Halfbreed - GMC Z71 + IH Extd Cab

[sparkydog]

2 steps forward. I have the new wheels and tires on now!

[sparkydog]

1 step backward. I now have the PO308 code which is cyl 8 misfire. It is a definite misfire of 1 cyl and always on not intermittent. I probably have a stuck poppet valve which means I get to loose my virginity on taking the intake manifold off and clean/repair/replace the spider assy.

[low'n slow]

On the other hand, the truck is looking good.

[sparkydog]

A little bling behind my Cobras. I painted the rear drums gloss black, the front rotors gloss black and the pad housing a special mix silver.

Took it out for a show off cruise last night and noticed a gas smell which turned out to be a missing o ring in the fuel pipe inlet on the Vortec FI plenum. Tonight it is all back together and ready for the commute to work in the morning.

[scout5039]

I don`t know if you have figured out lowering your rear suspension, or if this has ever been tried before, so bear with me. You could do the axle flip(which by itself would put you too low), then add a helper spring, or a set of lift springs. That would give you some height back, and could be fine tuned by playing with the spring pack.

I might just be crazy though, I never have lowered anything intentionally....

-Jake

[sparkydog]

Between my last two posts I fixed the cylinder 8 misfire code which was indeed a worn out injector poppet. I did not upgrade the spider unit - maybe next time... (no scratch right now). I also did the improved intake gaskets and replaced the dizzy gear while I was in that deep. Then I had my alignment shop replace the pitman and idler arms and verify alignment was still OK.

The following morning I did a 912 mile round trip to the Bay Area for 4th of July and back in the truck.

I am pretty much ready to take on the front "nose job" where I will shorten the fenders and hood, modify the fender opening shapes and (hopefully) convert the hood to a front hinge setup. But don't anybody hold their breath on me because it will be several months before I start.

After THAT I will definitely work on the ride height and knock the whole thing down a few inches.

Then bodywork, then paint, then....

[Dieselwrencher]

It is looking great! At least you're getting the bugs worked out and keeping it on the road! The front end overhaul sounds quite interesting.

[sparkydog]

OK I am back in the game now! I fabbed up some new tailgate hinges using delrin pins and now I have the tailgate back on. As you can see in these pics I have some nice dents to smooth out. Those will be worked on later.

[sparkydog]

Next up was filling in the hole where the fuel filler used to be. This task also required that I pull out a big dent/crease caused by something like a post or the end of a retaining wall.

[sparkydog]

Then it was on to the roof for a final bondo party and lots of sanding. I am still trying to get my dent repair skills honed and there will be some feathering and more sanding later. I wanted to get all of my exposed bare metal covered with epoxy and hence the truck continues to gain more diversity in color. The white areas are just me with a rattle can of epoxy. Even though it will get covered up later - it was pretty humbling to get some gloss over areas that I had thought were smooth.

[sparkydog]

I also filled in some of the trim holes and the key holes. Smoothed out the gas filler area and on to the big seams where I shortened the bed oh so long ago.

[sparkydog]

And then for my early birthday present. I bought the first new thing ever for this project - a lowering kit from Belltech. My thought process was that if ever something justified paying retail and saving me fab and thought time it would be the suspension lowering. So I shelled out the coin for the 2" front (coils) and the 4/5" rear (perches, rear shackles and the other stuff to adjust the drive shaft and pinion angle.)

I have to tell you all that I was very underwhelmed by the Belltech product. The first (and biggest) problem came with the forward spring perches. They did not even remotely come to clearing the bed mount brackets. I had to shave a big chunk of the bed mounts in order to get the belltech brackets to fit and it was obvious to me that they had not engineered their product properly. This put me in a foul mood as now I was exactly where I would have been with used parts - under the truck sweating and cutting and welding - except I had paid full price for this privilege.

[sparkydog]

Once I was grumpy it was easy to spot other weird stuff from Belltech. Mind you these aren't big deals but my point is this is stuff in their kits for a truck model from 1996 that they have probably sold 1000's of and yet still the instructions mentioned cut templates that were not in the kit. Or the kit had parts that were not mentioned in the instructions. And the coils had instructions for the spacers but not for the actual install of the coils.

And finally the coils did not give me a 2" drop but rather a 3+" drop which is cool but bordering on too much and now the rear end is still way up in the air so it sort of looks like I didn't accomplish anything - at least not with the rake.

So down the road I will end up spending even more $'s to keep tweaking the suspension all the while remembering how much time and money I "saved" getting a pre-engineered solution......... NOT.

This was supposed to end up with about a 2" difference between front and rear ride height and an overall lowering of the body about 3" down. But to the untrained eye (like my wife's) the truck looks exactly like it did before I touched anything! (bang head)

[sparkydog]

Anyway I guess something good will come out of this. I am sure that after I figure out how to drop the ass down some more I will be glad the front coils went down so far.

Next up is the long awaited nose job. This will include the final solutions to tricky things like windshield wiper linkages, sealing off the air ducting, relo of the hood hinges. Not to mention the challenges of blending the hood and fenders after a 3" shortening. Stay tuned.

[jb1016]

Sweet -- I've missed this project.

[mcbassin]

Awesome project! It took me nearly 3 hours to get through all the pics. and most of the conversation. I'm down for the duration. BTW, I wish I had 1/10th of your energy

[1985-GMC]

Lookin good sparky! Could you just make some longer rear shackles to drop the ass end down some?

[ERASER5]

Yea! Sparky's back!

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by 1985-GMC

Lookin good sparky! Could you just make some longer rear shackles to drop the ass end down some?

I'm as high as I can go with the shackles without cutting clearance holes into the bottom of my bed. I'm running the longer ones that came with the Belltech kit but could not go all the way to the max length with them. I still have ways to get more drop but they will be complicated. Such as de-arch the springs a bit, replace stock axle/spring mount pads with lower ones, DIY mild C-notch or punt and go to a flip kit but then I'd have to add some height back in.

[Pop's C-10]

you maybe be able to pull a few leaves & get tha rear drop like that...

[Frizzle Fry]

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/m...674863051.html

[Dieselwrencher]

Looking very good. Sorry to hear about your BellTech issues. It seems like this happens all the time anymore, which sucks.

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by Frizzle Fry

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/m...674863051.html

Thanks Frizz! Asking price $2k - the crew cabs are really really tough to pin fair market value on. They're rare but also usually hammered from hard use. So far in the 3 years since I started this project I've only seen 1 crew cab for sale that made me second guess my decision to "make my own". It was listed for about $3k as I recall and looked like maybe it was in OK shape.

While I am talking money - just thought it would be time to reveal where I'm at expense-wise. I have spent $3,900 total to get this far. 3 Trucks, parts, repairs to the GMC, lots of cutting disks and welding gas. But in order to keep the out of pocket $'s that low - I had to sell off a bunch of other crap that I wasn't using!

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by jb1016

Sweet -- I've missed this project.

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Awesome project! It took me nearly 3 hours to get through all the pics. and most of the conversation. I'm down for the duration. BTW, I wish I had 1/10th of your energy

Originally Posted by ERASER5

Yea! Sparky's back!

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Looking very good. Sorry to hear about your BellTech issues. It seems like this happens all the time anymore, which sucks.

Thanks a lot guys! It's nice to be back on the hobby and hear your encouragement too!

[Frizzle Fry]

Originally Posted by sparkydog

Thanks Frizz! Asking price $2k - the crew cabs are really really tough to pin fair market value on. They're rare but also usually hammered from hard use. So far in the 3 years since I started this project I've only seen 1 crew cab for sale that made me second guess my decision to "make my own". It was listed for about $3k as I recall and looked like maybe it was in OK shape.

While I am talking money - just thought it would be time to reveal where I'm at expense-wise. I have spent $3,900 total to get this far. 3 Trucks, parts, repairs to the GMC, lots of cutting disks and welding gas. But in order to keep the out of pocket $'s that low - I had to sell off a bunch of other crap that I wasn't using!

That's the value of DIY! Plus you will have a much nicer driving truck in the end. Just thought you would like to see it.
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