My version of the s10 swap

[BlueJeep]

I've posted bits and pieces of my swap here and there, but I'll put it all together here in one place now. Over the past 6-ish months, I've been working on swapping my 49 Chevy 1 ton onto an s10 frame.

It started out with a really clean (for Iowa) 1949 Chevy 3800 I bought from a farmer who had used it to haul produce to the farmer's market. It hadn't been run in about 5 or so years, and the block was said to be cracked in the original 216. The truck had a stake bed put on it when it was brand new and the tailgate removed....and stored. What I ended up with was a near perfect 9 foot bed that is perfectly straight, and an absolutely perfect tailgate that had been stored in a barn for 60 years!!

Here's what I hauled home:






And here's the donor, a 1995 s10 that was purchased to donate a front clip, and after doing so has sat behind a barn for the last 5 years. 207,000 miles on the TBI 4.3, 4L60, and it ran great! This would provide the chassis, engine, transmission, and any other part I could salvage off it and use on the 49.

[BlueJeep]

I'll leave out the boring details of parting out the s10 and pulling the body off the 49.

I wanted to use bushings to mount the body, but didn't want to pony up for the s10 poly body mount bushings, so I ordered some Energy suspension poly bushings for a Jeep CJ-5. 2" in diameter, 7/8" thick with a 1/2" hole...perfect. I then used pretty much the same procedure as everyone else to determine cab placement. My cab is 3.5" off the frame, and level with the flat portion of the frame under the cab. I built my mounts out of some 3x5 3/16" wall rectangular tubing I had left over from another project. Since the body bushings were shorter than the "hat channel" for the rear cab mounts, I made some simple 1/2" spacers out of a chunk of steel so the channel wouldn't rub on my mounts.

Moving the cab:


Sitting on the frame:


Up till now, that's pretty much the same as most have done.

[BlueJeep]

Now here's where mine is different than the rest I've seen. I wanted this to be a little different than most, so I chose to leave the extended cab wheelbase alone. What this would give me is a box that is longer than a shortbed, but slightly shorter than a 3/4 ton bed, and way shorter than my original 9 foot bed. I purchased some junk short bedsides off craigslist for mockup, and some OK 3/4 ton bedsides to use once I figured out how long I wanted it. Since I'm very particular about how the wheels sit in the wheelwells and since I had complete control of where this was...might as well get it exactly where I wanted it.

Here's figuring that out:




I wanted the longer bed because I plan to use the truck for my all purpose hauling, summertime truck duties, etc. I also wanted a steel bed floor. I had planned to use an 88-98 floor, when I saw a guy use an s10 floor on another forum. This was perfect, it allowed me to re-use more of the s10 and the bed mounts were already there for this!

[BlueJeep]

Next up, moving the engine back. Again, since I have control over where everything ends up, I wanted to make this right too. I determined that it needed to go back 7", to maximize my radiator clearance and still leave adequate distributor clearance (I decided I didn't need 8+" of distributor clearance).

Engine in stock location:




And my new frame mounts to use the OEM s10 rubber mounts:




Getting there:

[BlueJeep]

Back to the bed, I determined that for my setup, I needed to cut 2.375" from the front of the 3600 bed to fit the wheelbase of the extended cab s10...so I did. Also cut down the running boards to fit. Now with the running board bolted to the rear fender, and the rear fender bolted to the bedside on jackstands, I could determine where to place the bedside:





By this time, I'd decided that I'd like the ability to haul plywood, etc. so I would need to get rid of my mini-tubs:

From this:


To this with parts from another s10 bed:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=384736


And now without my mini-tubs, I needed 1" spacers to get more clearance for my 4wd s10 rear axle:

[BlueJeep]

Next up, pedals and booster. Here's where I found that the 94 up s10's aren't as good of a parts donor. The pedal hangar was integrated into the firewall, whereas the older s10's had a pedal hangar that could be unbolted. I had a buddy who parted out an s10 earlier in the year, so I got some parts from him. Used the pedal and booster from an '89, and it worked slick. Also used an older steering column, as it fit the look better than the '95's big plastic one.










and Photobucket is giving me trouble with the big images, so more tomorrow!

[chevy49]

no pix

[sgtusmc]

more 6

[BlueJeep]

Originally Posted by sgtusmc

more 6

I saved myself some room at the top for....oh yeah....more pics!

[nuke1]

That is awesome, i like the way your doin it, great job so far!

[63 & 64 Bowties]

Great job. Thanks for sharing.
So, with the cab 3.5" off the frame, how much ground clearance are you ending up with for the front fender apron and the running boards?

[BlueJeep]

Originally Posted by 63 & 64 Bowties

Great job. Thanks for sharing.
So, with the cab 3.5" off the frame, how much ground clearance are you ending up with for the front fender apron and the running boards?

Quite a bit...but the tires on it right now are 235/75R15's, which are 28" tall. I'm probably going to swap the front ones out for some 215's, which should drop it an inch. The truck is in storage right now because we've moved; this weekend I plan to bring it home so I can resume working on it.

[bjcaldwe]

Great progress BlueJeep.

[MrTucker]

Great write up! Having a long bed myself, and considering an S10 swap, it's nice to see how you cut down the bed to fit the extended cab frame, rather than hack the frame to fit the bed. Nice work.

[53GMC]

Great Write up bluejeep!! did you delete ABS or did you not have it to begin with? I would love to delete my ABS but just not sure what steps or rewiring it would take...any advice would be great! and subscribed!!

[BlueJeep]

Originally Posted by 53GMC

Great Write up bluejeep!! did you delete ABS or did you not have it to begin with? I would love to delete my ABS but just not sure what steps or rewiring it would take...any advice would be great! and subscribed!!

Yep, deleted ABS. Took that big box that sat on the inner fender loose and threw it away, removed all the wiring to the wheel sensors up front, and stripped the wiring harness from inside the cab...pics of that will come later.

[53GMC]

ok...thank you Blue Jeep...I would love to cut out all the ABS but am not sure what brake lines connect where and what to delete from the harness....im inexperienced with brakes so any and all help will be great help to me...and i tend to do better with LOTS OF PICTURES!! since im a visual kinda learner anyway! thanks again for your post...it helps rookies like me out a ton

[BlueJeep]

Bear claw latch install. OK, my goal for this one is to have doors that easily open and close, and are safe. I'll be hauling around my kids in this truck and my wife says she'll be driving this to the gym on weekends, so I want the doors to stay shut around all corners. I like my stock turn-down exterior handles, so I plan to keep them and make it work. The only part I'm not quite sure yet is how to lock them. I got the bear claw kit from Autoloc (off Amazon.com) that has the locking feature, which I may or may not use. I don't want power windows, but I kinda would like remote unlocking to make daily driving a little nicer. Any input from others who might have already figured this out is welcomed.

Here's the start:


Since the small style bearclaw won't fit between the window track and the "bumpout" on the door, I decided to make the "bumpout" bigger. I cut about 1/4" inside the outline of it, made relief cuts in the corners, and folded it out with a crescent wrench. Then, I made a block-off plate to fit the new opening and with some trimming, welded it in:

Very crude paint job in photobucket to show cuts I made:








As you'll see, I didn't buy the install kit for the latches. I just couldn't see spending the same amount I did on the latches on a bent piece of 18ga. and a caged nut.... Posterboard from Dollar General worked great to figure out what I needed:



With the jamb side, I only got to start in on before we moved and put the truck in storage, so that will progress in the coming weeks. I cut all the spot welds and removed the structure I wouldn't need. I'm going to end up re-working this whole area, to make it conform to the new latches. I no longer need the deep recess that the stock latch used:

[BlueJeep]

Now to wiring. Since I haven't had the truck at the new place to work on, I grabbed my box of wiring to work on. I stripped every single wire out of the s10, so that I could re-use as much as I wanted. I'm going to use all the s10 headlight and taillight circuits, as well as the majority of the underdash and underhood wiring. I've stripped out stuff I didn't want like airbag, ABS, and daytime running lights. This s10 didn't have many options, so that did make it a little cleaner with no power windows, locks, or A/C wires to delete. My future plans include Vintage air, so I looked up the install instructions on their website to see what I would need to keep, and got rid of the rest of the wires from the heater circuit too. When I'm done, it should be pretty clean and fairly basic, and since it's all factory s10 wiring future diagnosis should be pretty easy too. On to the pictures.

Here's the harness from inside the cab, mostly stripped down:


The garbage can of "removed" wires:


airbag wires are easy to spot, they're wrapped in yellow tape:


And lasty, the fuse panel from the s10. If anyone has a 95ish s10, I'm trying to chase down what the circled items in red are for. A fuse fits in them, so I'm assuming they're circuits that weren't used in my s10, but I'm not entirely sure...and I no longer have that little plastic cover with the labels for all the fuses....



This brings me about current. As I get more done, I'll add more to this thread. My plan is to get it running and driving soon after the snow melts. I will have it driveable and John Deere blitz black by the 4th of July, where I plan to take it to Goodguys in Des Moines!

[53GMC]

i have the fuse panel cover at home and i will be back there on Friday...i noticed those two in my panel earlier (i have a 96) when i was checking all of the fuses out....i can post what they are on mine once i see what they are if that will help you....i love the bear claw installation! wanna do the same on mine one day when i get closer to finished...keep the pictures comin!

[49ZR2]

Bluejeep
Great to see you finally started your build thread. Your build is coming along great! Keep posting those pics.

[xJoey Dubsx]

cant wait to see more!

[Deenice21]

Looking Good!!!

[53GMC]

any more work done with the bear claw latches or anything? Want to see more!

[BlueJeep]

Yes, I have been making a little more progress. I'll get some pics this weekend but most of what I've been working on is the radiator support and mounting. I took a pretty different approach than any of the others I've seen, and like how it's turned out. Now that it's almost done, I can focus on some of the other things necessary to get it driveable. Taking the driveshaft in to get shortened next week.