81 project thread

[tds]

ok so i'm gonna copy jons (red02chevy) idea and post my posts from another board. hopefully every one can be just as bad ass and helpful as the other board. ok now for the posts

[tds]

Well i figure now that i have a "project", i might as well start a project page for every one to see and also as a little photo album for myself. This will be a slow project like the subject title says. I just recently bought a house, a new car, and some puppies so the funds for this truck have been slashed way, way back.

Well i received my 81 like this....







and over the past week or so i have done some stripping down in order to get it ready for bags....

passenger side under hood shot after inner wheel well and battery removed


driver side under hood shot after inner wheel well removed and some wires cleaned up


temporary battery placement till i get another stinger battery and some mounts made



shot of my hack job exhaust thats gonna be removed asap for hooker headers, new collectors, cherry bomb true dual exhaust, and dumps

my louvered hood, nice hood but any one who wants it can have it, the stock one will be going on asap.

kinda hard to tell but i removed all the carpet and alot of the glue on the floor. didn't find any bad spots in the floor besides a crappy seat belt mount.

And for all the fluid on the passenger side all over the floor and the control arm. it's tranny fluid. some jack ass who last pulled the lines cut em in half and rubber hosed em back together. so they leak every where. it's gonna hit my buddies shop for new lines and gaskets as soon as i feel like driving it down there. gonna check out if his pipe bender can do 3" also.

[tds]

now for a picture up date

i figured since there's no ac lines or pump i might as well remove all the other hardware. i removed the ac bracket, all the lines, as well as the ac radiator.



also removed the factory rear tubs to take some measurements for the new tubs i'm gonna order.


also picked up a new fused distribution block with grounds also


got sick and tired of the stock coolant tank so i picked a new one up from mas racing. it's much smaller and better to hide. just need to add some more coolant and she'll be golden

[tds]

got a decent amount of stuff done for it being a sunday and doing a ton of **** around the house.

got the side mirrors removed, they flopped like crazy in the wind on the free way, gonna get those holes shaved, blocked back down, and set into primer as soon i get around to it.

hit up my buddies shop and had his dad bend me up some new tranny lines. NO MORE LEAKS


decide to remove the heater and ac box to clean off all the black sealer that was sprayed all over. still undecided what i'm gonna do with my heater situation. dunno if i'm gonna just shave that whole side of the firewall or figure out a new blower so i can have some heat and defrost. either way i got alot of the sealer off and a temporary coat of primer back on.

[tds]

nother small undate. got my stinger battery tray made at work just need to blast it and paint it. also ordered my rear tubs from suicide doors. hopefully they are here next week. ordered em big enough to lay on 24's with a real tire if i want. now the pics

started puling the dash apart to remove a rats nest of wiring. not a great pic but progress is progress.


just a upper shoot of the bay. i'm gonna start rewiring this thing as soon as i get all the wire and connections together. slowly but surely hide them all.


got the louvered hood off and shot the stock one in rattle can flat black till i get my cowl hood. i know the paint looks ****ty. i did it super fast, sprayed all over and it was like 45 degrees out.

[tds]

i'm pumped to see alot more people checking this thread out. :head3::head3::head3:

little update

well i needed to remove my passenger gas tank in order to mount my batteries and such. what a horrible job by yourself and only half the proper tools.





what made this whole ordeal so hard:flame:. the gas is so bad i have no idea how long its been in there since that passenger tank never worked.


this is the switcher between the tank. gonna clean it up, remove all the junk on there i don't need and put her back since this is also my electric sender to my fuel gauge.


got the other tank hosed up to by pass the switcher.


all nice and open with my temporary battery wiring. there's a ton of room under there now


while under there i decided to remove all the old exhaust also since i'm gonna order my headers and cherries soon.



also pulled out the wiring bin. gonna start upgrading every wire i can find and feel needs to be replaced. this is gonna suck

[tds]

ok i havent got alot done but i have a great excuse. i got staright hammered all weekend :head3::head3:


got my stock manifolds removed and cleaned. after a few days of waiting got my new hookers all bolted up and ready to start figuring out the rest of my exhaust. thanks to nathan porter for telling what headers will bolt up and not stick out below my frame.







also modified my ac and tensioner bracket. needs some more trimming thou so it will be coming off again asap.



also jacked up my cab and removed the stock exhaust shroud that hasn't been used in probably 15 years....

[tds]

my gf keep yelling at me to get some kind of sticker to show it's a work in progress so she doesn't feel like a "hick" rolling around with the dogs. so i got one. right to the point.


marked the bed and cut it up. my tubs will be here next week, so i can get those in and then i'll get some sheet metal from work and bend it up for a decent cover. i think i'm gonna try some extreme bends so my cover will bolt on for the time being.....





now i just gotta gotta cut the rest of the side of the bed so the wheels can tuck with out rubbing.

[tds]

not much for the day. just buttoned up the headers bolts and flanges. they fit perfectly under the frame.

[tds]

not much done. it's been raining and i need to get some more cutting and grinding wheels for i go to crazy.

tubs came in from sd.com there aren't perfect to what i ordered but i can make em work just fine with alittle tlc. just goes to prove i wasn't joking about how much tire i plan to tuck with either some huge rims or slicks i know i'm gonna get ragged on for being oversized but thats what looks good in my head also with tubs that large.


i have most of my cuts marked up so now let the stupid amount of metal work begin. like make a new rail piece, level the floor humps in the corners (leveled now just need to cut some new peices to fill em back in), cut out all the inner bed wall thats in the way, and grind down the whole surface for the welds.

[tds]

got the rough cut of the inner bed wall out of my way.


drilled up one of my squares and marked it at an inch to short my wheel tubs exactly that.



stopped to have so liquid motivation



test fit



ground off all the paint, rounded the corners i cut. ready to be tacked in now :head3:, was a goddamn lot more work then i expected.

[tds]

so i started the wiring cluster ****

step one. build the battery tray for the little stinger spv44


step two. get both 1/0 ground connections made. one to the frame. one to the ground distro block.


step 3. get main power wire ran and anl fused.



Step four. ghetto rig a battery hold down just to pull it back into the garage.


step five. now that my battery location is set i can i add my quick disconnects for jumper cables, start wiring my fused distro block and start hammering on cleaning up these wires. makes me wish i would of stayed in the car audio game longer. i love wiring **** up. also there will be flex loom added later when i get the color i want.

[tds]

small update as i'm waiting to find a shop to bend up my exhaust and also for another rear end quote before i call clint at kp.

started looking around my firewall and engine and just noticed a ton of wires that didn't bleong, were no longer used, or just a bunch of bad splices. so i decided to jump right into rewiring and hiding all of of em.






after a little bit i decided i'm gonna remove the fuse holder and the main harness from the fire wall. so i labeled all of them and got out the snips.




now this looks much better! just have to fab up a new fuse block mount and lengthen all the wires and upgrade the power wire and she be back to running hopefully be the weekend....

[tds]

ok no real huge updates but i have been working on it. theres so much wiring that being redone it's ****ing insane. lets see if i can get a verbal break down and then just add pics later.

- battery - stinger spv 44 with stinger battery terminals
- 1/0 gauge battery ground
- 1/0 gauge motor ground
- 1/0 streetwires distribution ground
- 1/0 gauge to anl fuse holder to streetwires fused distribution block
- 1/0 gauge to anl fuse holder to stinger 1/0 T
- 1/0 gauge from stinger T to starter
- 1/0 guage from stinger T to alternator
- 4 gauge from positive and negative of battery to quick disconnects for jumper cables
- 4 gauge (16 feet) from quick disconnects to jumper cable ends

thats all i can think of right now for all the large wires. besides those i have lengthened or removed basically every wire on the main wiring harness and factory fuse block. that way i can smooth the firewall but keep the factory fuse block. i would guess around 5-6 10 gauge wires and 14-15 16 gauge wires. like i said before hopefully i will never do this again

also i order my 2 cherry bomb extreme mufflers today. should be here friday

[Walts_restoration]

looks good. you could always do an AC delete box, http://acdelete.com/pages/73-90_Truck.htm

[tds]

got my mufflers actually today. dumb ****s sent me one red one and one silver one thou. just what i wanted to do is paint more ****.

[tds]

Originally Posted by Walts_restoration

looks good. you could always do an AC delete box, http://acdelete.com/pages/73-90_Truck.htm

i might have to look into that. depends on what the local custom shop says. if they can get the blower fan inside the cab as i like, i'm gonna do that. that way i can have total smooth firewall and more room for more tire

[84 400]

Like the build. Truck is coming along nicely. the back window sticker says it all.....

[babyJay]

Awesome project keep us posted as you have. It's coming along nicely...

[andresco50]

Nice project man!! that custom grill is a tube grill??

[chevyfan87]

so whats going on with the hood? (louvered)

[chevyfan87]

so do you still have the hood?

[chevyfan87]

so do you still have the hood?

[tds]

Originally Posted by 84 400

Like the build. Truck is coming along nicely. the back window sticker says it all.....

thanks this is my first full project truck so i'm learning alot of new things. the sticker is perfect cause i work on it just enough were i can put it back together and drive it. so as long as she's safe on the road i cruise around with no tubs chucking stuff every where

[chevyfan87]

sorry i posted the same thing so many times...comp went all funky