Project Two - '74 Sierra Grande

[mikentosh]

Originally Posted by 91short

The truck looks great, but what I really want to know is how does it drive and handle?

Hahaha, that is the most important part. Ride quality is very, very nice...car like. We only had time to do a quick tape measure alignment before getting on the road so its far from dialed in, but what I can say is that we've already taken some corners at speeds I would reserve for my M3 with no problems. Its easily able to outdrive the bench seat and lap belts

I'm going to try and get a proper alignment and corner balance done at the race shop next week. We also need to swap to a smaller bore master cylinder, and put a restrictor into the steering pump as its over boosting the rack. After all that's done then I would love to take this around a road course and see what it can do.

[mikentosh]

In true Roadkill fashion, we finished the build at 3am on Friday morning and did a couple of test runs around the neighborhood. After determining everything was tight we hit the road for 750 miles to Scottsdale!!!

The truck ran great, and we had no problems keeping up 80-100mph along I-5 south. Even at 120mph this thing is still solid...makes me wonder at what speed the aerodynamics will cause issues. Another nice benefit is we pulled down 18.2mpg with our aggressive freeway driving.





It was so nice to finally have one of the projects out on display at Goodguys. I had a great time talking with everybody stopping by. We even thought about taking this out on the autocross course, but Saturday was only for the pro class.



The only issues we've encountered so far is a squealing fan belt, which was solved by shimming the belt tensioner, and a leaking power steering line which appears to be from a torn o-ring. I'm going to live with the leak until I get back to San Jose and we can go over the steering lines in more detail.

We also found that the brake pedal is super stiff, and talking with Wilwood at the show we determined that I had put in the 1" bore master cylinder when it really needs a 7/8". Hope to switch that up when I get back to San Jose as well.

[83 Silverado]

Love the old sheet metal on a modern chassis and drive train. But I'd like to know if you needed a mid shift kit to run that trans, or is the motor set forward in the frame?

[mikentosh]

Originally Posted by 83 Silverado

Love the old sheet metal on a modern chassis and drive train. But I'd like to know if you needed a mid shift kit to run that trans, or is the motor set forward in the frame?

The motor is set way back in the frame actually. It would qualify for front, mid engine status as cylinder 1 is way back from the front axle centerline

We used a shifter adapter that I got off eBay designed for the TR6060. It replaces the long rear linkage used by the Camaro and sits on top of the trans instead.

[MTCK]

Wow didn't see that coming. Great progress. Love your builds, I just with they would progress a little more quickly

[91short]

You've got a phenomenal truck, that chassis and suspension is something I can only dream about at the moment. To me it would be done, but I know you're going to finish the body and paint, can't wait to see how it turns out.

[mikentosh]

Originally Posted by 91short

You've got a phenomenal truck, that chassis and suspension is something I can only dream about at the moment. To me it would be done, but I know you're going to finish the body and paint, can't wait to see how it turns out.

Thanks! It really does drive amazingly well. It pretty much makes you forget you are in a pickup. The 500 miles back to San Jose last night was one of the best drives I've had, and this thing is a monster in LA traffic 😊

Yeah I'm going to do full paint and body. I'm too attached to this thing to leave it as is. This looks like it was somebody's special order truck from new and I couldn't find a lot of evidence of it used for a trade, so I think it deserves a factory correct respray rather than a working truck patina look.

We are actually not going to use any of the body panels besides the cab so I'm thinking about finding another cab and transplanting all the existing panels onto the old chassis. I have a clean '74 VIN tag and title I can put against it too so it can be somebody else's patina project hahaha.

[91short]

Originally Posted by mikentosh

We are actually not going to use any of the body panels besides the cab so I'm thinking about finding another cab and transplanting all the existing panels onto the old chassis. I have a clean '74 VIN tag and title I can put against it too so it can be somebody else's patina project hahaha.

If that happens I may be interested in it, I don't live too far from you either. Keep up the good work, we like seeing the updates.

[91short]

Anything new with this truck?

[mikentosh]

[OutlawDrifter]

i know you've got all the money tied up in suspension and wheels/tires...

but that thing would look killer with some white car rally's and chrome highway patrol caps.

[mikentosh]

We were finding some fuel starvation issues when the side saddle tank was under 1/2 full. Even with the '87 baffled tank it didn't seem to be enough to keep things fed under full throttle, so we switched over to the final tank setup from the Cannonball project.

Tank is a custom rear-mount 20 gallon stainless unit built by Rick's Tanks in El Paso. This uses a VaporWorx setup which combines baffles with multiple pickups to keep the pump fed. The pump itself is a 5th-gen Camaro ZL1 module, and its being controlled by a PressureWorx PWM setup to keep the pump from being overworked. For venting of the tank and rear diff, we are using the very cool II Much billet vents which are mounted in the back corner of the bed.

[mikentosh]

Since we were switching the tank out, I decided we might as well swap over to the bed for Cannonball at the same time. This one has the cool bridge cover.

[mikentosh]

Since the truck was already starting to look primer patchwork color, I figured we might as well swap over to the front end from Cannonball too...



In the background is the rest of original "Project Two", which is slowly going back together as we morph this into Cannonball.



Here's a nice shot of the aluminum core support that Wes put together for this project. The main radiator is an Afco unit for a '70 Trans-Am, and the oil and trans coolers are Setrab units.

[mikentosh]

Well...since we already have the front doghouse off...we could pull the motor too 😃

Yeah, that's pretty much exactly how it went down too...at 2pm this thought came out, 6pm we had the MAST motor at the shop, and 8pm the old motor was out.

[mikentosh]

Originally Posted by OutlawDrifter

i know you've got all the money tied up in suspension and wheels/tires...

but that thing would look killer with some white car rally's and chrome highway patrol caps.

So the funny thing is that as we are morphing this truck into the Cannonball project, we are putting Project Two back together in its original form (on original chassis). I think when original Project Two is back together we'll probably play around with wheel selection a bit.

Its all confusing to everybody I try and explain the projects to...

At some point I will split this back into the two different build threads again.

[Drizzle]

[Blessed66]

I just gotta tell you, these two trucks blow me away everytime I look at the attention to detail and custom work. Simply amazing.

[91short]

I'd love a ride in your truck, it's my favorite on here, love seeing the updates.

[tinydb84]

You going to drop that LS3 into that S10 next???

[mikentosh]

Originally Posted by tinydb84

You going to drop that LS3 into that S10 next???

Haha no, we have decided the LS3 belongs to Project Two so we've found another TR6060 trans to bolt up to it and will drop that into the original chassis. Nice thing is the cab is already modified for hydraulic clutch and tunnel fits that trans perfectly 😊

[tinydb84]

I really want to see what Wes does with that cage and interior.

How does the new engine feel?

[mikentosh]

Originally Posted by tinydb84

I really want to see what Wes does with that cage and interior.

How does the new engine feel?

We've been having a heck of a time with the FAST fuel rails leaking, so I haven't really put more than 30 miles on it in the last couple of weeks. Today I did manage to get it out for a couple of hours and it is definitely a lot faster than before...like breaking the rear loose at the top of third gear fast

Wes got a quick video of it rolling down the highway:

[mikentosh]

Oh yeah...also check out page 38 of this month's (April 2016) Street Trucks. I was surprised to see a photo in there

[aggie91]

Wes needs a new windshield!