Diesel does a build

[dieselarmy13]

Long story short: I bought a truck, had a million ideas that changed, and changes from day to day. If you've been on the board for more than a day, you've seen this truck before, and the progress she has made, but I've always wanted a build thread, so here we go. It all started with an impulse eBay purchase while I was in Iraq many moons ago that looked a little like this:

[dieselarmy13]

Not sure of the actual conditon, I had my mom send me few pics of her, and this is waht she sent me:








Keep in mind, this was after she was delivered, and there is now turning back at this point. So, yeah, I now see what's wrong with these pics.

[dieselarmy13]

A few more

[dieselarmy13]

So now knowing that I was in over my head, I did the natural thing, and started ordering parts for it. I was still a resto virgin and yet to discover this board yet, so I went balistic on eBay and CPP. Lesson learned. Oh well. My main purchase was a front end kit from CPP, with 2.5'' drop spindles. So I guess I'll start with that. Here is how she sat:



Couldn't have that stance. Got to get lower. The plans include bags, but for now, static will do.
Sooo, I bought some beer, invited a couple of buds over, and went to town.
The rotors and pads were actually perfect, I hated pulling them off, but oh well.

[dieselarmy13]

So that brings me to the front end tear down:




By this time, I'm discovering the awesome Maaco paint job and the farm/ranch hadiwork that has plagued this truck that I now have to un...well, I have to undo for the lack of better words. Lets just say this was a farm truck and everything that was laying around, unemployed on the farm, was employed to keep this heep runing over the years. I now realize that I am a true member of this board, cause I'm in wasy over my head.

[dieselarmy13]

So that brings us to the front drop. I ended up cuting one coil off of the stock(?)springs, and she sat just as I wanted her to with the 2.5' spindles.
Here's what I had:





I also felt these would make me the coolest kid on the block

[dieselarmy13]

This is how she looked fresh off of the jackstands:




This is a shot with a boatload of parts in the bed:

[dieselarmy13]

So, this is how she was sitting:



Notice the 200 lb rear bumper is gone.



Now, anybody stuck in the late 70's-early '80's, or that has a mullet would love this stance. But I'm more of a leveled out type a guy, so this has to go.

[dieselarmy13]

This is where the good stuff kinda starts. To level things out a bit, I bought a flip kit. Yeah, I'm one of those lucky son's of b's that have a leaf spring rear. I hate leaves, and I think my only contact with them should be raking them out of my yard, but my rear of dreams is out of the question right now, so here we go.
Here's backing her in to the shop

[dieselarmy13]

Although that sweet redneck-rake would have done my 'ol man proud in high school, I couldn't do it.
Cutting out the old stuff. (Yeah, I'm going bald, shut up)

New stuff:



Time for a prime rib break:

Then back to 'work'. For me, anyhow.
One down:

Two down. I'm on my own.

[dieselarmy13]

This is how she ended up looking after that long and grueling night. At least now I'm starting to get a little vision on my end project, and a little motivation to finish her.

[dieselarmy13]

Now it was time for a notch. Got a full footer from Suicide Doors. A little extreme for this drop, I know, but I wanted a little room grow.

My cousins a welder by trade, so duped him to coming out and giving me hand tacking this puppy up. He can lay an awsome bead, and he works for beer.
First tack:

Moving on-



After we got that far, we realized that because of the contour orf the frame, we were going to have to start from the inside.

[dieselarmy13]

After we got her all tacked up, we took turns going to town on it.




After that was all said and done, I modified the stock brake line bracket a tad and tacked it on.

[dieselarmy13]

A few more fresh out of the shop and wearing half of her new shoes



Now it was time to hack the bed. Used a diamond masonry blade to cut it. Worked pretty good.

[dieselarmy13]

Somewhere along the line, I also got rid of the hidious pink/mauve van seats and super-awesome custom fabricated wooden console the the PO was real proud of.


I picked up a real nice bench from teeitup.


With the new cover installed

The inside of the driver door all painted up. The pass. side to this day is still puke blue. Maybe someday I'll get that taken care of. Oh well, adds 'caracter'.

[dieselarmy13]

So then it came time stop taking up space in the shop. My parents live in Nebraska, and I live in Kansas, so I had to load up all of my junk and get it all down south. This was her first long road trip, but she ran flawlessly and I had a blast. Some pics from moving day-



The 250 mile drive with an unshimmed lowered rear end destroyed my U-joints, but they probably need replaced soon, anyhow, so I took her in and treated her to all new U-joints and a new carrier bearing as soon as I got back to Kansas. My rear is now shimmed.

[paisaloco67]

Hey Dieselarmy, nice job u have done so far, dont u worry about going bald
(Ha,Ha,Ha) beer causes that effect, not to worry, girls always preffer the
bald one!!! Viva la cerveza!

[Spray-Bomb]

Sweet bro

What is it with POs putting hideous bucket seats in GMCs ???
Mine had em 2 & the next day I swapped in a stock bench, which prolly raised the trucks value $500 dolla

[67ChevyRedneck]

Came out very cool. I like the gray top. Nice touch!

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Very cool build keep up the good work...

[packrat42]

Looks Really Good. Just one question where did you buy your flip kit?

[dieselarmy13]

Originally Posted by packrat42

Looks Really Good. Just one question where did you buy your flip kit?

Thanks guys. I've done some more to it, just haven't taken pics yet. I'll get em up soon.

You can get the flip kit HERE

[lytemup454]

Great stance! I was wondering how it rode with the flip kit? I've heard that they don't ride well. I have leaf spring truck as well and want to convert to truck arms but this seems to be more cost effective.

[dieselarmy13]

Originally Posted by lytemup454

Great stance! I was wondering how it rode with the flip kit? I've heard that they don't ride well. I have leaf spring truck as well and want to convert to truck arms but this seems to be more cost effective.

If you leave all of your springs in, it will ride exactly how it rides now. You arent changing your spring rate, just the placement of the axle. I pulled a couple of leaves out of mine, and I think it rides fine. It's no Caddy, but I've rode in a lot worse.

[Hillbilly Deluxe 65]

looks good man