Mikey's 77 shortbox - Greenie

[Katrina/10]

The blue looks good and is correct! You were lucky to find those A6 brackets, they are getting scarce. Have you checked the clearance between your exhaust manifold and the column shifter arm?

[mikentosh]

Originally Posted by Katrina/10

The blue looks good and is correct! You were lucky to find those A6 brackets, they are getting scarce. Have you checked the clearance between your exhaust manifold and the column shifter arm?

My exhaust guy routed the downpipe just under the shift linkage...it’s tight but works well. I’ve got some pics of that coming.

Once I get the cab back on and the steering column in place I’ll see if the rest of the arm works, or if I’ll need to get creative . I’m equally worried about getting the steering linkage connected as it’s super tight coming out of the fox body steering rack.

[LT7A]

I have long been interested in the idea of "dumbing-down" high performance parts to make them look stock. Part of me wants to highlight the difference where it's aluminum, etc. But there's something really cool about burying all of the detail under the bright blue and let the parts go about their business unnoticed. Fits really well with your improved-stock vibe.

[Corts60]

Looking sharp! I tend to hide any performance upgrades on my engines as well. I like the factory look, but I want the performance of aftermarket. Nicely done.

[TrailerTrash]

This is just all kinds of cool. Keep it up

[STOCKISH]

Super cool build! Looks killer!

[scoot]

"improved-Stock" I prefer this term over resto-mod. Lets see some more +stock mods.

[mikentosh]

Next on the list was fueling. Though I'm going for a vintage look I really want modern drivability, so I settled on a MSD Atomic EFI system. The major advantage to this system is its CARB approval for California smog exemption. It's also nicely packaged allowing me to use a factory air cleaner assembly on top.

I made one deviation from MSD's recommendations in the name of looks, for the fuel line I bent up a stainless hardline to roughly follow an original carb setup, however this terminates by the mechanical fuel pump location, where I transition to a flexible braided hose down to the framerail.

To mount the 700R4 TV cable I'm using a Bowler Tru-Shift bracket and arm, which makes setup so much easier. I found that the cleaned up factory I-6 throttle cable is a good size to work with this setup as well.

[mikentosh]

Continuing on the fuel system, I'm using the standard "LS Swap" C10 formula. A Spectra 16ga stock '87 tank, with baffled pan, is paired to a Spectra FG05N fuel sender and Bosch 69225 pump (equivalent to the AC Delco EP381). This pumps out to the C5 filter/pressure regulator combo.

I decided to paint the tank silver for a bit of contrast. I capped the sender with Russell Push-on EFI fittings (part 644113 and 644123), which allows the flexible AN-6 hoses to connect down to the FPR mounted to the inside of the passenger framerail. From here I bent up some stainless line to snake down to the front frame where it connects to the hose up to the engine.

This setup is not recommeded by MSD for the Atomic setup, as they claim it causes surging/hammering in the lines, but I really wanted to keep a factory like appearance, and using rubber hose for the whole thing wasn't gonna look right to me. I'll let you all know if this ends up causing issues, however its working for many, many LS swaps, including two previous ones I've done.

[STOCKISH]

Looks great man. The tank is a nice contrast for sure!

[mikentosh]

Originally Posted by STOCKISH

Looks great man. The tank is a nice contrast for sure!

Thanks! Yeah it was starting to be a sea of black.

[mikentosh]

I was going to "option" this out with a V05 heavy duty cooling setup, and got the flat radiator top plate, but I couldn't find any of the tall fan shrouds to go with it. Instead I switched back to a standard setup using the readily available repop fan shrouds.

I started out with a Cold Case radiator (GMT556A) which is a very nicely built unit. One minor issue with it is that its only available in bare aluminum, so I spent a bit of time prepping and painting with Eastwood radiator paint. Unfortunately after all of this work and having the unit in the core support I realized the lower radiator outlet is 0.25" larger than factory, which makes it basically impossible to find a pre-molded radiator hose. This makes the Cold Case radiator a no-go unless you want to use one of those flexi "universal" hoses.

About the time I was really getting fed up with searching alternative rad hoses on Summit, I came across their house brand of "classic OEM" radiators. These are copper/brass units that come in various sizes to fit most 60s/70s GM products. I went with part number SUM-382014, which ended up being a perfect fit.

I'm using an AC Delco fan clutch (15-80245) and an OER reproduction 19-1/2" 7 blade fan (part 3991431) to pull the air through.

[mikentosh]

On the front side of the core support I'm using a parallel flow A/C Condenser (APDI 7013612) and a Derale transmission cooler. To make these work with the stock core support bolts I designed up some brackets and sent them out to get cut from 16ga steel.

On eBay I found a set of original AC lines that snake through the core support connecting to the condenser. After a couple of days soaking in evaporust they were good as new.

The transmission cooler is connected via stanless hardline leaving the transmission up to the core support, where it transitions into AN-6 flexible hose to the cooler.

[lolife99]

Love the detail in your build.

[Corts60]

Looking good buddy!

[wesmigletz]

Awesome build. I love the color, too. Good job on the engine. Look forward to seeing how you like the FI set-up.

[mikentosh]

Now that the chassis was a roller I took the opportunity to bring it down to the exhaust shop to get a front section put together. Again I need to keep this smog legal, so using a single CARB-approved Magnaflow catalytic converter. Since this is a cruiser we went with a stock-style routing using 2.5" downpipes into a combined 3" into the cat and on to a Flowmaster FlowFX muffler. I'm hoping this muffler choice won't be too loud. Without the bed on the chassis, we decided to wait on routing the system post-muffler.

After getting everything welded up, I sent the whole system out to get Jet-Hot coated...it seems I don't have any photos of that though

[mikentosh]

One thing about the Ridetech rear setup I didn't like was how bulky the axle brackets are; I think this is mainly due to it being a bolt-on kit. Since we don't have that restriction, we took some time to fab up our own bracket assembly utilizing the Ridetech arms and panhard bar.

I had the 12-bolt rear rebuilt locally in San Jose. We went with a 3.42 gearset and a Tru-trac limited slip unit, and the whole assembly was powdercoated to match the chassis.

At this point I bolted up the first of a few different rear disc brake kits I've moved through. The setup pictured is from Little Shop Mfg, and is a super nice kit! It includes everything needed to convert a 12-bolt over to discs, comes with lines, and everything is nicely powdercoated. The kit uses the small diameter 79-85 Cadillac rear calipers (which include e-brake). Unfortunately I had too much contact with the 15x10 wheel setup I want to run on this truck.

After a LOT of trial and error, I found that front discs from a 90's era Astro van have the correct bolt pattern and enough offset to put the caliper away from the contact points in the rim. Amazingly enough I came across Captainfab's post in the vendor marketplace where he sells brackets that work with the astro rotors. Unfortunately this needs the 76-78 Caddy large diameter calipers, so I had to find a set of those too. Even with this setup I still needed to do a small amount of grinding on the caliper face AND run a 1/16" spacer for clearance, but all is well now.

[STOCKISH]

Looks amazing!

[Flames97]

Been checking out your build!!
Very clean!! I like where your going with it!

[mikentosh]

Now that the chassis is a roller, and after one last drive, it was time to start the tear down and swap over.

Something I don't think has been previously mentioned is we are converting the cab over to factory air conditioning. This required tearing apart everything under dash as well. This was also a good time to prep for hiding the MSD boxes.

I'm running a MSD 6AL spark unit in this project so eventually I can have ignition timing controlled by the Atomic EFI. I found a good place for the 6AL box mounted to the side of the brake pedal box, and the long extension on the throttle pedal bracket made a perfect place for mounting the Atomic EFI power module.

[evan]

Very nice! Seeing your username reminded me of the stepped bed you did for the 74 Sierra Grande. I had to go browse through that thread again too.

[mikentosh]

Originally Posted by evan

Very nice! Seeing your username reminded me of the stepped bed you did for the 74 Sierra Grande. I had to go browse through that thread again too.

My buddy Wes said he'd never do another one again...then last fall he did one for another friend's 72 that came out just as nice!

[wesmigletz]

Awesome work. I enjoy following your build. Thank you for sharing.

[evan]

Originally Posted by mikentosh

My buddy Wes said he'd never do another one again...then last fall he did one for another friend's 72 that came out just as nice!

Nice. I bet he'd have a lot of fans if he was willing to document one. There's something about it that makes it stand out compared to most body mods I've seen.