'87 Project x2

[BCKRedBaron]

Well, after a year or so of lurking, I finally decided to sign up and participate. Here are my two '87 Silverados.




I'll cover both trucks in this thread. First up, how about some back story?

[BCKRedBaron]

So, since I got the white one first, I'll start with it. Some time in late summer of 2013, my uncle showed up to the shop where I work with this white truck. It was going to be a project of his. At the time it ran and drove fine, other than the TV cable was misadjusted and the trans would shift out of overdrive if you let off of the throttle. More on this later. Anyways, he had the truck a couple weeks before I got the bright idea that I wanted a project truck. Ever since I was a kid I've been fascinated by cars and trucks and I always wanted to have a sweet ride. So I talked to my uncle, and fortunately everything's for sale with him, so I bought it in September 2013.

Got it registered and insured and started driving it. I began to learn everything I could about it. Unfortunately, what I learned was it's kind of a piece of junk. The truck originally had a 350, but now it sports a 305 from an '83 pickup according to the casting code, with a TBI, I'm guessing off the original motor, retrofitted. The biggest problems with the truck center around this swap. For one, the engine leaks oil, and then there's the TV cable.

When I got the truck, the bracket holding the throttle cable and TV cable was too far back for the stock cables to reach. I assume this happened in the swap. Both cables had a redneck-engineered extension, with the TV cable being severed and wrapped around a bolt to reach the linkage. This kept the cable from moving as it should, obviously. In addition to this, the truck has a single tank bed but has both tanks still installed, and the switch works. The driver's door regulator was broken and the handle was glued on. Yada yada yada, you get the picture, it sucked.

[BCKRedBaron]

So, I bought another TV cable and throttle cable and went about trying to fix them. After much swearing, I got both of them in, but I still have the issue of the bracket being too far back. I've tried extensions, but they won't fit the link for the TV cable. Basically, this is why it's been parked so long and is in the shape it's in now. I'm ashamed to admit I have really let this thing sit too long and it's gone down hill.

However, I have done a bit of work on it since it's been parked. I replaced the broken instrument cluster housing, replaced the window rubber, painted the door panels, replaced the driver's window regulator, replaced wiper arms, added some air ducts that were missing, and attempted (read: failed miserably) to refurbish the dash pad with the expanding foam and epoxy trick.

Here's a couple pics of the interior as it is.

[BCKRedBaron]

Do I need to make those pics smaller?

The original plan for the white truck was to swap in a 350, drop it, do rally wheels, and matte black paint with all trim replaced. Then, after I found out what a pile it was, and I bought the brown truck, the plan was to sell it. Then it sat for too long, and I just came to the conclusion that I'll never be able to sell it for what I already have in it without sinking more money into it. So I guess I'll keep it. Biggest thing is get it cleaned up and in the shop out of the element because it already is getting cancer in the floorboards. The grand plan is probably a carbed 350 or 383 and a built 700r4. 4/6 drop, complete interior redo, matte black exterior (originally the truck was black, whoever painted it did a crappy job), and not sure on wheels. Just build a street terror.

Some of you may be asking, why not go LS?

[BCKRedBaron]

Well, that's where the brown truck comes in!

Flashback to late 2013, shortly after I bought the white '87. My uncle (same one) shows up to the shop with a brown truck, pretty much stock, with around 91k-92k on the odo, and a straight body with very little rust. At the time my white one was still running, but this brown truck looked sweeeet. Shortly thereafter, my uncle lowered it 2.5/4 and put 15x8 rallys on, had true dual exhaust installed and a tune up, and just drove it around. He also bought yet another '87 around the same time and proceeded to drop a 5.3/4L60 in, seriously he's been through 4 squares in the last 3 years and has a couple more parts trucks.

So, after the mess with the TV cable, I was winded and let the white truck sit. If you haven't gathered this yet, I'm no mechanic, and I'm just now learning a lot of things I wish I had years ago. That aside, my S10 began to have electrical issues. I couldn't figure out what it was, checked all the obvious, including the battery. Eventually it turned out to be the battery, made me feel dumb, but whatever. This was September/October of 2014. Well I knew my uncle was thinking about selling the brown truck, so I convinced him to sell it to me.

This thing really has gotten better, the more I dig into it. 305/TH400 runs strong, nice interior, some rust on the cab around the doors but not a lot. I haven't done much to it since I bought it other than maintain it. I did swap the worn velour seat out for a vinyl one with good padding, replaced both fuel tanks and pumps after the old tanks leaked, replaced the grill with a slightly better original, swapped steering wheels with my uncle for his Grant GT wheel, and put on 15x8 rallys (part of the deal when I bought it was my uncle kept the 15x8s and put some 15x7 rallys on to sell to me), which led to some control arm grinding and replacing front brakes after a stud got crossthreaded, and replacing a broken water pump. The main issues were a leaky steering box and a slow coolant leak somewhere.

So, the plan originally was to put the 350 in this truck instead of the white one when I bought it. Mike (my uncle) gave me the 350/350 combo that came out of his '87 he did the 5.3 swap in to use. I was thinking about doing a retrofit EFI kit, but after research and thinking about it, I decided to do the LS swap. Beyond that, I'm planning a respray in original colors, redoing the suspension with tubular control arms and other performance enhancements, a complete interior redo, and rearend upgrade.

All was going well for a while until disaster struck.

[BCKRedBaron]

The pic of the brown truck in the OP was taken last summer right after I had given it a good wash and wax. Just a few weeks later, I had my first accident in that truck. It's actually a bit embarrassing because of how I did it. I had just left the house, driven about a mile and a half and decided I didn't want the passenger window down. I'm sure you can tell where this is going from here. Thank God no one was coming the other way, b/c I overcorrected getting off the right shoulder and ran out of traction, talent, and road all about the same time. I left the road and wound up buried in a farm ditch. The carpet flooded, thankfully it wasn't deep enough to get into the dash or any wiring. To get out I had to wade into murky knee high water with a cottonmouth close enough to touch. Dad came and got me, we called a wrecker, cop showed up and decided not to give me a ticket and got it pulled out. GM put their bumpers on good back then, because that's what the wrecker hooked to and it didn't rip it off.

Anyways, by some miracle I wasn't hurt and neither was the truck, really. I was speeding a bit (50 in a 35), but the landing wasn't near as hard as I was expecting in the split second I was airborne. The carpet was ruined, of course, but I was gonna replace that anyway. There was a ton of mud and bushes/weeds/mosquitos packed everywhere under the hood, but I'll be darned if the truck didn't fire up and run when we got it dried out. I changed the oil, trans fluid, and rear diff fluid, and all looked good. The body was hardly damaged. The front valance was a little bent up and the rear wheel arch trim had to be reattached, but I don't think there were even any new scratches on the body. Say what you will, I choose to believe the good Lord was looking out for me and it wasn't my time to go!

So, the brown '87 is still my DD. We got my electrical issues sorted out on my S10 but then the fuel line started leaking. Again, thought I had that fixed but I didn't, so it's parked for now. But I gotta get that up and running because...

[BCKRedBaron]

...this is about to happen!



Last year I found a wrecked '05 Silverado with a good 5.3/4L60e for sale. I bought the whole thing and drove it home. I began the teardown and started researching and buying parts. Finally, just today I got the engine and trans out of the donor truck and on a stand for cleaning. I have a pile of boxes with parts in my home waiting to be installed. Got the harness and PCM done by a guy locally.

Here's a couple shots of the progress this afternoon.

[BCKRedBaron]

For now, I'm just planning to get it in and running before I do any performance mods. But I will get it cleaned up and painted Chevy orange. In the future I'm hoping to do LS6 heads milled and maybe ported, a TBSS or NNBS intake, a mild cam - something I can use with the stock TC - a tune, and a built 4L60e and 10-bolt rear.

Ok, so that's it in a nutshell so far, at least the major stuff. I've learned a ton browsing this site, especially from the build threads. As I said earlier, I'm no mechanic and I'm not really any good at this, but I'm learning and hopefully I'll eventually be able to contribute to the community as much as I take from it!

[daddyjeep]

Wow, That's quite the introduction. To answer your question from a couple posts back, your pics are fine. Why don't you just put the white one back together the best you can and sell it off. Use the money to make the brown one better. Even if you take a loss from what you originally paid it is better than leaving it sit.

[BCKRedBaron]

That's very true. To be honest I've gone back and forth on selling it or not several times over the last year or so. I think if I can just get the TV cable deal sorted out and get it cleaned up it'll drive. If nothing else I gotta get it in the shop out of the elements for a while. Now that I got my new motor pulled out of the donor I can work on stripping the donor down and scrapping it and I'll have some space.

If I can get around to it, I'll try to get a pic of the cable and bracket setup on here so y'all can see what's going on and maybe help me figure it out...

BTW, that K30 you're working on is gonna be neat! I just skimmed your thread so far, are you keeping it DRW?

[daddyjeep]

Thanks, I'm going SRW. Pics of your TV cable might get you some help. It is never fun fixing someone else's hack job.

[BCKRedBaron]

Ain't that the truth! Unfortunately a good bit of that truck is a hackjob. I think the TBI unit is on some sort of spacer or something. It's not like the brown truck. Maybe the motor's moved forward too. I dunno. Pics on the way.

[BCKRedBaron]

Here's the linkage setup. You can see I've got the throttle cable hooked up with an Edelbrock extension. I tried the same for the TV cable, but it won't fit the hook on the throttle arm. The bracket at the back of the manifold looks to be OEM, just don't know if it's right for this setup. And you can see my other problem, mice. It's been hell trying to keep them out of my trucks, even my DD.

[BCKRedBaron]

Small update. Not much to report except more time spent cleaning this motor. Mineral spirits is pretty much the best stuff ever! So far I've been focusing my elbow grease on the heads and top end. Once I get the shop cleaned up a bit more (ie. get rid of the donor truck in the way) I'll be able to get the engine degreased, original paint stripped, and ready for new paint.

Here's some pics of today's progress...



I'm planning to go with Duplicolor Chevy Orange on the valve covers and engine block.


I went with Duplicolor black for the accessory brackets. I don't have after pics yet but I do of clean up. I used Eagle One mag wheel etching cleaner for all this stuff.

[BCKRedBaron]

I also ordered a few gaskets for some of the stuff I either have removed or might remove during clean up, valley cover, intake, valve cover, etc. The goal for this week is get the donor truck stripped down, the stuff I plan to sell off boxed up and out of the way, and get the engine painted and trans cleaned. Not sure if I'll paint that or not...