53 3100 Project - My first truck build...

[hobo]

Have posted questions here-and-there, so I thought I should start a build thread to capture everything together. For starters, I wrench on mostly Harleys as a hobby and I've had a few muscle cars (68 Camaro, 69 Chevelle, and a 69 Nova). I'm a hospital worker by day, ride/wrench on my Harleys as stress relief and I'm a private pilot that does an Angel Flight about once per month. Soooo.....I say all that to make clear that this is all pretty new to me. I'll be learning a lot as I go, asking questions, making mistakes, and hopefully making progress.

Here is the girl getting trailered to my garage. Previous two owners didn't do much to her. She sat in garages, and the person I bought her from didn't really know any history or what had been done.

[hobo]

This is how she had sat in the previous owner's garage. He had good intentions, but I think he knew he had bitten off more than he could chew and the project never changed from when he had bought her.

[hobo]

We get it home, and have to take the obligatory picture with my son in front of it. Pretty sure he was talking to me and not ready for the picture, but I was looking at the truck. I have 17 year-old Boy/Girl twins. My son is pretty excited to help me with the new hotrod project. My daughter, on the other hand, thinks it's kinda silly that we're hotrodding "Tow Mater" from the movie Cars. LOL!

[hobo]

Not sure what one of the previous owner's obsessions with the color green was, but it's evident all over the truck (but that will change).

I'll probably keep the keg gas tank for now, but the green straps will need to change color.




Speaking of green, I wasn't sure what to make of the green steel rails in the bed. Come to find out the frame is notched (which is all new to me - all my previous muscle cars had stock frames). This one happens to sit on an S10 frame. Not a huge fan of the skull/web/green thing, but the only thing I'll change sooner-than-later will be the color.




And speaking of green AGAIN, I was told that the truck had a newly rebuilt, 30-over 350 that had never even been fired. The previous owner said that in a way that I should have been thrilled, but from all my Harley builds I knew I would be tearing it down to see what the builder had actually done. This is a pic of the motor when the truck arrived in my garage and me showing my son how to tear the motor down to see what was inside a few days later.

[hobo]

No radiator or support, so that will be one project:




You might be a redneck if:




Previous owner used some welded-on supports up front for the fenders. I'll likely try to use these as I fab up my radiator support bracket as well.

[hobo]

Engine teardown was a little underwhelming. I knew I would probably be making some changes, but it turned out I would be making more than planned.

While the heads have been redone with new valves, casting numbers showed that they were the old 70s smog heads. Not really what I want on this project. Aluminum heads would be ordered, and something along the lines of 64cc chambers and 180cc runners for a good quench.






Pistons ended up being some standard P1534 flat tops (10:1) but I was seeing some rust and scores in the cylinder walls. Moisture had probably entered in through an open valve over the years:

[hobo]

So, after seeing the rust and some scoring on the walls, I decided she needed more than just a quick wipe with a Scotchbrite pad. I pulled a piston from the rusty cylinder and grabbed my trusty hone. Unfortunately I noticed something on the crank that made my heart sink. Ugh...looks like someone was pounding a piston in while the rod bolt was banging against the journal. Trashed Crank.




The trashed crank required that I do a complete teardown and rethink what I want to build. If I'm taking it down to a bare block, might as well have it tanked, mag-checked, and deck the top. And, if I have to buy a new crank anyway, why not buy a 383 stroker crank and give the old girl a little more giddyup too?




I also found a gear-drive cam setup along with a mystery cam that measured out to about a .445 lift. Gear drives can have a cool "whine" to them, but I'll likely go back to a good double-roller setup with my build.

[hobo]

Block is torn down and ready for the machine shop. Not sure how long the wait will be, but she's loaded into my jeep and off we go for delivery. IF the block checks out good, I'll order my rotating/balanced/clearanced crank, pistons, and rods and send the pistons to the machine shop so they can bore/clearance to spec. As I'm sure most of you know, the cool thing about modern rods is that they can use ARP caps instead of bolts/nuts, which minimizes some of the rod and block clearancing needed for stroker builds.

[hobo]

Previous owner had told me that the top was chopped 4 inches and the bed had been stretched 7 inches. I think both of these statements were made based on measurements he had seen between weld lines on the A-pillars and on the bed itself. In his defense, these measurements WERE 4 inches between weld marks on the A-pillar and 7 inches between weld marks on the bed sides.

That said, with some help from this forum measuring the window indicates that the chop is only 2.5 inches. Stock window height is 14.5", and I'm measuring 12". I like the subtle chop look, but I'll be needing to make some patterns for the local glass shop to give them some business. Oh well...




As for the bed "stretch", I measure about 75 inches from the front of the bed rail to the rear of the bed rail. This tells me that the bed has been shortened for some reason, not lengthened. With the notched frame, who really knows WHAT has happened with this old girl over the years.


The only decent pic I have of the bedside right now. Notice how short the distance is from the fender to the front of the bed.

[hobo]

Also found that the front A-arms had been notched over the years. With the help of this forum and a couple others, all evidence is pointing to some hydraulics having been on this girl over the years. The notch provides clearance during full articulation. The "welded-in washer" was also a dead giveaway for some guys who have done that in the past.

[hobo]

So, my priorities are to get her running and moving/stopping under power first and then work on other things. With that, I ordered some Belltech drop spindles to do a static drop on the front. Unfortunately last night I discovered that the old girl still has the stock S10 ball joints that were shot. I can't very well teach my son to "do things right the first time" if I install these spindles over bad ball joints, so we'll be replacing those first. I've never done ball joints, so it looks like I'll be chiseling/grinding off the rivets on the top ones and then adding a tool to my collection for pressing out/in the lower ones.

Also found some 1.25" spacers on the fronts. The wheels look to be 14" with about 4" of backspacing. I'm sure other wheels will replace these during the course of the build.

[mongocanfly]

good thing you tore into that engine ....wow...there's always the LS option...
def needs some bigger rubber...

[whitedog76]

Did you ever figure out what frame you had? Is it just a shorty S10?

On the engine. Have you thought about just doing a crate engine? GM still offers small block crate engines, at a very reasonable price. By the time you figure in machining, new parts, etc... You may be money ahead. Not to mention, everything is new. You can always throw a bigger cam in if you want some more go-power.

[Advanced Design]

Hobo, welcome! Like Greg said, it is a good thing you checked the engine. And working with your son, showing him how to do things right it priceless. I’ll be tagging along for the rest. Have fun!

[hobo]

Well, a lot has went on in a year life-wise but not much truck-wise. Luckily I'm getting back into it. Got sidelined with a 2002 Z06 project, a Harley project, and then moved to a new place with a much better shop!

The new shop:



The truck getting a ride to the new place:



Inside the shop as I was moving in:



And a small "man cave" corner I'm finishing up, since I have too many toys/projects for a big man cave. :-)

[hobo]

Truck had some bad boards, and some PO had decided to paint everything green. I wanted to get a look at the obvious notched frame and see what was going on under the wood.

[hobo]

I'm open to any suggestions from those who have "been there done that" regarding my notched frame and rear end. Looks to be a stock open S-10 7.5 rear. I'm considering checking the local boneyard for an 8.8 but might just leave it for now and put my money into finishing the SBC to get things "running, rolling and stopping" while I work on the body in the meantime.

[slammed57]

Man hobo... sorry for all the issues you are running into.. They all can be fixed, just goin to be more time and money involved than you thought it would be... But you can do it. I'll be following

[hobo]

Originally Posted by slammed57

Man hobo... sorry for all the issues you are running into.. They all can be fixed, just goin to be more time and money involved than you thought it would be... But you can do it. I'll be following

All good! Life gets in the way for all of us, but the 'Vette project involved my son so it was great to work with him in the shop.

Our new house and shop was a great thing for us, and the new shop was a dream of mine so I'm definitely not complaining. Just looking forward to diving back into the truck project!

[Matt_50]

Awesome shop man! I'm trying to just get a small one lol. How is the cab rust wise? was that a hole in the hood?

[hobo]

Originally Posted by Matt_50

Awesome shop man! I'm trying to just get a small one lol. How is the cab rust wise? was that a hole in the hood?

Yep, a bad hole in the hood. Need to find a better one or cut it into a nice square hole and run a high-rise manifold or something on the SBC. LOL!

Cab, I'm sure, is in worse shape than it looks. I haven't stripped things off yet but someone has used foam in the corners, bondo everywhere, floors are patched together, etc.

She'll be more of a rat rod than anything, but I'm getting ready to do a lot of bodywork. I have one rear fender blasted and ready for some welding and about a dozen hours of hammer/dolly/bondo/prime/sanding work. :-)

[joedoh]

shop is awesomo!

[8man]

Nice shop and great project.

[hobo]

I wanted to see what this bondo buggy had underneath all the layers of paint and plastic...

[hobo]

I've mig-welded heavier steel over the years and do pretty well, but the thin sheet metal is causing me some grief. Watched a number of Youtube videos and I'm getting the process down, but luckily I have plenty on this old truck to practice on.

After quite a while of welding, hammering, grinding (repeat), I made it this far with the previous owner's square metal patch.

Question for welders: I'm assuming I should be trying to fill in every smaller void with new metal, even though there are no "holes" left - correct?