One Fine 69 Build Thread LT-1 Swap

[67ss&99ss]

This is my project truck, a 1969 CST/10 swb. I have had the truck for about 10 years now and started working on it a good bit this past year. To get it drivable, I took the crate 350 that was in my 67 Camaro, swapped it in, serviced the trans and rear, serviced the brakes, converted it to power steering/power brakes and put a new set of wheels/tires on it.







The truck was wrecked at some point in its life, and the frame was pretty rough, so I bought a rough 70 stepside for its frame. I stripped the body and bed off of it, and took it to the frame shop today, to have it inspected/repaired. It had a bent cross member in the rear and the frame horns on the front were slightly tweaked. They got it fixed, and its ready to be disassembled now for blasting and powder coating. I will post pics of the repairs tomorrow. It appears to have an extra crossmember in the frame that isn't in my 69. Is this for a manual transmission? The transmission crossmember looks different as well???












This is the drivetrain donor vehicle. A 1996 Z/28 with 44k miles. The car was t-boned hard in the passenger side, but the engine/trans still runs great. For now, I plan on putting a set of headers on it, a cold air intake and maybe a converter for the trans. Since everyone is going with LS platforms now, I was able to pick this car up for a good price, and the LT1/4L60E will provide plenty of power for me along with getting better gas mileage.





I will update this thread as work progresses on the truck. I enjoy reading threads like these because they give me ideas for my truck, so I hope that by reading this it helps other members out as well.

[OARNGESI]

great start does the truck have 15x10 rims all around any pics of the 67 camero

[67ss&99ss]

Originally Posted by OARNGESI

great start does the truck have 15x10 rims all around any pics of the 67 camero

15x10 on all four corners, 5" backspacing, 275/60/15 tire.

[Hart_Rod]

Nice truck (and car!). LT-1's are very strong motors. I had one in a 48 Chevy 5 window truck and really liked it how it performed. Make sure you check the water pump and intake manifold gaskets before you install it, they are known to leak. Good luck on the project.

R/

[OARNGESI]

That camaro is nice

[67ss&99ss]

Thanks for the compliments. Hopefully I'll have some more pictures of my progress tomorrow.

[chevy71c10]

Good luck on your build, I'll be following the progress as I'm also swapping to an LT-1. There is a guy on here that makes a VERY nice set of D-port headers for our application if your interested. Just gotta love these trucks!!

Justin

[67ss&99ss]

I'll need a set of headers for it for sure, but getting my camaro fixed is taking longer than expected. I'll probably get started up on the truck in another month or so. Going to have the frame blasted, coated and do the suspension work first. Then I'll drop the motor/trans in and see how it runs before swapping the body over on it.

[67ss&99ss]

Well, I'm almost done with my Camaro so I have started back working on my truck. The first thing I done this week was upgrade my old headlights. One of my bulbs had T3 on it so I figured it was the original, lol. They were like driving with candle lights so I done something about it.

I purchased a set of the silverstar sealed beam lights and I installed 2 headlight relay kits from MAD electrical, http://www.madelectrical.com/catalog/rly-1.shtml. The owner hasn't updated the prices on his site in a while, they are more expensive than what is listed. I believe mine were around $30 each. The reason you need two relays is for high and low beams. I would say it took me about 2 hours to do the work because I took my time with the wiring connections, and routing wires. Let me say, the difference is UNREAL! Its like driving in a new car, the lights are so bright. They are brighter on low beam now than they were in the past on high beam. Since power is directed to the lights through the relay instead of the light switch, they are getting 14 volts of power all the time. There is no more dim lights while idling and brightening as you rev the engine. They stay consistent and much brighter. It is well worth the money to do the upgrade if you haven't already.

I plan to have my frame blasted and painted later this month, and then the suspension rebuild process and engine swap will begin.

[Chevy350V8]

Was your truck 6 lug originaly?

[67ss&99ss]

Originally Posted by Chevy350V8

Was your truck 6 lug originaly?

Yes, and it still is for the moment.

[RCbowtie69]

Looking forward to see your progress, keep picture's coming,keep on truckin''

[Dieselwrencher]

Very nice camaro, and great start on your truck!

[67ss&99ss]

Originally Posted by RCbowtie69

Looking forward to see your progress, keep picture's coming,keep on truckin''

Yea, I plan on getting back to work on it soon. I've just had a lot of fun driving it like it is now.

One of the things that bugs me when I drive it is at 55 mph it has a vibration in it and I can't figure out where its coming from. I've replaced all of the u-joints and the driveshaft carrier bearing. The tires and wheels have been balanced 3 times and its still there. The people balancing my tires say that the rims aren't bent or warped. I bought the wheels and tires new and I haven't flat spotted any of the tires. The only thing I can think of is the center of the rim is bigger than the center of the hubs on my brake drums and the center of the axles. When I ordered the wheels I told them it was going on a 2WD 69 C-10 with factory 6 lugs. Can this be my problem? I've got all of the wheels tightened to approximately 100 ft lbs.

[RCbowtie69]

just checking your build and read your post, which i think the center isn't a problem, your lug nuts should put it on center,unless the lug nuts is bottoning out on the brake drum and not holding on the wheel it self, u could pull wheel off to see if the lug nuts is leaving a mark on the drums, i have ralleys on my truck and no problems.Well keep pictures coming

[67ss&99ss]

It's been a while since I've updated this thread. I haven't swapped the LT1 in yet. I'm thinking I may save that for another project. I've done some work lately though. I've swapped in a comp thumpr cam, hughes 3000 stall, shift kit, b&M deep pan and have retrofited a set of autometer phantom gauges to the factory cluster. I had a leak from my performer intake, and it was actually cracked so I swapped a performer EPS on it yesterday. While I was at it I noticed how bad the cap, coil and rotor button looked, so I replaced those too. It sure runs a lot better now and starts easier, lol. I've got a new heater controller and glove box to put in it tomorrow. I'm making progress little by little.

Enjoy the pics and video.