86 chevy crew cab 12 valve swap

[COS399]

Nice score on the wiring harness and your toy.

[shopteacher]

Greetings from Mountain Home!

You talked about a spread sheet for keeping track of expenses and I thought about it on three or four conversions, but I think it would scare the heck out of me (mostly my wife) so I just Guesstamate ! LOL

Your probably Knee deep in Haying over there like we are over here so I'm glad you can take time out to play and work on the projects!

Great build and keep up the great work !

[COS399]

Originally Posted by shopteacher

Greetings from Mountain Home!

You talked about a spread sheet for keeping track of expenses and I thought about it on three or four conversions, but I think it would scare the heck out of me (mostly my wife) so I just Guesstamate ! LOL !

I kept a spreadsheet and it's amazing how fast you can blow through a budget. Of course purchasing the project truck and the donor truck were a big chunk of it. It's a good thing we have understanding spouses.

[84chevyguyid]

Hi there Mountain Home! Yup trying to get hay put up. To many things going on this weekend, farming, a fun car show saturday at the Rexburg chevrolet dealer that I always go to, a family reunion, and COSS is coming to the dunes to ride..... hmm, which direction to go??

[84chevyguyid]

So the idea is to not have a budget, just spend, spend, spend! Got a bunch of stuff done the past few weeks. Got the core support cut up and fitted the radiator, intercooler, a/c condenser, and the trans cooler. With a bunch of shifting stuff around, adjusting stuff with the torch, hammer, ect, I finally got everything to fit and clear the grill on the front and the fan on the rear.
James, (COS399) was a bunch of help and after multiple phone calls, and picture text messages from him, I was able to come up with the right combination of first and second gen dodge pieces to make it all work. Ended up using a first gen fan mount and pulley with a second gen fan and fan cutch, radiator, shroud, and intercooler. I got a new parallel path condenser from Rockauto that is a replacement for the condenser in my 87 burb. Its a few inches shorter that the old tube and fin stock condenser so that gave me a little more room to fit the trans cooler next to it. The trans cooler is a Derale plate cooler with 10 an fittings. The tech at Derale says it should be big enough to do the job but I am a little skeptical. Got the intercooler piping tacked together, just got to finish welding the joints.

[84chevyguyid]

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[ryanroo]

That is a nice truck!

[COS399]

Mike,

Looks like you have been busy. It's looking good and the videos were nice too. Hopefully next year we can go down there and do the ATV rodeo as well. I haven't done an ATV rodeo in about 12 years. If I can find my footage from 2001 completion I will show it or send it to you. I'm thinking next year I will enter up my boy as well and have a little father and son competition.

[84chevyguyid]

The son is getting older so the competition will be getting tougher lol. Got the air bags finished up last night. the dump feature works good too. I gotta get the core cleaned up and painted tonight so I can put it all together and move on to the next project.

[84chevyguyid]

Action shot from the motorodeo

[COS399]

Originally Posted by 84chevyguyid

Action shot from the motorodeo

This would be an excellent picture to have everyone fill in their own version of what everyone is thinking to themselves. Especially with the two younger riders.

[Dieselwrencher]

Great work Mike, and sweet riding! You're sure getting a lot done on your truck. Keep at it. That bronze and white truck sure is nice!

[Dieselwrencher]

That's really cool about Ivan and I wish him luck in his journey and I hope he reaches his goal!

[84chevyguyid]

I got the core support painted and stuck back in with the rad, intercooler, and trans cooler. My friend that does a/c came over and made a list of fittings I need to hook up the condenser to the compressor and got them ordered for me. The one line on the condenser is back in the core support and I have to put the hose on it while its out as I cant get to that fitting with it in place. The other line that goes to the evaporator sticks out further and is accessible with the condenser in place. I finished gutting the rest of the interior with the exception of the headliner over the weekend and started cleaning the floor up in preparation for the lizzard skin ceramic spray on insulation stuff. Been looking at the headliner and I think I will pull the rear window out and slide it out the back so I dont have to bend it and have it fall apart on me. I need to spray the insulation then I can put down the sound insulation stuff on the front half of the cab then I can get the brake support bracket and steering stuff put back in so I can steer it. My dad comes out and looks at it and says "You have gotten alot of stuff done but you still have a looong way to go". I was showing him all the new wiring harnesses for the body, power window/lock, and trans stuff and he just shakes his head and says it will take me another year just to wire it back up, he may be right....Other than the front passenger side floorboard, the floor is in really good shape on this thing. I guess a leaking heater core might have taken the paint off on the pass floorboard? The metal is in great shape just the paint was off. I was in town the other day and this sweet looking pickup passed me and I saw it turn into Burger King. I had to go check it out. Was a couple maybe in their 70's- 80's? They laughed when I told them I loved their pickup and could I snap a pic of it. The thing looked like it just came off the showroom floor, they really had it polished up.

[84chevyguyid]

I am using materials that I got from Don at "Sound Deadener Showdown" for the inside of the cab. First to go down are the CLD panels, these are dampening pieces that are supposed to keep panels from vibrating. as per his instructions you only need to cover 25 to 30 percent of the area. I still want to add some more pieces to my floor boards but I ran out of panels. After the CDL panels are down then a layer of closed cell foam goes down and its purpose is to be a "decoupler" or a gasket between the metal and the interior. After the closed cell foam, there is a layer of mass loaded vinyl that goes over it, then the pad and carpet. Just trying to get the front half put in so I can get the brakes and steering stuff back in and start on wiring.

[COS399]

Looking good Mike. Keep up the good work. I'm not sure when I am going to get around to fixing my NP205 seal. I'm pretty sure it will be my kid's truck and he has a few more years before he is licensed to drive.

[ryanroo]

I hope you get to fire it up and let us know how that deadener works soon! i will be looking at that sometime(soon i hope).

[Dieselwrencher]

Great work! That 2nd layer looks like a PITA to install. It also makes me think it may be a frustrating deal to work on later when the truck is done. But, that's what it takes to minimize that noise.

[ryanroo]

How is the project going?

[84chevyguyid]

I havent had time to do anything with it. Started cutting 2nd crop hay on Aug 1st and then we had the wettest august that anybody can remember and been fighting weather the past 5 weeks doing what should be a 2 week job. now I have some repair work to do on equipment before we start cutting hay again in 2 weeks so it doesnt look like I will be getting back to it till oct now. The good news is that this year I wont have to take the winter off to heal up from 2 knee surgery's. On the other hand the bad news is that my wife thinks I should be working on stuff around the house this winter too, I cant win....

[COS399]

Any progress? Hope all is well.

[84chevyguyid]

Things are good, havent gotten back on the crew cab yet. Still doing things around the farm to get ready for winter, guess its here huh?? I need to change gas tanks and get the tank valve working in my 84 pickup and change the steering box/pump on my blazer before I can get back on the crew cab. Sucks that it gets dark so soon now.
Got one last good ride in at the dunes on the 8th, was a beautiful day and the place was packed, lotta cool stuff there. Took my oldest son and youngest son with me, we had a blast! It was the second time for both of them on the dunes and they were both intimidated by the size of the big dunes on the west end. I'm already looking forward to next summers dune riding, hey how does a winter ride at Glamis sound??

[Vintage Windmills]

Your build helped inspire me to do a square crew cumminsCummins conversion also. Looking forward to more updates. Check out my build thread sometime in this section also. Its the 3rd red square crew conversion here!

PS I can't think od idaho Without thinking of napoleon dynamite. Especially when you talk about riding in the dunes!

[COS399]

Glamis would be fun but I don't think it is going to happen anytime soon. The last time I went down there was February of 2006. We went to Dumont for Thanksgiving weekend in 2010. I need to either find the time to work on YFZ450 or drop it off at the shop. It's losing antifreeze up under the motor.

[84chevyguyid]

Here's a pic from the excursion. Got started on the fuel tank project the other day. Decided it would be way easier to work on with the bed off and I also have a turn over ball gooseneck hitch and a receiver hitch that I am going to stick on while I'm at it. The new tanks have been a pain in the butt, they have to be "massaged" to get the tank mounts to fit around them. The seams on the original tanks are bent downward and these aftermarket ones are sticking straight out and have to be bent down. I just hope they dont leak... Picked up another new toy, its got some engine work done, 4 inch longer swingarm and a 4 inch wider axle. Should be a blast to ride!