1979 Chevy build

[54Caddy]

I redone alot on this truck. Its been a family truck, its never had the attention it deserves, so one day i got bored and put it in my back yard and started tearing it down. The plans were to tare out the engine and transmission and just do a rebuild on the front suspension, but as always you say hey im here already might as well do a good job. So me and my dad(mexgrhd68) began one day by taking off the front clip and tearing it down it was dirty as all hell. I rebuilt the engine my self and had a buddy of mine rebuild the th-400 transmission. All the suspension has been upgraded to polyurathane and we painted the front half of the frame, fire wall, inner fenders and suspension with some rustoleum. It all started to come together after many long days and nights. The day i sat it back on the ground ready to roll i had the greatest feeling inside to know that the truck i built with my bare hands is going to hit the road. Im currently a student at WyoTech and try to do all i can to keep changing it up. I recently put new carpet in with new floor mats it has a little stereo, I have two kenwood 6x9s, a kenwood 4x10 under the dash, a kenwood deck, a 1000 watt kenwood amp and two cerwin vega subs. With the help of my grandpa i build the custom subwoofer box. Well thats all for now if you have any questions about the build let me or my dad know. Let me know what you guys think of the trucks Thanks
pictures will be up shortly

[old Rusty C10]

sounds like a heck of a project.. please post as many pics as you can before and during.. lastly welcome to our board and this site!

[54Caddy]

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[54Caddy]

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[54Caddy]

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The engine was really dirty on the outside and just about the same if not more in the internals. I tore it all down had the block hot tankd and there was hardly any ridge so i just honed out the cylinders. The crank was sent out and was turned .10 .10 over. I ordered the rebuild kit and put it all back together in my garage. All the internals are new. I painted the block gloss black with silver aluminum look acceries, The fuel pump, water pump, distributor, and alternator are all new as well as the flexplate and balancer. The transmission is also rebuilt with a stall convertor and a stage 1 shift kit, the tranny is a stong th-400, also the drive line got all new u-joints and the motor mounts and transmission mount were upgraded to polyurethane
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[Scootin 81 C20]

WOW! That truck looks clean. Keep up the good work.

[54Caddy]

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The suspension is one of the reasons why the truck was originally being torn apart. It was squeaking bad. So i ordered up a polyurethane kit for the whole truck. I was originally just going to clean it up and put the new bushings but it turned into way more than that. I figured once i had the a-arms off to take out the a-frame and paint it all up then me and my dad decided to also do the fire wall and the frame, I had a buddy of mine press in the bushings for me and then i painted everything up. The bushing for the cab and radiatior where also replaced during this process. The shocks still need to be replaced but that will be done soon.
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[54Caddy]

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The engine fought me in any way to drop in. But i got it in and i was happy to see it coming all back together. Everything on the engine had a fresh coat of paint. I replaced almost all the vacuum hoses for the emisions and fixed a few of the problems. I made my own transmission lines and put all new rubber hoses, power steering, brakes, fuel, and vacuum hoses. I believe it looked so good at this point i didnt want to put the front clip back on to cover up the engine bay that looked great compare to before.
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[54Caddy]

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With the help of my dad we began to sand down the truck with 220 for the ruff spots then went over it with 500 and 1000. We water sanded it all down in about a day. I then moved it back behind my fence (so the neighbors wouldn't see me painting hehehe) and masked it off to get it ready to spray the next day.
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[54Caddy]

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The black primer was layed on the next morning. It looked like a damn new truck. I was proud of my work knowing that i was that much closer to driving it back out on the street. The primer i had got for a buddy was a little pigmented so i had to use more reducer then i called for and i made the primer come out a little rough. All i have to do is lightly sand it down to smooth it out. But regardless the truck looked great as i began to put the tailgate and front clip back on. I stayed up that night till midnite puting on the front end i was hyped to get the 79 rolling down the road
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[54Caddy]

AAAHHHH finally it was back on the ground ready to hit the streets. I took this picture just before i drove it down town for the first time. I didnt have the hood ready yet but i didnt care. I was a great feeling after breaking the engine in and getting it all snuged up and back on the road.
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With the help and guidence of my grandpa we built the box for the two 12's going behind the seat. I liked my grandpas idea of the cut out for the amp so we went with it. The box is great but i later realized that we made it a little to tall and wide, i had to move my seat up and lose leg room. I will be building another box for the truck and will also purchase shallow mount subwoofers along with a new amp and will cover it in the same carpet i put in the truck now.
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I added these gauges to monitor my truck and the conditions it runs in because the ones on the dash arent working. As of now i still have the gauges but im going to try to get the indash ones to work the light up and all but the voltmeter one doesnt work. I need to but a temperature sensor and see if the temp one works and if it does then ill put the oil pressure sending unit in also and delete these guages
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If you noticed in the pictures of the tear down the guage cluster bezel was yellowed badly, i went out to the loacal pick-n-pull and found this bezel, when i bought it it was a little yellowed but i polished it out with some mothers wheel polished and it brought the new look back to it.
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[54Caddy]

The latest picture i have of it is here. I took out the rear slider window and had a local shop tint and install the new back window. I got the rear window for free. It looks alot better with this window compared to the slider.
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I recently had to replace the cheap valve cover gaskets, well not cheap its my fault they failed. But i took this picture to show how clean the engine still is and it still has the paint inside without chiping. The paint is so that the oil flows back better to the oil pan and it doesnt let the oil build up inside, its a trick i learned from an old timmer that helped me build my first 350 i built for my 54 cadillac.
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I dont have pictures yet but will have some tomorrow. I recently put new carpet in and floor mats as well as a carpet cover for the dash pad, I also up graded my 6x9s to a pair of 5 way kenwoods that handel 500 watts each and i put in a kenwood 3 way 4x10 under the dash, the deck i have is also kenwood. The subs will be changed from the current cerwin-vegas to a pair of shallow mount kenwoods and upgrade the amp from the 1000 watt kenwood i have to a 2000 watt kenwood.

[54Caddy]

I feel that i have done a great job on this truck so far. Im only 18 and did all the work my self i will keep this page updated on what i do as time goes on

[54Caddy]

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[Scootin 81 C20]

The truck looks good. I don't think your post is bad, it just needs the pictures put in order and it should be ok. I like the look of your truck. It has an old yet new school look to it.

[GMC Guy]

nice job! i know what you mean though, i get the "might as well"s all the time haha just a couple questions, are you going to paint the bed? and i saw you stuck with the 2 barrel carb, any plans of bumping up to a 4 barrel or are you going for fuel economy? anyway, real nice job, it's amazing what a little cleaning and some paint can do

[menace121978]

nice work man.

[Driveway Dreams]

Good progress! That motor was NASTY! Nice job keeping that numbers matching.

[Rogue_Sentinel]

i wish my truck look that GOOD. GOOD job man

[Jonboy]

The truck turned out really nice. Is that a '60 Caddy in the background?

[mexgrhd68]

Originally Posted by Jonboy

The truck turned out really nice. Is that a '60 Caddy in the background?

its a 1970 2 door coupe deville, belongs to my other son. im very proud of my son, he rebuilt and painted this truck all by himself, i just supervised!

[54Caddy]

Staying with the two barrel. I live in Sacramento at the time and its better on gas also its still a smog truck so i just put the engine all back to stock and just dressed it up with some chrome. The exhaust is all also stock purs like a little kitten hahah. But im proud to say that it passed smog with flying colors when before it would only pass by 1 point. as far as painting the inside of the bed i might just rattle can it for now but i am tossing some ideas in the air for laying it out on bags so ill proably land up building a tonoe cover that mounts inside of the rails of the bed so you wont see anything.the truck still needs some body work and ill be getting to that once i finsh up school here at wyotech. have many plans for it but ill keep them to myself and let you guys see as it progresses. Thanks for the comments. I will be adding more pictures and putting them in order with more information.

[tvblazer78]

Nice!! Good job man..

[54Caddy]

thanks man there the pictures are now in order and numbered if you have any questions on what i did just let me know

[54Caddy]

well i have a few questions. Im going to put in a set of drop schackels on my truck next month. Ive never done this before so would you explain it to me also, i still have the polyurathane leaf spring bushings for the rear. Is it hard to change the ones in the hangers out, do they have to pressed in or how do i go about doing it. If you can help me write back thanks.