"Dixie" 1988 Chevrolet V30 3+3 Dually

[focusedontheprize]

I came across a truck online a couple years ago that started this interest in building one of these. This is the inspiration:




It was a 1989 V30 with a 5.9 Cummins in it. The overall platform is exactly what I wanted - a 4 door dually with a mild lift and a great power plant.


So I found Dixie in San Antonio earlier this year. It is a 1988 Chevrolet V30 3+3 DRW with a 454 crate motor and a built TH400. The previous owner just drove the truck did the motor swap (his buddy did it) and he just put some miles on it.

[focusedontheprize]

When I was looking over the truck I noticed the cut wiring harness immediately. The truck was originally a TBI truck, however that motor seemed to be long gone. Prior to this PO, that owner had put a build 427 motor in the truck and wanted to keep it when he sold it.

So the PO swapped in a crate 454 motor. Unfortunately they did not take the time to correctly remove the pins they weren't using, but it wasn't a big deal.

Here was what the original harness looked like:



I began to go through and label each wire and what it powered:

[focusedontheprize]

After my order from Del-City arrived, voila.



I am waiting on the 12ga wire for the distributor power and would like to install it this weekend. After that I need to start re-wiring the TH400 kick down wire which they were using for the fuel auxiliary wiring instead.

[focusedontheprize]

No big updates today. Rebuild the TH400 kick down harness and re-routed wiring inside the truck to clean it up. I need to find out about this wiring harness that was completely cut off (I imagine it is the TBI harness - the truck is now a carburetor motor setup).

[tantank79]

So this is where it went! I was watching this truck on CL as well. Looks like it will be well taken care of. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

[focusedontheprize]

Originally Posted by tantank79

So this is where it went! I was watching this truck on CL as well. Looks like it will be well taken care of. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

Ha there aren't a lot of them out there. It was a good purchase so I am looking forward to the build.

[focusedontheprize]

Unfortunately the work I am doing right now isn't photography desire. That will be changing in the coming weeks.

Installed the wiring harness this weekend. Even without it tidied up yet, it looks 100x times better than before. The oil pressure gauge and battery gauge work great. The temperature gauge I need to check into. I picked up the ECM A circuit for the choke power so that was a relief.

This week I am trying to dial in the carburetor a little more. Putting an order in tomorrow that should increase the photos for this thread so stay tuned.

[focusedontheprize]

While this was going on, I still had a 1986 Chevrolet C30 that I planning on selling to fund the 1988 instead. Side by side shots showed how high the 1988 sat, which was only a temporary thing.

[focusedontheprize]

After wrapping up the main harness project the truck finally had all the gauges working (prior to the project, only the battery gauge worked). It was time to open up the cluster and clean all the gauges.

It looks like this truck lived out in a field with the windows down and the doors open during a dust storm.



Finally arrived at the cluster. Overall the cluster was in great condition, the gauges were all in tack, and there was no damage so a quick refresh would do the trick.



A bit dusty and discolored.



Hung the cluster for a quick chrome paint and reinstalled the gauges.

[focusedontheprize]

I had been itching to take care of the lift kit on the truck. The truck had a 8" lift on it when I bought it and I knew I would be lowering it. After reviewing other trucks, I settled on a 4" lift. So I called Off Road Design and put the order in.


The first piece of the package arrived.



I dropped the truck off to the shop and snapped a picture before it went on the lift.


Here is the new stance. Much better.

[focusedontheprize]

Plans were thrown off as life steps in. Received a call that a close family member had a stroke and passed in her sleep, which was the silver lining to it. So after running over to the shop and picking up the truck I jumped in the car and ran back to my home town. I just arrived back home last night.

The weather has been all over here in Texas so I needed a quick project to check off today while the rain held off. Since day 1 the truck would bog down when I would stab the gas.

So I decided to pull apart the carburetor and go through it. It is a Holley 870 Avenger that came on the factory 454 crate motor that is in the truck so it had an OEM part number stamped on it.



While going through it I noticed two things - power valve didn't match what factory called for and it had a 40 nozzle it in which I thought was the reason for the issue of the bogging. Swapped in the right power valve and end up settling on a 32 nozzle. Much better response, but I will dial it in a little more once my cam kit arrives from Summit next week.

[focusedontheprize]

Placed the order for the rear cab trim and new 1 piece rear glass window from USA1 Industries. I am hoping they arrive before Saturday so I can put them in this weekend.

[Mpiersd]

Nice build. Can't wait to see it finished.

[focusedontheprize]

Originally Posted by Mpiersd

Nice build. Can't wait to see it finished.

Thanks. It has good bones to start with so hopefully it goes smooth.

[focusedontheprize]

Once the truck came back from the lift shop, I wanted to inspect the front end steering components and give them a freshen up before re-assembling. Here is what I started with. In addition to already having cross steering installed the truck had a dual stabilizer steering kit installed, except the bracket would hit the stock bracket that was welded to the axle housing.

[focusedontheprize]

I began by disassembling everything off the axle including the steering arm. I cleaned it up with a flap disc and put it to the side. Once that was done the cut off wheel came out and it was time to tackle the bracket.

[focusedontheprize]

I removed the bracket, wiped down the axle with brake cleaner, self-etched, and painted the axle. After that, I cleaned the parts I had taken off and prepared them for paint. After a few base coats and some clear, it was time to let them dry and for me to enjoy the pool weather.

[focusedontheprize]

My rear glass arrived from USA1 Industries. The truck came with a tinted rear slider, which I have never been a fan of. There is something about the clean lines of a 1 piece rear glass that I really like. I cut out the rear slider by myself, but needed another set of hands to help put in the new glass. Voila. Much better in my book.

I have a great slider for sale if anyone is interested.

[focusedontheprize]

The last thing I wanted to get accomplished for the day was installing the new LED clearance lights. The lens on the original ones were faded and cracked. I had ordered a set of the GMT400 clearance lights from Summit and had 5 amber LED 194 bulbs ready to go in.

It was too warm to work in the direct sunlight, so with the watchful eye of the wife, I slowly pulled Dixie in the garage. The clearance lights JUST cleared (pun intended) the door frame. So close that it brushed the garage door seal. Whew.

Not a great photo, but I taped the top of the truck up and laid out the pattern on the roof. After finalizing the layout, I picked up crimp nuts that I used and stainless steel screws to finish everything. Before and after.


I think the new lights give the truck a much more streamline look. Unfortunately I did not grab a photo at night, but they look great.

[focusedontheprize]

After completing a tune up on the truck, it has been much more of a joy to drive. Unfortunately I realized quickly it needed an alignment before I could really take it for a cruise. A friend of mine told me where they take their crew cabs to get them aligned, so I dropped the truck off and a few hours later picked it up. This is where things began to get interesting.

I noticed that the truck had a little bit of a vibration and I believe one of the tires is out of round. I ran the truck over to Discount Tire who said they would be able to balance them next week - 2.5 hours and $150. Okay, no problem.

After returning home from traveling, I dropped the truck off to have them balanced. I received a call the next day stating they were unable to balance them and I would need to come pick up the truck, so I searched around and found a shop here that specializes in 4x4 trucks and decided to bring it to them. I headed up to Discount, jumped in the truck, and hopped on the highway. Probably 8 miles down the road the truck started to violently shake as I exited the highway.

Long story short....finger tight lug nuts are not the proper way to re-install lug nuts. I snapped a stud, but it could have been a lot worse.

[focusedontheprize]

Last night I came home to a nice surprise from the brown truck delivery service. I had ordered this through Matt at MCB-Parts. His company was great to work with and had the best price. I will start installing the kit this weekend. I am still waiting on my sound deadening material for the firewall to arrive.

My air cleaner had arrived from Summit so I put it on and had to grab a photo.

[focusedontheprize]

This morning I started to tear down into Dixie for the Vintage Air install. I must admit, I am impressed with Vintage Air - the instructions are helpful (where these days I am finding this not to be the case) and they have a great video you can follow along with if you have any questions.

I was able to get the old condenser removed, the new one installed with the dryer, the old blower housing, the old compressor, and evaporator removed this evening. It is starting to get warm here so I am looking forward to get this in.

The amount of dirt I am finding is amazing, so this install will take a little longer because I want to go through and clean everything up. Dirt is better than rust at least.

[focusedontheprize]

I took today off to get ahead on the VA install. Sometimes, things don't work out as planned. I had someone interested in the lift kit I took off the truck and was willing to drive 3 hours for it. So I packed that up and met him to sell that. That led to me having the car cleaned, etc. etc. I was able to start preparing the firewall for the block-off plate and cutting the new holes.

This is the final garbage pile - amazing how much stuff is with this system.

[focusedontheprize]

I buttoned up the Vintage A/C unit on Saturday. Overall I have to say the kit was pretty impressive. I felt like everything was a higher quality of parts than other kits I have received and was well detailed on the installation. The installation also gave me time to go through the remaining wiring, clean up and unpin what I did not need/want, and insulate the firewall with Vibro.

Unfortunately the power steering pump bearings are screaming at me. When I bought the truck I knew it would need a pump sooner or later - seems that time has come.

[focusedontheprize]

The objective of the truck is to update with modern amenities and to have the truck handle well enough that my wife can jump in and drive it without a problem.

I end up going with a Redhead Steering box and PSC power steering pump. There was a topic started by a forum member around Redhead's boxes and all of the reviews I had read on them said nothing, but great things. The truck will have 35s or 37s in the end, so I am planning to add a hydraulic assist this year and wanted to make sure the pump and gearbox were setup for it already.