Project: "just a little rust repair, turned LS2 swap"

[widewhite70]

and all of this is going on inside a 2 car garage, the pictures make it look like an official shop lol

[widewhite70]

The gutter clean up. Before it had to be changed for the LS

[widewhite70]

the bed shortening

[widewhite70]

Ok since I haven't put much of a timeline on here of the truck here we go. I got the truck in the spring of 2002 when I was 15, I wish I had the pictures of it sitting in the weeds when we first got it. The bed laying upside down beside it, no doors..leaned against a tree, front clip off. I stood there looking at it thinking "what am I going to do with this thing??"
It was at the house of a guy my dad worked with. 3 trips later we had it hauled to town. By the fall of 2002 we had it on the road driving just in time for me to get my license, I drove it this way until the fall of my senior year of high school in 2005 and we decided to put a 327 and a 4 speed in it and thats when my truck turned into my hot rod project.
We flat blacked it and did the gloss black flames, and a few years later I made the wide whites after I saw a video of how to make them online and painted my steelies red.

I cruised it that way until last fall of 2011 and asked my neighbor who is a SUPER skilled fabricator if he would help me "do a little rust repair". Thats where this project started to take off. While doing the rust repair and me planning on fixing the rust and driving it, my Grandpa says "you should take that Corvette suspension in the barn and put that under this truck and you'll really have something.

So thats pretty much what started all of this and that led into the round tube chassis, shortening the bed,raising the bed floor, cut the drip rail off and moved it back about 1/2", smoothed the gutter on the firewall, fixed some rust on the doors, built an aluminum fuel tank to fit the chassis, had to get wheels made to have the right back spacing and offset for the Vette drivetrain, and its still a work in progress and we hope to have it fired up and test driving in a month or less.
I have had the truck for almost 10 years now and never dreamed that it would have turned into anything like this. But the way its going now is what I always had in the back of my mind of how i would have wanted it to look.
Stay tuned for the updates.

[67c10rustbuket]

Sweet truck, I hope my "rust repair" ends up this nice.

[widewhite70]

Here's the tubing before we started on it. This was the first round tube chassis that James (my neighbor and fabrication genius) had ever attempted besides a roll cage. The other frames he had built we 2x4 box tube. He said he wanted a "challenge" this time, lol and he got it with this one.

[widewhite70]

Originally Posted by 67c10rustbuket

Sweet truck, I hope my "rust repair" ends up this nice.

LOL yes the rust repair has went great! thats our joke.... "yeah I just need to fix the cab corners and rocker panels" and this is what I have on my hands now.

[threeonthetree]

Really looking nice.
the frame work pics have all sorts of ideas in my head now haha thanks.
Keep at er.

[widewhite70]

Originally Posted by widewhite70

Ok since I haven't put much of a timeline on here of the truck here we go. I got the truck in the spring of 2002 when I was 15, I wish I had the pictures of it sitting in the weeds when we first got it. The bed laying upside down beside it, no doors..leaned against a tree, front clip off. I stood there looking at it thinking "what am I going to do with this thing??"
It was at the house of a guy my dad worked with. 3 trips later we had it hauled to town. By the fall of 2002 we had it on the road driving just in time for me to get my license, I drove it this way until the fall of my senior year of high school in 2005 and we decided to put a 327 and a 4 speed in it and thats when my truck turned into my hot rod project.
We flat blacked it and did the gloss black flames, and a few years later I made the wide whites after I saw a video of how to make them online and painted my steelies red.

I cruised it that way until last fall of 2011 and asked my neighbor who is a SUPER skilled fabricator if he would help me "do a little rust repair". Thats where this project started to take off. While doing the rust repair and me planning on fixing the rust and driving it, my Grandpa says "you should take that Corvette suspension in the barn and put that under this truck and you'll really have something.

So thats pretty much what started all of this and that led into the round tube chassis, shortening the bed,raising the bed floor, cut the drip rail off and moved it back about 1/2", smoothed the gutter on the firewall, fixed some rust on the doors, built an aluminum fuel tank to fit the chassis, had to get wheels made to have the right back spacing and offset for the Vette drivetrain, and its still a work in progress and we hope to have it fired up and test driving in a month or less.
I have had the truck for almost 10 years now and never dreamed that it would have turned into anything like this. But the way its going now is what I always had in the back of my mind of how i would have wanted it to look.
Stay tuned for the updates.

AND also got an 6.0 LS2 and T56 6 speed out of a 2005 Chevy SSR to put in it to top off the combination, not sure how I forgot that the first time????

[widewhite70]

Originally Posted by threeonthetree

Really looking nice.
the frame work pics have all sorts of ideas in my head now haha thanks.
Keep at er.

LOL ideas are never a bad thing!

[Pop's C-10]

That tube frame is sexy,,,

[smoknbarrels]

Originally Posted by widewhite70

This was the first round tube chassis that James (my neighbor and fabrication genius) had ever attempted besides a roll cage. The other frames he had built we 2x4 box tube. He said he wanted a "challenge" this time, lol and he got it with this one.

Geez, this blows, all my neighbors do is ride horses!

That thing is such a cool garage build!!

[pcorriveau951]

what type of round tube did u use for the chassis?

[widewhite70]

Originally Posted by smoknbarrels

Geez, this blows, all my neighbors do is ride horses!

That thing is such a cool garage build!!

Thanks! yeah I got lucky one this one, he likes to do it for the hobby and I just happened to grow up 3 houses down from him, what a neighbor!

[widewhite70]

Originally Posted by pcorriveau951

what type of round tube did u use for the chassis?

The main rails are 1-3/4"x.095 wall and most of the cross braces are 1"x.095 wall thickness, just electro seam welded tube, no chromoly or anything like that, the metal shop I got it from said that it should be just fine for my application and the way is was built.

[67lngbed]

That frame is sick. I dont think i have ever seen a c-10 with an independant rear. that thing should handle nice. Time for some autocrossing.

[widewhite70]

Originally Posted by 67lngbed

That frame is sick. I dont think i have ever seen a c-10 with an independant rear. that thing should handle nice. Time for some autocrossing.

Thanks! yeah autocrossing was the first thing that came to my mind after my grandpa said we should put that suspension in it! I got super lucky with him having it in the barn. It will definitely be different now

[widewhite70]

With the chassis done and engine in I wanted to go with long tube headers, but with the spot we need the headers to hit there were no manufactured headers to buy, so I ordered a LS long tube header kit and we built them.

[El Campo]

Cool!

[widewhite70]

Originally Posted by El Campo

Cool!

Thanks! it has went through some drastic changes the past few months

[widewhite70]

My headers made it back from being coated, I'll have to upload a picture of them

[widewhite70]

Here they are, came back with a nice ceramic coat

[fakerwade]

Dude that frame belongs in an art gallery!!! What a lot of work, both physical and mental. Super nice job on the headers too!

[widewhite70]

Thanks man! thats what I tell the guy who is helping me. If it wasn't for him it wouldn't be nearly this nice. We're putting a wood bed in it and going to try to make the bed floor hinge up just to show off the back of the frame, it's to nice to have covered up all the time

[widewhite70]

Originally Posted by fakerwade

Dude that frame belongs in an art gallery!!! What a lot of work, both physical and mental. Super nice job on the headers too!

Thanks man! thats what I tell the guy who is helping me. If it wasn't for him it wouldn't be nearly this nice. We're putting a wood bed in it and going to try to make the bed floor hinge up just to show off the back of the frame, it's to nice to have covered up all the time