my 1970 longhorn project/daily driver

[Dieselwrencher]

That turned out great! Your engine looks sweet! Great job!

[383longhorn]

[383longhorn]

woke up this morning and all this showed up over night.... havent been able to dive my longhorn or work on it for over a week bacause of this weather i hate not being able to drive it for so long. so i have been driving my highboy for the first time in awhile. its not as fun to be drive as the chev. but id rather drive the big 4x4 in this weather than risk getting stuck or crash my longhorn. plus i made alot of money pulling people from ditches all day got 14in of snow today and alot more coming tonight. kind of unusual for western washington to get this much snow

[Dieselwrencher]

Sweet high boy dude! At least you have 2 cool trucks and they both are driveable! we're supposed to get 4" tonight. I've been told that the reason for the weird weather everywhere was caused by the sunami in Japan a while back. I guess when that happened it shifted the earth's axis 3/8" off center and all the weather patterns have shifted due to this. Sounds logical to me. Good luck driving around buddy!

[tattoed71]

glad to see the younger guys rockin these old trucks instead of turning to the darkside of big wings and 5 inch tail pipes

[383longhorn]

thanks guys i wont drive anything with less than 8 screamin cylinders or newer than 30 years old. i love old cars and i think there the only good looking cars and trucks plus they were built so well they will still be on the road long after all the 2012 trucks will be for example. that ice storm we had here was insain im sure u guys herd about it on the news. it destroyed everything u couldent go more that 10 seconds without hearing limbs breaking and trees falling for two days and alot of people STILL dont have power!!
well i feel bad for this but im going to post some pics of my highboy sence u guys like it even tho this is a chevy forum haha.but for real who dosent think a old for highboy is a badass truck??


this is how it look when it was given to me by my moms bf after i blew up the original engine in my longhorn. look like a compleat pos... beacause it was it had no foors, the bed was so rotten u cound pick up one end off the frame.


the original 360FE had such bad mains and rod bearing it sang a tune... but moms bf also gave me his REAL....



428 cobra jet. i drove it lookin like crap for a year then did a body swap... even tho its a spay bomb it looks decent and its all rust free now.


well thats all im going to post of that truck migh make some chevy guys mad haha. let me know what u guys think of her!

[sgaylord]

Good work. I even like the F^&D, shhhh don,t tell anyone, lol. My first truck was a 69 Ford LWB (Ranger) w/ a 460. Bummer about the weather but you don't see to be letting it hold you down too bad.

Steve

[yuccales]

You're doing a great job on that Longhorn! Keep the pics coming.

[Dieselwrencher]

That High boy is friggin awesome! Love the engine too!

[sgreene]

That looks like a SBC...I too have a longhorn was born with a 402 Bb I have a perfect 350 for it, a zz4. What do I need to put in the 350sb where the big block was as far as engine mounts and stands. Many opinions on this and cannot get a straight answer. I had a couple useful replies from one Guy, a longhorn ower, there was talk about where to put the fight(front end) or tranny side due to length difference.blah blah...I don't want mess the tranny side. Wanna change as little as possible..Today I was told it should bolt right in with existing mounts and stands and mate up with tranny correctly then I deal with the fan etc to make up distance. Today was also told by a different source that bb stands would work but would sit a little low and I should swap out for sb stands and sb mounts. So much is same on these but on the longhorns with the heavier frame,etc so much is different .LMC does not carry some of the rear suspension bits..So I thought I would ask again on the motor mounts by some one who may have done it. I have a 71 C 30 camper.
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[383longhorn]

im not really sure what is need to put a small block in it. i know the transmission is the same. but the tranny crossmember might be in a diffrent location between BB and SB or something. ive never really looked at a BB truck to see whats diffrent. before i got the 383 for my longhorn my original plan was to put a 454 i had laying around in it. i was told all i had to do was change the motormount towers to a BB. so maybe u just have to get the sb ones to do your swap. im not really sure i know more about ford engine swaps then chevy. im sure u can fined someone on here that knows everything u have to change

[383longhorn]

thought i would post some pics of the whole truck sence ive only posed pics of what i have been working on. i took these a few weeks ago when i decided to wash it because it was sunny for once hah stuped washington.. the paint dosent really look that good only does when its wet lol. still havet drove it in weeks now. to much ice and snow on the roads still. poor trucks just been sitting in the field. im prob hurting her feelings driving the ford haha

[Dieselwrencher]

Man, your Longhorn is in really good shape for the age buddy!

[sgreene]

And I find you again Ryan...hows the longhorn? Never made it to your shop from Pville...ever find those shackles? Still interested in checking out your 4x4 longhorn just got busy...maybe spring if still mind showing me. Know anything on the bb to sb conversion question I posted?
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[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by sgreene

And I find you again Ryan...hows the longhorn? Never made it to your shop from Pville...ever find those shackles? Still interested in checking out your 4x4 longhorn just got busy...maybe spring if still mind showing me. Know anything on the bb to sb conversion question I posted?
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The Longhorn is going slowly. It's at the body shop now. Check my build thread out. Sold the front spring hangers a while back her on the board. sorry. As far as the BBC to SBC I believe you'll need the engine mounts and the brackets that bolt to the frame from a SBC truck. I bet board member Teeitup has a couple sets. Find his ads in the parts section and check it out.

[383longhorn]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Man, your Longhorn is in really good shape for the age buddy!

ya its not bad. my mom and dad took really good care of it over the years

[383longhorn]

does anyone know how many longhorns were made? and how many were made each year?

[litew8]

Longhorn Man: "there were 5181 C/20 longhorns built in 70.".

factorystock: "Regardless if ever bought or not, the 1970 model year was the lowest production of any of the 67 thru 72 truck era due to a 67 day strike starting in October of 1969. 492K total trucks for 1970, the lowest in since '63. To give an example there were over 750K 72's built."

Longhorn Man: "but not the lowest in longorn talk. 68 was the lowest production of longhorns. To be fair, not only was it the first year of that model, but it was a mid model year introduction too. Interestingly, 69 (if memory serves) was the highest production of Longhorns."

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Very cool highboy.
When I was in high school I hung out / partied with a kid that had one (higher lift/bigger tires).
Awesome color combo your Longhorn has.

[383longhorn]

well... tranny finally took a dump on me. 2nd hardly works... guess thats what happens when u have friends that dont listen when u say "manually shift it to 1st when u come to a stop" so they started it out in 2nd every time they stoped and were getting on it prob cuz he was wondering why it was slugish from a stop... i hate it when people dont listen even when they see me downshift it to first at a stop everytime they ride with me. oh well i dident think that stock tranny could hold up to that motor for as long as it did and it had all kinds of probs from the begging. once i get my tax return its going to have a baddas compleatly built transmisson i wanna be barkin tires into 3rd ha

[383longhorn]

well i almost have the money saved up to build a nice new TH350tranny for my truck. heres a couple ideas i have for my new transmission.

B&M holeshot 3000 stall
TCI front pump
B&M master racing overhaul kit
B&M shift improver kit
B&M governor recalibration kit
B&M trick shift fluid
B&M tranny cooler
B&M ratchet shifter or one like it
B&M tranny oil pan

im working on a budget of 1000-1200$ im looking for more ideas on good parts. i want this to be a quick and hard shifting tire burning transmission. i want to hear some ideas you guys might have from some tranny you have used or built

also i will be pulling the engine too. need to do a few things to it. so this is going to be a great time for me to clean up the engine compartment and get under the hood looking amazing. hopefully getting some nicer inner fenders or just fix and smooth out the ones i have. also thinking about painting everything gloss black? or flat black? what do you think? leaving the firewall blue