Truck fell apart

[shifty]

I walked out in the garage to leave this morning and this is what I saw

Truck magically fell apart overnight

Big plans in store for it on the re-assembly

[1LoC10]

nice

[LockDoc]

-
Man, Shifty. You are going to have to keep a closer eye on those elves.... They must be workin' overtime. Send a couple of them up my way will you. I have a lot of stuff that needs done...

LockDoc

[Yukon Jack]

Keep them elves away from my shop, I have both my trucks together right now and don't need them elves ripping them apart!

[Angelse68cal]

That didn't fall apart its a Transformer.

[grayw0lf]

Not elves. Elves are productive.

Those are Gremlins!!! Someone must have fed the magwi after midnight.

[shifty]

at least they didn't steal the engine

[67ChevyRedneck]

Shifty, did you ever get it running/drivable to check that everything worked?

...and... what have you done!

[shifty]

got it running. got the clutch stuff taken care of, but had to drop the tranny in order to get the slave cylinder hooked up (need to replace slave cyl fitting from the stock quick-connect to an AN-3 male end). in light of this, the cab needed to come off, because the tranny xmember is IN THERE, and i mean ... TIGHT. so ... yeah.

cab had to come off anyway. so, if the cab came off, that mean the front clip had to come off, which mean i might as well take the bed off, and i needed to sandblast and powder coat the frame and notch and bag it, so ...

here we go...shoulda done this all the first time

btw - this is the first time i've seen this much of my actual garage floor in ... damned near 18 months now I might get to clean it, too! how exciting is that?!

[cdowns]

loks like it should be really easy getting into a parking place

[68 short step]

do i smell a new frame from insane???

[shifty]

Originally Posted by 68 short step

do i smell a new frame from insane???

speaking of new parts from other board members, what ever happened to that '68 short step shaved core support special' from a few months back?

(note the prompt change of subject! )

[Shane]

dang I thought my workspace was crowded

[shifty]

I hope that mine looks as damned good as yours when i'm done, Shane

[franky69c10]

MmmmmMmmmmmM more pics

[SactoJim]

I know how that goes.......number of years ago my water pump went out on my Cheyenne. Might as well clean up the motor while I'm changing water pump......might as well just pull the motor and do it right......might as well freshen it up while it's out....might as well put some heads on it...manifold...headers...blah blah blah.

Should've just replaced the $39.95 water pump!

Originally Posted by shifty

got it running. got the clutch stuff taken care of, but had to drop the tranny in order to get the slave cylinder hooked up (need to replace slave cyl fitting from the stock quick-connect to an AN-3 male end). in light of this, the cab needed to come off, because the tranny xmember is IN THERE, and i mean ... TIGHT. so ... yeah.

cab had to come off anyway. so, if the cab came off, that mean the front clip had to come off, which mean i might as well take the bed off, and i needed to sandblast and powder coat the frame and notch and bag it, so ...

here we go...shoulda done this all the first time

btw - this is the first time i've seen this much of my actual garage floor in ... damned near 18 months now I might get to clean it, too! how exciting is that?!

[shifty]

Well, here's the deal - you have no idea how true that is

It all started about 24 hours after I bought the truck. I had a weird knock with the L6-250. I bought a replacement 250 for $150 and swapped it. Afterwards, something with the shift linkage magically started working again, and I could shift! I was happy. All rejoice.

Then I figured, "hell, I need some kind of power gain here. I'm gonna buy some headers." The headers cost a couple hundred bucks. I bought em. They fit like crap!

"Ok. That's it! It costs a fortune to buy parts for this stupid inline engine, and as much as I like it, a V8 is cheaper and more economical, so this thing has gotta go!!"

After seeing several SBC 350 crate motors on craigslist for around $250-$450, I saw FirstGen's 6.0L (LQ9) swap. I thought, "Damn! For $2k I can get an engine and tranny and swap that in and haul ass! for $3,500 I can get a 6spd and LS1 out of a Firebird WS6 and REALLY haul ass!"

Not to mention, the knocking sound was still there - wound up being the engine mount, figured this out after taking it out! I'd also barely overheated once and had oil pressure problems - wound up being a chunk of crap that fell from the inside of the valve cover, clogging the oil pickup tube. Alas, as we all know, hindsight is 20/20.

"If I knew then what I know now ..."

Thus it began.

Got the drivetrain on eBay. Started hording parts like crazy. Pulled the L6-250. Cleaned up the engine bay. Cut out the tranny xmember. Try to put in the LS1, but it won't fit...Front clip comes off ... I think, "damn...when will I get another opportunity to rebuild the steering? With all this power, I'll need better handling!"

Then I thought, "Hell, if I'm gonna buy a new pitman arm and idler arm, I should just upgrade to power steering now, and save some $$$." So, power steering was installed. "Man, what is the point of power steering if I'm just gonna use the same intermediate shaft with crappy rag joint? Talk about slop!" So, I went out and bought a replacement straight-bar intermediate shaft with Borgenson joints. "Wait, why would I put these nice joints and shaft on a crappy old column?" So, I went out and bought a new flaming river column.

I finally get the engine bolted in - months have passed, mind you. This required cutting the floor for tranny clearance. "Ok, the entire interior has to come out! Hell, while this is out and the front clip is off, I should probably remove the entire A/C blower and heater controls so I can shave the firewall."

"Uh oh. Need to get a tank for outside the cab, because I don't want to reinstall the gas tank in here!"

"Uh oh. Gotta take out the bed wood to install the gas tank!"

"Uh oh! Gotta bolt in the tranny crossmember and drill it out, that means the cab has got to come off!"

"Uh oh! The cab mounts are disintegrating, better replace those!"

And so it went. And went. And went. And went.

I finally got it all bolted back together again and started it up for the first time. I'd link up the video, but my website is down right now.

Then it sat. And it sat. And it sat. The main reason it sat is because ... it wouldn't roll! I couldn't figure out the best way to do the hydraulic clutch linkage. I was burned out by now! So close, yet so far!

I had help from various board members who were nice enough to mail ideas (thanks!) and I went through various parts, made a lot of posts on LS1tech, did a lot of research, and ... damnit ... still couldn't figure it out.

Took a break for a few months and it came to me. Aha! I know how I can do this. So I got to work, made it happen, and then I realize..."Damn, I can't do this without changing the stupid quick-connect fitting on the tranny!"

This just put me on hold again for a couple of months.

Then an opportunity came up. So, everything is coming off, and it's being rebuilt from the ground up. Basically...I'm doing everything I wanted to do originally, but didn't have the patience, time or money for back then (due to fixing all those "extra" things).

I am sure any number of you guys have the same type of stories.

"I'd always heard about it happening to other people, I never thought it would happen to me."

"While I'm at it...."

"I might as well...."

I admit it. It got the better of me. I'm a gearhead, I always have been.

I'd like to say, "this is where the story ends", but it's just gonna continue for the rest of my life. And I'm OK with that

[Palf70Step]

Mine keeps doing crap like that too. I guess the assembler on mine needs to pull out his head and put the pieces together better.

[shifty]

You know, we do this because we love it. It's like working on a real, life-sized model.

As much as we get pissed sometimes, as much as it seems it will never end, it just makes the end result THAT MUCH BETTER when we peel tires for the first time or go on our maiden road trip.

I digress.

I can't wait till next week

[Palf70Step]

Originally Posted by shifty

I digress.

Yep, been there....Not sure if I have left yet or not

[68 short step]

for me i just plan on new everything...saves on time
o yea, you gonna come to T-town, or am i gonna have to go to GA?

[Shane]

Originally Posted by shifty

I hope that mine looks as damned good as yours when i'm done, Shane

uh ... ok

Your's already looks better than mine ... or at least it's taken apart less.

[72BlckButy]

Wow... when my truck falls aparts it comes in pieces not panels...

[wibilly]

mine'scomming apart again before spring too. got impatiant wanted to drive it alittle before i finished my 406 to work out any bugs, there as much fun and as cheap to work on as drive so what the heck

[killer71]

Shortstep i think the killer build up got em to thinkin...

shifty you finally broke down and stripped er eh....it will be well worth it in the end!

I had intentions of just doing a motor swap but some guy named don kept at me with "if we do this then we might as well do that" and before i knew it it became a frame off.