Cue-Ball's 1980 SWB

[Cue-Ball]

I've had my truck for over a year and not really done much to it, but now that I'm looking at suspension and thinking more about body and paint I figured I should start a build thread. The first few posts will cover the last year to bring things up to date.

Bought this 1980 Chevy in Sept of 2010 for $2800. It's not perfect, but it's in really good shape overall. Mostly, I wanted to make sure I bought a reliable truck that would get me to work and back without worry. This definitely fits the bill. The truck is a V8, automatic, short bed, fleetside, with no A/C and a single fuel tank. This is exactly what I was looking for, since I prefer simplicity and have a "less is more" attitude towards my vehicles. Here's what she looked like the day I brought her home:





The driver's door has a dent in it from a Home Depot rolling cart (you can see it in the first pic). There's a tiny dent on the roof and the paint is getting thin, especially on the hood. Otherwise, it's in very nice shape. It's never been wrecked, there's virtually no rust, and everything looks pretty straight.

The maroon (red) interior looks to be almost completely stock. When I bought the truck it had a seat cover installed, but otherwise it's mostly untouched. The headliner is in great condition, visors, gauges, etc. The dash has two cracks, but is far better than any other truck that I looked at. The carpet has a hole on the driver's side, but still looks pretty decent. And the truck has tilt and gauges, not idiot lights (no clock or tach though). One thing that the owner did add, which is really nice, is a variable delay on the wipers. The box stuck to the dash isn't particularly attractive, but it works fantastic.




The previous owner had installed some compartments in the bed. The design is actually pretty cool, it's just ugly as sin. The compartments on the side hold stuff in front of and behind the wheel wells, while the center pieces can be moved up into a track on top of the side pieces. This basically creates a completely flat raised floor the height of the wheel wells, with a big storage area underneath. The idea is that you can go camping, store all your gear in the "tunnel" between the wheel wells and in the storage compartments, while still having a totally flat area to use as a bed. Pretty ingenious, really. But still ugly. I was going to remove the carpet and cover it in something less offensive, but in the end I just took it all to the dump. It was just too much work for something I didn't think I'd ever use.


The truck was originally a 250 6-cylinder with a TH350, but the previous owner installed a 305 crate engine about 47,000 miles ago, and replaced the TH350 with a remanufactured trans. The engine bay was tidy, but dirty, and the cheap air cleaner had begun to rust. I hosed everything off real well and replaced the air cleaner with a spare I had sitting in the garage. It could still use some paint, but it's good enough for now. The original jack was behind the seat when I bought the truck, so I put it back on the fender where it belongs.


I removed everything from the bed and was greeted with nearly perfect sheetmetal. Dent free and barely even scratched. The only issue is some rust at the front edge of the bed that will need addressed.


I cleaned up the interior a bit and removed the seat cover. Underneath is the original upholstery in very nice condition. The driver's side is worn a little on the edges, but there are no rips or stains. I'm not crazy about the velour, but it's stock and in good condition, so I'll keep it for now.


I wasted no time removing stuff from the truck once I got it home. The first thing to go was the bug deflector. Second was the cheap, rusty fog lights that the PO had installed. Getting rid of both cleaned up the front end very nicely. The canopy was useful, but the windows caused reflections off of reflections and drove me nuts. Also, because it steps up in height it would just *barely* fit in my garage. I decided just to take it off. It's sitting by my shed right now and if anyone wants it, it's yours.

So, here's what the truck looks like without all the "old man gear" on it.


I'm the third owner of this truck, but the previous owner bought it barely used, with only 5,000 miles on it, and kept it for the last 30 years. So, it's essentially been a single owner vehicle for 99% of it's life. He gave me a stack of paperwork with the truck, including the original owner's manual and documentation, build sheet, tons of receipts and hand written notes, etc.

The first big job that needs addressing is the handling. This thing is a turd in the corners. Since it was originally a 6-cyl it came from the factory without a front anti-roll bar. That needs addressed because right now you practically roll to the other side of the truck when making turns. I'm not going to make it an autocross attack vehicle, but it needs to handle better than my parents' Winnebago.

It's going to remain a utility vehicle, so it won't be getting slammed to the ground and I won't be putting on 20" wheels (sorry, lowrider fans). I've already got one lowered vehicle and don't want to have to crawl over speed bumps in this thing. However, I'm planning on lowering it a few inches front and rear. Just nothing too drastic. I want it to look good, but still remain usable as a truck and I don't want to have to worry about if I'm going to scrape anything coming out of the grocery store parking lot.

The interior doesn't NEED any work, but I would like to replace the door panels. They're plastic one-piece units that look and feel cheap. I'd like to dress it up a little bit and make it feel factory fresh inside.

When I bought the truck I didn't like the square '80 only headlights, but they've really grown on me. Actually, I think they kinda fit this body style better than the round lights. Having said that, the main reason I bought this truck is because my dad and grandfather both had them. So, while it would be cool to have the more rare 1980 front end on there, I'm planning to swap over to the round headlights and bezels. The whole truck will need bodywork and paint eventually. I've already got one project car in the paint shop now, so that will have to wait until it's done. Maybe this spring?

[Cue-Ball]

As detailed in this thread I had been going through ignition modules like crazy (four or five in a single year and ~3,000 miles). I tried several things to fix the problem but nothing worked. Most recently I replaced a large portion of the ignition system to try to fix the problem once and for all. I bought a new "old style" oil filled coil, new plug wires, an MSD StreetFire ignition box, an adapter to make the old coil work with my HEI cap, and some other miscellaneous wiring. I installed everything and so far it's been working great. Cold running is much improved, but the truck ran really well once it warmed up even before the changes. So, now there are no more modules to fry and the whole ignition system is mostly new, so I'm hoping this fixes the problem for good. I'll throw up some pics of the installation both here and in my other thread once I get them off my camera.

[Cue-Ball]

A few weeks ago I found a guy selling parts on Craigslist, so I stopped by to see what he had. Ended up walking away with new chrome front end parts for the round headlight swap and a 1 1/4" front anti-sway bar from a dually. This is actually bigger than most of the aftermarket bars and should work really well for my needs. I bought the poly bushings and all of the brackets that I'll need to mount it. That stuff should be arriving via brown truck today or tomorrow. I had to get everything, since my truck does not even have the brackets. Hopefully the sway bar will get installed tomorrow or Saturday. It's pretty cold in my garage, so we'll see.

I tried to swap out the rectangle headlights and bezels with the new parts I picked up, but they don't fit. It looks like I need a lot more parts. In addition to the headlights, bezels, and grille trim I also need the headlight buckets, a new lower valence, new turn signals, new turn signal brackets, and who knows what else. I'm going to hit the junkyard tomorrow to see if I can snag any of that stuff. Hopefully it hasn't all been picked clean already.

[Conundrum]

Man, that is one nice clean truck you got there.

[franky69c10]

man thats one clean truck

[Cue-Ball]

Thanks for the compliments. It looks better in pictures than it does in person, but it's still a real clean, solid truck. It should clean up really nice without too much money or work, but we all know how these things tend to snowball.

[Gordonr1973]

I really like your truck, I think I might own its Canadian cousin (although mine is in WAY worse shape!!):

[Cue-Ball]

That's a good looking truck, Gordon! Though, I may be a little biased.

Got some stuff done on the truck today. This morning I went to a junkyard about an hour away to scrounge for some parts. Walked away with this for $30:

It's a little rusty on the back, but nothing a good blasting and paint won't fix. It's going on the shelf for a while though. I'm not going to bother redoing the front end until I'm ready for paint (probably). I was also hoping to find a stock air cleaner but struck out.

While I was at the yard I saw some other stuff I wanted to take home:


I told my wife that I'd like to sell our Subaru and get this. She actually said that was cool with her. If only I had more time, space, and money!


There was an '80 Suburban there too. I didn't look at it too close since it didn't have the parts I need, but it looks like the panels are good and the trim is nice. I was really bummed that the headlight bezels were already gone. I really could use a spare set, even though I'm planning to swap to round headlights. It also had a sport rear bumper, but it was banged up.


After I got back from the junkyard I did some work on my motorcycle (heated grips, ahhhhhh), then put my 3/4 ton junkyard sway bar on my truck. The install was really simple but took longer than I planned since I shorted myself 4 bolts and nuts when I ordered everything. The bar was a little nasty when I got it. Came off a big old dually, so it's beefy (1 1/4").

But it cleaned up really nice with a little phosphoric acid and spray paint.


All mounted up with brand new brackets and poly bushings.


Took the truck for a quick test drive around the neighborhood after the install. What a huge difference. It's not going to win an autocross, but the body roll is significantly improved. It should improve even more once I lower the truck a few inches. I have almost as much in this bar as a brand new aftermarket one, but it's the biggest one you can get and seems to work well so I'm happy.

I was able to check one more small thing off my "to do" list as well. My passenger door would never turn on the dome light when opened. The switch was bad. I replaced the switch but it still didn't work. I looks like when the old switch broke (when the previous owner still had the truck) it caused the light to stay on all the time. Instead of replacing the switch he just cut the wire under the dash! So, I took everything apart and soldered it up today. So that works again. Not a big thing, but it bothered me.

That's it for now.

[scottco]

Looks great.... I had a 78 about the same color

[Cue-Ball]

At about 10:30 on Friday, Santa Claus stopped by in his big brown truck to drop off some parts. McGaughy 2.5" drop spindles and 4" drop shackles and hangars for the rear (along with a new pair of shorty shocks).

Here's what she looked like on Friday morning:



Front wheels measured about 19" from hub to wheel well.

Rear measured almost exactly the same.


I've done this kind of work before, but it always takes longer than you plan. The passenger side front was first and it gave me some trouble. Getting the old spindle off was a real bear. Once I got everything apart I cut the spring 1/2 coil and put it all back together with the new spindles. My garage is a tight fit, so I had to pull the truck out and flip it around to do the driver's side. That side went much more quickly. Unfortunately, both sides lower ball joint boot was torn. Actually, torn isn't the right word. Annihilated is more like it.

The worst part is that you cannot buy these boots separately. You have to buy the whole ball joint to get them. Both ball joints were in good shape, so I didn't want to shell out 80 bucks for parts I didn't really need. I'm going to try to find a polyeurethane dust boot that will fit. Sadly, that will require taking the whole works back apart again, but I don't have much choice.

I finished the passenger's side front by end of day on Friday and the driver's side front by the middle of the day on Saturday. Then it was on to the rear, starting with the driver's side. Removing the old hanger was a HUGE pain in the ass. I used my cutoff wheel to grind away the rivet heads, but no matter how hard I hammered I couldn't get the rivets out. I had an air hammer but had never used it, so I didn't have any bits. I had my wife pick up a pack while she was out running errands. I *still* couldn't get the rivets out, even with an air hammer. I also tried getting a bit between the frame and hanger and prying them apart, but that didn't work either. Finally my neighbor let me borrow his air hammer. A much bigger, beefier model. A few seconds with it and they popped right out!

This is what happens when a scorching hot rivet head falls down your sleeve.


I got the driver's side put back together and moved on to the passenger side. I was dreading this, because it looked like I'd have to drop the fuel tank to get the old hanger off. Instead, I came up with a different solution. Using the borrowed air hammer and a very sharp chisel bit, I just chipped the heads off the rivets, leaving the upper front rivet for last. I couldn't reach it with the tank in place, but once I removed all the other rivets I was able to rotate the hanger clockwise enough to get to the last rivet with the air hammer. So, I was able to get the old hanger off and the new one on without touching the gas tank at all.

It took me until mid-day on Sunday (Christmas Day), but I was able to get everything put back together. My first test drive didn't go well. The truck rode VERY roughly and handled like crap. Turns out that my cut out of the passenger side bed rib wasn't big enough. The shackle was hitting, screwing everything up. A few jumps on the rear bumper bent the metal and "fixed" it. I'll have to go back and re-cut the rib later, since it still touches a bit sometimes.

Here's how the truck looked on Sunday afternoon. Quite a difference, and pretty much exactly what I was hoping for.



Front height is now 16"

Rear height is also 16", so the truck sits nice and level.


I would have liked to go through and clean and paint the suspension and frame, but the middle of winter just isn't conducive to that kind of work. I'll go back and do what I can once the weather warms up, or maybe down the road when I repaint the body.

[Cue-Ball]

This is a photochop I did a few weeks ago to see how things would look. The real thing sits about an inch higher, but still looks pretty close to the rendering.


That picture also gives a sneak peek of the next thing I have planned...

They need some serious clean up, but they're the perfect size and offset for what I need. For original 70's wheels they aren't in too bad of shape, just some curbing and oxidation. There's not much I can do about the curbing, but I'm pretty confident I can clean them up to look pretty good.

[Gordonr1973]

Mine looked that rough before I had them fixed and polished, you should have no problem buffing yours out. Any curb rash can be welded/buffed out by a rim shop too.

Here's what they look like now:

[Cue-Ball]

Wow! Those look fantastic. I'm hoping mine look that good when I'm done. I've tried a few things, but so far I'm not really happy with the results. From the cleanliness of the bead area, I'm guessing your wheels were media blasted before they were polished? I thought about having my wheels professionally polished, but I'm trying to stay on a tight budget with them. I've got $200 into the set of wheels and another $50 into polishing stuff. I have a feeling I'm going to wish I'd just bought a brand new set of wheels, but having an original set from the 70's is pretty cool, even if they do turn out a little beat up.

How much did it cost you to have your wheels done, if you don't mind my asking?

[Gordonr1973]

It cost $700 in all plus $300 for the rims. My rims needed lots of welding to repair chunks that were missing from the previous guy hitting curbs with them.

I know I could have got them new and cheaper....but these are from 1976 ;-)

[Cue-Ball]

Ouch. Yeah, I think $700 is well beyond what I'm willing to spend. I've already got a Camaro that's a money pit, I need to keep my truck on a more down to Earth budget. I'm going to do some more work on the wheels tomorrow. If I'm still not satisfied with the results, my brother in law is going to loan me a high speed wheel to try.

[Jonboy]

Here's a little motivation for your next project. I am in the same boat as Gordon, my wheels are from the 70's as well.

[54Caddy]

nice truck man. think you can take some pictures of that air dam under the bumper. Been looking for one bad but can not find one at all. Mine had one but was three pieces looks like yours is just one mayber your missing the sides.

[tim23mn]

Hey Cue-Ball, just saw your Camaro on another website. Wow!!! If you put even a 1/4 of the detail and work into this truck, it's going to be a stunner!

[Cue-Ball]

Originally Posted by Jonboy

Here's a little motivation for your next project. I am in the same boat as Gordon, my wheels are from the 70's as well.

Thanks, Jonboy. Your truck and this picture are what made me decide on the Sprints.

[Cue-Ball]

Originally Posted by 54Caddy

nice truck man. think you can take some pictures of that air dam under the bumper. Been looking for one bad but can not find one at all. Mine had one but was three pieces looks like yours is just one mayber your missing the sides.

I'll take some pics the next time the truck is in the air (possibly today). I wouldn't think these dams would be that hard to find, especially with all the guys who are laying frame and have to remove them.

Originally Posted by tim23mn

Hey Cue-Ball, just saw your Camaro on another website. Wow!!! If you put even a 1/4 of the detail and work into this truck, it's going to be a stunner!

Well, 1/4 of the work and detail is about all I can afford. I don't have any time or money left because of the damn Camaro! Paint and body on the Camaro is almost done, then she can finally come home. Things should go more quickly after that, and it'll be a little easier to concentrate on the truck. But I'm trying to stay on a budget with the pickup. I don't have the time or funds to do a frame-off like I did on the Camaro. But, the pickup is also in a LOT better shape and shouldn't really need all that work anyway. It's going to need a new engine eventually though. I'm not looking forward to that because I know I'm going to want to tear everything apart while the engine and trans are out. It's just how I am.

[Low Elco]

I'd seen this truck here before, but that's a cool ole truck, and a nice drop. It must stink to high heaven in Jonboy's garage, 'cause that thing's the Shat! Luuuvvve me some slots!

[Low Elco]

Oh, and Cue, look into deburring wheels, Norton bear-tex I believe is the name. they come in grinder wheels and die grinder bobs. Really clean up aluminum.

[Jonboy]

Originally Posted by Cue-Ball

Thanks, Jonboy. Your truck and this picture are what made me decide on the Sprints.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

I'd seen this truck here before, but that's a cool ole truck, and a nice drop. It must stink to high heaven in Jonboy's garage, 'cause that thing's the Shat! Luuuvvve me some slots!

Thanks guys. I am kind of a slot fanatic. We've been CL'ing a bunch of leftover baby stuff, so the truck is outside. Gives me an excuse to drive it to work, though.

Looking forward to seeing the slots on your truck, cue ball!

[Cue-Ball]

Not a whole lot of progress on my truck recently, but I did want to relay a story. My thermostat had been acting up for a while now, not opening until the engine got fairly hot. It was easy to see because you could watch the temp gauge creep up to about 3/4 and then suddenly drop back to 1/2 as the thermostat opened. It had been getting progressively worse, with the temp going a tiny bit higher before it would come back down. I finally decided to do something about it and bought a Mr. Gasket 195* thermostat from the Autozone near my house. This is a tri-bar, high flow design and is the most expensive thermostat they stock that will fit this truck. Installed it without a problem and the next time I drove to work the truck wouldn't even heat past 1/4 of the way. I bought an infared thermostat and determined that the thermostat was opening at less than 160*! So, I had to buy another thermostat and do it all over again. This time I bought a pretty cheap Duralast model (still a tri-bar design, but not high flow). Works fine and opens when it should. Mr. Gasket has been a name that I've trusted for a long time, but it looks like even the big name brands quality is getting shoddy these days. What a shame.

My new wheels and tires are probably going to be put on the back burner for a while. I have some things I need to figure out with them, such as finding a center cap that fits and clears my rotor hats. Also thinking about having a few imperfections welded up. But mostly, I have a nagging ignition issue that just WILL NOT go away. I finally broke down and ordered a new distributor, so hopefully that fixes the problem once and for all. But buying it and some more small parts I needed put a dent into my tire money, so it'll be a little while before I can spring for those.

[melks]

lookin good man, i like the stance your truck has taken on since the drop...i know you mentioned you cut the coil a small amount as well as replaced the spindles, but which spindles did you use? thanks