John's 53 3100 with S10 swap

[jhnpldng]

Just bought 4 ADs, two with titles, one of which is a 53. The 53 has the most potential for a quick patina S10 swap so that's first in line. The truck has stencilled letters on the front of the bedsides with the PO's name. His name was Leo so that will be the truck's name. Say Hi to Leo.



I see that turquoise under there that's desirable for patina. I'll have to see how much of that I can bring out.

Here's the other trucks.



Those two are coming from the same place as Leo. They were both green originally. One dark and one medium green. My second project might just be green patina.
The next one is a 1950 2-ish ton that I bought along with a 79 Chevy Wrecker with a Holmes 480 sling n boom. That'll come in handy for moving cabs around. Both the 50 and wrecker run and move under their own power but neither are close to road worthy. Got em both for 2k and got the other 3 ADs for 1.5k. Leo was a running, drivable truck when it was parked and disassembly started 10+ years ago



I'm going to pick up the wrecker tomorrow, then the hunt is on for an S10 donor. Thought I had a good one found. $500 for a 91, 4.3 with new tires on Cragars with the back rims being wider that the front. But..... "the number you have reached is no longer in service" and no answer via email. Prob had internet through the phone co. ez come ez go.

After making two trucks, I'm going to put the leftover rusty parts on the 2 ton and keep it around here for a yard dog. I live in the back woods so I could drive it around the gravel roads. Teach the kids how to drive that thing. A normal vehicle will be easy after that.

[jhnpldng]

resized the pics cause they were huge but now they don't show up even thought the url is the exact same. Can't edit the orig post so here's the pics........................again

LEO



Other Trucks from same place



2ish Ton truck.
http://www.route66custom.com/wp-cont...s/IMG_0652.jpg

Picked up the 79 gmc wrecker yesterday. Going to be a nice back and time saver. Got it to stay running. LOL Dirt dobbers had gotten access to the top of the carb somehow. It's an old wore out truck but will do what I need it to. Won't be road worthy for a little while though.
The cab on Leo is the worst of them so I think Leo's going to stay here. My neighbor will appreciate that. Leo, in the human form, passed away quite a few years ago and my neighbour was quite friendly with him and his plan was to get Leo, the truck, brought back to life. That truck drove these gravel roads 30-40 years ago so it would be pretty cool to have it do so again. So I'm going to start with the cab that's already off the frame. Still looking for a donor S10 but not having much luck. Got a line on a tralblazer dirt cheap. Tranny quit working all of the sudden so I'm thinking pressure solenoid but I haven't even seen it yet. Might be the ole lady's new vehicle or might be an engine donor for an AD. All depends on the interior condition. Co-worker of my wife's and the girl says it's got a 5.3 V6 in it. NOT. So until I see it, I won't know if it's 5.3 V8 or 4.2 I6. It's a 4x4 which leaves the engine only to be useful for an AD. Unless I want a jacked up 4x4 AD.

[jhnpldng]

Found an S10 donor and didn't have to drive 100 miles to get it, hooray. Got it stripped down, frame blasted, ospho'd and primed with Nason DTM epoxy primer.
Something's always bothered me about the tall cab stands though I'm not sure what. Maybe because they just don't look like anything the factory ever did. So I'm going a different route. The floors on most of these trucks are trashed anyway, plus with the swap, a hump has to be built for the tranny so I'm just going to build an entire floor and build it down to the cab mounts/frame like they did in later years. This allows me to reuse the stock S10 cab stands although they get relocated. I ended up using the rad support stands for the front cab stands and the front cab stands became the rear cab stands. I'll be making my own rad support stands and I'm reusing the original radiator from the S10 (I think).

I thought I had read all about the differences between cabs by year but ran across something I hadn't read about. 47-50 cabs that had the one pc door glass have different door latches and the cab and door sheet metal are a little different in that area compared to the 51-early55 that have the vent windows. I knew about the difference in door handles and vent vs no vent but didn't know about the cab and door shell being different.
Here's some pics showing the differences. 1950 on left 1953 on right



Along with the 53 came some extra disassembled trucks, one of which had doors on it. The driver's door would shut but was hard to open so I tried adjusting it to no avail. Come to find out, it was a 1950 cab with a later, vent window type door on it.

Also, I have a 2 ton here and something I hadn't seen before in regards to cab differences is that the big trucks only have one rear cab mount in the middle and they also have sheet metal that goes all the way down in the corners behind the doors.
Just because I like a challenge, either that or are a glutton for punishment, I'm using the roughest cab to start with. I figure I'll learn more LOL. I probably know all cus words but maybe I can make up some new ones. Actually, it's the roughest down low but has the best dash and since I'm replacing the whole floor anyway....

I'm not going to post the whole build here. Mostly just things that I do different or things I haven't seen here. These s10 swaps have been done and documented quite a bit so I don't want to bore people with the same ole same ole.

[chev3600]

Cool, looking forward to seeing something a little different. You've got a good start on a collection of extra parts!

[jhnpldng]

Just checked out your build. Nice work. I see your cab was pretty rough to start with like mine are. Finally got a proof of progress pic. You can see how the cab stand placement ended up.
My wheels came in so I'm doing a test fit in this pic. The hub bore is a little bigger so I'm going to make some rings to take up the slack. How that is done will depend on whether or not I use wheel spacers and the style of them if I do. The wheels are 17x8 with 4 inch backspace but we all know how far in the S10 track ends up with these ADs. Pretty sure I'll be swapping the rear axle for a 4x4 version. I had another thought on dealing with the narrow track. Slice a couple inches off the fenders. The rears would be a piece of cake since they bolt to the flat bedsides. Front, not so much. Not sure how it all would look at the end either. It would bring them in about even with the running boards. Hey, it would be easier to park. If the front doesn't look too bad when the body's back on, I may just take a couple off inches of the rear fenders and not bother with the 4x4 axle. That would give me truly stock S10 suspension geometry. Hoping to have the cab floor built, welded in and have the cab back on the frame by the end of the weekend.

[Sim6]

I like those wheels! Good looking projects.

[jhnpldng]

Thanks, got a deal on them. $424 to my door. The truck is black too so I think it will look pretty good. Didn't think about how open they are though until I put them on. Would be nice to have some oversized, slotted, drilled wilwood discs on all four with powder coated calipers. Probably not going to happen though.
Got involved with a home project so I didn't get squat done on the truck. Will get back to it in a few days.

[jhnpldng]

Well as Justin T Wilson was wont to say, Spring has Sprung the Grass has Grew.

Been 10 months of virtually zero progress on the truck(s). All kinds of things popped up last year including finally getting electric service brought on the property. Dealt with too few solar panels and yanking on generator cords for 4 years. Had my welder, compressor and other electric equipment up the road at a neighbor's vacant mobile home with elec turned on there but that was a major inconvenience. Then of course, winter set in.

Just ordered about $200.00 worth of parts, tools and supplies. Time to get this show on the road. After some majors spring cleaning and a week's worth of work to do on the shop.

[joedoh]

crawford county, my grandmother lived in rolla when I was a kid, we visited several times.

looks like a great start!