Project Reno - 72 cheyenne rebuild

[Chevymaniac]

Can't believe how much body work is, very expensive and i thought the truck only needed some paint.
What kind of numbers will the new motor make? Is it just stock?

Like the direction you are going with the truck.

How many gallons is the new fuel tank?

[cmabolt]

Hey chevymaniac. Yeah very expensive. The truck does
Need bodywork, but no rust or panel replacement is needed
Just filling and blocking then paint. Still looking for a shop.

Motor should be 300-325 HP stock. I'll upgrade cam later.
For now it'll do and the torque is hefty at 370 ft lbs.

The tank holds 18-19 gallons I believe. I used
The tank that utilizes an external pump.
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[steelhorse]

All the stories of paint prison is the reason why I am going to do mine myself. BTY nice truck.

[cmabolt]

Made a little more progress this week. Got the transfer case and trans removed. After scraping the gunk off I broke things apart and took them to the sandblaster to get rid of the undercoating that was on everything. The blaster used soda on the trans and transfer case so as not to damage the moving parts. He used glass on everything else. I think it turned out pretty good. I decided to save some money and buy felpro gasket material to re-do all the transfer case/trans gaskets. It wasn't to bad and they turned out pretty good.
The angle grinder with wire wheel is my new favorite tool. Works really well to get stuff cleaned up. Used the wire wheel to clean up the driveshafts. Next up, fitting the motor into the crossmember.

[cmabolt]

[cmabolt]

So, a little more to report. Got the trans and transfer case put back together temporarily to get the motor mocked up. Set the Pacific fab crossmember in and started lowering the engine into place.

After getting the drivers side motor mount bolt in, I quickly realized this isn't going to be easy.

I got the motor in place, bolted to trans and everything lined up and the passenger side motor mount isn't even close.

I decided to pull the motor and see if the crossmember would bolt up without being in the frame. Turns out, it, won't. I should have done this first.

I decided to do some measuring on the crossmember and it appears that the passengers side motor mount plate is welded in a different location than the drivers side. Not sure if this is a fab error or something else is a miss. Gonna give pacific fab a call and see. This is the drivers side of crossmember motor mount plate.

This is the passengers side of crossmember motor mount plate.

I think if the passengers side motor mount plate was moved up a half inch on the crossmember, all pieces will fit. I don't know if they jig weld these, so hoping there's some variation. More to come

[cmabolt]

Success!!! I spent a few hours widening all the holes on the motor mount plates and got the crossmember mocked up on the motor out of the frame. Then did a test install in the frame with success.




Now for the next challenge...

After getting everything mocked up, I lowered the cab and the passengers side valve cover was hitting the firewall. I think I'm gonna move the motor forward about an inch and a half for clearance. Otherwise there's plenty of room to move it forward.

Hopefully this weekend I can get the new holes drilled and move the trans forward. I really wanted to leave it in it's stock location, but doesn't look like that is gonna happen. Not sure why there are clearance issues?? I haven't heard of many on this forum, but also haven't seen many of these done with an sm465 mated to an lq4 either.

[cmabolt]

Ok, so been workin on the truck again. Had to take a hiatus to Santa Fe for a few days but have a had a solid week to make some progress. I ended up moving the trans/motor forward almost 2 inches. When done I was 19.5" from Pacific fab crossmember to front of forward crossmember. This gave me plenty of space in front of the firewall and in front of the motor.

I slotted the frame to make sliding the trans back and forth easier. I will reinforce this area after the frame gets blasted.

As luck would have it, the positioning of the motor made it possible for me to keep the original brake hose holes.


I will also be able to mount the bump stops in their original location with some cutting

I was also able to get the axles pulled and my dana 44 cleaned up and ready for the gear switch to 373's.
New moog ball joints

Tore out the old HO52. what a beast. btw, pick'r up and she's yours if anybody is interested. The dana 60 I prepped a while back is going in to replace her.

And now for the cab removal.

So at last down to the frame. I think I'm gonna fill some holes and get her ready for blasting.

[cmabolt]

Got a solid week of work done and frame is now ready for sandblasting. Some of you may be wondering why the the frame is getting sandblasted when it looks painted already?
Well, the body shop did a half ass job on the frame and rather than spot paint with epoxy primer, I just decided to start over with POR15. If your gonna do it...


To save space in the engine bay and modernize a little I purchased the Vintage air system for the truck. so while I wait for the sandblaster, i went ahead and cut out the area where the vintage firewall plate usually bolts on. I decided to weld it in.




Welded up a couple holes in the floor where the fuel inlets were on the old cab tank.

The Vintage systems comes with a block off plate for the passengers vent. I made a couple steel plates to fill both sides as I don't see a need for them
with the new system.


Next the frame gets blasted!

[cmabolt]

Yesterday the frame got blasted and i had the cab cleaned up a little. All told i think i have about $800 in blasting with the frame, cab and a bunch of parts. A little high, but I would have spent at least $6-700 to get a really good blaster plus media and my compressor is not up to that task. Blasting is done as far as I can tell. The rest can be done with some sandpaper and a sore shoulder.




Now time for paint. From all accounts, this should be fun. Not

Plastic down, (check) breathing apparatus purchased (check) body suit purchased (check) plastic gloves (check)... this stuff better be good because it cost me a fortune.

[cmabolt]

Got a full day to paint the frame. It had just rained so figured there was a good bit of humidity in the air.



Though painting with a brush took a good amount of time and the runs were unavoidable, it turned out pretty good and coverage was not an issue. I used
2 quarts for 2 coats on the frame, core support and trans crossmember. I still had a little left over for misc parts. Next I will lightly sand, prime and coat
with topcoat. It's worth mentioning that it's really hard to get a good second coat as glossy black on black makes it impossible to know what has been covered.
To do it over again I would do silver for first coat and black for second. Then let dry prime and do final topcoat.

while waiting for the first coat to dry I worked a little on the old gas inlet to the cab. I por15'd the vent areas as well since I will be welding those holes up.

[cmabolt]

Made some more progress on the cab after sanding the frame and core support and priming for top coat.


I really liked what crash did to his firewall, so I have decided to do the same.
Thanks for the inspiration Crash. It really cleans the firewall up. I should have that done tomorrow.
I don't know if this would be possible without deleting the original A/C and going to the Vintage air system, but since I have, seemed like a great idea.


Hopefully this weekend I'll get the Chassis Black topcoat on. It will take me most of a day to cover everything well.

[VA72C10]

Very nice! Looking good!

[mjensen]

The truck is looking awesome. Subscribed.

[Crash_OK]

Looks great.. brings back memories..

[mortoyz]

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[cmabolt]

Thanks guys! I am having the time of my life building this thing. Finished some more welding/grinding last night. I have a few more holes to plug then on to fitting the seats. This truck originally had a bench. Earlier in my build I found some buckets and had them refurbished. As far as I know, there is one missing hole for each seat mount that I need to fab into the floor. Hoping the dana 44 will be done soon so I can jump back on the chassis.

[quadzero]

What an excellent project. Kudos to you for taking on the frame yourself. You sure have a lot of energy and patience and are paving the way for people just starting out like the engine swap for instance. Keep up the good work and now im going back to the beginning and read it all again.

[cmabolt]

Hey thanks Quadzero. Labor or love if there ever was one. I only had a half day yesterday so I wanted to get my seats situated in the cab. I found out that I could only use one of the four existing holes for each seat bracket. So I made some large stout washers out of 1/8 steel.

I welded up the old holes in the floor and marked and drilled new ones.

I dropped by fastenel and got some weld nuts and dry mounted the seats with bolts slightly loose. Then welded up the bolts and nuts.

Not the prettiest arrangement in the world, but my welding is getting better with each project.

In a couple of spots i was able to use the existing factory holes. Just needed to weld in new nuts.

This is my second set of gloves. While grinding it seemed like the sparks were getting hotter. Then to my surprise, found my gloves almost became part of my hand. Guess I'll be using the leather gloves from here on out.

[cmabolt]

So Frame is painted.

I am not terribly thrilled with the runs in the paint, but fairy certain that nobody will be crawling under the truck looking at the frame. i am happy that it's protected. Too bad they don't have POR in a spray can. I would have bought that and the chassis coat in spray can and that would have produced a much nicer product I think. Anyway, she's done. I did some more welding on the firewall and cab vents and mocked up the a/c so i could weld up the remaining holes in the mounting plate.






I also just got word that the Dana 44 is done so gonna pick that up today and start getting her back into a roller. Should have some good progress in the next couple weeks.

[rgunlock]

Just caught up on your thread since bringing the truck home. Progress is looking really good! Looks like you have the skills to have had this project much further along had it not languished in the body shop those years, but you appear to be making up for lost time now.

[Daubs]

Nice work and keep after it! After owning my 72 K-20 for seven years, I believe it is time to start the project. Talked with a local body shop about doing cab corners, rockers and floor and of course they can't get to it for 5-6 months. Big hail storm blew through here week ago and they are swamped. I will probably start my build thread here some time soon. There are things i can get done before body work.

[cmabolt]

Hey rgunlock. Thanks for checkin back in. I am working on this almost daily so yes definitely making up for lost time. Some day soon though i will have to face the dreaded bodyshop blues again. Hey Daubs! good luck with your build.

Today I picked up my dana44 with 3;73's in it. painted it and next week will get her under the frame. In the mean time I got the Dana 60 bolted in this evening.
Research really paid off. The axle, which came out of a 71 3/4 ton gmc, bolted right in with no issue.

[cmabolt]

So, been chippin away at the suspension. I got the front axle mounted

hubs cleaned and painted with new races, bearings and seals.


All new tie rod ends as well as drag link. She should steer straight after all this. Painting all the suspension parts has really slowed me down. It's been really humid and the damn paint is taking forever to dry.


I also test fitted the billstein shocks. 2 fit and 2 didn't. The fronts shocks fit well, but the rears were fully extended when installed. With my 2" lift they were supposed to fit. Suspension connection made good on the incorrect part and should have those next week. For those keeping track the part numbers are: Billstein 5125 series fronts 33-185590 Rears 33-186542

I also had a Forum member drop by and lend me some bell housings to see what will work for my hydraulic clutch setup. Thanks Alan!


While waiting for paint to dry I finished up my dolly for the cab. Now I can have my wheels back for the truck.

Hopefully by end of week I will have her on all 4 wheels and can begin prepping the motor and trans to go into frame. The motor trans and transfer case are all going
to get a coat of fresh paint. Oh how I love the paint?

[mjensen]

Ooh shiny. I like it! You've made some nice progress there!