1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

I picked up this truck a few months back, but I was in the process of building a new shop, so it has sort of been on the back burner till now. It's in pretty rough shape, and I payed a little to much for it, but there is not much rust on it, as it was a California truck. I did what I could to make it drive right away, and used it a little for the summer. It has a 250 straight 6, and a th350. I had to yank and rebuild the trans, rebuild the carb, and rebuild the complete front end. The guy I bought it from started working on the suspension, he installed a flip in the rear, and drop springs, and spindles in the front. I put in some drop shocks, threw on some MB old school wheels (18s in the front, 20s on the rear) and had some fun driving it. Now the shop is done, and there is snow on the ground, so I decided to get at it. I cant find the pics of when I brought it home, it had red rally's on it, but looks pretty much as it does now.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

A few before pics.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

There is a little rust in the outer floors, and the rear fenders are not original to the truck, and have some rust. I decided to just pull it apart, and try and do it right, but on a budget. I'll do all the body work, and paint myself, and I might do the upholstery my self as well.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Tear down!

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Now I have the cab on jack stands, and started on the drivers side floor. The flange that the weather strip goes on was a little rusty on the bottom, so I made a nice little patch for that using a shrinker/stretcher set I just got from eastwood. It worked very nice.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Rust repair. This is where I left off tonight.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

For a budget build you are doing nice work

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Im in for a stepper build

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Im building a stepper too. Ill be watching you.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Before I took the box off, I noticed that it loofed like it was sitting a little crooked. I got the tape out, and from behind the cab , to the end of the frame, the right side was about 3/4" low. I hauled the frame over to a buddy with a frame rack, and he got it nice and straight for me. It's pretty amazing how much you have to tweak one of these frames, to gain 3/4".

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

I'm hoping to pick up the pace on this thing, I'm still trying to get all the small stuff organized in the new shop. It's never ending! I managed to get a new welder cart built, I'm going to try and use the tig more on this truck, just to try and get the hang of it. I'm not off to a great start, I welded up the drivers side drip rail holes, and ended up having to put a 2" patch in for one that blew out on me. At the time, it seems pretty easy to chase the hole,"I can still save it, one more try":lol:

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Love steppers...I want to do another one someday soon.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

I'm in, i'd love to have a stepper to play around with.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Subscribed. Not too far from me either!

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Hitching to this bandwagon...Wow. What a nice shop.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Well, I've made a little progress. I have most of the floor patched up, me and one of my side kicks got under the cab all cleaned up, and I got the engine pulled out of the frame, and got the frame cleaned up. I used some fiberglass body filler to seal up the floor patches, and it seems to be acting funny with the under coating. So I'll let everything sit and cure for a day or 2, and then get the bottom wrapped up. I got real lucky with this truck, the guy that one it was one that thought, if a little seam sealer is good, than more will be great, same with window urethane, I bet that I have about 6 tube of crap to scrape off the windshield opening, and another 4 to scrape off the doors, and door openings!!!

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Not sure how to fix the pics.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

You can do it from your desktop using MS Paint or any editing app. Just download the pics you posted, rotate, and upload again.

Double check your phone when you take the pics to ensure its positioned correctly for future reference.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Helluva nice work space you have there. You're raising the bar on "budget build."LOL Subbed!

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Thanks guys. The new shop is great, it's taken some getting used to. The old one was 12x28. You had to center a truck perfect to paint in there, or you were bumping elbows into the wall. Every thing was always at arms reach though, now I find myself looking for stuff all the time. Here is a few pics painting my 80 k10 in the old shop.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Here is a few pics of some other projects I did in my little old shop.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Slowly plugging away at. I got the cab floor done, and undercoating sprayed on. I finished cleaning up the frame, and sprayed some satin black on it, and I got the first round of body work done on the cab, and shot it with epoxy, and then a few coats of high build primer. I mounted the cab back up with some new poly bushings. The primers, paint and clear are all from summit racing. I have used in on a number of projects, and had good results with it, and it's pretty cheap.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Here are a few pics.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Really nice start you got going on.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Seems like progress on this thing is moving at a snails pace. The passenger door was in very rough shape, I have about a week solid trying to get it straight. No rust, just beat ro crap. Getting the cab and doors in 2nd coat of primer tonight. Kinda blew the budget in the motor department. ;) Instead of keeping the 250, I spent the better part of the last week building a 400. Should scoot this little truck around pretty good. I went with vortec heads, a summit 1103 cam, and an edelbrock intake, and carb. I also picked up some ceramic coated headers, and a new exhaust kit, with thrush turbo mufflers.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Nice looking build, your other project look good too.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

my first truck took about 7 years to build on and off with over 25K invested the second one has been a little over a year but only a quarter of that or so.. keep up the good work and don't get discouraged it looks great

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Thanks guys. I thought getting a little color on would help get me motivated. So I got the cab cut in. I'm pretty excited!

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

The color ended up being exactly as I hoped.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

That color came out really nice.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Well, I got another coat of paint on the frame, got the motor and tranny mounted, bolted a few shiny things on the motor, and put the cab on the frame.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Shoot you're moving at rocket speed compared to me lol. My shop that I thought I would paint my stepside in, turns out, barely fits it at all, so it's been in there all winter lol.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Subscribed. Nice color!

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Got the wire harness back in, and the pulleys, brackets, and core support painred. Hoping to break the engine in this weekend.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Got the cam broke in yesterday, this thing sounds nasty with open headers! Now I have a bunch of wiring problems to figure out.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Got all of my wiring straightened out, gauges all work, and the timing is good to go! I love in a very small town, it was a very nice day today, so I drove it down to the gas station, no box, no doors, no glass, no front clip, sitting on the floor. Rolling about 20mph it will lay rubber until you let off the gas. I'm definitely going to have to install a locker or posi though. It was fun to get it out of the garage. Now I have to figure out how to get all the rubber off of the back of the almost ready to paint cab.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

It was worth it though.:metal:

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Funny, i did the same thing the other day, although I'm only missing a door, seat, floor, inner fender, fender and hood. So from one side I look pretty normal lol.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Got the new exhaust hooked up today, then set the idle mixture.

Re: 1980 Short Stepper Budget Build
 

Does that mean the sittinonthefloorofthecab burnout was open headers? That's pretty funny.:metal: