Johnny Cash Tribute Truck

[bundeber]

so the rear diff was pretty cut and dry after that. The front differential was out of an 86 suburban or blazer and was a direct bolt in. It required new ubolts because some redneck engineer welded a ford ubolt tip to the top of a broken gm ubolt. You can tell because one side is fine thread, GM, and one side was course thread, Ford. I guess it worked for them, but I prefer to not wonder....

Unfortunately I added a leaf to help with the additional weight of the nv4500 and setting the engine forward and this required a 9 inch ubolt for the bolt that hooks over the edge of the pumpkin on the passenger side. Those aren't made, at least not for the local parts houses, and I ended up cutting threads down 2 inches on each side of a 12 in ubolt and cutting off 3 inches of the top.

On a side note, when ordering brake calipers for this front end, be sure to get new banjo bolts.... the bolts I had were american, and the calipers required metric. I had to steal some from a ford that was being scrapped at my dad's shop. Also, save your old banjo copper washers. The new ones are copper coated aluminum, or have a different alloy than the old ones and they tend to leak like crazy.

[bundeber]

While working on the front diff, we ran into some junk hubs, but my dad has a bunch of good hubs so I simply told him I I'm helping him with his hoarding addiction. The biggest issue here is making sure that you get your rotors tight so that you don't ruin bearings. And if you do get in deep water, just grease your bearings again, it's cheaper than buying new hubs and bearings.

When I finished up the front I moved onto the engine, this was the one part that I was most reluctant to begin. I bought a 77 truck to haul water with that had this engine in it. The old guy I bought it from said it had only a few thousand miles on it, and it ran great. The only issue was the edelbrach carb that leaked gas out into the engine. I fixed it shortly after I got it, but always worried about damaged bearings...

SO I got it apart... and sure enough the bearings were shot, all of them. BUT on the plus side, there were still hone marks in the cylinders.... so we ordered a rebuild kit, new cam, and I started on heads..

Unfortunately one was cracked, and the previous head job was terrible. sloppy loose guides, and lapped valves. The contact area on them was huge. Definately not performance.

I ended up using a set of 882 heads, but they too needed guides and a couple seats. Fortunately, we have to tools at my dad's shopt to do this, it just takes time.

[bundeber]

washing the block up and reaming out the old guides. An air hammer does a heck of a job of putting the new guides in. Put them in the freezer for an hour, put the heads in the washer and they go in great.

[bundeber]

Finished up the head job after having to replace a belt on the valve grinder, that was an interesting job, I was surprised that the local parts house carried a belt for it.

the 882 heads that I am using aren't the ones that I would have like to put in, but, they'll be ok. We also put in a cam that we've affectionately named the stump puller. My brothers 79 truck had one of these in his 400 small block. with the old 465 transmission I've watched him continue a burnout through 3rd gear... it makes really good power.

Also using a dual plane intake from edelbrach. It took me the better part of 2 days to complete the whole engine. When we got that done I decided to set the front and rear differentials in the truck. Ran into minor issues with front brake calipers, and had to go hunting for the rear spring plate, but other than that it was pretty uneventful...

Then the weekend rolled around. It was time for the mad dash to install engine, transmission, and t-case so that we could bolt the crossmember in it's final location. I decided to move the engine forward so that the transmission and tcase would fit closer to the stock locations. With a move of only 1.5 inches forward I was able to get the shifter to fit through the stock hole with only 3/4 inch of trimming on the back side of the stock hole. We also had to fab up some sort of plate for the transfer case shifter to mount to. I still need to finish this by adding 3 inches vertically so that the shifter will extend through the high hump, but all the linkage is worked out.

I may also have to trim the hydraulic clutch part off of the bellhousing... but I'm not positive without a front driveshaft in. I THINK, it will be ok with the extra leaf in the front, but I'll have to double check when I get that rebuilt and installed.

We also had to do some modification to the stock crossmember in order to get the clearance we needed for the transmission and driveshaft. By adding 1.25 inch square stock, 1/4 in thick walled, to the tops of the mounting points at the frame we were able to lower the crossmember enough to clear everything. THis also allowed us to make a larger flat area on the bottom of the crossmember that allowed us to use the stock mount from the nv 4500. The nuts are somewhat hidden here, but we put larger holes on the bottom and it's accessible with a chrome socket from the bottom side. Impact sockets are just too big. Here's a pict of the crossmember after preliminary test fitting.

[NewType72]

huge writeup you had there hows she been running lately though?

[bundeber]

It's still running like a champ. I haven't had any issues with it. I just wish I had the time to finish up some of the little stuff. Still don't have the mirrors mounted on both doors or my front driveshaft installed. I've also been meaning to get this writeup finished with some more pictures, but my wife and I just had a little girl a few weeks ago, and needless to say, I've been really busy. The truck sure does turn some heads though! Almost everyone says they had one, or their dad had one, but they all like it.

I did have a chance to get offroad with it and wow, about dented my roof because the springs are so stiff. I REALLY need to put some tuffcountry lift springs on it. I like the stance it has now, and looking at pictures the 2 inch lift springs from them are about identical and my fillings won't get bounced out.

[duallyjams]

congrats on the addition to your family

[bundeber]

Thanks Dually Jams.

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to update this fully any time soon, so I'm going to put some finish shots on here. I sure think it looks good. Just undecided on which wheels to run on it.

[bundeber]

or......

[bundeber]

I can't decide. I like the understated dark silver, but I like how the aluminum compliments the trim.... hmmmmm The downside is the local tire shop wants 125 to mount my tires on the other set of rims...

[NewType72]

I'd prefer the dark silver and then some kind of center cap or beauty ring to highlight the darkness the other wheels look to bright and new

[bundeber]

I actually tried beauty rings... Made it look kinda lame. Almost took the 4x4 out of the truck and looked like a lifted two wheeler.... It looked really lame when the wheels were light factory colored too, the dark seems to look the best, but it just needs something to set it off and i cant figure out what, maybe i need the hubcaps. I will have to see if i can find a set. I need badges too, so a trip to the yard may be in order.
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[NewType72]

center caps will surely help those dark grey wheels out a ton and you're right now that I think of it rings would look odd as for badges you mean the fender emblems correct? be careful on placement I put my cheyenne super emblems on after remounting the front clip and I damn near took it all off to get those puppies on haha.

[bundeber]

Yeah, hubcaps will be hard to find, but i think that is the answer. And yes, i am missing all the emblems, hood and fenders. They want too much new so i need good used. I can reach the nuts on these, so i think i will be ok. I wish they had a k20 emblem for them instead of the custom 20.
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[68 TT]

Originally Posted by bundeber

Thanks Dually Jams.

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to update this fully any time soon, so I'm going to put some finish shots on here. I sure think it looks good. Just undecided on which wheels to run on it.

I like the look of the 2500 HD wheels on our trucks. The center caps are even designed just right so you can cut the emblem area out for locking hubs to pass through right at a designed in ridge on the caps so it looks like they belong.

I haven't seen it done with full floating axles out back but I think it could work for them too.

I have a pic of the front hubs this way but can't attach it from my phone. I will post it later if you like.

[bundeber]

I wouldn't mind seeing a couple of pictures of this... I don't think they look bad... I actually wish I had kept the steel wheels off my duramax before I sold it. I think those would have looked even better.

[bundeber]

anyone know how to tell what the width of these rims is with the tires on, is there a stamp anywhere, or do you have to dismount them to measure from bead lip to bead lip.

[litew8]

If you haven't already, I'd try a googl search for the make/model/year and see what turns up for options.