C10CJ: A Pro-touring '71 Stepside on a No Limit Pro-C10 Chassis

[Advanced Design]

Well Chris, that is a very impressive LS rabbit hole you've gone down. Seems I remember Don Hardy race cars for V8 Vega kits back in the late 70's or early 80's.

Chassis and powertrain looks really good!

[mooseknuckles]

wow, I love that motor...and the chassis is pretty sweet too, and the wheels, and pretty much everything else. awesome build!

[Stickman]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Well Chris, that is a very impressive LS rabbit hole you've gone down. Seems I remember Don Hardy race cars for V8 Vega kits back in the late 70's or early 80's.

Chassis and powertrain looks really good!

That looks awesome, Don Hardy has been around a long time. They mention the above in there website bio. Again , that frame and engine look terrific.

[rustylew]

Did you go with the standard 61" rear axel and 61-1/2" up front??

[1971_c10]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Well Chris, that is a very impressive LS rabbit hole you've gone down. Seems I remember Don Hardy race cars for V8 Vega kits back in the late 70's or early 80's.

Chassis and powertrain looks really good!

Thanks! I may be down the rabbit hole, but not complaining.

And yep, Don Hardy has been around a while. I didn't realize he had a small hot rod shop making engines until recently.

Originally Posted by mooseknuckles

wow, I love that motor...and the chassis is pretty sweet too, and the wheels, and pretty much everything else. awesome build!

Thanks a bunch man!

Originally Posted by Stickman

That looks awesome, Don Hardy has been around a long time. They mention the above in there website bio. Again , that frame and engine look terrific.

Thanks! Yeah the 418 cu in is a popular combo. I said, if it's good enough for Rodger Brogdon it's good enough for me!

In all seriousness though, it's was crazy that I could get a built LS long block with the same specs as what I was about to buy for a SBC, for the same cost as just the parts for the SBC! I then went all bling crazy because I knew I would do it eventually so might as well do it now.

Originally Posted by rustylew

Did you go with the standard 61" rear axel and 61-1/2" up front??

I kept the standard 61" rear 61.5" front. It's a balancing act. For turning corners you want a wide track, but you also want a wide contact patch (i.e. tread section). Then you start pulling in look, with things like lip depth affecting the overall look and it makes a big difference. The 61" seemed like a good compromise. I had thought about going with a slightly more narrow rear, to get an even bigger lip, but with the slightly convex spokes, it gives a deeper lip with a deeper backspace, which is normally opposite (deeper backspace is usually shallower lip).

[1971_c10]

Ok, been traveling a week for work, so better squeeze some more updates in before I get sent out again.

With the cab on, I went ahead and put part of the front clip on. Just because I was curious more than anything. The front clip is pretty easy to put on and take off.

I also set an air cleaner on the throttle body to check hood clearance. Looks like I have plenty with this one. It has a "dropped" bottom, so I may also pickup a flat bottom and check that at some point too.

[1971_c10]

I then made the decision to go ahead and cut the bedsides to clear the 12" wide tires (a stock step side might be able to clear an 11" tire, but it is tight).

The process was somewhat complicated, but it worked out in the end. What I did was on one side I put an "envelope" (the square tape in the pics below). That envelope is where I know I want the mini-tub to sit once I get those fabricated. The next daunting task was getting the cab squared up, then putting the bed on (I had to remove the rear tires during this process), and squaring the bed up to the cab. This is where those gaps become important. I made sure every gap was equal side to side, including the front fenders. The goal here is to get the center of the monster notch in the bedside lined up with the axle.

Once the body was squared up, I started putting on the layout for the notch. The trick here now is figuring out the diameter I wanted and where the top of the notch would be. To help this, you measure from the top of the wheel as installed to the top of the axle tube. Then subtract the height of the frame rail at the axle. This give you a distance above the frame rail if the suspension was bottomed out (so in case I bag it one day). Then, think if you might run a taller tire. I've got a ~27.5" tall tire now, but some of the race specific tires I may run are 28-30". So I added a few inches to this this distance I measured, namely 2" for a bigger wheel and 1" for further clearance.

The second part is the diameter, which I basically took the 30" tire and added some clearance, so I used a 32" diameter notch. The catch is that the center of the hole is actually below the bedside metal, so a jig made drawing the notch easy. You can see the simple jig I used in the pics below. Once I had one side figured out, I just transferred that to the other side. Then it was time to cut. No special tools for me, just my IR reciprocating saw. I love that little saw.

Note, I also kept the top of the notch low enough to not interfere with the fender mounts and low enough such that the mini-tub will sit just below the row of bolts.

[1971_c10]

And of course, now that the body fits with the wheels on ...

A stance check. I think things are working out perfectly.