What did you get done? 01/06

[N2TRUX]

Sorry for the late post. I was in Dallas all weekend watching my daughter play volleyball.

What did you get done?

[abebummy26]

Helped my body man on his new project truck. Complete with cab corners made of great stuff, towels, and Bondo. Pulled the pan on the trans and did a bunch of stuff to get it working properly. I took the pinstriping off the bed and some of the lettering off of the tailgate.

[bigblock73]

Having a 8 week old at home has limited my garage/truck time...but I did find time to restore my center console this weekend. Completely dis-assembled, cleaned, painted, and re-assembled with all stainless steel hardware. It now looks better by far than what GM provided with these trucks new. I also had my headliner recovered by a local upholstery shop, and have enough material left to cover my Roddoors rear cab panel myself...which I'll tackle once I get my rear speaker brackets finalized.

I also updated 73-87.com with some new stuff, one of which is a light duty truck comparison between Chevy and Ford, pretty neat reading. It can be found here http://www.73-87.com/7387info/7387_brochures.htm

EDIT: anyone else seeing red X's near the top of the page? I thought I had that fixed...

[mitch1965]

Installed the Powertrax No-Slip in my '85 K20.

[454HO]

I spent some time working on the Vortec 454 swap into my '86. Got the mounting bracket issue figured out. Had to use the engine 'cups' and mounts from the '77 big block truck I parted out.



I also installed some DJM 3" drop tubular control arms that I've had laying around the garage for 4 years. Unfortunately I can't roll the truck out of the shop to get a good picture of it.

[chevyrestoguy]

Worked around the house for most of the day Saturday, but got around to doing some little stuff on the '55. I was welding up unused holes in the floor and using the new auto-darkening helmet. Man, those things are awesome.

On Sunday, the wife and kids decided to go see a movie at the new theater near the house, so I bolted for the wrecking yards. The weather was horrible (cold and windy) but I found a couple of good things for my '73. I wound up buying two excellent '73-74 grilles ($12 ea, both had 454 emblems, too), an '84 center console with all the bracketry in great condition (blue, $10). I went with the intention of getting the rear bumper brackets for my NOS standard chrome bumper, and wound up pulling a perfect set off of an '84, only to find out that they are different than the 73-80 version. All in all, it was a pretty good day, even though the bracket thing was a bummer.

*** If anybody here has a set of 73-80 brackets and needs a set of 81-up instead, I'll trade straight across.****


bigblock73- That console turned out GREAT! Nice job.

[copperchevy]

Did a little welding on a spare tailgate i had laying around.

[1970pelle]

Replace the engine block freeze plugs that were rusted.The one behind the starter had was just starting to drip coolant.Discovered leak when exhaust was installed last week.Cleaned and painted and parts removed to gain access to Freeze plugs.Watched football.GO JAGS.

[Kixwy2]

Finally got a good dash bezel that fits my truck (hooray!) and installed it with a radio/mp3 player, and finally finished cleaning up the electrical that I had been po'd at for months. Got the lighter/charger to work, and fixed the shift indicator.

Basically interior stuff while I wait around to get help to tear the heads off...

Chevyrestoguy: Where is this junkyard? I'm always on the lookout for good places to go.

[chevyrestoguy]

kixwy2: The two wrecking yards I went to were right outside of Victorville, California. I figured that maybe some new stuff would show up because of the holidays. Possibly people selling their old trucks for scrap in order to pay for Christmas.......

Both of those yards have an inventory that changes pretty regularly. Most vehicles don't last more than 6 months out in the yard. Are you looking for anything in particular?

[Kixwy2]

Yeah, I need a glove box lock/housing system. The PO jammed the lock with a screwdriver when the handle fell off, so it is either jammed shut or the glove box hangs open. At the moment it's jammed shut. Most of the assemblies I have seen are for 67-72 and I have a 74 CA truck. And for some reason, Auto Zone and Carquest don't sell the lock set?

[82c10]

cleaned up these wheels and tried to list them for sale on craigslist, but it kept giving me an error, also looked at a 98 CVPI with 106,000 miles, and a 2000 CVPI with 120,000 miles, and sold some smoked taillights for a fox body, also went over to my friends house for the first time in a month and saw the cars he purchased between now and then, and i might buy the 94 ranger off of him, i haven't decided, but am still thinking about the CVPI's, but i know of a place that has about 20 more that should have part of them for sale in the next week or so

[Srubydo1986]

I managed to get my white truck stolen. still working on getting it back luckly cab was already off of it tho i still want my rims tires center caps and bumper back. (it was a parts truck that i wasnt done with)

[vern350]

building a snazy yard truck. Got the truck in a deal with a bunch of parts. Pulled the siezed 350 that was in it. Cleaned the frame up and gave a coat of paint to the front half that wasn't done yet. Previous owner did the rear half. Inspected the diffs, sandblasted the covers and gave a fresh coat of paint to the axles and covers. Topped the off with new oil. Put a new motor back in with the trans/transfer case tonight. Hope everything works out. Back of the frame is boxed in and braced.

[spudz]

I Put a new transmission mount in my 84, new governor cover, tightened the pinion nut that was fallin off.. Picked up a Nice front clip and electric window doors to replace my 84s scarface.. and managed to get cought doing 106mph in a 55 in my z71.... 6 points $440.........

[Slonaker]

I have accomplished nothing on the truck lately. Every time I want to do something to it, I need a truck for something. I think I need two trucks so that I can use one and work on the other.

One of the things I need the truck for is pulling my borrowed boat. My mom's boyfriend asked me if I wanted to use his bass boat during hunting season (I fish but don't have any interest in hunting...), so I have been doing a lot more fishing. The truck looks cool with a boat behind it. You don't often see a lowered pickup towing anything...

The 8.5 mpg kinda hurts the wallet, though.

Slonaker

[jchav62]

I finished sanding and priming my 83. It's all flat black now. I also had the exhaust worked on. I replaced a very loud set of 18" glasspacks with some turbos a buddy gave me. They dump right before the rear axle. Sounds pretty good. I've never been a fan of turbos, but the price was right so I couldn't say no. I'll try to get some updated pics up on another thread later on today...

[68GMC454]

i had to go for a walk through the snow...my friend had a parts truck i bought the tires off of months ago...but once it started snowing i figured id wait till spring...then the right front starets separating,,so we finaly got them off and took themto the tire shop to swap rims...52.00 later i finaly got some decent tires on my ranger..lol... oh well at least i got to do somthing on a truck i own...

[Twisted78SS]

Got one step closer to firing up the project.

Motor and transmission are in, but I had an issue with the headers, seems that despite my research, I ran into the same problem others have faced and that is cross member clearance. In addition I had to remove the bracket for the parking brake cable as it was in the way. Will fabricate a new ones and move on.

More pictures to come and a video of the initial startup.

Once the break in period is over, on goes the Procharger!

[PhilaTruck]

Hey Vern650! I've heard of transverse mounted engines, but not cabs! (Bet you never heard that one before.)

Anyhow- I got my modified Q-Jet rebuilt right this time (misadjusted APT screw). Looks like I'm going to run a "stock" carb on the 406. Happy me. I get to save money.

Got my Ram Air box (thanks for the quick shipping, Swervin-)

Made agreement on many parts of Mike's interior (which makes me kinda sad). His truck inspired me to begin this project.

I'll post pix when I get the box on.

[tvblazer78]

Looks killer Twisted78SS!

New front clip? I did not know that you changed that too.. But anyway it looks very cool and you are right you have that very same headers that I have. One more thing, I did lower my motor about 1" in front at and pushed the tail up so the motor would set level. Just to let you know..
Trav

Originally Posted by Twisted78SS

Got one step closer to firing up the project.

Motor and transmission are in, but I had an issue with the headers, seems that despite my research, I ran into the same problem others have faced and that is cross member clearance. In addition I had to remove the bracket for the parking brake cable as it was in the way. Will fabricate a new ones and move on.

More pictures to come and a video of the initial startup.

Once the break in period is over, on goes the Procharger!

[Twisted78SS]

Thanks tvblazer78,

I noticed that my engine is level as well after It was installed. Not sure how that happened unless its from the new cross member change.. I started fabricating a new one to fix the interference issue.

Your right on the clip, I have an entire 89 clip that I was going to put on but might save it for the blazer. Since I already had the radiator installed I am using it for the startup portion. I haven't done any of the mods to the truck other than swap the wiper linkage, and since I want to begin on the blazers I need this together for the room.. I might change my mind when it come time for paint next fall..