C10CJ: A Pro-touring '71 Stepside on a No Limit Pro-C10 Chassis

[1971_c10]

And the other thing I've been working on, the cab. With the cab back off, time to really start digging into the metal work. I attacked the clutch rod bump this weekend. If you recall, the bump was almost hitting the valve cover. The clearance was less then 1/8". So something had to change. That something was the bump. It got cut out. It's gone. Almost have the patch panel finished as well.

[1971_c10]

Got the panel from above fit and ready to be tacked into place. Once I get this one tacked it's on to the heater area and then filling a few 1" circular holes. Using a little trick from Lazze to hold the panel in place.

[1971_c10]

Attacked the heater side of the firewall today. Getting closer to being done with metal work.

Oh, and I've got a lead on headers. I sent those Hooker headers back. Stay tuned. Hope to know something more in week or so.

[rob32472]

I cant wait till mine is as far along. I picked up my No limit chassis a few weeks back. I have my engine in and just working on finishing brake lines, fuel lines and a few other items while cab is receiving metal work. I have been keeping an eye on your build to hopefully avoid any pit falls. You are doing great work!

[1971_c10]

Originally Posted by rob32472

I cant wait till mine is as far along. I picked up my No limit chassis a few weeks back. I have my engine in and just working on finishing brake lines, fuel lines and a few other items while cab is receiving metal work. I have been keeping an eye on your build to hopefully avoid any pit falls. You are doing great work!

Thanks man!

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And sorry guys for the lack of posting. It's been busy at work (11-12 hr days) then I'm in the shop right up to bed time, so limited time for posting. But I did keep taking pics.

So here's a shot of the finished heater area (well, sans body work and paint). I still have a few holes left to fill, including the original fan hole. But I've already filled a ton of holes, including three of the 1" holes (had some fun making little circle patch panels) where the oil sense line, speedo and washer fluid lines went through. And the last hole I'll leave is the fuse panel. Still trying to decide if I relocate it or not.


And I decided to go Black Widow on the exhaust. 3" all the way back to let the beast LS breathe! And yes that is daylight you see through those Black Widows.

[1971_c10]

Continuing on the updates ...

So I started to finalize my drivetrain setup as mentioned when I got the setup bars installed. Found yet another rabbet hole. My motor/trans down angle was sitting about 4.1 degrees down. Yikes. That's a tad on the high side. So I set off evaluating options. I've got that stroked LS, so Rob had sent me some bits to make new perches (the part that the motor mount bolts to and then bolts to the truss on the chassis) that pushed the motor up 1/2" from the ones that shipped with the chassis. So since those were just bits, I took to modifying them.

The goal was to get the down angle to 3.5 degrees with no transmission tail shaft spacers. So the engine/trans came out. I hacked the plates up that make up the perch and started "moving" the hole for the motor mount tube down. This was an iterative process. Die grind a little, bolt the plates in, set the motor/trans in, check clearances, check angle, repeat. After several iterations, I wound up dropping the engine down a tad more than 1/4", basically putting my oil pan resting on the cross brace part of the cross member. So me and the angle grinder went to work and put a shallow U to provide just enough clearance on the oil pan. Success! I got the motor/trans down to 3.5 degrees. With a 1/4" trans tail shaft spacer I get can get down to around 3.0-3.1 degrees, but then I may be into the back of the cab with the driveshaft which would require me to notch the back of the cab (this is at full bump only).

Oh, and on the driveshaft, I'm using Mark Williams Enterprises here in Colorado. Those guys are awesome. If you ever need a custom driveshaft check them out (they have more than just driveshafts). I'm getting a 3.5" 6061 aluminum driveshaft with 1350 U-joints. That will handle the 600 HP with no problems. It does impose a ~150 mph speed limit on the truck with the 3.70:1 rear gears, but with no roll bar/cage, I'm perfectly ok with that as the top speed. For those curious on why the driveshaft is the limiting factor, it has everything to do with the critical speed of the driveshaft. The critical speed is the speed at which the driveshaft becomes unstable, and you don't want that. Trust me. It's a matter of seconds before carnage starts to happen.

So here's a few shots of the stuff. The first are the finished perches (sorry, in this case I forgot to take pictures of the mods). The original No Limit ones on the left, my hacked up modified ones on the right. I got really lucky and found an epoxy spray paint that very closely matches the powder coat. The left ones are powder coated, the right ones are spray paint.

I also tossed in a couple shots of the finalized engine mounting and a comparison of the 1350 U-joint/yoke to the factory one.

[1971_c10]

The new driveshaft was finished up yesterday, so I went and picked it up this afternoon. Boy does it look good and stout. Mark Williams Enterprises does a good job, this thing fit perfect! And they tested the driveshaft to 3000 ft-lb before handing it off to me. And just look at another view of the 1350 u-joints vs OEM. I also picked up a pair of their billet straps vs a typical u-bolt to hold the rear u-joint in the pinion yoke. Those billet straps help keep the bearing cup square under heavy/dynamic loads to help minimize wear on the bearings in the u-joint.

It's a good feeling to almost have the driveline wrapped up.

[1971_c10]

Got the bulk of the chassis setup complete. The rear end is all buttoned up. Got the 4-link adjusted and set pinion angle to ~2.1 degrees up. I've got the engine set at 3.5 degrees down to give me the minimal interference with the cab at full bump. Unfortunately, that means I need to notch the back of the cab and the rear cross member between the cab mounts. But, the driveline is essentially done. Aside from exhaust and plumbing (brakes/fuel), the chassis is ready to drive. Of course, there is still a good chunk of work left to do before the truck is truly drivable.

[Advanced Design]

The chassis is looking very nice. A real work of art.

[1971_c10]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

The chassis is looking very nice. A real work of art.

Thanks Doug! Although I can only take credit for keeping it nice after taking the whole rear-end apart and re-assembling. Most of the credit goes to Rob and the guys at No Limit for building an awesome chassis. Of course, I did pick all the colors ...

[GR8-68]

This is going to be one sweet ride, really nice work

[meenaggie]

I have a front and rear suspension from No-Limit as well . . . I found the VHT Roll Bar & Chassis Satin Black paint is a really good match for the black powder coat Rob uses. I had to touch up a few parts and also used the VHT to paint my frame rails. You can pick up the VHT paint at Autozone, Advance, Oreilly's, etc. Nice build by the way.

[1971_c10]

Originally Posted by GR8-68

This is going to be one sweet ride, really nice work

Thanks!

Originally Posted by meenaggie

I have a front and rear suspension from No-Limit as well . . . I found the VHT Roll Bar & Chassis Satin Black paint is a really good match for the black powder coat Rob uses. I had to touch up a few parts and also used the VHT to paint my frame rails. You can pick up the VHT paint at Autozone, Advance, Oreilly's, etc. Nice build by the way.

Thanks! and Haha! Our minds think alike. That is almost exact same stuff I used, except I used the epoxy version! On areas I've touched up on the chassis you can't really tell unless you know it's there.

[nastety92]

Nice build. Which black widow model muffler did you go with? I've been thinking about putting one on my truck once it's time.

[1971_c10]

Originally Posted by nastety92

Nice build. Which black widow model muffler did you go with? I've been thinking about putting one on my truck once it's time.

Thanks man! I went with the Pro-Venom 250 (polished). I was tossing around between that and the 300 series, but I figured I'd start with the shorter, louder, version and see how I like it will cruising. That way if I want to switch to the 300 series later it's just a little tailpipe trimming.

[nastety92]

I think I'm going to run the 250 Venom as well, just not the pro version.

Looking forward to see how you like it once your driving the truck.

Thanks,
Nick

[gringoloco]

Dig this truck!

[1971_c10]

Originally Posted by gringoloco

Dig this truck!

Thanks man!

[kehstr]

What are those magnet things that you have been using on the sheet metal work?

[1971_c10]

Hey guys, it's been a little while since I've been on the forums. I've been off working a bunch of little stuff along with continuing with cab metal fab work. I've also been trading a set of headers back and forth with a company that should work out well once all the kinks are worked out. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Then on Monday, I was out messing around on the mountain bike and well, crashed. I landed hard on my right side and hosed up my rib cage. So I've been down and out all week and probably for a few weeks to come.

So here's some shots to get you caught up. I continued filling holes in the firewall, including finally making a patch panel to fill the old fan hole.

[1971_c10]

Some more shots of the firewall

[1971_c10]

And here's a back to back of the clutch rod area. I cut that bump out and changed the contour of the setback to resemble the passenger side in order to gain clearance to my set back LS.

I'm down to a short list on fab work for the cab now:
-Cleanup throttle cable pass-thru area
-Notch the back of the cab/rear cab cross member for driveshaft clearance
-Patch up the trans tunnel hole I had cut and improperly patched some 18 years ago. I've already cleaned up the hole. Just need to make patches and weld them in.
-Cleanup the passenger compartment side of all these firewall mods.

Here is the before (which is after I had filled the clutch rod hole):



Here is the after:

[1971_c10]

Ok question for you guys ...

The fresh air vent cavities, there is no easy way to get into these areas on an assembled cab. I've noticed that over the years, these cavities collected a bunch of crap (like leaves and sticks and other stuff that falls into the cowl area) that got trapped because it was too big to exit through the water drainage holes. Plus, on the passenger side the water drain channel to prevent water from entering the OEM fan makes it impossible to get a hand down in there, and reaching around through the inside vent hole is near impossible.

So I really want to get in there and cleanup the rust and paint some POR-15 or something in there. Has anyone done anything like this on an already painted cab?

Here's my thought: cut out an access panel large enough to fit my hand and be able to get a wire brush/paint brush in there. The instead of welding the access panel back in, use dzus fasteners and a custom backer plate to create a removable access panel. What do you guys think?

I'd cut out an area shown by the red box:

[1971_c10]

Originally Posted by kehstr

What are those magnet things that you have been using on the sheet metal work?

Are you talking the copper things like in post 77? Those are Clecos and a little strip I made with 1/8" holes spaced 0.75" apart. There are corresponding 1/8" holes in the sheet metal for the Cleco to go through. Clecos come from the aircraft industry and are made to hold panels together prior to riveting. So they come in various typical rivet sizes. I have 1/8" and 3/16" ones. The 3/16" have a stronger spring for more clamp but need a bigger hole to then fill later.

[kehstr]

Originally Posted by 1971_c10

Are you talking the copper things like in post 77? Those are Clecos and a little strip I made with 1/8" holes spaced 0.75" apart. There are corresponding 1/8" holes in the sheet metal for the Cleco to go through. Clecos come from the aircraft industry and are made to hold panels together prior to riveting. So they come in various typical rivet sizes. I have 1/8" and 3/16" ones. The 3/16" have a stronger spring for more clamp but need a bigger hole to then fill later.

Yes, that is exactly what I am talking about, do you have a picture of how you built them and how to set them up for use?