What did you do to your truck today? Chapter II

[BugzC10]

Originally Posted by Elliot949

Nice looking truck dude ..

Thanks Elliot!

[z71-4-fun]

I just became a member here. and today i got my 71 back from frame reduction from long to short, and 93 step side fiberglass bed mount. was looking to post photos but unsure how this works. I am looking for ways to make this a good mod. there are a lot of great ideas on this web site and i could use some. thanks!

[KMC3420]

Got my firewall smoothed for the most part. Obviously have to smooth the rest of the welds out. Also got my fuel filler done. Sorry for the cell phone pics.

[magwakeenercew2jh]

Originally Posted by KMC3420

Sorry for the cell phone pics.

No problem.

[KMC3420]

Thank you kindly.

[magwakeenercew2jh]

Originally Posted by KMC3420

Thank you kindly.

No problem.

Even cleaned up a few of the welds and gave ya a little primer.

[KMC3420]

Haha. Wish it was that easy. Posting from a phone sucks.

[Blue/72]

Finished hanging the rest of the sheet metal on my truck and finished wiring the engine after tearing tearing the whole front end of to rebuild the motor. Original numbers matching truck, original rebuilt SB 350 with around 310 hp, powdecoated inner fenders and core support, and a lot of buffing and cleaning!

[VWNate1]

WELCOME NEWBIE ! .

There's lots to see and read here , *very* helpful and knowledgeable people too so don't be shy , jump right in , read older posts and ask questions ! .

-Nate

Originally Posted by z71-4-fun

I just became a member here. and today i got my 71 back from frame reduction from long to short, and 93 step side fiberglass bed mount. was looking to post photos but unsure how this works. I am looking for ways to make this a good mod. there are a lot of great ideas on this web site and i could use some. thanks!Attachment 1353454

[Gobuffalo]

Got sheet metal and some door hardware on.

[Gobuffalo]

I bought an Eastwood sink plating kit and used it on some door parts. It worked great. Used stainless hardware so everything would match.

[GoaterAz]

I got the rear suspension mocked up ready to be torqued down.

Mild Coilover Front and Rear.

All of the Poterbuilt parts are powdercoated and the frame/rear end is painted.

[Possmguts]

Originally Posted by GoaterAz

I got the rear suspension mocked up ready to be torqued down.

Mild Coilover Front and Rear.

All of the Poterbuilt parts are powdercoated and the frame/rear end is painted.

So jealous.....

[ole dollor]

Originally Posted by z71-4-fun

I just became a member here. and today i got my 71 back from frame reduction from long to short, and 93 step side fiberglass bed mount. was looking to post photos but unsure how this works. I am looking for ways to make this a good mod. there are a lot of great ideas on this web site and i could use some. thanks!Attachment 1353454

welcome to the forum from Texas , get her safe and have fun with your new ride.....

[greywurm]

After a long 3 month hiatus from my 350 swap project due to breaking my ankle, pretty wrapped it up today.

Since getting back on my feet, I got back to it the week before last.

Day 1
Removed the new radiator because it was leaking and picked up the warranty replacement and new lower hose since i toasted the original trying to get it off. Was a work day so didn't have a lot of light.

Day 2
I removed the distributor and carb so I could pull off the intake manifold and change the gasket. While I had it off, it was easier to remove the electronic oil pressure sender and hook up the stock pressure gauge. More on this later...

Got the new gasket in and the manifold bolted back in place. Opened up the carb to replace the accel pump and put her back together

Day 3 (few days later)
Had an issue with my car 5 minutes into the smog test -heater hose nipple in the intake manifold snapped off. Luckily it left enough for us to clamp it back down and finish the test. Not looking forward to another manifold job, especially since its a 2001, so a LOT more things to take off and forget how it went back together. Damn modern cars and plastic engine parts!

Anyways, got me nervous so jumped back to getting the truck back together just in case. Got the distributor in (easy task since I turned the motor to TDC on #1 before removing), wires on and All is good there. Got the radiator in, lower hose on and ran out of sunlight.

Day 4
Upper hose installed, e fan wire mounted (a little rigged, but it works). Bolted in the carb, and the rest of the wiring. Hooked up the tach and timing light and started her up adjust the timing. But...
Remember that oil pressure line I hooked back up earlier? Well, since I removed a 250, the line was a bit long. To shorten it up, I made a few bends and all looked well. But I was wrong... When I came around from the cab to grab the timing light and get to it, I saw a geyser of oil shooting all over the engine! Crap. Guess I'm not timing it tonight...

Day 5
Cut off part the line so I could find a new one with the right couplings for the gauge and motor and failed miserably at locating one. But I did find a compression fitting that would work and spliced the line back together. And then spend the next 45 minutes trying to get it not to leak.

Anyways, after burning all the spilled oil off and shooting flames off the exhaust pipe, got her timed up.

Next up were the brakes. Kinda soft and will lose them completely if holding them for too long. Bled all the lines (at my wife's expense - the princess holds her time dearly) and went for a test drive. She runs a lot better... but still brakes like crap and was slowly losing them at stop lights so brought her home to order a new master cylinder.

Today
Bench bled the new cylinder, removed the old and went to install it only to realize its the wrong one. Shallow bore piston and the original was a deep bore so the push rod is too long. Really wanted to get her together so I could drive her so gave in and got the cheap looking one from Oreilly. Leaves more motivation to go to hydroboost down the road I suppose.
Got it installed, all the brakes bled and cleaned up.
Took her for a drive and she brakes like a dream, runs pretty well, but still have a hesitation/almost stall if I hit the pedal hard from a dead stop... A little stumped on that one right now. Stupid edelbrock carb. Next projects are cleaning up the wiring, figuring out the overly bumpy ride (already has new shocks) and bump steer, and then maybe drive her for a bit.

Some pics to go with the super long story. Last one is the day I brought the 350 home:

[ole dollor]

Originally Posted by greywurm

After a long 3 month hiatus from my 350 swap project due to breaking my ankle, pretty wrapped it up today.

Since getting back on my feet, I got back to it the week before last.

Day 1
Removed the new radiator because it was leaking and picked up the warranty replacement and new lower hose since i toasted the original trying to get it off. Was a work day so didn't have a lot of light.

Day 2
I removed the distributor and carb so I could pull off the intake manifold and change the gasket. While I had it off, it was easier to remove the electronic oil pressure sender and hook up the stock pressure gauge. More on this later...

Got the new gasket in and the manifold bolted back in place. Opened up the carb to replace the accel pump and put her back together

Day 3 (few days later)
Had an issue with my car 5 minutes into the smog test -heater hose nipple in the intake manifold snapped off. Luckily it left enough for us to clamp it back down and finish the test. Not looking forward to another manifold job, especially since its a 2001, so a LOT more things to take off and forget how it went back together. Damn modern cars and plastic engine parts!

Anyways, got me nervous so jumped back to getting the truck back together just in case. Got the distributor in (easy task since I turned the motor to TDC on #1 before removing), wires on and All is good there. Got the radiator in, lower hose on and ran out of sunlight.

Day 4
Upper hose installed, e fan wire mounted (a little rigged, but it works). Bolted in the carb, and the rest of the wiring. Hooked up the tach and timing light and started her up adjust the timing. But...
Remember that oil pressure line I hooked back up earlier? Well, since I removed a 250, the line was a bit long. To shorten it up, I made a few bends and all looked well. But I was wrong... When I came around from the cab to grab the timing light and get to it, I saw a geyser of oil shooting all over the engine! Crap. Guess I'm not timing it tonight...

Day 5
Cut off part the line so I could find a new one with the right couplings for the gauge and motor and failed miserably at locating one. But I did find a compression fitting that would work and spliced the line back together. And then spend the next 45 minutes trying to get it not to leak.

Anyways, after burning all the spilled oil off and shooting flames off the exhaust pipe, got her timed up.

Next up were the brakes. Kinda soft and will lose them completely if holding them for too long. Bled all the lines (at my wife's expense - the princess holds her time dearly) and went for a test drive. She runs a lot better... but still brakes like crap and was slowly losing them at stop lights so brought her home to order a new master cylinder.

Today
Bench bled the new cylinder, removed the old and went to install it only to realize its the wrong one. Shallow bore piston and the original was a deep bore so the push rod is too long. Really wanted to get her together so I could drive her so gave in and got the cheap looking one from Oreilly. Leaves more motivation to go to hydroboost down the road I suppose.
Got it installed, all the brakes bled and cleaned up.
Took her for a drive and she brakes like a dream, runs pretty well, but still have a hesitation/almost stall if I hit the pedal hard from a dead stop... A little stumped on that one right now. Stupid edelbrock carb. Next projects are cleaning up the wiring, figuring out the overly bumpy ride (already has new shocks) and bump steer, and then maybe drive her for a bit.

Some pics to go with the super long story. Last one is the day I brought the 350 home:

glad you are back on your feet and the ankle is good, long list of stuff you got done , drive her a while and then do a little at a time...have fun with it.

[barmanvarn]

Got the engine started for the first time in 15 years.

Took a new starter solenoid, coil, points, condensor, fuel pump, ignition switch, and a carb rebuild (all of which I had never done before).

Fired right up. Pretty proud of myself at this point. LOL

Ran a lot smoother later but this was the first time we turned the key.

It lives! - YouTube

[VWNate1]

Greywurm :

The off - idle flat spot thing is classic wrong dizzy advance hose hookup ~ ensure there's no vacuum @ idle then choose the carby nipple that gives manifold vacuum the instant you open the throttle , test with the engine running .

I got up early and lain out a buncha engine parts for cleaning :



I'm still working on which rockerbox to use so I set out three :

I made up a jig to hold my ATF soaked power steering pump : it's crude but it holds it up so I can clean it off and paint it glossy black again .

Sadly , there was *SO* much gooey black taffy like Dino oil residue , I only got 2/3 as clean as I wanted and didn't get anything pained but , I'll soldier on....

Notice I have ample " Supervision " from " ***** Dog " (pic. # 2) and Gizmo (pic. # 3)

[Resto-Rand]

Wow, I feel so weak. All I did was reinstall an old heat stove assembly and, after reading thru old threads, realized I had installed my replacement glove box wrong a few years ago, lol.
So, I fixed that too.
Tomorrow I'll troubleshoot my lighting issues.

[greywurm]

Originally Posted by VWNate1

Greywurm :

The off - idle flat spot thing is classic wrong dizzy advance hose hookup ~ ensure there's no vacuum @ idle then choose the carby nipple that gives manifold vacuum the instant you open the throttle , test with the engine running .

You sir... Something so stupid simple was the exact tip I needed... Just read your post, glanced at the edelbrock manual to see what the difference was between the two ports and said screw it let's see what's going on.

I've had the dist plugged into the timed vacuum port the whole time because that is where the PO had his set up. I checked it running, 0 at idle but gave vacuum under throttle. The second port on the drivers side, the manifold vacuum had vacuum under idle. But when I plugged the dist in the idle smoothed out a lot.

Took it for a quick spin around the block, and its night and day. She revs right up from stop, no problem. Everything I've read kept pointing to the accel pump and the noob that I am couldn't troubleshoot any better.... Thanks!!!

I think its against your suggestion, but it works better... The manual says the timed advance is for emissions vehicles and the manifold vacuum is for non. Mine is pretty much non.

Side note... Good luck cleaning your parts. Haven't ventured that road yet.

[outdoorsman310]

did some work on the transmission. got a head and new head bolts on one head of the vortec 350. waiting for the other bolts. The truck was a 3 speed then an automatic so now its going to a 4 speed. the transmission has some rust in it.

[greywurm]

Originally Posted by outdoorsman310

did some work on the transmission. got a head and new head bolts on one head of the vortec 350. waiting for the other bolts. The truck was a 3 speed then an automatic so now its going to a 4 speed. the transmission has some rust in it.

Which tranny are you puting in there?

[outdoorsman310]

Originally Posted by greywurm

Which tranny are you puting in there?

sm465. I'm going to have to modify the driveshaft as well.

[slowcpe]

Very nice GoaterAz. Pics like this make me really want the new inner frame stiffener.

I got my c-notches mocked up and the truck back on the ground.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I got soaked cutting this out at the yard. 88-98 Silverado/Sierra for my Fleet bed conversion.