Projekt Housewyfe

[shoob]

Ive been in and out of the truck game growing up, always chevys......always. Ive had a stepfather/son shared 78 cheyenne 4x4 stepside project, a 76' scottsdale project, a 92 s-10 blazer 4-door bagged, layin frame on 20's, a 92' 2-door blazer staticly low as possible, without notching.......


This time around i was gonna try something a little different. outside of the truck world, im a toyota enthusiest. particularly the corolla, 70's-90's and all in between......so when i sold my lexus ls400 (for the love of god steer clear of these cars, especially 90-94's!!) i was out to pick up another project, something a little more "chill". plus i need an actual pickup around the house, and i by myself had never owned a pick up in 28 years of life, always suv's,

so i found an 89' toyota hilux, ext. cab v6 5-speed for $1000 on the local CL. before i could make it to the sellers house at 8am saturday morning, the truck sold at 7am, and the seller had just posted the truck 1am that morning....i was bummed.

however when scouring CL, i had looked at a few "back up plans" if certain trucks sold, or didnt meet my expectations....this was runner up to the toyota. familiarity, cost efficient, old school sled, easy, and well......a chevy.

i wrode with a friend 60 miles to where this truck sat. we arrive and im pleasantly suprised to see what im looking at for $900.......

this 81' chevrolet custom deluxe stepside. so for the price i was doubting the drive train or mechanical soundness of the truck.....seller reaches in, turns the key and it fires right up from cold start. (i checked before starting, =]) okay, so at this point im thinking maybe the trans has issues....i look under the truck, no leaks......cool. so i test drive it, went a mile turned around and handed him 9 $100 bills without hesitation.

threw $30 in the tank expecting the worst (because the quadrajet is leaking fuel from orifaces where fuel isnt supposed to be) then proceeded to drive 60 miles back home. $30 put 3/4 tank in it......i arrived home with a 1/2 tank.....cool.


heres the pic from the original CL ad.....



and a few snaps after purchase.....








now, its no where near perfect, lol. it runs.....but needs a carb, bad. but since this will be a round town, house truck, that wont be daily'd or doing any real labor....i have nothing but time.

so monday evening i spent 4 hours in the cab of the truck.....removing mounds of colt 45 cans, and random daisy chained wiring that went to switches, that went to other switches, that went cigarette lighter plugs, that went to fuse blocks, that went to nothing.......yeah.

also all these wires were strewn across the floor board, plain site, nothing but the drivers mat thrown over them.

this is after just 1 hour of chasing wire......

[shoob]

as you can see in the above pics....the body is in fairly good shape....needs a hood, and a tailgate, but im not going for show truck here.

someone already took the liberty of welding in a 3/16" steel plate in the bed floor =]......................over the wood =[.

they also took the liberty of welding in 1/8 steel floorboard on the drivers side.

theres 2 cancerous spots on the truck, both right behind the rocker panels in the lower cab corners. those will be taken care of tomorrow morning.

also will be removing the hideous, "i dont think thats the right one" bumper off of the bed. it sticks out about 5" past each fender on both side.......




I think the bumperless stepsides look good, when going in the direction this truck is headed in.

I ordered the flip kit and drop spindles tonight online, they should be arriving withen the next week....then this thing can start to look like something.

[shoob]

i have plans for it.....fairly cheap ones.

it does not involve air, flashy wheels, pretty paint, nor frame modification, my 2-door blazer was headed that direction, and well, thats why i dont have it anymore......while doing my research and seeing what certain things i like, look like on these trucks....everything referenced me back to this site, so alot of these pics may be from this site, i hope the owners of theses rigs dont mind me using their photos for examples....

first off....grill treatment. I absolutely hate the grill configuration this truck has. the only thing it does have going for it, is the signals in the bumper, which will play out nicely in my plans.

i would love to put a 78' front clip on this truck, but i have to keep reminding myself, this is just a cheap project for a decent round the house truck.

i f*cking love this setup......mucho props to these owners.

V...I love how his headlight trim pieces match the paint...V



V...I love how theres no signals behind the grill, but in the bumper...V



V...I love how his bumper is black, and matching the truck, and the air dam...V







then, i also come across this....again mucho props, i like the look of no bumper smoothed over like this......but not a fan of phantom grills, and those hidden signals. if this truck sat 6" lower, it would truly pull off the rod look, with that front end.










either way, i know im going stacked headlights. i dont know how yet, and havent even looked into it, but maybe someone reading this can, and either clue me in or point me in the right direction. i pretty much got all trim pieces i need sorted out from an LMC catalogue, not to mention my passenger side, and top grill surround chrome trim on its way because it needs to be replaced anyway..... but if you pretty much take the matching paint in pic 1, with pic 2's bumper signal setup, then add pic 3's treatment and throw them together, you have the jest of the front end im after.....and i guess by now its obvious that this truck is going to be black.......matte/satin black.

[shoob]

coffee break.....my old 2 door blazer:

[shoob]

WHEELS.......

simple..................red, copper, or gloss black rallies with bands and caps.

15x10's on all 4's.

truck rallies, vette rallies, smoothies.........any one of those, but im strongly leaning towards truck rallies.

considering im planning on running this truck 6/8 drop, and matte/satin black....i think 15x10's will fit nicely, especially with a set of 255/60 white letters all the way around. ill probably have to pull the front fenders and roll the edge slightly, the rears should be fine.....i have pics of what i have in mind...... wheel selction wise.

red......







gloss black.....





copper.......

this color




on these wheels



thoughts on the truck/wheel paint scheme?

[baclay9]

Sounds like a good plan. You'll need 5" back spacing on the rear wheels. If you are going that low you'll have to rethink the 15x 10's on the front. I also don't think you are gonna get a 255 on a 10" wheel. 275/60/15's just fit. If you are going 6" front drop you are gonna have to go with a 245/60/15 on an 8" wheel if you want them to fit. When running that front tire a 295/50/15 matches well on the rear 10" wheels. Especially with that much drop.
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[shoob]

i dont mind stretching a tire to clear the fender arches. i had a 245 on 18x11's on the rear of my lexus ls400, granted, they were 40 series tires.....

theres a web tool i use for determining these calculations, and its spot on everytime.

www.willtheyfit.com

ill try it out and see where or how far i get, i have seen an 87' 3/4 dropped with 15x10's and 50 series, all the way around, and it was pretty aggressive.


i will heed your advice when fitting the wheels though. is there a reason for exactly 5" back spacing?

[shoob]

work pushed on today.....




i dont have direct acccess to welder here at home, so using the fiberglass, im filling in the dings on the bed wheel arches, and the smaller cancerous spots in the door. as i sanded the old rusty stuff away and tapped around the bottom of the door with a ball-peen hammer, i noted someone tried to fix these before with strait bondo, no fiberous, or structural reinforcement at all......we see how far that went.

what it looked like.....





as i started sanding , tapping, picking, and prying around......





wiping with the first layer of glass, and resin/matter backing........




i managed to get the first layer sanded down tonight, and it looks like ill just have to do a small whipe with bondo to fill in the small imperfections from tiny air bubble in the glass resin when it kicked. it was damn near dark when i finished, so pics tomorrow.....

as for the larger whole....im debating on getting some steel filler panels from LMC, and just welding them in at the shop. you can see how bad it is in the pics, and the drivers side is worse.

[shoob]

also removed the rear bumper today.........much better!

[shoob]

you probably seen the rattlecans above and are thinking "oh lord, not another rattlecanned truck..."

your are absolutely wrong, lol. the primer is just to cover the bare metal areas from where im sanding, and the black was needed elsewhere. Its obvious the PO liked blue.......why? well under the hood there was ricer blue loom over everything....battery cables, blower motor wires, plug wires, alternator wires, heater hoses.......yeah everywhere. well they also went crazy with a can of ford blue paint. all of my inner fender arches, and behind the grill are painted ford blue.........uh-uhh, cant have that.


so while i was laying glass, wifey threw in a hand, and removed the grill....



and this is what gleamed from behind it.....ewwww




thats all flat black now......and grill back on for the time being. ill attack the fender arches with a few cans of rubber undercoating while im lowering it.


wifey also removed the drip rails for me today while i was sanding. which are in perfect condition, not so much as a knick on them, and are for sale if i can ever get my post count high enough to throw my parts in the classifieds. ill be grinding down the raised metal from the factory screws and filling those holes with glass.

[baclay9]

5" back spacing on a 15x 10 wheel in the back will allow you to tuck tire with no rubbing.
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[baclay9]

I can see you pulling off a 15x10 in the front with 3" of drop. 6" in front is tucking a serious amount of tire though.
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[JRANGER]

looks like a nice project

[shoob]

while looking at this picture.....tail lights are something that need to be addressed. While i do give the PO props on not cheaping out with standard trailer tail ights and going for the modern $60 LED tail lights........they simply do not belong on this truck in my opinion.

ive been checking out some options, and truthfully i need some opinions to help me decide......

i found these 2 3/4" very classic looking tail lights online, i also found the old school "blue dots" for them too......im thinking about cutting the tail light mounting plate on the bed down to where theres just enough metal to mount these lights.....




or



59 Cadillac tail lights, 2 on each side under the tailgate, and completely remove the oem tail light brackets from the bed.........with this combo, i would probably run chrome trim rings around each light, and 10 light LED strip, with a resistor (to dim the brightness) in the center of the bottom of the back glass for a "third" brake light. OR I could also mount them horizontal in pairs on each side of the tailgate, under the chains.....



i know with these setups i lose any oem reverse lights..........and?

opinions?

[shoob]

Originally Posted by baclay9

Sounds like a good plan. You'll need 5" back spacing on the rear wheels. If you are going that low you'll have to rethink the 15x 10's on the front. I also don't think you are gonna get a 255 on a 10" wheel. 275/60/15's just fit. If you are going 6" front drop you are gonna have to go with a 245/60/15 on an 8" wheel if you want them to fit. When running that front tire a 295/50/15 matches well on the rear 10" wheels. Especially with that much drop.
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i see what your saying......

here


however what about a 225/60 on a x10 in the front? and having a 235/50 on x11 keeping the 5" backspacing in the rear to match the stretch?

see size differences here

these are 225/60's on x10's on this datsun in the pic, all 4 corners...


a 235/60 on a x11 would look exactly like that.......

[shoob]

another shot of that datsun.....

[JRANGER]

For cheap satin black paint you might consider blitz black by john deere

[shoob]

yes, i am familiar with and a big fan of john deere paint not to mention, the damn truck will rust away, and the paint will still be there!!!

[JRANGER]

lol...yeah i cant wait to get my truck to the point where I can paint it with it....Have you tried pull a part for the front end you wanted at all? Shouldnt be too much for it

[shoob]

no, i havent even looked yet to see whats invlolved to do that front end....i know when i had my grill off today, i didnt see any provisions that would allow me to run the stacked headlights, so im wondering if ill have to change the entire core support, in which thats the case, its a bolt in/out affair isnt it?

[JRANGER]

yeah you would have to change the core support and the headlight wiring harness....Well you could prob just re-wire that....

Either way pull a part is like a playground...Once you get there you wont know what to do with yourself lol

[shoob]

yeah, thats our favorite "field trip" at the shop.

Garage Zero, My daily grind.

[baclay9]

I am not trying to knock you here, just trying to understand. Why are you wanting to run such narrow tires on wide wheels?
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[JRANGER]

Ive seen a lot of guys cut holes in the bed and install those lights in there. So your saying you wont have backup lamps if you install those? If thats the case why dont you install both the big red ones and install the blue dots as backup lights?

[JRANGER]

And as far as field trip im now jealous...I dont have much mechanical knowledge....Dads a mechanic and i didnt care as a kid...Ahhh for shame!! lol