Build #2 Crusader!

[mrhino]

11-11-11 sounds like a great day to start a build.

The Project: My wifes 88 GMC Crew cab SRW 2WD. the truck is a old Municipal truck from someplace in Tenn. Its about as plain as you could get a truck. Bench seats, rubber floor, no interior trim, no headliner, and no radio. something is wrong with the brakes or the hydroboost. When we got the truck it had a hydraulic lift gate on the back, so it sat low in the rear from the weight. It rides awful, it dont stop for $h!t and its like riding in a tin can. the engine is tired, it burns oils and smokes. It's been well used and is kinda ugly. Not the sorta thing most women would want to be driving. But my wife loves it. I think mainly because its her's and she gets to decide what she wants the truck to become. (for the most part anyway)

Our plans for the truck: rebuild the front suspension and steering, add new wheels, convert the 14 bolt rear end to disc brakes. Rebuild the 5.7l engine do a few tricks for more torque and better fuel mileage. My goal is to get 20 mpg it will be tough but Im up for it. repaint the truck, and add some bling. Completely redo the interior, something more fitting for a professional women. front and rear power leather seats from a Tahoe, might do the trick. carpet might be a plus.. ah will see. I have been thinking about making it a short bed, I like the looks of the short bed conversions. and I think it would help on turning plus it would be a few pounds lighter. only problem is here in Northern Indiana there are no shortbeds if you can find one they are very expensive. but ill keep my eyes open.


Just like the last project "Silver Dollar" Me and my family will be doing all the work. this time I hope to have more pictures of the build along with better discription. it should be entertaining as well, as Im sure me and the wife will have a few "difference of opinions". Because this is actual my wife's truck (Debbie) she will be involved in it a lot more. she will be the one putting the engine together, sanding body panels, installing weathersrtipping, and anything else I dont want to do. LOL! She also has her own account on the thread and would be able to comment as well. So subscribe to the thread and follow along.

[STOCKISH]

Looks like a great start! Nice truck!

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Im sure this one will turn out killer also..

[dhaymaker]

It will be interesting to see ideas become reality. At least if you two disagree on something it looks like the Shop Dog will be there to help out!

[mcbassin]

Looks like another great project. looking forward to following along.

[TheManInBlack]

Kind of ugly?? that thing is fricken beautiful!

[67cheby]

can you make that lift gate raise up and spin or something, its got all the hydraulics and all ....LOL....i am an old minitrucker !!

[67cheby]

oh and by the way , i can pick you up a nice shortbed for 4-500 here in arkansas

[gmech]

Nice project, cant wait to see the progress. I am doing a 2wd ccswb/srw myself.

[my4by2]

Looking forward to seeing the progress!

[mrhino]

Originally Posted by dhaymaker

It will be interesting to see ideas become reality. At least if you two disagree on something it looks like the Shop Dog will be there to help out!

shop dog, thats funny. that dog is hers everything about that dogs exsistence is for, and about my wife. It growls and carries on everytime I come in the house, and we've had it about 5 years

Originally Posted by TheManInBlack

Kind of ugly?? that thing is fricken beautiful!

I guess that proves beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Originally Posted by 67cheby

can you make that lift gate raise up and spin or something, its got all the hydraulics and all ....LOL....i am an old minitrucker !!

nope it went up and down, kids had fun riding on it. i put a ad on craigslist and it sold right away. after taking it off it really jacked up the alignment, it will were out the inside of the tires in no time. so that needs to be addressed.

Originally Posted by 67cheby

oh and by the way , i can pick you up a nice shortbed for 4-500 here in arkansas

I might take you up on that.

[67cheby]

LOL...i was just kidding about the tailgate

[big_al_71]

Definetly looking forward to see how this truck evolves....Congrats on the sale of your other truck!!

[dhaymaker]

Originally Posted by mrhino

shop dog, thats funny. that dog is hers everything about that dogs exsistence is for, and about my wife. It growls and carries on everytime I come in the house, and we've had it about 5 years.

That's so funny! We have two dogs and, while they really like me, life is all about their "Mom"! One of them is right on 75 pounds and loves to get up in her lap when she's laying on the couch. It's quite a site! Well, good luck with both the Crusader, and the dogs! lol

[mrhino]

Now that I have gotten a few years older. its getting harder to see what im doing, So I put up some florescent lights last weekend. Wow! was it dark in there. I never realized how dark until put those lights up. I dont know how Iv built a hand full of cars and truck in the dark and they turn out as nice as they do. Amazing. I have plenty of light now, should be know excuses.

Today I got the garage clean up, seams like its been years since it was this clean. The garage is 681sf and After each project I get a few more shop tools, which of coarse take up more valuable real estate. This time I will have me a acetylene torch. I'm sure that will be one of those thing I wont know how I did without. Tomorrow's big task is to get that truck in the garage. a quick measure of the truck. and it comes to 21' the depth of my garage is 21' and some change. That should be interesting. Ill have to get it in as far as I can then slide the ass over with my jack.

Deb says I need take a picture of it clean, cause she says it will be a nother 5 years before it will be clean again.

[72 tigger]

I'm sure this project will have plenty of "bonding moments"- looking forward to following it! Still think you should have your own reality show

[mrhino]

Originally Posted by 72 tigger

I'm sure this project will have plenty of "bonding moments"- looking forward to following it! Still think you should have your own reality show

Oh, I have no dout of that. I don't think we fight enough for a reality show. maybe after this build we might.

well I was hoping to get the truck in the garage the last few days but a problem with the wifes car. delayed that for a day. With that taken care of yesterday I came home from work to find my oldest is seperating from her husband and all her $h!t is filling one side of my garage. Awesome!. Now! Her life would make a one hellva reality show.

hope to get that cleaned up in the next day or so and continue on.

[mrhino]

testing

[mrhino]

alright I finally got all the vehicles fixed that need fixing for the winter. moved all of the daughters stuff to the basement. then last week I bought a winter beater. My little short bed truck just aint gonna make thru the winter. I found a 87 silverado POS, but its got good heat and it shuts off when i turn the key off. hopefully it will start everytime I ask it to. I really dont try to buy all vehicle the same color it just works out that way. I like to name my rides and this one ill call $h!t-streak





went to the indy swap meet yesterday, got some good deals. found me some pistons to use in this truck. $20 cant beat that with a stick. more on those at a later time



also little premature but got some wheels for my little shortbed. u got to jump on deals when they come, ya know. ill give u guys a little sneak peak



i also got a few other odds and ends, ill need down the line. But the the best news of all is: I got the big truck in the garage today. cant say I have a whole lota room but it is in there. Hope i have a enough room to pull the motor and trans. Being that today is cyber monday I went a head and ordered as much stuff as im gonna need to do the rear disc conversion and redo the front and rear suspension. my engine block and crank are at my machinist. and he is not in any big hurry but thats a story for another time. in the next day or so i will start fitting the front leather seats and catch you guys up on what I did in the back.

[mrhino]

Finally started working on the seats. got the front bench out. 23 years of nasty dirt and funk.


under the rubber carpet. is a pretty solid floor.




Threw the front seats in, just to see how much modification its gonna take to mount these babies in. the Seats are from a 03-04 Tahoe, they are power with up n down, back n forth, pitch and yaw, plus lumbar support and heat, everything else but massage. They should be a nice addition if I can get them in. At first glance it looks pretty straight forward, but after sitting in them, you quickly discover they are way to high.





So I cut the the little tabs of the bottom of the seat bracket hoping that would do it.




after cutting the tab off they still sit a little to high. u cant get your legs under the wheel.
So I had Deb jump up in there and I measured her, then compared it to the other trucks in the driveway and I come up with the seat sitting about 1.5 inches to high.

I had taken a newer leather wraped tilt steering column from a burb in the junk yard this past summer and thought now would be a good time to throw that in before i got the seats measured out. I got it mounted up and the whole damn thing was just flopping around right at the tilt. Turns out its just four screws inside the column that work themselves loose over the years. I found a real good thread on the forum on how to tighten it up and had it done in a evening.






The column didnt come with a key so now was a good time to put in a new lock and cylinder. it looks kinda intimidating but it was fairly easy. plus now we have Delay wipers. its amazing! After we got rid of all our modern cars and trucks and went back to all this old junk. The simple things are what you miss i.e. delay wipers


Back to the seats as much as I tried to make these work, they are not going to unless I cut the floor. Deb says she wont drive it unless those seats are in there. even after begging to keep the old bench seat. Once I figure out how and where to cut the floor Ill post up some pics.

[yousesteers]

Man I wish I had taken pictures when i put my seats in I lowered the floorboards 3 inches. I basically took the raised part on each side out and made them even with the small ridge that runs from the transmission tunnel to the raised area. I cut mine on the front and 2 sides then pushed them down and pulled and bent everything to meet up and then welded it all together I mounted the seats on a piece of 4 in flat metal and then bolted that to the floors . My seats were out of a 2005 Silverado. There are a couple of not very good pictures of the seats installed in the truck.

[Mr. 250r]

I always wanted a crew cab square body but never could find the right one, and as for the buckets please post some pics and measurements possibly of the whole floor lowering and stuff this is the one thing i plan on doing but have no info just a bunch of pictures lol

[mcbassin]

Looks like some good progress Mike! Are those Boss 338's like you had on your other truck in the sneak peek?

[mrhino]

Originally Posted by yousesteers

Man I wish I had taken pictures when i put my seats in I lowered the floorboards 3 inches. I basically took the raised part on each side out and made them even with the small ridge that runs from the transmission tunnel to the raised area. I cut mine on the front and 2 sides then pushed them down and pulled and bent everything to meet up and then welded it all together I mounted the seats on a piece of 4 in flat metal and then bolted that to the floors . My seats were out of a 2005 Silverado. There are a couple of not very good pictures of the seats installed in the truck.

Perfect! i didnt think of doing it that way, but I think thats the way Ill do it. (what?) that raised part looks to be at the right height. I figured I would cut around the hump to remove it but couldnt figure out how I was going to cut the back part. now I know. thank you.

Originally Posted by Mr. 250r

I always wanted a crew cab square body but never could find the right one, and as for the buckets please post some pics and measurements possibly of the whole floor lowering and stuff this is the one thing i plan on doing but have no info just a bunch of pictures lol

I will certainly try. my biggest problem is I get moving on doing a task, and forget to stop and snap some photos.

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Looks like some good progress Mike! Are those Boss 338's like you had on your other truck in the sneak peek?

they are Ridler wheels I hadnt heard of them till the swap meet the other day. but got a real good deal and aside from them being glossy in the center and a larger polished lip they look pretty much the same. oh and they should fit with out modify the rotor. I should buy a few more sets before the rest find out about them and jump the price like the boss.

[yousesteers]

Originally Posted by mrhino

Perfect! i didnt think of doing it that way, but I think thats the way Ill do it. (what?) that raised part looks to be at the right height. I figured I would cut around the hump to remove it but couldnt figure out how I was going to cut the back part. now I know. thank you.

It seems to be that small raised area is the right height at least for mine it is I just lowered the seat humps to that point. I just took a level and decided where I wanted the new top and drew a line around it using the level and a marker then cut the line with a sawzall

Originally Posted by mrhino

I will certainly try. my biggest problem is I get moving on doing a task, and forget to stop and snap some photos.

This is the same problem that I have