LS1 Bagged 52 Chevy 3100 Build

[steve aleve]

Just been keeping an eye on this one and haven't heard anything since a little before the wedding. Hopefully the truck is still a GO! lol

[lv2tri2]

I am interested in this build and taking some ideas for mine.

[84blaze]

Awesome dude. I just read through the whole thread. In for updates!

[WorkinWrenchs]

Great build just read through the whole build. I am just starting mine and will be taking some ideas from yours and applying them to mine. Do you have any info on how you re-made you body mounts to make them centered with the bolts, are you still using the stock s10 bushings? Also what thickness metal did you use for the floor?

[big_moss]

floor came our great man

[THEE OG]

Hope your still going on this and hope being married isn't slowing you down lol

I have read they most of Thai and it's so quality. Can't wait to get on my laptop and read the whole thing.

[Bagged3100]

Ok guys it has been a really long time since I have updated this thread. The truck has not been getting much attention since getting married and buying a house and getting a puppy…. I seriously don’t know how all you guys do it, with a wife, house, a dog and then you add in kids, holy crap. I have gotten a little bit done here and there, but I am going to try to start to get some serious garage time in and get this thing done. I will have more updates to come soon showing what I got done over the past year (isn’t much), but in the mean time here are some shots of the truck from the wedding. Maybe this will give someone else that is getting married some cool ideas. Let me know what you think!

[Bagged3100]

Here are a few more. I took the old original tailgate from the truck and wire wheeled the whole thing and then primered and sprayed it flat black. Then bought some silver sharpies and used it as our guest book for our wedding. Had everybody sign it around the "Chevrolet". Then added some pinstriping and it turned out really cool. We both LOVE it. and also our center pieces we bought smaller model versions of my truck and got some decals made up and put on them to celebrate our wedding. Filled the bed full of flowers and it made a very unique center piece which afterwards we got to give a personalized truck to each of our parents and grandparents to keep.

[99 to Life]

cool man, congrats. always cool to see some old trucks involved with a special day. Really digging the truck gifts you gave out. Great idea.

[lower50's]

Congratulations pictures look great.

[ptc]

Very cool and congrats to you both on your new life together! Seems overwhelming in the beginning but things get easier as you grow older together!

Enjoy!

[iowaboynca]

Really enjoy how you incorporated your truck into the wedding pics. I really like the signed tailgate. That is a really cool touch that you can hang in your home or garage. Congratz.

[Bagged3100]

After the wedding I tore the truck completely back down to start installing the air ride and the exhaust. So here is some pictures of all the air ride fittings, and then them all installed to make the manifolds. Then I mounted them on the inside of the frame rails. I also set the new magnaflow mufflers in there to see how far I could get them away from the air ride valves and still have clearance for the drive shaft.

[Bagged3100]

Next was installing the cats coming out of the exhaust manifold. Right from the manifold the exhaust dumped out right above the frame rail. So to try to prevent cutting out to much of the frame and making it weaker I cut the flange off the cat and enlarged the hole so that I could angle the cat inwards alittle bit at an angle rather then straight down through the frame.

[Bagged3100]

Then once the cats and air ride manifolds were installed, I worked on getting the exhaust finished up. I bought the round mufflers for extra clearance since I knew it was going to be tight in there. So with the mufflers sitting in the best location for ground clearance and also clearance to the air ride and the drive shaft I had to make the exhaust fit the mufflers instead of working from the exhaust manifold back. Where they are sitting I had to make a step down to clear the frame cross member and a step over to get the exhaust lined back up with the cats. So I bought some 90 degree manderal bent tubing and cut it in half and flipped it around and welded it to make my step down. So with four step downs and some tubing this is what I came up with. The only problem is now when it dumps behind the cross member before the rear axle I don’t know where to run it now. I don’t see any room to run it to the back of the truck

[Advanced Design]

The wedding pictures were really good!

Have you considered running the exhaust through the running board? It looks like you can move the mufflers forward a bit, throw on a 90 and go through the board. That is what I did for my 48 Burb.

[99 to Life]

I second that, looks like RB is only area for it to go. Great job so far.

[mongocanfly]

X3..Dougs setup is nice

[Bagged3100]

Thanks for your thoughts guys, but I am afraid I might be to far back on the truck now to loop it around and catch the end of the running board and I really really don’t want to redo the exhaust to move it forward some cause it was not easy getting the right amount of bend out and bend up the first time to clear the cross member. So I am going to try to come up with an idea without having to cut up what I had already did once I get the bed on and see where everything lines up. But after I got the exhaust welded up it was time to hang it. I bought aftermarket stiff rubber hangers due to my lack of clearance in places and I just bought steel rod and bent in the shapes I needed to make the hangers, then welded them to the frame. I also bought 2 flanges and welded them on the straight section of the exhaust tubes so that I could unbolt the mufflers from the cats for easier installation and removal. I will finish the back half of the tubes later and also am going to add a piece of exhaust tube connecting the other tubes to make a “H” that way the exhaust can flow from side to side and help dispense of it faster.

[Bagged3100]

After everything was welded and hanging on its own I had to address the clearance issue between the downpipe and the frame. If you remember I had cut and angled the downpipe just to get it inside the frame rail. But now I have to take in consideration engine flex and vibration so I am notching the frame a little for a little more clearance. I took tubing and cut it in half to make a nice radius for around the exhaust. Check it out. And like everything else I will be cleaning it up really nice right before paint

[84blaze]

It's all looking really good dude

[lower50's]

That should sound nice. Good job.

[Bagged3100]

Got my air & AN fuel lines ran, however I didn’t get a picture after I had them mounted to the frame using clamps instead of my camo duct tape haha. Also I decided to run braided line the whole way instead of using hard line. Has anybody had any problems using braided line for the whole thing?

[Bagged3100]

Also finished up my steering shaft, and made a support to keep everything lined up and working smoothly. Im pretty happy with the way everything turned out

[lower50's]

All looks good. One thing on a maintenance stand point is, can you get to your valves once the cab is on?