New member, with a new project.

[CentipedePerformance]

Hey all, new here from Tucson. Picked up an '81 C10. It's already got he 89-91 front clip, a long arm kit from an unknown maker, and a 2 inch body lift. Its getting a full restoration, and the body and suspension lifts are coming off. Im thinking a 5-7 drop, with 8 inch rallies for now. Might get some fancy rims later. This is my first ever Chevy, and I'm already loving the aftermarket. I got the truck for relatively cheap, has a blown motor and was wrecked on the passenger side. Somebody started doing the body work, but it was definitely sub-par, so I get to re-do it all.

And somebody, at somepoint in the mid-'90s put an aftermarket sun roof in.



Gonna be a crash course in replacing a roof lol.





This is what it looks like now.

[CentipedePerformance]

Picked the bench seat up from the upholsterer today, and carpet and seatbelts came in the mail.



And tomorrow, I get to scrounge the junkyards for a clean roof.

[sumran]

Welcome.

Best of luck on your project. Looks like your weekend schedule is full for a while.

[SeanPaintsFlames]

With the cab already pretty much stripped down, you'd be MUCH better off just swapping entire cabs than trying to cut and weld a roof. You have maybe 4 hours to get a "new" cab to the state yours is in now. Somebody may actually pay you for that sunroof cab as well.

[CentipedePerformance]

Well, I already have the donor roof, and drilled out about a million spot welds. Got the inner and outer skins seperated from the inner structure.



Definitely use a spot weld bit, as it is really easy to drill all the way through the panel with a regular drill bit.


Going to have to cut some of these panels, just to make it easier to remove the old ones. If you are trying this yourself, try not to put too much heat in the panel, because it's easy to warp. Also, be absolutely sure you are cutting the panel you intend to discard lol.




Sean- I do understand where you're coming from, except unless I swap the vin tags between the cabs, which gets into a very grey area legally, most cabs here have a salvaged title. Unless I buy a whole different truck, but that would defeat the purpose of fixing this one.

[CentipedePerformance]

While diging through my garage, I found my old seatbelts out of my drag car. Their certification is no good anymore, but i think they might look pretty good over the new seat.

[john_p]

hows the progress? you grabbed a tough one, keep us posted

[CentipedePerformance]

Didn't get much work done. The motor for the blue '08 in the background came back from the machinist, so that had to go back together.

[trout]

never seen a roof apart like that take pics of it when you do the yellow cab to

[thirdstreettito]

Nice truck!

Plan on selling the long arm suspension?

[old Rusty C10]

That is a beautiful projec! Lots of work but seems like youve got a good plan.. Im interested in seeing more pics as you go along, and if you want to do an im depth write up on replacing the roof with pics.. it could wind up in our FAQ section.
Please be advised about sales here tho , as it seems that you may be led into a sale and as a non sub its against the rules here.. Best of luck with your truck

[CentipedePerformance]

For the record, long arm, body lift, and tires are already sold locally.

[Pop's C-10]

short box 4x4...sweet

[CentipedePerformance]

It's actually a 2wd. Which is why I'm ditching the lift lol. I personally am not a fan of lifted 2wds. I've got my other truck for that. Plus, those tires get mighty expensive after a very short time.

[madcow75]

I am definately watching this cool build. Drilling out all those spot welds must have taken a while. Are you just replacing just the skins of the roof or the structure also?

[CentipedePerformance]

Haven't made any progress. Caught a cold, and blew up the tranny in my Dodge, so It's been put on hold. I am just replacing the skins on the roof, that way the structural integrity of the cab, seat belt mounting points etc. are unchanged.

[CentipedePerformance]

Here's where I'm at with the Dodge, broke the input shaft screwing around last Saturday night. The air was really cold, and I decided to put the spurs to it. Brake boosted in 4th at about 40 mph, 1500 rpm. Got to about 40psi and BAM!

[Hoods69BadBowTie]

Hey welcome to the best boards around from MT! Cool looking project gonna be sweet to cruise when you get done. Have fun on the build

[CentipedePerformance]

Heres the progress I made on the roof skin. I am just going to post the pictures for now, I think I'll do a full write up on the roof in another thread.

[madcow75]

I can't wait for the write-up and the complete install. I am needing to do the same

[Gordonr1973]

Lots of work! Nice progress!!

I thought you didn't get rust in Arizona!! ;-)

[Telecasterjoey]

Man I could have used this write up a few months ago! I replaced my roof skin cause someone put marker lights on too tight and dented the roof in, Excellent work!

[CentipedePerformance]

No more progress on the roof, but... I did get new rear shoes



And ordered a C-notch, flip kit, drop spindles, and lowering springs from McGaughy's, only got the flip kit so far.



And the reason why I need those 325/50r15 BFG G-Force Drag Radials:

[bustedknuckles]

Glad to see another one being rescued. Details on the turbo? and the rest of the engine?

[CentipedePerformance]

Turbo is a Borg Warner S465. T6 housing. Came off the blue truck in the background of some of my first pictures. For now, the motor that came out of the truck is getting new rings, bearings, and a re-manned crank and going back in the truck on 10psi until I drive over the guts someday lol. After that it will most likely be an LS-X 6.0, probably the LY6, or maybe just a 4.8 with the ever loving dog pee boosted out of it. There's a Hot Rod article floating around somewhere where they took a 4.8, bolted on a set of twin 76mm turbos, fed it 22psi and made more than 1200hp. It made like 30 dyno pulls over 1000hp and lived to fight another day. Transmission is going to be a 4l80e, full manual valve body, non lock-up converter. I will stick with the 12 bolt that's in the truck, and add a Trutrac. If it grenades, I will probably go with a 9".