Clifford the Big Red Truck~~The Build

[daddyjeep]

Originally Posted by 1957 Chief

I do have videos brother, but I don't know how to share em. ??? Lemme know and Ill post em up.

I put mine up on youtube and share a link here.

[1957 Chief]

Having a good time with the truck. Last two events were LS Fest in Kentucky and an SCCA event at the old Blytheville AFB here in Arkansas. We were racing in standing water 1/2 to 1 inch deep, and the truck def performed well.

The truck is a real beast and is a blast to drive. After LS Fest we decided to get a set of the "Attack" style wheels from Rocket Racing Wheels. 18x9 and 18x10's. Also, put on a set of Bridgestone RE-71R tires. Adjusted on the front alignment as well. 1.5 inches of neg camber, 6 degrees of neg caster and 1/16th of an inch toe out. The ole truck really handles now.

Bubba

[Dads79GMC]

Looks mean!! I like it, great work!!

[1957 Chief]

Originally Posted by Dads79GMC

Looks mean!! I like it, great work!!

Thanks brother. While it is fun to build em, its even more fun to thrash em

Bubba

[Sik66]

How's it all feel with the ls and 6 Spd?...... Nice to drive,what was your diff ratio?........how's the driveshaft go with slip joint?...all work as should?

[1957 Chief]

Originally Posted by Sik66

How's it all feel with the ls and 6 Spd?...... Nice to drive,what was your diff ratio?........how's the driveshaft go with slip joint?...all work as should?

Absolutely love the 6-speed with the LS. The truck is an absolute beast. Will most likely put a different shifter arm on it. To bring it more towards the driver.

Rearend is a 3.42 ratio. I have a rear tire just under 26 inches tall, so at 75 Im doing just about 2K rpm's.

Driveshaft and slip yoke work as advertised my friend. The whole system works great. I did have to switch to a 3/4 bore master cylinder to be able to move the slave cylinder.

Bubba

[Desert1957]

Originally Posted by 1957 Chief

Having a good time with the truck. Last two events were LS Fest in Kentucky and an SCCA event at the old Blytheville AFB here in Arkansas. We were racing in standing water 1/2 to 1 inch deep, and the truck def performed well.

The truck is a real beast and is a blast to drive. After LS Fest we decided to get a set of the "Attack" style wheels from Rocket Racing Wheels. 18x9 and 18x10's. Also, put on a set of Bridgestone RE-71R tires. Adjusted on the front alignment as well. 1.5 inches of neg camber, 6 degrees of neg caster and 1/16th of an inch toe out. The ole truck really handles now.

Bubba

6 Degrees Negative caster????

[1957 Chief]

Originally Posted by Desert1957

6 Degrees Negative caster????

I'm sorry brother, you are correct in your assumption. I meant positive.

Bubba

[nlped]

Just read this whole thread after seeing your post in the LSX swapper thread. This thing is awesome! I have a black ‘77 that I need to do this to!

My mom’s entire family is from the Beebe/Garner area. My uncle is Roger Lynch, he’s a senator there...a gun toting senator

[1957 Chief]

Originally Posted by nlped

Just read this whole thread after seeing your post in the LSX swapper thread. This thing is awesome! I have a black ‘77 that I need to do this to!

My mom’s entire family is from the Beebe/Garner area. My uncle is Roger Lynch, he’s a senator there...a gun toting senator

Thanks ace. Your uncle is in the district below us, towards Lonoke.

And look me up if you are ever around.

Bubba

[1957 Chief]

Just a few updates.

Been to two more SCCA events. The kid is getting a lot better and he is realizing that the brakes are better than he thinks. Really accelerating hard to the corners just in time to whoa the truck up.

I was scrolling through some pics the other day and you can really tell the difference between the first truck we built, and the current one.
The first pic shows the truck with a 5/5 drop and just belltech front and rear swaybars.
The second pic, the truck has the full Ridetech suspension: Coilovers, sway bars and rear 4-link.

Third and fourth pics show the tonneau cover I got for it. Paid 251 dollars at Summit for it.

We really enjoy driving it every day. Next up is to make a rear subwoofer enclosure for my son, and to figure out why the driver's window comes outta the front channel when the window is all the way down.

Bubba

[1957 Chief]

Gonna bump this up to the top, to show y'all what's the latest with the ole C10.

Since the last post my son has joined the USAF with aspirations of being a PJ. He has a long road ahead of him, but he is in the pipeline.

He also destroyed the TR6060 in Memphis at a track day event. Glad I had a scatter shield on the trans, or my lil boy would not be where he is now. So we changed the trans to a T56 magnum and we were driving that around.

Truck set for 3 months, so I decided to mess with it again. Been reading up and hearing a lot about these S1 Sequential shifters outta Australia. Sold some goodies that have been laying around the house so I figured, "What the heck?" Ordered it on a Friday, was here the following Monday.

The basic premise is that you pull back to upshift, push forward to downshift. I bought the digital gear readout as well because sometimes its kinda hard to remember what gear you are in. Anyways, I can tell you is is one well engineered piece of equipment. Totally impressed with it.

I have it in the truck now and I'm still lining out some details as far as shifter angle and the gear indicator location. It is also a whole new experience driving with this kind of shifter, really takes some getting used to. But its fun as heck.

Anyways, here are some pics right out the box. Ill have more pics of it in the truck in a few days.

Bubba

[moregrip]

Bubba, what a great write up! I missed this whole thread somehow; must be getting old! Excellent work and even better story. If you have more details on the manual trans swap I'd be interested!

[Hart_Rod]

Sweet build! Glad your back at it. Good luck to your boy, PJ's are a tough row to hoe!

[1957 Chief]

Well its been about 4.5 years since I last posted about Blackjack. Truck still runs strong and we still enjoy it. My son has been in the USAF almost 5 years, and is married and is stationed in SC as an air traffic controller.

I took the sequential shifter back off and went back to an H pattern shifter. While dynoing the truck after that, the slip yoke in the driveshaft let go and tore up a bunch of stuff. So we took the TR6060 and converted it to the T56 magnum tailshaft/slipyoke. So I know have a regular driveshaft. Along the way I changed camshafts, upgraded the valvetrain, installed a Holley accessory drive, Terminator x harness, installed vintage air, and put a whole new suspension under the truck, in addition to other stuff that I have forgotten.

I was running the ridetech coilover system but the more I autocrossed, the more I realized that their suspension wasn't gonna work for what I was doing. So I decided to put a No Limit front and rear suspension on the truck. Talk about night and day.... And by putting the NL suspension on the truck I could easily run 18X11's all the way around. I also switched to running the Rocket Flare wheel on the truck.

Ill load up some more pics soon..

Bubba

[1957 Chief]

Couple more

[kitsbeach]

No Limit stuff is awesome. Good people too. I've got some of their stuff on my '67.

[Shifty One]

Looks good!

[1957 Chief]

Just dropping in to share some more updates with the truck. Pulled the LS3 out and installed a 416 LS built by my buddies down at Kuntz Power in Arkadelphia, AR. What started out as a valve train update turned in a full engine build.
Truck is still real easy to drive with the T56. The motor doesn't like RPM's below 2K, but it gets rowdy after that. Makes over 600ftlbs from 4100 up, and a lil over 700hp at 7100. I am blessed to know the owner (and call him a friend) of Kuntz/GPI and he really exceeded my expectations. Canted valve heads, Super Vic intake Callies rotating assy and a bunch of other goodies. Just went on a 200 mile round trip with a bunch of other trucks and it performed flawlessly....nothing like having 700+ hp with the vintage air kicking.

Also installed the No Limit rear suspension as well, improved racing oil cooler, new seats and some other stuff.

Will slowly start to ween Blackjack off the teat, because I will soon be starting the build of my 1957 3100 that I've owned for 30 years... I should pick up a No Limit chassis for it in the next week or two. I'll also start a build thread for it over in the 55-59 forum.

Some pics for your viewing pleasure....

[PowerdbyChevy79]

Subscribed!!!

[1957 Chief]

Originally Posted by 1957 Chief

I will soon be starting the build of my 1957 3100 that I've owned for 30 years... I should pick up a No Limit chassis for it in the next week or two. I'll also start a build thread for it over in the 55-59 forum.

Some pics for your viewing pleasure....

As promised:

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...d.php?t=862019

Bubba