Rust-Eh (1953 Chevrolet 3100)

[84blaze]

Ive had this thread posted for a few months over on S10forum, so here it is...

It's a 1949 Chevrolet 1434. It's spent its time as a farm truck in the prairies prior to being bought by the second owner. After he bought it, it sat for nearly 7 years with plans to restore. Now I'm the third owner of this truck and I'm ready to actually give it the love it deserves.

I still need to get a box, rear fenders and side steps but at least I have the main parts to get started.

Since Ive been toying around with S-series for years now I've collected quite a few parts and pieces, which will be very helpful in this build. The plan is to lay it out on a long bed S10 chassis using my SD arms and Ridetech 4 link. I will be keeping the exterior completely original, as it has such beautiful patina. The interior will stay mostly original as well as I'm going for more of a rat rod look on this one.

It came with different fenders that are in better shape and match the patina. They also have the incorporated turn signals below the headlights.

Eventually once I get a chassis and mount the body on the frame I will be in search of a LS engine.

Anyways, here are some photos from when I viewed it today. It gets delivered tomorrow! :tup:

[84blaze]

When it was delivered it barely fit where I wanted to put it. I had about 82 inches of opening to work with and the truck itself is approximately 78 inches in width; I didn't have much room to play with. I actually ended up having to cut the side mirror off to slip it in the tent.

[84blaze]

Here are some photos of the second set of fenders I got with the truck.

They match the patina on the cab pretty nicely IMHO.

[84blaze]

After owning the 49 for a while and continuously searching for a shortbox and running boards I came across this rust bucket.

It's a 1951 Chevrolet 1300 Shortbox!! The best thing is it has nearly everything I need to get started on the project. The cross braces of the bed and the rear fenders are pretty thin in spots which is no big deal because I have a line on some rear fenders and a bed kit is not all that expensive. The box sides are in very good shape and match the colour of my other truck.

I plan to use the 5 window cab and front clip off the original 3/4 truck and use the short bed, running boards, 51' doors with the push out window, and other body parts and interior pieces off the 1300.

The previous owner did a brake job and purchased some other odds and ends like a new gas tank and sending unit which will be used on the truck im building. I should be able to sell the short bed frame to someone once I swap everything over to a S10 chassis and make some of my money back.

I didnt take a whole bunch of photos but here are the few I took when I went to view it.

[84blaze]

The next day it was delivered. I had to sawzall a section of fence out in between the posts so I could slide it into my back yard until I have a chance to start disassembling it. Im waiting for a neighbour petition to start about all my cars I now have in my small yard... LOL









I'm totally keeping the wooden bed sides. They're wicked :tup:

[84blaze]

As the truck will be laid out with my SuicideDoors arms I got in on the last S10forum group buy for a LSoH No Toe Steering kit:



I got it at wicked price with free shipping!!

Belltech 2102 Blazer spindles and Timken Hubs so I can run bigger brakes with ease.









Purchased the spindles and hubs off of a member on S10forum for a decent price. They just need some clean up and paint. I plan to run the bigger 2nd gen Blazer brakes on this once it's all put together.

[84blaze]

Finally after months of searching I finally found a good S-series donor. It's 1985 Reg cab longbox.

It has a 3.1 TBI V6, original 4 speed manual, 17" Eagle Alloy 212's, lowered 2 or 3 inches, shaved body line and door handles, and fiberglass roll pan with corvette lights.

The body is rough but the frame is what I'm after. Hopefully I can sell a bunch of the aftermarket crap thats on it and recoup some money.

I rented a U-haul car dolly and pulled the **** show home.

The only thing I wasn't looking forward to is the giant wasp nest inside the cab. Luckily the PO took care of the wasp nest before I showed up.

I'll probbaly end up polishing the 212's, removing the lowering kit, and installing it all onto my red ext cab. I have a hard time driving stock things, if you haven't noticed.

The little U-haul dolly I used today caught air nearly the whole way as I was going to pick the truck up. It sure is noisy to drive with when there is no weight on it. It was ****ing bouncing all over the place..







3.1L TBI





Custom exhaust clamp... LOL



Go-fast hood vents


The wheels, which are basically the only thing on this truck that is worth some money.


I littered the highway with bondo flakes on the way home. Bondo death stars were flying off in all directions. I'm glad I wasn't driving behind me.


I'll try to sell this OG corvette tail rollpan






Only 180K on this beauty

[84blaze]

Now you guys are up to date with my progress. This week I hope to have the S15 down to the chassis and hopefully manage to get someone to come pick up my scrap metal.

[84blaze]

Swapped the 17's over to my red ext cab and managed to easily remove the bed after work today.



I had to pound a 12pt 5/8 socket over the locking lugs to get them out. The PO misplaced the key somewhere along the way.

It took no time to get them off. Maybe 5 mins. The hardest part was getting the locking nut out of the socket haha



No damage to the socket:



I started by removing the tailgate and roll pan





The cross strapped the bed with ratchet straps and used my engine hoist to remove the bed









After it was off I got the pressure washer out and gave the frame and engine bay a good bath.





Then I strapped the bed against the neighbours tree and fence so I could still use my drive way.

[Coach529]

Great progress so far.

[HUSSEY]

Looking good. I went for the front big brake swap too. Keep an eye out for a Blazer or Bravada, they have a much fatter front sway bar that bolts right in place of the stock S10 one.

[made2drag]

Nice progress so far. That truck is gonna look sweet laying out. I love the step by step pics so far. The patina will look awesome and the 212's will actually look good temporarily...Will it require a z front or rear to lay out? Ive seen people having to raise cab mounts if I remember right. Cant wait to eventually have an AD also. Keep the pics coming.

[made2drag]

Oh wait....you have 2 AD's??? Im jealous...build both of them!

[84blaze]

Originally Posted by Coach529

Great progress so far.

Thanks dude!

Originally Posted by HUSSEY

Looking good. I went for the front big brake swap too. Keep an eye out for a Blazer or Bravada, they have a much fatter front sway bar that bolts right in place of the stock S10 one.

There arent too many 2wd blazers in Canada. I'm not entirely sure if the 4x4 versions have the same style swaybar..?! If they do it shouldnt be too hard to find.

Originally Posted by made2drag

Nice progress so far. That truck is gonna look sweet laying out. I love the step by step pics so far. The patina will look awesome and the 212's will actually look good temporarily...Will it require a z front or rear to lay out? Ive seen people having to raise cab mounts if I remember right. Cant wait to eventually have an AD also. Keep the pics coming.

I'll be using the factory S10 frame so I wont need to Z the frame. I plan to buy a body mount kit from Advanced Design which is completely bolt on and mounts the body in a factory location.

As far as laying it out, I have Thorbros lower control arms and a LSoH no-toe steering linkage kit wich will allow me to lay nicely in the front and for the rear I have an older RideTech AirBar set up that should drop me down to a comfortable level. The rear will not completely lay but the front will giving me a nice rake when all said and done!

Originally Posted by made2drag

Oh wait....you have 2 AD's??? Im jealous...build both of them!

haha! Yes I have 2. Honestly I'll only really be able to build one out of the two. There are good and bad parts on each of them. What ever I dont end up using will be up for sale.

[tlorber]

84, I bought my S10 running for $800.00 and ended up getting $1,200.00 by parting it out on Craigslist (keeping the entire undercarriage) so if you have the time and patience, the rest of the truck will be worth something to someone.

[84blaze]

Originally Posted by tlorber

84, I bought my S10 running for $800.00 and ended up getting $1,200.00 by parting it out on Craigslist (keeping the entire undercarriage) so if you have the time and patience, the rest of the truck will be worth something to someone.

The body on it is pretty rough but I've kept everything that would be worth some money and have put a few ads up. I'm hoping it will sell fairly quickly and make me some money back.

I bought this S10 for $700 and I have at least $500 in wheels (17" Eagle Alloys) and a few hundred in Belltech lowering components. I also have a complete 3.1L V6 so I'm sure I'll do fine.

I've made quite a bit of progress since I last posted. Ill make sure to post some photos tonight!!

[84blaze]

Over the last two days I finished getting the front clip, cab, and engine/trans out. Now I'm just left with a bare frame and suspension.

I used my engine hoist for almost everything and made my life incredibly easy.

Two days ago I began removing the fenders, hood, and the interior. It was relatively straight forward and only took a few hours. Ive been taking my time with the wiring as I'm trying to keep it all intact so when it comes time to wire the 49' it should be a cakewalk. If I wasn't keeping anything I could have had this truck apart much sooner.







Finished up for the night.



The next day after work I started by building a cart I would be able to place the cab on so I'd be able to roll it around. It will also come in handy when I remove the 5 window cab. That way ill be able to roll it into the garage and deal with rust issues with it at a decent height.

The cart is just over 2ft tall and 4ft square.



Although probably not strong enough I used my engine leveller mounted to the seatbelt studs and used some ratchet straps just incase something failed.

Looks ghetto...





The moment of truth!





It got away from me a bit and was a bit difficult to get the cab on to the cart. If it was level or if I had another person it would have been simple.

[84blaze]

Today I was fairly productive I managed to get the engine and trans out without much difficulty.





I had to jack the frame up with the floor jack so I could slide my engine hoist under the lower control arms. It was a bit tight at times. haha





I'm very happy with the shape of the frame it's really clean. There really isn't a whole lot of gunk or grime that I'll have to clean up so it should make for an easy job.





While I was taking a break from the sun I ****ed around with my smoothies and old center caps... It looks cool IMO but I really cant bring myself to drilling holes in the face of the wheel to secure hub cap keepers. I'll probably just run them as is and eventually get some Detroit steel wheels.



Over all I think I had a productive few days. It only took my 3 days to strip the truck and that was working on it for roughly 2-3 hours after work each night.

#ificandoityoucandoit

[84blaze]

A couple days ago I began cutting the bed floor out of the old S15 bed. I used a cutoff wheel and a sawzall, I honestly should have used a sawzall all along...

The cuts are pretty hacked in places but once I get it mounted I'll cut it nicely so I can mount the 51's bedsides to it.







Rolled the chassis into the garage and placed the bed floor onto the frame.

[84blaze]

After that I used my engine hoist to lift my chassis up on to 2 wheels so I would be able to park my daily in the garage.

[84blaze]

I am now out of province on training for the next 6 weeks so the chassis will sit like this until I'm back.

Like I mentioned earlier, I went and bought a lightly used Magnacharger kit for a CTS-V.

I believe its a MP112 but I could be wrong...?!

It has a Stage 7 port job by Stiegemeier, which is supposed to yield an average gain of 10% RWHP.

Here it is!

















It came complete and lightly used. The install kit is brand new in package. It came with the following:

Intercooler - New
Pump hoses and brackets - New
Magnavolt - Previously used but still in good shape.
Install manual and all documentation on it.
Two different length main shafts, (depending on accessory drive)
Drive shaft bearings - New
Small billet pulley for increased boost.
Intercooler reservoir - New
AN fittings - New
Intercooler Pump - New


Now I just need to find an engine... There are a few 5.3s and 4.8s around for good prices but ultimately I want another 6.0L LQ4

Unfortunately, due to my training I will not be updating this thread until the beginning of September. At that time I should have lots of progress coming in on this project, so don't lose interest yet.

[99 to Life]

looks great, I'm in. F the neighbors man. Shame people can't do what they want on their own land these days.

[IWanna49]

Sub'd!! Looks great so far. And exactly what 99 said!

[84blaze]

I bought some speedway uppers off the classifieds on s10forum and they arrived a couple months ago. They are used but seem to be in good shape. I'll likely paint them flat black or red to match my SD lowers. It's going to be hard to incorporate the colour red into this project. The only problem is red and green don't really work well together..

[84blaze]

I went to a couple show and shines over the weekend and I found this 53' 1300





It was beautifully done.

I really fell in love with the interior. I thing this colour would work well with the patina on my truck. But at the same time, I might just leave the interior beat up and old looking!





Im sure one day ill change my mind and switch over to a clean and finished interior.