The Beast from the East

[Swar]

I'm starting a new thread for my project. The air ride build is complete and the nightmare is over.

I got this truck in the spring of 2004. I was 16 then, I'm happy to say this '71 Chevy was my first car.

The truck was originally sold in New York.
It was an original short bed, 250 6 cyl, 3 speed on the column.

I built a 350 for it, a 1980 4 bolt main, and upgraded to a 4 speed.

Flat top pistons, 10.2:1 compression, Comp cam, Edelbrock Aluminum Vortec heads and intake, Roller Rockers, Dual Quads - 1,000 CFM
Full MSD Ignition with the 6AL-2 ignition box. Running real good now.

I recently bagged it, which was a nightmare of a project, but I'm happy with the result. I have a lot of useful information in that thread if anyone needs it.

You can see that thread here: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...t%3A+nightmare

Right now, I'm working on turning this '71 Chevy into a '67 GMC.

[Swar]

I found an original '67 hood. Needs a little work but not bad. I decided to save a little money and do some body work to the '71 fenders.

[Justin@EntropyRad]

Old school bodywork!

Looks dope, slammed on the whitewalls

[Swar]

Thanks Justin. Here's some more pics and some of my aluminum work. Keepin' it old school.

[Swar]

Body work is almost done. Getting ready to spray some Nantucket Blue.

Found some big @$$ tires to fit on it next. 235/85R16s

[cooperhw]

Originally Posted by Swar

Body work is almost done. Getting ready to spray some Nantucket Blue.

Found some big @$$ tires to fit on it next. 235/85R16s

That thing will be like my Pro-Street car to change a tire. Takes me about an hour to Jack up the car as high as I can get it and support on stands. Drop the driveshaft, exhaust, ladder bars swing down, let all the air out of the tire, then Bamm, tires off. Triple A is ur friend.

[rusty76]

Cool truck.

[justin4260]

love this build thread

[Swar]

^^ Thanks guys

Originally Posted by cooperhw

That thing will be like my Pro-Street car to change a tire. Takes me about an hour to Jack up the car as high as I can get it and support on stands. Drop the driveshaft, exhaust, ladder bars swing down, let all the air out of the tire, then Bamm, tires off. Triple A is ur friend.

That sounds terrible. I'm hoping they will fit. The air bags lift the rear pretty high, so it might work.

[FRANKENSTEINC10]

That front end is awesome man. :-)

[Swar]

^^Thanks, Frankenstein. Everything's coming together nicely.

I had to fix a dry rotted vacuum line and re-route it to the front carb. Those ports on the back carb are way too hard to get to.
For those of you swapping engines, the further back you can mount it, the better it will handle, I'm glad I went with this position.

[Swar]

One more before the paint... ride height.

[Swar]

Shazam!

[SOON2BLAZE]

Looking bad ass!

[Swar]

^^ Thanks!

Here's how I turned the '69 grille into a '67.
The top trim is attached with 14 rivets (13 on mine, one was cut out)
I drilled out the rivets, and replaced them with bolts for the new '67 grille support.
I got it from GMC Pauls. A little pricey, but worth it. It's a quality part.
The hood latch and center support came from LMC.
I didn't like that the bottom of the grille wasn't attached, so I made 1 out of 2.

[FRANKENSTEINC10]

Well I think that settles it. I'm gonna swap my 71 gmc clip onto my 72 chevy. Always loved the 4 headlight look. And I won't have to spend extra moneyes on a new grill surround for the chevy clip. :-)

[Swar]

Yea, go for it. It wasn't that hard.
You have to swap the headlight buckets, but I just set the grille in place, and marked where they needed to be, then screwed them in place.

[Swar]

Here it is with the fresh paint. I know the gloss looks great, but there's a lot of imperfections that stood out too much.
I like the matte finish more for some reason...

[Swar]

Coming up next... new windshield wipers. lol

[FRANKENSTEINC10]

Did you use the chevy core support and just "cut and paste" the light buckets

[SOON2BLAZE]

The bedside mod almost gives it a 60's ford look and that of a welded in skirt. subtle change most people won't notice.

[Swar]

Originally Posted by FRANKENSTEINC10

Did you use the chevy core support and just "cut and paste" the light buckets

Yes, they came off my dad's '69 GMC, along with the grille.
I think they were tack welded in place from factory. I chiseled them off.
From what I can tell, there's very little difference between the Chevy and GMC core supports.

Originally Posted by SOON2BLAZE

The bedside mod almost gives it a 60's ford look and that of a welded in skirt. subtle change most people won't notice.

I've heard that before, that it looks like a ford falcon or something.
It looks factory to the untrained eye, but us C10 owners notice right away.

[FRANKENSTEINC10]

sweet now i hope the rain holds off until later in the weekend here!! What mirrors do you have, they look huge. lol. and i agree with soon2blaze, the bed looks awesome. i had to do a double take, but there is so much going on already into the build its hard to focus on one thing.

[Swar]

Thanks, yea there's a lot of subtle changes on this truck that make it some other thing.
That's kinda what I was going for. The mirrors are 5 inch fish eyes for a big rig. Got them at Napa.

[Swar]

A nice spring morning, back on the road again.

Gotta burn up those old tires now, videos coming soon!