1980 Stepside Build... My first build thread

[ChevDog1]

Thanks guys. Now I just need to get over this damn cold, so I can crawl under it to drop the pan on the trans and replace the kick down solenoid. I got it all wired up with a new switch, and it still won't kick down. Bought a new solenoid last week - just need to get it installed. After working on it while sick all day Saturday, I barely had the energy to do the final polish and wax yesterday.

[Low Elco]

Hmmmm... bet it'd look reeeeeal gooood with a 5.3/4l60!

[68Timber]

Dang that turned out sweet!

[ECU PIRATE]

Sorry for the delay................let me dig up that can tonight and take a picture of the part number. I had thought about doing black interior in mine however, I am liking the look of the Saddle / Camel color again after looking at yours...

Originally Posted by ECU PIRATE

Have your tried the SEM Camel color yet? It's what I used on the last console that I restored. I can take a picture of the can with the part # later if you need it. Personally, I am a big fan of the camel color. Only if my truck was black....................

[ChevDog1]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Hmmmm... bet it'd look reeeeeal gooood with a 5.3/4l60!

I agree! That would be an awesome combo for this truck. The only reason I haven't done a swap like this is that I have been working on a tight budget, and I don't ever want to be into the truck for more than I could sell it for. If for some reason I ever needed the money, I don't want to have to take a loss on the truck if I am forced to sell it.

[73Super8]

Your idea of decent is spot on for awesome!! That looks great!

[ChevDog1]

Thanks super8!

I had an interesting week. My car broke down on Monday, so I had to push the truck into DD service while I was waiting on parts for the car. I drove it to work on tue, thur, Friday. Tore into it yesterday and finally replaced the trans kickdown solenoid. Took it for a test drive and it now works perfect.

On the test drive, I noticed a grumbling noise coming from the front end. After getting it back to my shop, further inspection revealed that I am a forgetful idiot! Over a year ago, I replaced all of the brake components. When I was swapping rotors, I found that I needed bearing seals, so I just threw it together with out seals, or re packing the bearings. A while back, I remembered this, and remembered buying new seals, but I couldn't remember if I had installed them. I looked all through my parts pile, and couldn't find them, so figured I must have finished the job.

Well, I was wrong. I drove it all last week, and 2 tankful of gas more than that, on essentially dry bearings. What a stoner! I picked up new bearings and races last night - going to have to install them today, as my car parts won't be here until Friday, so I need to drive e truck all of his week.

It's kind of painful to admit a mistake of this magnitude publicly, but I feel that I need to report both the good and bad in my build thread...

[ECU PIRATE]

Here you go

[ChevDog1]

Update on fuel mileage:

Last two tanks of commuting were 16.96 and 17.98. Not too bad for a 35 year old truck with an oversized carb and no overdrive. I suspect that the 1 mpg increase between the last two tanks was the result of replacing the wheel bearings.

[InitialBoss]

It looks great! Did you end up sanding out the pin striping too? I have a red truck with pin striping and I don't think I'll miss it when I get around to repainting it.

[ChevDog1]

I'm not sure I understand. My truck didn't have any pin striping.

[InitialBoss]

Originally Posted by ChevDog1

I'm not sure I understand. My truck didn't have any pin striping.

Oops, looks like I was looking at a pic of Chaplain's truck. Darn my eyes. Lol.

[ChevDog1]

OK - after spending countless hours trying to get the truck to run right using the Rochester 2GV that came with it - I finally gave up this week. The Rochester had a bad bog that I could not tune out of it, it flooded if I left it parked facing uphill, and after sitting for two weeks, it flooded so bad that it almost hydro locked the engine. When I pulled the spark plugs and cranked it over to clear out the cylinders, it shot gas 10+ feet across my shop!

I purchased (on Amazon) a brand new Holley 2300, model 7448 350cfm 2 barrel with manual choke. I had to fabricate yet another carb adapter, but this time it was much more simple. Everything else pretty much bolted up. The truck runs so much better now. No bog at all. Just a smooth running engine with a well matched carb. I guess I should have done this a year ago instead of spending all that time on the old carb, but I really didn't want to spend the money.

It is still running rough at an idle, but I think I have a leak at my EGR block-off plate that I installed when I was doing the new carb. I'll check that out tonight and report back. In the meantime - here are some current pics.

[ChevDog1]

Success!!!!

I was right. I had installed the EGR gasket backwards when I put in the block off plate. Since the gasket isn't symmetrical, this allowed one hole in the gasket to partially expose both the intake and exhaust ports at the same time, creating a vacuum leak. Turned the gasket around the correct way, and now the truck runs better than it ever has. Had to reset the base timing, as well as the idle mixture and idle speeds, and now I have a nice steady idle. Took it for a quick test drive, and it runs sweet. Does a nice little one wheel peel from a dead stop, and chirps one tire going into second. I am finally satisfied with the way it runs.

[bh86]

I love this truck, you've done awesome work!

[ChevDog1]

Thanks!

[Old School Low]

You did good. I love these kind of stories

[ChevDog1]

I guess it's time to end this thread. Once the truck was done, I tried commuting in it for a while, but I guess the nostalgia of driving a simple old truck was just better than the reality for me. I normally put on about 20k/year in my daily commute, and decided that I would rather be driving my comfortable modern car with all of it's features instead of my old truck.

So ----- I sold it.

Yesterday a really nice "almost retired" guy bought it. He needed something with an automatic for his bad knee, and fell in love with my little stepper when he saw the ad. It went to a good home.Locals to my area will probably still see it running around Portland.

Thanks for all of the support and help from the forum - it was a fun build!

Chris.

[68Timber]

Hate you sold it, but one more saved plus boot, right?

[Chaplain]

Thanks for sharing your journey.

[MikeB]

Originally Posted by ChevDog1

I called the removal of the three speed misguided, only because I actually like them! I learned to drive in a 1956 Chevy 3100 that my family restored as a project. It had a 235 straight six with a three on the tree. I wish this truck still had it! but I'm not willing to spend the money to swap it back.

Be careful what you wish for. This is a previous post about my 3-speed manual column:

Wish I could get mine to work properly. I completely went through the steering column last year, which helped quite a bit, but some of the parts are simply worn out, and are not available anywhere. The main part I really need is the "shift bowl", which is where the shift handle is connected. Even though I shimmed the bores to minimize wobble on the mast, the boss where the shift handle attaches was broken and repaired with epoxy by some previous owner. I reinforced it, but am not 100% comfortable that it will hold up.

Since the Saginaw trans also had some internal issues, I caved and bought a used TH350 and had it rebuilt by a friend who was an auto transmission specialist at a GM dealer in the 70s and 80s. I also bought a rebuilt auto trans column and some shift linkage.

Some good news: At least my old column found a home with a guy who had a NOS shift bowl but otherwise worn out column. I had searched high and low for the shift bowl but never could find one.

My 250 six was very tired and had the dreaded head with integral intake manifold and the PAIR system. I had no interest in rebuilding it, so went with a mild 350.



Some of the column parts.


"Bowls" that I shimmed:


Egg-shaped hole in epoxy.