82 stepped retired farm truck

[bh86]

picked up this ol' girl last year from a farmer near sun valley idaho. He had an ad up for two of the exact same trucks. I called and was a lil late on one but he still had this one. I hooked onto the trailer and made the drive. It was literally in the pasture next to the barn and had been for 15 years. He had bought it from the bureau of land management in the late 80's and used it on the farm til late 90's. He was a car guy and had planned on fixing it up but never got around to it. I loved the old worn out farm truck look, i guess it reminded me of the trucks I grew up driving on the farm. It'll have a 5.3 4l60e swap, 4/6 drop and I don't plan to touch the body

[bh86]

got it loaded up for the drive home

[bh86]

once i got it home i decided to start cleaning and tearing things down, this is when things got interesting...i pulled the seat to find that the entire cavity under the seat was a mouse nest, it filled every inch of the cavity under the seat. counted about 20 under the seat with the litter. thought I got rid of em. Wrong. pulled the heater box and there were exactly 22 in there with two batches of baby mice. ALL ALIVE!!! this was a pretty rough tear down to say the least lol. So I've pretty much had to bleach all metal surfaces and throw everything else out. Oh and yes that is another nest above the speedo haha

[bh86]

some of the cool lil farm tricks I've found along the way, there was a lil bit of everything from a piece of what could be an old irrigation boot for a sway bar bushing, to the bailing twine, it was definitely the real deal. If you ever work with handlines/moved pipe as a kid, you'll know what the last pic is with the gear shifter...brought back some memories lol

[bh86]

The devils in the details and these fellas didn't over look a thing...except tightening the damn u-joint straps lol I'd like to know how long they rocked this setup, this one was in about 3-4 turns and two others were finger tight at best. There was a good 5 lbs of mud packed into the frame/crossmember section here on the driver side under bed area, it's been there for at least 15 years, but most likely more like 20+

[bh86]

it a lil ugly and rusty behind the crossmember on the frame where all the mud had been packed in, i forgot to take good picks but after beating the hell out of the crossmember it finally gave up and fell out

[bh86]

decided it was time to yank the I6 and 4 speed. Damn that was a heavy lil 6 banger! Debated building it and running a turbo with the ol 6 to be unique until i looked into cost. It's spendy to build the old 6's!!!! So out with the old and in with the new. I had a 5.3 and 4l60e combo sitting so it'll be getting a swap now instead

[bh86]

yanked out the old steering. It was a non power steering truck so i'll be swapping that for a power box I've got. I have a lil pile of parts that started to seem like a waste til this project came along. it just so happened that i had automatic pedals too!

[bh86]

kept on with the tear down. Got the cab and bed pulled. stripped the frame and used my custom honda frame hauler to pull it out and load it up. Took it to sand blaster and got it blasted, but not til after a good hour of steam cleaning to clean the 32 years of gunk off first.

[bh86]

Got it home from the blaster and started to paint it. Nothin special, no powder coat or anything fancy like that, this is a bit more of the budget type build so I picked up some brushes and rollers and some kbs and went to work.

[bh86]

Kept painting and decided to weld my bolt in notch kit in instead of bolt it in.

[bh86]

Don't have updated pics yet but i got the front suspension assembled and need to figure out if i can bend these brake lines to clear the spindle and a arm with the drop kit, if anybody has any tips I'm all ears, I was just gonna start bendin on em tomorrow. Found some more pics of when I picked it up and forgot about the custom one off rear bumper, I don't plan on paint or body work, so opinions needed-keep the rear bumper? or buy new/normal factory bumper?

[Katrina/10]

I'd say lose the bumper. Looks like good progress so far, thanks for the pics.

[aggie91]

Looks like good progress. I like the direction you are heading with this one...

[silvereagle07]

I like the build but not the rear bumper.

[bh86]

Lol Ya I have yet to get a thumbs up on the rear bumper

[Just call me Sean]

What's with other truck?

That bumper is awful.

[bh86]

The other is the truck Ive been building slowly. When I picked it up it didn't look like much but as I started to tear it down I found It was the cleanest lil truck I've come across, no rust period, straight and solid. It's an 82 also, original paint never any body work just really clean overall. So I decided to take that one slow and not cut any corners, it'll be painted sometime in the next year and I'll build the LS for it in the meantime. I may also get a lil more extreme on the suspension with that one, I've been lookin at the porterbuilt stuff and it's real tempting but we'll see

[bh86]

I've got a guy with s 10 bolt out of a camaro with disc brakes and master cylinder. He wants 200$ for it and I need a rearend anyone know if that's a decent price?

[PAPABEAR]

I would ditch the rear bumper I would go with something more stock but if it tickles your fancy roll with it. Sounds like a decent price for a rear end with disc brakes as long as it has the correct gearing for your engine swap my 2 cents. Btw cool truck!!!

[Just call me Sean]

Lug pattern is different. I pay $100 for rears but the disc brake setup would justify paying more. Still would have the lug pattern problem though.

[bh86]

I didn't realize the lug pattern was off! Dang I was hopin it was the same. Oh well there's another out of a 95 1/2 ton for 75$ I think I'll just pick it up and be done with it

[bh86]

One of those days, not much went to plan. Looks like I my shop dog bummer too, I really like that lil turd. Started to pull the pitman arm to swap it with a new one and my top of the line harbor freight pitman arm puller stretched and bent. Then the mail came and I thought at least I get a package today, everybody loves packages. But LMC sent the wrong damn bed bolts not even close!! But from there it picked up a lil, I ran the steering box in and pulled the pitman arm at the tire store, welded up the broken shock mount but I forgot to get a before pic, the farm fix they had was pretty nasty, didn't get it perfect but it'll have to do for now and it'll definitely hold. Bent the brake lines straight to clear the spindles looks like I may still need to trim and notch the control arms a bit to clear. Finished up the front suspension and steering so tomorrow hopefully my cts-v oil pan comes in and I can swap the pan and throw some new seals in and drop the motor down in and start some wiring! might end up getting this done in the next week or so after all!

[bh86]

a few more pics, should be able to mount the tires back up tomorrow and set er back down on the ground.

[bh86]

Also could use some opinions on tires, I plan on running the original steel wheels and hubcaps. I have no idea what the best tire and tire size would be. Any ideas would be appreciated!