83/84 swb stepside long time build

[rip2174]

Yes had a cam, lifters and springs.
Had a stall converter made and the tranny rebuilt and beefed up a little.
After I get it in and running. Going to take it to the shop and have the guy tune it on the dyno.

[tinydb84]

Those don't look like LS mounts. Did you figure them out?

[rip2174]

Yes, got with Porterbuilt and they fixed it up. Sent me the LS mounts. I just have to send them back the other SBC mounts when I get back from Mexico.

Porterbuilt has great customer service and I recommend their products. Really satisfied with what I have purchased from them.

[rip2174]

Well getting back on the truck when I get back from Mexico. Was thinking about sound deadening stuff. A guy here just did his 56 with a double layer of Fatmat on the floors and juet on firewall and a double layer of Fatmat on the ceiling. Says he is very happy with sound and may have think he over done it but is happy with results. I have read alot of stuff on here even the sound deadening website. But I think I want to do Lizard skin sound heat on underside cab and inner and bed fender wells. Then do one layer Fatmat on everything up to bottom of windows and the ceiling and see how it sounds. That gives me the option of later of closed cell foam and MLV if i think I need it.

Any thoughts on that combo to start?

[rip2174]

Well back from 7 weeks in Mexico. Managed to lose 16 lbs while there, 4% body fat and a lot of muscle. Tried to keep diet in check and workout in my room. Just couldn't eat enough I think. Got back last night and had today off so I decided to get back to work on truck. Got the freshly rebuilt tranny out and cleaned it up.

[rip2174]

[rip2174]

Engine and tranny all painted. Getting the converter back on Monday then will bolt them all together and put on frame with new mounts from Porterbuilt. Then I can get the cab out of storage and see how much I'm going to have and cut out of the floor.

[rip2174]

Got the engine and tranny on the frame.Leveled the truck front to back off the cab mounts. Then put engine tranny at the recommended down 5 degrees. The front of the oil pan almost touches the rack and pinion. The rear of tranny is sitting pretty high up. Ended up mounting the tranny bar just under the top of the frame. Any know id that sounds about right?

[rip2174]

got the cab out of storage this weekend with the help of my 11 year old

[rip2174]

gutted the cab for the most part and firewall.

[Greenlee]

Looking good! You have done a ton of work.

[rip2174]

got a little more work done yesterday and today. Hole for the tranny

[rip2174]

been fighting with can bolts since i pulled the cab. Finally gave up and cut holes in the floor. Yea more stuff to fix later. Made a mess of it too!

[rip2174]

[rip2174]

[rip2174]

dam cab bolts

[rip2174]

got it back on frame with new cab mounts and it is a lot higher than before. Little frustrated with this. Thinking about doing a body drop now. Never did one those, Might be a little interesting. Its sitting about two inches from the pinch weld being on the ground.

[tinydb84]

Down the rabbit hole!

[rip2174]

So it has been awhile. Decided it would be wise to take 3 classes this spring with a full time job. Not so smart. Did manage to do a little work over the X-mas break and here and there.

[rip2174]

So I moved on with the frame. Everyone keeps telling me that once I get all the weight on it will flatten out. So I dropped in motor, cab and test fitted some panels.








as you can see the passenger side is high. Still wasnt low enough. LOL

[rip2174]

So a freind suggested what to do to the frame to get it lower. This is his ride.

[rip2174]

So off to the metal place I went.


Test piece



fianl. just need to clean up some welding

[rip2174]

I cut the bottom of the frame off and now it picks the cab off frame when its aired out. LOL. Probably end up rolling the pinch welds under and laying the rockers. Did run into the ball joints running out of travel. Held it up a little. So I made some angled shms at work and got rid of that problem.

[rip2174]

That was around X-mas. The rest this spring has been slow. Classses ate up all my free time. Managed to get the seats im going to use mounted.

[rip2174]

had to cut a tunnel for my driveshaft. Just got metal this weekend to cover the tranny and driveshaft.