Project Old School

[jbain]

I've had my eye on this truck for years but my neighbor would never sell it. It has set for nearly 10 years partially finished just rusting away. A few weeks ago he decided to part with it so I snatched it up. The cab is bad but not un-salvageable, the doors are rusted beyond repair and the frame is pretty crusty. I'm a big Off-Roader and love to "Crawl", I've wheeled an XJ for years but have always wanted a Full Size one ton Crawler. So it begins.

This is where it has sat for the last decade.

[jbain]

Loaded and on it's way to its new home.

[jbain]

Got it in the garage and got the cab and clip off and on a dolly. Took me an entire day to get the decals off it. The rear glass had been painted black with a rattle can.

[jbain]

The frame was a concern to me and after reading alot of builds here where members have used NBS frames. So I found a rust free 02 Silverado 2wd frame. Since I'll be hanging a Dana 60 up front all the IFS gets cut out anyway.

[jbain]

Here are the axles I'll be using, 79 HP Dana 60 and 14 Bolt rear.

[jbain]

Got the cab and front clip mounted on the 02 frame. With this being a crawler I need a low center of gravity. So I have to keep the cab within 2 inches of the frame rails. This is going to be a challenge with the front clip and bed.

[jbain]

I needed to make sure the 02 frame was going to work for me before moving forward. To get a visual of a final product I raised the frame to ride height of 22 inches above the frame rails. I'm going with a 116 inch wheelbase with 43 inch tires. I got the body sitting on the new frame and feel confident I can make all the mounts work, this is what my final mockup looked like. (the rims inside the tires are just so I couldnt see through, I'll be running re-centered H1 rims)

[jbain]

This is how the front will look sitting at ride height.

[jbain]

Finally got the coil springs out without killing myself, I really do dislike using spring compressors. But the good news is I got a pretty big pile of IFS junk started.

[GR8-68]

Cool build my friend, so you basically just bought this for the cab and front clip ?

[jbain]

Picked up this 03 HD truck the other day, the plan is to stuff the 6.0 and 4L80e between the frame rails of Project Old School.

[mooseknuckles]

cool

[jbain]

I traded a Jeep that I paid 250 bucks for this truck so I don't have a lot in it. But yeah I'll just be using the cab and the front clip.

[jbain]

I got the 6.0 and 4l80e pulled from the donor truck and dropped into it's new home. I was hoping to use the 6.0 frame mounts but they did not work with the 2wd 4.3 frame. I'm picking up a set of 2wd 5.3 mounts this evening that should let me bolt this thing in so I can get started on cab mounts.

[jbain]

A few pics

[jbain]

I got the engine bolted in last night and that allows me to get the core support location. Next I'll hang the fenders so I can pinpoint the cab mounts location.

[jbain]

So my plan is to use the entire LS harness to include the cab harness, cluster and column. For those who have done this I would appreciate any "Lessons" you wish you had known ahead of time. Thanks in advance.

[jbain]

Had a bit of a setback last night but in the end it all worked out. When I tried to add the fenders my core support was 2 inches too tall. I just couldn't figure out how my mock-up could have been that far off. So I decided to go back to plan A and use the C10 core support. After mocking everything up I started measuring for the radiator it occurred to me what happened. When I did mock-up I used the core support from the 6 cylinder truck but I mounted up the HD core support. HD trucks bodies set 2 inches higher so some quick measurements and I was back in business. I had to modify the fan shroud but other than that I got it all mounted up. Today I hope to have the cab mounts finished up.

[jbain]

So I've finished up the cab mounts as well as the steering column, pedals, seat and gauge cluster.