My 54 s10 build

[gigamanx]

Originally Posted by Cuttin up

Rabid, yep that’s about it. It’s rectangular tube attached across the bottom of the front rails. once I cut the bottom of the original core support I welded a piece of flat steel on the bottom to replace what I chopped off. I set the front end on and measured the distance between once it was close to the hood shutting correctly then made the uprights out of box tube. It may not be the fanciest way to do it but it works.

Joe, thanks man. I’ve followed a bunch of your builds and am always learning something new.

Looks a lot like how I did mine. I like that approach because I can add spacers to the flat plate if I need to adjust the core support slightly to make all the fender and hood gaps line up. So far, no problems



Looks like some great progress. Are you not adding running boards?

[Cuttin up]

Gigamanx, I plan on running boards but I’ll have to trim them (height wise) to get them to fit under the cab. My test measurements show I’ll have to cut the part that spans the area between the flat part of the board to the rocker panel on the cab. It should be subtle and the folks who are hardcore into these trucks may only be the ones to notice.

[Cuttin up]

For the bed I took some box tube cut to the width of the inside of the bed. Then welded legs to the bottom of the tube to bolt it into the original bed mount holes. I need to make the ones for the front and back once I decide on what I want to do for a floor. I connected the tube with angle iron the length of the bed to make a frame and slid the bed sheet metal over it. With the notch being tall, I’ll make the floor eventually flat across. The bed won’t be very deep but that’ll be ok.

[joedoh]

looking very flat!

[Gregski]

awesome bullnose

[lgh1157]

Great build !!!

Is that a Thorbecke Bros 4 link kit ?

[Cuttin up]

Thanks man. Yep it’s thorbecke’s s10 bolt in kit that deletes the original gas tank. The bridge notch kit is from him as well. It’s a really nice setup. I couldn’t be happier with how it came out. They don’t call him the “s10 Jesus” for nothing. Haha.

[Cuttin up]

As always life kinda gets in the way and haven’t been able to post much but I have got some things done. Running boards are on and now it really has a hovercraft look. I simply took some rectangular box tube and built basically a nerf bar, then bolted the crusty running boards to them.

[Cuttin up]

I wanted something simple for the bed floor. Something not too expensive and something that could be used without worry. I decided, for now, to use some 2x6s in white pine stained with some Thompson’s weather sealer. They were laid out and braced on the bottom as one removable unit. The bed floor isn’t very deep but I like having the flat floor instead of having the notch sticking out of the middle. I put a large piano hinge on the front so you can lift it up to service the rear suspension/air system from the top. It’s super simple and I like the way it came out.

[joedoh]

bed floor came out nice, I like the hinges

[gigamanx]

Not bad for a bed. You can always upgrade later and attach to the same piano hinges. Looks a lot better than my plywood 4x8 bed haha...

[Cuttin up]

Thanks guys. The hinge idea was always in the plan. I'm getting too old to be crawling all around on the floor constantly to fix things. I tried to do as much as I could to make things serviceable from the top.

[rollinrooster]

Originally Posted by joedoh

bed floor came out nice, I like the hinges

Guess i missed the bed floor hinges. You have anymore pictures of the bed floor/mount? Truck looks good!!

[Cuttin up]

Thanks man. Looking back I kinda slacked on taking a few pics with it out of the truck. It’s pretty simple really. The hinge is from McMaster Carr and I believe it’s a 3 inch piano hinge. Meaning 1 1/5 inch on either side. The 2x2 on the leading edge is bolted to the front of the bed with 4 bolts and the hinge screws to that. You can take the entire floor out just by unbolting the front edge.