86 K10 LWB - Frankie

[silverbear]

I was only able to finish up the passenger door panel before a rain storm rolled in.



After.


In the truck with the dash.

[silverbear]

Kick panels and A piller trim.

[Greenlee]

Nice work! The dash and carbon fiber look great.

[silverbear]

Originally Posted by Greenlee

Nice work! The dash and carbon fiber look great.

Thanks!

[silverbear]

Got some more work completed on the interior this past weekend.







A big THANKS to BGOOD70 for spraying some clear coat on my glove compartment door and ashtray assembly. I will attempt to get those parts installed this coming weekend.

[silverbear]

A few more interior details. I got the ash tray assembly and glove box installed. I started the detail work on the door panels. The goal is to have the upper portion os the door panels match the passenger side trim of the dash.

[y5mgisi]

Looks nice!

[silverbear]

Originally Posted by y5mgisi

Looks nice!

Thanks.

[bgood70]

Looking real good Chris.
Posted via Mobile Device

[silverbear]

So about 6 months ago I discovered a crack in the radiator tank. I don't drive this long distances so I made due for a couple of months. I found a good deal on a new aluminum radiator so I picked it up about 3 months ago. Since I am upgrading the A/C, I also picked up a parallel high flow condenser. Both of those items sat in my garage for 3 months because I have been sooooo busy helping out others that I didn't have time to work on my own projects. So this past Saturday I decided it was time.

Empty core support.


Condenser mounted. Still need to work out the lines for this but that will be another day.


The radiator mounted. Need to reroute one heater hoes and fab up some mounts for the fan shroud.

[silverbear]

Well like most of my projects for this truck... something does not go as well I as I was hoping for and then the time line gets extended or in this case, one of the old parts gets damaged and then I have to get MUCH deeper into my pockets to fix it. In the process of modifying the fan shroud to work with the new radiator, I managed to run a bolt right through the tank on the brand new radiator. So I had to pull it back out and take it to get welded back up. Got that back in and mocked up my new heater hoses and then had to wait a few days for the pipes I wanted to get bent for me. I am not set up to bend 5/8" and 3/4" stainless steel tubing. I got those back and installed and then found a crack in the old intake manifold. So now I guess since the intake has to come out, I will address my oil leaks. Intake is getting replaced. Valve covers getting cleaning, refinished and new gaskets. Oil pan getting cleaned, painted and new gasket. After all of that with a little help Bgood70 got the timing and the carb fine tuned and now Frankie is running smooth.

Here are a few pics of what i was trying to do.

[silverbear]

Here is where I ended up, for now. I know there is a lot more to address but I happy to be making some progress.

[Greenlee]

Looking good!

That's a bummer about the new radiator and intake-- 1 step forward, 2 steps back.

[silverbear]

I forgot to include this pic. I found a shop that made these up for me (very reasonable price) so I would not have to pull the radiator back out when I get ready to re-install the A/C system. They have the correct O-ring style fittings on the ends so connecting up the new hoses will be simple.

[silverbear]

So I have been trying to get a radio installed in Frankie. The dash bezel I had was cut for a single DIN radio but it didn't seem to be in the right place to match the cut out in the dash panel. After searching and waiting I found what I what I wanted, a dash bezel out of a late 80's Suburban or Blazer with the factory opening for a 1.5 DIN. So I made this plate to mount to the dash.

[silverbear]

While I was at it, I made some 6x9 speaker brackets fro the rear cab corners.

[silverbear]

And this is how the radio install finished up. Still need to mount the 6x9s and the new brackets.




Sorry for the rotated pic. When the pic uploads is rotates to this angle.

[silverbear]

I am collecting parts and getting ready for some upgrades. i traded off some old lawn mowers I had laying around in my barn for this 14 bolt FF, 3.73 gears and posi. Then after hunting salvage yards for a few weeks, I found the backing plates and rotor assemblies I needed to convert my 10 bolt front axle.

Here are the before pictures:

This axle came out of a 99 Express 2500. So I knew I would need to move the spring perches and shock mounts.

[silverbear]

And after a few days of sanding and wire brushing along with grinding and welding... and then some paint, the after pictures.







I still have some prep work to do but I was excited to share my progress.

Those 13" drums are monsters!

[68Timber]

The detail work looks great!

[made2drag]

im loving the carbon fiber vinyl...interior is looking sweet

[LT7A]

Dash pad looks great. When I started reading this build, I kinda thought, this guy has got a lot of work in front of him. The changing out of multiple body parts, multiple times would doom most projects. Way to stick with it! That is now a really solid rig.

[silverbear]

Thanks guys. It has been slow going at times but I have an ultimate plan for this truck and it will take me a while to get it the way i would like...more to come.

[silverbear]

Still have not been able to start my axle swap but I did get a few more items checked off. I got the rear speakers installed and I had to replace the starter. My original one has been noisy for a while but it still worked, so I didn't mess with it. About three weeks ago the noise got worse and it finally quit working.

[made2drag]

Originally Posted by silverbear

And this is how the radio install finished up. Still need to mount the 6x9s and the new brackets.

Attachment 1506544

Attachment 1506546
Sorry for the rotated pic. When the pic uploads is rotates to this angle.

the radio install looks killer!