Project Burro Viejo

[mx574]

Nice, nice project. Your starting point is already great and i dig your motor setup. Way over my head but i like it. Quality stuff if you are getting welds done at rad rides. That picture that they welded is that stainless?

[steinepstein]

Yes, 2.5" stainless. I bought the flanges and tubing on ebay, great deals on both. Both sensor bungs are stainless so I needed to use stainless tubing. I'll probably run stainless all the way out the back.

Thanks.

[steinepstein]

Tore the whole burro down to nothing, repainting and cleaning up everything.

The front suspension will go on first then going to work my way to the rear and convert over to a trailing arm setup. Will have to do a little more grinding and cutting back there.

Flipped the bed up against the wall, serves as a good paint drying station.

[steinepstein]

I removed as many bolts, nuts, washers, small parts as I could and sent them off to be sandblasted and cadium plated. Very happy with the result. All in all the cost was about $140 and saved me a ton of time on cleanup and everything looks new again.

[mcbassin]

Nice progress! those bolts turned out looking new!

[big_al_71]

wow, great progress, i wish I would had done that with all the old bolts instead of buying all new like i did.

[VA72C10]

Looking good. Good idea on the bolts also!

[steinepstein]

Thanks for the comments on the bolts, that is a cool trick I saw from a guy on one of the pro touring sites. Saved me a lot of hassle and everything looks new, I highly recommend to anyone doing a frame off build.

Ordered a PB trailing arm crossmember and SS brake lines.

More painting and assembly to be done this weekend and more pics to come.

[steinepstein]

Reassembly has begun. Ran into a hiccup on the ball joints. I bought a CPP disc brake kit several years ago and they must be a different year spindle, so I'll have to press out the ball joints from my older a-arms and put them in the Strong Arms.

[steinepstein]

I sent this picture off to Porterbuilt to double check before I start cutting, everything looks good to me. The two circled holes should align. The circled hole on my frame was a ground shock mount rivet.

[VA72C10]

Cool! Looking good!

[steinepstein]

I'm working my way back on the frame, sanding and painting. I will have a lot to do before the final paint job. The whole rear (leaf spring) suspension is out! I picked up a good set of trailing arms and a 12 bolt rear for a great deal at a big auto show in Wisconsin. This time, I painted far enough back that I can bolt in the Porterbuilt crossmember. Tomorrow, I will be cutting out frame notches and installing the PB mild notches. I will be doing some fabrication work for the shocks and panhard bar. I am going to relocate both the shocks and panhard bar, I want the shocks as close to the wheel as possible and the panhard bar as low as possible. That will also require a new crossmember for the panhard bar.

[steinepstein]

When I originally picked up this truck, it had a hurst ratchet shifter in it, I loved it. I was strongly considering the Lokar shifter but really needed something to beat on. Well, Hurst stopped making these, but I found one on ebay.... Excited to get this back in there....this time it's hooking up to a 700r4 instead of a TH350.

[VA72C10]

Keep up the progress!

[mcbassin]

Very nice progress!

[steinepstein]

Started chopping up the frame and installing the PB mild notches. As installed, I'm off by 1/4"...tough finding the exact center with the notches, but not bad. I'll be doing a little more cutting to get it squared up this weekend. Looks like I also installed the crossmember in the forward position and it needs to go to the rear position. I guess I should have mocked up first...chalk it down as a lesson learned...more painting to come!

I also dropped my Entropytec radiator off at Rad Rides, they welded some brackets on it and it will be hard mounted to the radiator/frame brace, excited to see the outcome, I'll post pics when I pick it up.

[mcbassin]

That frame is going to be sweet with all the P/B bling. Sorry to hear of your 1/4" error. No big deal it's just metal, right. BTW, cool score with the Hurst shifter! Keep the pictures coming!

[VA72C10]

Progress is looking good!

[steinepstein]

Had some parts made a for a custom panhard bar setup. Using 1.75" DOM 0.120 wall tubing for the crossmembers. The panhard mount is basically an extended ECE lowered shock mount. I could have used the ECE kit but I wanted to bar to run parallel to the rearend and stay level to the axle at ride height. So I will be making a bracket to keep the bar as low as possible, more to come...

[steinepstein]

I picked up this 4L80E for a nice price. Need to clean up and rebuild when I have some time. Should be a good backup if the 700R4 goes.

[mcbassin]

Very nice Progress! Looks like a good score on the 4l80 too!

[steinepstein]

Not too much going on, still working on the rear suspension, haven't got too much time off lately.

I also put the engine and tranny back in for fitment with the I-6 mounts. Engine seems a little high to me and the angle may be a little more than I want.....4 degrees, approx.

I put the 700r4 up for sale in the parts section, starting to think I want the 4L80e in there....since I have the hitch in the back. I still have some time until this thing is done and should probably do this stuff now!

[steinepstein]

I did pick up a LY6 from a local yard with 19,000 miles, for a good price.

I popped off the manifolds and oil pan to check things out a rotate the motor. Everything looks really good so far. I'm not going to tear down anymore than here, maybe a new cam, that's it. I need a harness, and front accessories to run it...something to do over winter.

Not sure what I'm gonna do with this right now, but they are making huge power with these things. Might do a T56 hooked up to this and retrofit something, partial to 60s Novas and Camaros.....

[steinepstein]

Before I start setting the rear shocks and panhard in place I need to properly set the instant center and pinion angle. Putting the cab back on and setting the correct ride height should get me there. I'd love to do a 26" front tire and 29" rear tire, but it's not looking so good...if you want the bed level. May look at a 28" tire and 29" rear.

These pictures are the 26" front tire flush to the wheel well.

[steinepstein]

The last picture of the rear end is the amount of travel with a 26" tire in the rear, very tight.