LS1 Bagged 52 Chevy 3100 Build

[lower50's]

Congrats!!! The truck looks very cool. The suspension u bought looks the same as what I got, sorry to hear it took so long to get. What size and wall did you use for your drive shaft hoop?

[tobins 52 gmc]

cool build man

[Bagged3100]

Thanks guys. And Lower50's the tubing I used was 1.5 inch tubing thats 3/16 inch wall thickness. Since I finished up the floor I started with the firewall. I cut out the bottom panels and also the rusted panels on the side of the cab

[Bagged3100]

I also wanted to center the steering wheel in between the gauages. I never liked that the steering wheel was offset. So I cut out the steering wheel hole in the firewall and moved it over about an inch to center everything up.

[Bagged3100]

For the dash I wanted the steering column to be mounted up as high as possible and like I said I wanted it centered so I cut out the dash and welded in a piece of round tubing that I cut in half. I also had to modify the orginal dash mount to make room for the bigger tubing. And steering column is mounted!! It looks a little out of place it being new shiny chrome and everything else rusty. But thats soon to change

[oldman3]

Column looks great...Jim

[lower50's]

Thanks for the info. The floor and column look nice!!

[99 to Life]

nice work, its almost imperative to move that lower steering hole over a bit on any of these builds involving anything that would create steering clearances. I learned that the hard way on my current build. (prior uses s10 header). So if I were over atleast and inch it would have make the steering have less ujoints. I see yours moved about an inch.

[Bagged3100]

Next up is pedals. The stock brake booster is way to big and looks like it is going to end up hitting the tire when its layed out. So i made a trip to the salvage yard and picked up a hydrobooster off of a 1995 astro van for $20. It is so much smaller and I think it will make the fire wall look so much cleaner then that ugly brake booster. I dont have a picture of it but I also swapped the orginal master cylinder from the camaro and bolted it onto the hydroboost. I also had to cut out the bead rolls on the fire wall so I could mount the hydroboost flush

[Bagged3100]

Then to stiffen up the firewall I cut out a piece of 14 gauge sheet metal and glued and tacked in place. Then drilled out all the holes for the hydroboost and also the clutch master cylinder

[Bagged3100]

Then to mount the pedals I ended up cutting the mounting bracket off of the old brake booster. Since the one side bolted up to the pedals and the other side bolted right up to the booster it worked out perfectly. I did have to pie cut it and bend it down a little bit to level the pedals. And also had to pie cut the pedal support braces to get them to sit flush with the firewall and had to move the pedal rod stud up about an inch. I then cut both the rods for the master cylinder and booster and got ends to weld on to make my pedals fully adjustable.

[ptc]

Nice build... You totally scored on that hydro boost for $20!!!! I paid $100 for the same type of one on ebay recently. and Ive seen them from 200-300$ !!!! wow.

question - did you remove it from the astro van? and if you did were the fitting all facing upwards like your first pic or downwards? and dos it matter which way they face? Im mounting mine on the frame and just wonder if it makes any difference at all.

Thanks!

[Advanced Design]

Yep, nice parts score! Build is looking good.

[Bagged3100]

Originally Posted by ptc

Nice build... You totally scored on that hydro boost for $20!!!! I paid $100 for the same type of one on ebay recently. and Ive seen them from 200-300$ !!!! wow.

question - did you remove it from the astro van? and if you did were the fitting all facing upwards like your first pic or downwards? and dos it matter which way they face? Im mounting mine on the frame and just wonder if it makes any difference at all.

Thanks!

Hey PTC I did remove it from the astro van. And that is how it was mounted in the van. The cylinder was on the right side of the booster if you are sitting in the drivers seat. I didnt rotate it at all. But yes from all the reading I have been doing you can rotate it and mount it the opposite way. It shouldnt affect anything

[lower50's]

Nice deal on the booster. Pedals look good.

[Bagged3100]

Got the cab stripped down and on the dolly and loaded up on the trailer ready to be sand blasted.

[Bagged3100]

Sand Blasted

[99 to Life]

nice, they get behind the dash? how much that run you? epoxy primer soon??

[Bagged3100]

And..... PRIMERED

[Advanced Design]

Looks good!

[Bagged3100]

Hey 99 yeah i specifically asked them to get up behind the dash cause I didnt want rust falling on my feet while I was driving down the road. And it cost me $380. But thats for everything inside and out. cab, doors, bed, hood, and all 4 fenders,

[Bagged3100]

I got the cab back on the frame and mocked up my old bedside just to get a feel for it before I fabricate my own bed. I took a piece of 14 gauge sheet metal and bent a 90 degree angle on the bottom for strength. Then drilled a bunch of holes in it to plug weld onto the backing plate. Then I cut the top of the orginal bed off and butted it up to the new sheet metal.

[Bagged3100]

I made the bed sides two inches higher so that way I would have a little bit more room in the bed. And of course doing that required alot of things to be "tweaked". First was mounting the tailgate hinges. I had to move them up so the tailgate would still line up. And I wanted to pull the tailgate in closer to the bed so I cut a section out and welded them back together. Then the rear cross sill did not fit correct with raised hinge so I had to notch that to clear the bolt on the backside.

[Bagged3100]

Im getting MARRIED IN 10 Days!!! I really want the truck there. It no longer is going to be my drive away vehicle thats obvious. But im really going to be pushing it just to get it back together and too look like a truck again. I really hope I can get it done in time.

[lower50's]

Congrats and good luck!!