87 1/2 ton build

[454c20]

Well, I've been posting up a few questions for awhile now and figure its a good time to post up the progress pics of my truck.

Story goes...I bought it off a fellow co worker back in mid august. Its a 87 Chevy 1/2 ton 4wd. The body wasn't terrible but the previous owner riveted new cab corners and rockers over the rot. The underside tho was really solid and had no rust in the mounts, crossmembers, and floors. The front fenders were also new. Truck had no motor but had TH400, manual locking hubs, 3.08 gears, and a 10,000lb hitch.

Truck came with a new grill, head light trim, and new doors.

Here is how I got it.





Within 4 hours of having it, I yanked the front clip and bed.


The rear frame rails were in good shape.

[454c20]

I was in rush mode to get the body work mostly done before heading back to school. In a week and a half, On the bed, I made a new crossmember and patched another, welded on lower 1/4 panel patches, and welded on a new partial wheel arch on the passenger side.

I also stripped the cab of hardware and welded on new inner/outer rockers and inner/outer cab corners. My first time doing heavy sheetmetal work. They came out fairly good and line up decent with the doors, fenders, and bed.

The next few days were spent pulling off the bed molding, welding up the molding attaching holes, and quickly scuffing up the old paint.

[454c20]

After cleaning the truck, I shot it in semi-gloss rusteoleum using a spray gun (yup, I did it under the trees lol). The paint came out decent, especially for the conditions. Its temporary, hopefully this spring I can finish all the body work, and DA the truck to bare steel and work my way up.

Oh I reinstalled the front clip temporarily just to paint.









I reinstalled the taillights, new tailgate, radiator support, inner fenders, and then reinstalled the fenders and hood. Before this, I installed the motor and exhaust.

[454c20]

The motor I put together is a mild 355. It has 9.5-1 compression, .030, balanced, hypereutectic pistons. The heads are rebuilt 305HO castings with 1.94/1.50 valves, pinned studs, new seals, Z28 springs. It has a Comp 256xe cam with 1.52 Comp roller tip rockers. Intake is a Holley Street Dominator dual plane with a 600 Holley vacuumn secondary.

The exhaust consists of Hooker long tubes (new, scored on ebay for $135) back to a 3" single magnaflow exhaust. I wanted to keep the muffler back setup as it was in good shape so I built a 2.5" ypipe that used a flowmaster y-merge that took the 2.5" pipes in and had a 3" exit. It tucks up fairly nice.





I've been working on the interior recently and got the floor sound deadened, new black carpet, sillplates, and cab weatherstripping. I redyed the door panels and just have to reinstall them. I'm gonna do some work to the dash as it has some cracks, plus add a small tach and a CD player I have laying around.

The truck has basically new brakes but needs balljoints and a tie rod end on the passenger side. I will probably go through the trans in late spring but its good for now.

The planned usage for the truck is to tow my car to and from the track, plus 4wd in the winter is useful.

Let me know what you guys think.

[cochino12]

lookin good, your paint turned out better than mine and I had a "professional" do mine.

[1Ton]

Nice work.

[454c20]

Originally Posted by cochino12

lookin good, your paint turned out better than mine and I had a "professional" do mine.

And mine only cost $40! Like I said, my plan is to do the body work in steps, starting with getting the bed 100% straight, DA'ing it to bare steel, then spraying it with a nice coat of epoxy primer. Then do the cab.

Thing is, its a work truck so who knows how far I'm gonna get into the body work.

[Thumpin455]

Well if its a work truck, then it looks great as it is. You could put some clear on it to keep the paint from fading, and just drive it. If you dont want to worry about scratches and whatnot, then dont make it straight. If you make it too nice you wont want to use it as a work truck.

[454c20]

Update...I ended up putting a different motor in it this past April. The 355 kept running like crap on and off, and after fighting with it for too long, I bit the bullet and planned a motor swap. The motor wasnt at fault regardless, found out the previous owner didnt fully engage the fuel sender lock ring during the pump replacement and water had been constantly entering the tank.

Anyways, I parted out my 94 9C1 Caprice in April and kept the GM reman fuel injected 350 LT1, harness, PCM, radiator, and fans. Even after finding the fuel sender oring to be at fault, I felt this motor would work better in this truck, plus I already had it.

Motor is all stock. It has a performance 87 octane tune, earlier on-temp for fans, plus some error code removal. I put a new oil pan gasket on (bottom end was real clean) and cleaned up/painted the longblock. The motor has the same Hooker 1 5/8" long tube headers.

Install was fairly straight forward. I used AN braided line for the power steering pressure hose and Aeroquip socketless for the return side. The radiator is actually a 1 year old aluminum replacement from my Caprice and it fits very well. I also utilized the stock caprice dual electric fans. Because the caprice radiator doesnt have a radiator cap (factory uses the coolant jug), I had to add a radiator cap filler on the top hose. I also used the stock silicone caprice radiator hoses, with some trimming. Truck started the first turn of the key and ran great. I went through emissions testing with the stock manifolds and cut up cats and passed with flying colors. Then went on the headers and ypipe. The only thing I deleted from the program was the error codes for the VSS. I could not find a cable driven adapter to run the VSS input for the PCM. For the past 5 months, I have not had a SES light pop up, nor has the motor stalled or even lugged at all.

For the PCM, since my truck was orignally TBI, there was a hole in the firewall for the computer wiring. I completely redid the stock caprice harness, removing what I didnt need, and basically reversed the direction of everything. The caprice has the PCM on the left front fenderwell, right behind the headlight. I put the PCM behind the glovebox, above the heater box, and ran the wires through the factory hole.

Here are a few pics, dont mind the dirty-ness, its been used for moving, tree work, etc over the past few months. I also put on a set of 32x11.50 Goodyears and AR rims that my father had since the tires on it had enough broken belts to rattle your teeth on the highway. In August, I'm finishing the body work and its getting painted midnight blue.

[COMP]

how is the paint holding up ??

[old Rusty C10]

looks great! thanks for the update!

[68GMC454]

cool truck.. looks good..enigine swap turned out good..

[454c20]

Originally Posted by COMP

how is the paint holding up ??

Not too bad, problem with Rustoleum is that it doesnt use a hardener, therefor its pretty easy to scratch. I'm glad I got the motor done, now I just need to finish the body work. I plan on sanding the Rustoleum off the truck, then spraying a nice coat of epoxy primer, followed by blocking, then 3-4 coats of color. Should turn out good enough for a work/tow rig.

After paint, next on my agenda is rebuilding the TH400 over winter.

[COMP]

Originally Posted by 454c20

Not too bad, problem with Rustoleum is that it doesnt use a hardener, therefor its pretty easy to scratch. I'm glad I got the motor done, now I just need to finish the body work. I plan on sanding the Rustoleum off the truck, then spraying a nice coat of epoxy primer, followed by blocking, then 3-4 coats of color. Should turn out good enough for a work/tow rig.

After paint, next on my agenda is rebuilding the TH400 over winter.

has it been waxed ???

[87Bob]

Is that radiator the one from the Caprice. How hard was it to mount it in the truck?

[andresco50]

woow nice truck I love it

[seanconnery]

So, are you going to slap on a mild lift, or is there a serious "jack that truck up son!" job in this trucks future? Did the 9C1 package come with a heavy duty trans, and if it did, did you use it?