Harold's '48 S10 LS1 Build

[Tikal48]

I haven't been able to spend any time on the truck for the last couple of weeks, and I've been having withdrawal symptoms. . . haha

I received my new rear fenders and splash guards. So I've been trying to get everything roughed in on the bed and running boards. Hopefully I can get the running board and bed brackets fabricated this weekend. I've had to do some modifications to the splash guards. It looks like I may need to go forward with the bed and running boards about 1/4" more, based on the look of the front gap of the running boards. I would assume that this should be around 1/4" to 3/8"? Right now I have about 2" gap on either side of the bed to the cab.

[Tikal48]

While working on the bed, I figured that I would hang the tail gate to see how it looked. So I got off on the tangent of mounting the roll pan. Now I just need to figure out what look I want for the tail lights.

[Tikal48]

I continued working on the running board brackets today. I finished fabricating the middle brackets and tack welded them in place, until I remove the cab again. I'm planning on drilling the frame and installing some rivet nuts. I prefer to bolt these brackets into place instead of welding them. I also fabricated the front bracket for the passenger side. There were a couple of bolt holes that were existing that worked out perfectly for the front bracket mount.

[Tikal48]

Here is the profile as it sits.

[Advanced Design]

Nice work, looking really good!

[99 to Life]

those look great

[Tikal48]

I've been playing around with a design of some exhaust tips that will exit thru my running boards. I was originally planning on using some of the Pype's rectangular exhaust tips, but I started thinking about a design that would more match the look of the hood vents. This is what I come up with. This may be a pain to construct, but I'll definitely keep it on the back burner.

[99 to Life]

cool, I got faith you can make that.

[Tikal48]

With work, birthday's, and pulling a muscle in my back, I haven't made much progress in the last couple of weeks. I decided to work on a little light duty project Sunday, so I shot some color on my overhead console.

I love the look of the Candy color, but what a pain. Two coats of silver base and 4 coats of Candy color. Shooting the body parts may be interesting, to say the least. Even the angle to the light gives a different shade appearance.

With so many pockets and areas that are hard to paint as a complete assembly, I don't see any way to remotely get an even color coverage unless you shoot apart. I've thought of maybe shooting three coats on the individual parts, wet sand, and shoot the final coat as an assembly. I've also tried to find a similar color in a single coverage paint that was close, but I did not find any that I liked as well. Feel free to chime in! Any advice is welcome!

[99 to Life]

That color looks killer. You got your paint work cut out for you!!

[Advanced Design]

That does look very cool! As does the design for the exhaust tips. They carry the theme from the hood sides. Good ideas!

[Tikal48]

I picked back up on the running board brackets this weekend. It took both days to fabricate the driver side front and rear brackets. Not that I'm in any huge hurry.

On the rear running board bracket, I went right over the top of the spring bracket.

On the front bracket, there were some existing holes on the bottom of the frame that I tapped to 1/2" NC. I added a brace to the side of the frame. I will drill the frame and add a rivet nut for bolting.

[99 to Life]

the two biggest peeves of mine on the s10's. 1. Rad support, 2. running board brackets. I made notes on where they should mount, have I have to ever do it again. I think it took me like 8 hrs to fab and locate my brackets. Mine bolt on as well, welding them on surely would be faster, but I like being able to have them off. I smash my leg off the stock brackets all the time.

[Tikal48]

Finished the last brace for the passenger side running board. Sort of a weird angle on the horizontal run, but this should leave me plenty of room for my exhaust tips.

I moved on to my bed cross supports. I am using strut channel for the cross members. I added a couple of pieces of 3/4" angle iron on the top and bottom of the strut. I marked location on the front bed panel, and drill holes to tack weld to the cross brace. I will come back and add my bed support to the frame.

I started on the rear cross member, but I am still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do.

[Tikal48]

Here are the dimensions of the firewall. Be sure to double check overall lengths.

[Tikal48]

Finished building the riser for the back of the bed. I made a couple of pieces to fit inside the strut channel and welded them to the bed sides and slipped the strut channel over these. I added a piece of 1" square tubing to fill the gap between the strut channel and tail gate. I was going to make the back surface flush with the rear cross brace, but I decided to leave it recessed under the square tubing.

[Tikal48]

Here are a couple of more shots of the riser.

[99 to Life]

very nice

[Tikal48]

I started on my wheel tubs last weekend. I decided to make these out of fiberglass. I'm making the plug out of pine, and will use that to cast my mold. I little more sanding and painting, and this should be ready to start the fiberglass work. The depth is 2-1/4" x 5.5" high.

I had found a set of steel tubs, but I would have to cut away about half of the height, due to the bed depth loss. Besides, I'm not planning on doing any heavy hauling. So the fiberglass is a cheaper and easier option.

[99 to Life]

nice buck you made, those look real good.

[dug224]

Really nice build!! Great documentation. I especially like the wheel tubs. Great idea. It's amazing how the months click off when you have something like this going. Keep it up. dug

[Tikal48]

Bartman / Dug224,

Thanks for the comments! I appreciate the great resource this site is for ideas.

On the frame, I used vinegar and water, but it flash rusts quickly. I finished cleaning off the frame with phosphoric acid. The product I used was Kleen Strip Phosphoric Prep & Etch. Don't let it dry on the frame overnight, rinse with water. It forms a coating much like Pine rosin if it drys on the metal, and that is a royal pain to remove. Both ways are best in hot weather. In hind sight, I should have paid someone to sandblast the frame. I was just too cheap . . . LOL

[Tikal48]

3 day weekend and not much progress on the truck. I lost the most of two days at work. I did get the tear drops welded on the bed sides. They actually came with the bed sides when I bought them.

I also got the pieces for my front bed mounts cut, but I did not get a chance to finish them.

[Tikal48]

I got both front bed brackets finished. I just need to get a couple of bolts to hold them together with the top brackets. I should be able to get to this wrapped up and welded to the frame this weekend. I'm using the remaining S10 polyurethane body mounts that I bought.

This time I used vinegar to clean the hard scale off of the surface of the brackets. This usually takes about three days, but I used boiling water with the vinegar. It took about three hours instead. There is a light rust on the surface in the picture. I forgot to neutralize it with baking soda. I threw them back in the vat for a few minutes and rinsed them back off with baking soda and water.

[Tikal48]

Starting to hack up a perfectly good pair of fenders. Off on another crazy tangent. After months of looking, I finally found the tail lights that I wanted to go with. These are actually beehive marker lights.

I'm starting to rough in the holes to partially embed them into the fenders. I've seen several trucks on the internet where this was done. I think that it will compliment the look of the hood vents and exhaust tips.