GEN III C10 Full Air ride build

[breeze85cten]

Started on this 1985 c10 a year ago. At first I was going to just rebuild the suspension and just slowly build the interior and everything else but I ran into a cheap GENIII 4.8l 4l60e setup and couldnt pass it up. Already had experience with these engines as well as a good friend do the swap into his 77 c10 bagged as well. I am going to just post some pics of what I have done over the past year. I am very close to having it running but just started school at ASU again and it is going to be hard to get time to get the little things together to finish this build.

[breeze85cten]

These are older pics of it before I shaved the firewall and put in the ls 4.8l

[breeze85cten]

oops. the images didnt load last time.

[breeze85cten]

These pics are from a year ago when we stripped the suspension the original owners fabricated up to build it the right way. Plans were to three link it similar to the suspension trophy trucks use so it will be bullit proof. It took alot of grinding and fabricated to finally get it complete. These pics show us boxing in the back half of the frame to strengthen it.

[breeze85cten]

We had fab a mount on the axle to hold the wishbone we fabbed up with a huge heim joint on it. It took many hours heating up after welding it to make it fit back to where we welded the mounts. This part took us forever and had me second guessing but it worked out better then I imagined.

[breeze85cten]

after we had the wishbone and trailing arms mounted it was time to weld in the bag mounts and the shocks. Also fabbed up a nice tank mount for the back. picked up a 16 gallon at our local aftermarket store lopers for around 180. Cheapy but will work since I am using a inline fuel pump setup.

[breeze85cten]

The previous owner had this "great" idea to cut a huge hole out of the back of the cab and bed and a blow through for the system so I had a huge hole in the cab and bed to fill in and we came up with something kinda cool to take the holes place. I found a 60s stepside tailgate and always loved the stamped chevy lettering so I cut it out and we welded it in place to give it a old school look to it. I love it. Heres the pics.

[breeze85cten]

Here are two pics of the truck before I took the bed and suspension apart, also a pic of teh rear axle where we stripped the old drum brakes and fabbed up some mounting plates to hold the disc brake setup off a older caprice cop car since they use the same bolt pattern as these c10s. 5x5. This took alot of fabbing as well to make it work but after we made the plates for mine my buddy made some for his 77 and it worked perfect. Disc brakes all around now!

[breeze85cten]

Once we were done with the suspension we started on the front suspension as well as the engine swap.

[breeze85cten]

This is after I cleaned up the firewall and front suspension a little bit.

[breeze85cten]

This pic shows how nasty the old air bag setup was before I tore it apart to clean it up but then decided to get porter built upper and lower control arms to help the front go low as possible with out a drop member. I dont have a pic of the arms after I first put them on but here is a pic witht he engine as of today with the arms. Also the finish product of a flush firewall nicely painted.

[STOCKISH]

Great job so far. Keep it up.

[breeze85cten]

Just hooked up the viar compressors to my tanks. Just waiting on my buddy to wire them up. Also bought my air intake system that I pieced together. Its coming along.

[smokedat]

lookin good that tail gate looks sweet

[draggin86]

wow nice job dude very clean build! are you using a vintage air unit?

[spudz]

looks bad ass! and a clean truck to start with.

[breeze85cten]

Yup using the vintage air. Sad story on that, my buddy helping me with this build had a sick 77 c10 same setup as mine except a stock 5.3l with 4l60e in it and his girlfriend drove it into the back of a minivan! It bent the front half of the frame to where it wasnt worth fixing so we literally parted the whole thing out and this was about 7 months ago and I bought most of his stuff off of it. Sucks!!! That just shows that you dont let anyone especially a girl drive your baby! If you look back its the green c10 in the back round in one of my pics. It was the truck that got me motivated to do mine. Was looking forward to cruising together but thats over with. Here is a better pic of it too! He just bought those 20s like a month before the crash.

[kunzy420]

Damn women...probably got jealous of it so she got in a "accident"

Build looks great, cant wait to start doing more on my truck...room is starting to look like a parts store

[breeze85cten]

[menace121978]

wow! sik build man! i really like where this is going!!!

[68GMCCustom]

these builds are sure getting popular!

[draggin86]

Wow that does suck the green truck was looking really good! was he Z'd in the front or control arms or somethings?

[breeze85cten]

Same set up in the front as I have. Porter built arms upper and lower. When we put them on we could believe how much lower it got. it was almost level but if you have them money and the time drop member with the arms is the only way to go to get her on the ground. I didnt have them money for that but what I have works perfect with my 4.8 for clearence issues with the oil pan. I bought the H3 oil pan to make sure there are no issues and it couldnt be better. Here are some pics of my 4.8 build about ten months ago.

[breeze85cten]

some more...

[breeze85cten]

tore it all down once I had it on the stand, had the heads cleaned up, ported a bit and put heavy duty springs and had the valves reseated. Brand new after they were done. Then also put arp bolts on the connecting rods for the pistons to strengthen them for higher rpms as well as lengthened push rods since I bought a custom grinded cam, all new gaskets of course and head bolts. Wish I had more money for a nicer pulley and double chained oil pump. Also bought a LS1 intake to spice things up a bit. They just look so much sicker then those big old 4.8/5.3 intakes. Lose a bit of torque but gain on top end horse power. This truck aint pulling nothing so I went for as much horsepower as I could get out of the little 4.8l. Then bought a circle d 3000 stall and had the tranny completely rebuilt. And I havent even started her up!!!!