucket

http://s1112.photobucket.com/albums/k483/nick5110/

[jevonniespapi]

Originally Posted by NICK51

If you need help let me know on the C4 stuff.. check out my build on photobucket

http://s1112.photobucket.com/albums/k483/nick5110/

Whad gauge thickness did u use to reenforce the mid section?
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/...h_IMG_1677.jpg
Posted via Mobile Device

[jevonniespapi]

Round two happened today. Second attempt at my "c" notch. After talking to another member, I think I may have a "step" notch...? Oh well, regardless of what its called, I dove in, for the second time.

First time, my clearances were off, tie rods were touching and I had barely any room for travel. I'm not sure how much travel I need, but I know I need more than a few inches. Now, I know I have more than enough room now!



Started off the morning by checking to see if my frame height would actually be decent.



Pretty happy.

Now to cut out my "mistake".



This is how I lined everything up.... not very scientific, but everything is true!



Not sure on how to describe the height... so heres a pic that captures a lot of points with a scale...



WELL: How'd I do?

[jevonniespapi]

Anyone know how I should mount the trailing arms? I've searched it out, but no one has a "make sure the top bar is level to the ground" or " make sure the bottom bar is 40 degrees" simple answer. Oh well, if no one chimes in, Ill just use my trial and error approach to pretty much everything!

[Deabt54]

Originally Posted by jevonniespapi

Anyone know how I should mount the trailing arms? I've searched it out, but no one has a "make sure the top bar is level to the ground" or " make sure the bottom bar is 40 degrees" simple answer. Oh well, if no one chimes in, Ill just use my trial and error approach to pretty much everything!

Hi Jay, I've got the top bar set at 6 degrees to the the ground and i set the mounting bracket at 24 degress vertical. Hope that helps. I had to crawl under a couple vets to get those numbers. LOL

[NICK51]

If you need let me know I put a c4 under my 51

-nick
Posted via Mobile Device

[jevonniespapi]

Filling holes...



ground down....



rust preventor...

[jevonniespapi]

Cldnt get the cross member to fit-- till I read the instructions. CUT THE FRAME!!! lol!



When I got to this point, I felt good, so I called it a day, due to allergies really wearing me down.


Its gonna take awhile, but the next mile stone is finding the ride height.

[jevonniespapi]

Turns out ride height is pretty easy. Whats difficult is getting the cross member level!


In order to square things up I may just finish cutting off the front of the frame, then tacking in the cross member.

Any advice?!

[Tadpole]

your build looks good! I'm building a 54 myself with a C4 front and rear what did you set your rear pinion angle at ? 3% or does it matter since the rearend won't be moving?

[jevonniespapi]

Good question- im actually takin a semester break from this truck- got way too much school goin on right now.
Posted via Mobile Device

[jevonniespapi]

Cant believe anyone is monitoring my build! Well, this is where I stand right now. Some folks asked about the engine mounts.



Check out Dirty Dingo- these guys rock. Its a small operation, but I got my parts faster than It took to get this all rigged up.
http://dirtydingo.com/store/index.php?cPath=342

Im heavily in school and work full time (takin 21 credits this semester alone) so when I do have free time, im not tryin to work on this truck much.

plan is to work on her a little during the christmas timeframe. School ends Dec 15th, and I get half days at work for a week before christmas. Goal: weld the engine mounts in, trans mount, cut the fire wall off, and get the cab remounted. All that dont cost much, cuz yep (like most everyone else) money is tight. I'd like to get some tires on her, so I can see exactly how the ride height will be... but no big deal.

Tadpole: you got an pics of your build yet?

[4544speed]

Did you get any work done during the Christmas break? I was hoping you would finish before I started my install. I installed the front and rear kits. Like you, I had to saw off the front end to get the cross member to fit in the notch.

[jevonniespapi]

Things are a bit hectic right now. Leaving for school this weekend, and still havnt got anything done. Dont worry, Ill be gettn her up n runnin by this summer! Did you start a build thread yet?

[Luther Grimace]

Good job on the truck! I like the donor. Where did you find it? And is that a C4 front suspension too?