51 chevy build

[Erics51chevy]

Sorry about the big pictures!

[paulspickupparts]

Originally Posted by Atmsrus1

I have a 51 3100 that I'm going to put on a S10 frame. Yours is looking great, sure wish I was that far along. Not trying to hijack your thread but anyone know if the earlier year doors will work on a 51 since it was the first year with the vent window. Anyway good job on your build, looking forward to more updates
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If your 51 is original with the turn down door handles the 47-50 doors will bolt on. The 51 doors are kind of what I call the freak doors . Turn down handle but at the same time having a vent window. It is much harder to fit the 47-50 doors on a 52 and later due to the change in latches.

[paulspickupparts]

Originally Posted by Atmsrus1

Ok, so just to make sure I have this straight. I can use any door from 47 up to the 55 first series and they will fit. All I have to do is put in the vent window hardware and decide which door handles I want to use. If that is it then that is great. I really appreciate the info. Thank you much.
Posted via Mobile Device

You can bolt on 47-50 doors in place of your 51 door with no mods which will give you one piece side glass. 51 doors are kind of a freak year door . By that I mean they had a turn down handle with vent window . 52 and up had the push button handle. Because of the different latch used for the push button handle it makes the door switch much more complicated on 52 and up trucks.

[Atmsrus1]

Originally Posted by paulspickupparts

You can bolt on 47-50 doors in place of your 51 door with no mods which will give you one piece side glass. 51 doors are kind of a freak year door . By that I mean they had a turn down handle with vent window . 52 and up had the push button handle. Because of the different latch used for the push button handle it makes the door switch much more complicated on 52 and up trucks.

Great that is good to know, thank you very much. Not 100% sure the doors are original since the door handles are missing. But they look like they are, a buddy of mine may have found a couple of doors that he thinks are 51 doors. So that may be a way also or I may can just repair the rusted lower sections of my doors. Thanks again to all who replied about the doors. Once again didn't mean to hijack your thread, sorry about that.

Russell
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[Erics51chevy]

No problem, its all great information. Thats what i have to do also, my lower door insides are terrible. Its a shame new body parts on these trucks are expensive. 300 to 500 dollars for fenders and inner fenders plus shipping.

[Atmsrus1]

Originally Posted by Erics51chevy

No problem, its all great information. Thats what i have to do also, my lower door insides are terrible. Its a shame new body parts on these trucks are expensive. 300 to 500 dollars for fenders and inner fenders plus shipping.

Yea I know what you mean. Heck these parts are as expensive as parts for my 2001 Corvette before I sold it, it's crazy at the cost. But if you have a 10 year newer truck the parts are like half as much. Lol
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[Erics51chevy]

Yea that is pretty ridiculous.

Started welding my motor mounts today, just have to do the ones on the frame. I took the engine out to make sure everything cleared coming out before fully welding them.
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[Erics51chevy]

Wow this is completely embarrassing. I have been working on this truck every day for a couple hours a day after work till late at night. I've become addicted and forgot to post anything for a while. My apologies for anybody interested.

[Erics51chevy]

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What a time consuming process to make these rusty old fender look decent. 1 out of too many done.

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I was really happy how the inner fenders came out. Added a ton of new metal to them.

[Erics51chevy]

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Next was the brakes. I took the hydroboost off of my old work truck and mounted it underneath of the cab to keep the firewall clean.

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Making my own brake pedal. Because I'm really cheap.

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Welded a plate to mount the hydroboost and a plate to mount the brake pedal

[Erics51chevy]

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Next and most importantly is the motor. I got it built with pistons for boost, bigger rods, new heads, blah blah blah. The black wrinkle paint did it for me.

[Erics51chevy]

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Bought a fuel cell 19 gallons and made my own take straps. Because I'm cheap.

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ran the wiring harness in back of the engine to keep it a clean look. Still working on wiring it up completely.

[Erics51chevy]

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Did 1 out of 2 door bottoms. They are badly rusted. i cut the outside bottom out too. I have to go buy more metal to finish them.

[Erics51chevy]

Next is the bed.
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I cut the bed floor out. it wasn't worth trying to repair. As you can see the bedsides are badly rusted where they met the floor.

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So i cut just before the angle and kept that and the circle. Saved me a lot of work

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Cut 2 new pieces out
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[Erics51chevy]

Then was the tailgate
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Had to cut just the letters out and ad new metal above and below it. I hate rust.
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Welded a piece of galvanized pipe to tubing and had to heat up and beat the metal with a sledgehammer to get it to roll into a c. More difficult then i assumed!
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Still a work in progress!
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My homemade sand blasting booth in the background.(wood box) That thing comes in handy.

[Erics51chevy]

My experimental project! 4 turbos from 2 Toyota Supras
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Custom made manifolds (obviously)
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So much time to make these!
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Other side

[chev3600]

Nice! I thought you were screwing with us in the first turbo pic. That's pretty awesome when it's done. Certainly not your average turbo LS build. Keep up the good work.

[Erics51chevy]

Thank you. I wanted to try something different and had this crazy idea in mind. Maybe one day ill chuck the turbos and go with 2 big singles. I only bought them for a couple hundred bucks so if they don't work its not a big loss i suppose.

[Erics51chevy]

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i ran the fuel and fuel return lines. Bought a bunch of those AN fittings that are way overpriced lol. Bought a 10 micron filter, a 380lph aem pump, and an 100 micron filter for the fuel line. Went from 3/8 pipe to AN fittings with a couple male to male fittings and couplings.

I bought that fuel pump bracket for like 3 dollars off of eBay. works great and is tight for the money. It is pretty thick aluminum with a rubber insert clamping the pump.

[Erics51chevy]

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I did end up buying a brake kit for this. I actually ended up swapping the front axle for a 3100 axle that i found some guy trying to get rid of for cheap on craigslist. I was very lucky to find that. I told the guy putting the brake kit together that i wanted a 5 lug 5x114 to match the explorer rear. Ironically enough it is the same bolt person as my 350z. so i had extra wheels laying around i threw on there
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[Erics51chevy]

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Ill take more pics of this because you really can't see a whole lot. I went to the junk yard and measured a bunch of seats but couldn't find any decent seats from any rangers. I decided i wanted to stay with the bench seat, so the gf can get close LOL. But really to keep the old style look. I carried that thing about a mile from the back of the yard. The guy felt so bad for me at the front desk he gave it to me for free! And a can of pepsi, score!

I made 4 seat mounts. The seat is out of a toyota tacoma i believe. It can slide forward and back, fold down, and has a nice fold down arm rest in the middle. Works for me! Gf cleaned the seat while I build the seat mounts.

[Erics51chevy]

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Been busy reworking my wiring harness. Took out all the connectors i dont need and am going to make my own fuse box so i dont have a huge one for no reason.

Also just ordered a new 4 core radiator with a fan. Also comes with a trans cooler.
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Also got a dog which makes you busy as well!

[iowaboynca]

that's a good idea using the label maker to identify circuits

[Erics51chevy]

Yeah it definitely makes things a lot easier. My handwriting is terrible and I had one laying around so I lucked out. I'll be running a separate small fuse box for all the interior electronics and lights. Hopefully one for an air conditioner when I get one .

Any reviews on those air conditioning kits online?

[Erics51chevy]

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99 percent done the harness. i took out all of the wires in the box. New fuse box compared to old one. I will be adding to the fuse block but you can physically attach one fuse block to another and connect more relays right to it. I wired in a OBD2 port, 2 fan wires, brake switch wire, check engine light, wire for tach and speedo, and fuel pump power.