My 88 buildup on a tight budget

[benoit454]

yea I thought of it but sourcing the correct parts around here sucks. Hardly any junkyards and if you do find one it's for new vehicles. I'm only looking at doing a body lift, crank and block if need be, that way it's cheap. If I went with a bigger lift like a 6 inch I'd pop for the cepek/extreme susp. 6.5 kit and crank it up, to about 8 inch or so, level the back up, and maybe do a BL and then throw some huge meats under it. It wouldn't be very practical then though lol. Right now we're gonna have to start DD'ing it for work to haul tools and what not. Plus it gets better milegae then my dads 84 c10 with a 350 carb'd motor.

I know the BL's are cheap and had a guy offer me his when he takes it off, just pay shipping, but I gotta buy tires for sure before it goes on the truck. It would be ridiculous with a 3 inch lift and m tires now LOL. I seen some pics on FSC with a 3 inch and 265's man they looked like 215's they were so small.

[BIGphillip79]

her ya go dude.

[benoit454]

After seeing the above pics I started on mine recently..

went from this..



to stripped wheels and halfway polished centers..






I still got some work to do on them yet.

Also took some other pics..

new taillights..



nevr dulled the bed rails and only paint stripped the tailgate one..



hitch cover my uncle gave me..

[benoit454]

also got my new headers and installed them..









took a lil open header video too..

uncapped video by benoit454 - Photobucket

[scotts62]

Cool build you have going, where did you get the headers?

[benoit454]

ebay I got a thread on here in the 88-98 section under the build topics, called finally got some headers for my 88...

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=395994

[scotts62]

Thats cool, i was tossing up getting some for my 92.

[benoit454]

been away from the truck for awhile, been switching out transmissions in dad's 84 c10 and working on my old 85mcss that I sold my brother in law last year. I finally got back to working on it some more, I got a lighted visor for it, painted and put on awhile back, but no pics yet, and now I'm working on trying to take the bed off to replace my rusted cab corners. I also got my stereo system installed, need to get pics soon and show how she is now and then some afters once the cab corners are done.

[BIGphillip79]

So how are the headers holding up?

[benoit454]

they are great, no leaks, they dicolored that once and stayed that way, no change afterwards.

[Chevy350V8]

Originally Posted by benoit454

they are great, no leaks, they dicolored that once and stayed that way, no change afterwards.

Looks like a pretty cool truck. I just painted my 89's grill black and noticed some surface rust on the radiator support. Its not bad, just a little surface rust. Im thinking about painting it to get the rust to stop.

[benoit454]

Finally some new pics fellas, got the bed off ready to fix the cab corners and clean/paint the frame out back...













bottom of the bed all looks like this..



you can see where my pinion seal is leaking, gonna fix that while the bed is off.

Passenger side cab corner, the worst of the 2







finally got pics of the visor on it. It's lighted but I painted the lens black.





yea one tailpipe came off, that's why I have to weld them on while it's apart, it's laying in my building right now.





DS cab corner



The worst part of my whole frame, the gas tank crossmember or the one that's right over top of the tank LOL.

[benoit454]

more work done today, need to take more pics, got the rear bumper cut off(yea the brackets were welded on) and got some other unused things took off the frame.

[Chevy350V8]

Im going to try and take my bed of some time and install my CherryBomb But i want to get the windsheild fixed. But did you run into any problems taking it off?

[benoit454]

HA LOL!!!!!!!!!!! tons of problems trying to take mine off. But yours could be easier. I had trouble getting the bumper brackets off the inner ones because they were too far down to let me get a socket on the 2 rear bed bolts, then one of them had the head spot welded to the frame and bumper bracket I had to try and chisel loose. But before that my hitch was in the way and one bolt was stripped, I had to grind the nut off it to remove it. My outer bumper brackets were welded to the frame and I couldn't get the bumper off the brackets because the welded nut on back came loose. I had exhaust hangers in the way of the 2nd 2 in the back but those unbolted easy enough. The one by the gas tank was gone, the front two weren't bad and the 2nd one back on the PS wasn't bad either. my problems were all in the back. The PS bumper bracket inner one had a bolt holding it that came loose enough for me to barely wiggle the bracket out of the way to get to the last bolt in the back on the ps. Due to the weld I had to drive on a bigger socket, starting around a 21 or so and working my way down until I got to an 18. I'd drive it on, hit it with the impact, when it started spinning without turning the bolt change sockets to one smaller, and repeat until I got to an 18 and got it off. I had to keep going in and out with some of them, they just would not come down, the ds rearmost broke and there's another one that's broke that a PO did. Plus the missing one lol. I think there was another missing one by the exhaust hanger too. So I think I had both fronts, both rears, and one 2nd back on the PS, I think that's all mine had since they were missing or broke. No clue what I'm going to do about the broke ones, maybe turn the bed over and try some liquid wrench torch, pipe wrench whatever I can find or think of to try.

[benoit454]

I gotta weld the corner on didn't get to today kept raining off and on. Maybe tomorrow and get the other one done.

[Chevy350V8]

looks good

[benoit454]

Driver's side is done ready to be welded in....

[benoit454]

frame clean should be painting it tomorrow i hope.









For anyone who uses a pressure washer on the body like behind the cab, I hope they done it good because mine wasn't done so good lol....





you can see the original gold/saddle/tan showing through now. I know somebody had the bed off before and I assumed for paint, guess not with the amount of overspray unless they just half way done it. You know didn't sand it good or something.

[tecky11]

nice so far, but i would suggest changein shocks whil the beds off

[benoit454]

why you don't like air shocks? I love em, they come in really handy when hauling big loads in the bed. Don't ride bad at all with about 30 psi in them. My front end is much stiffer then the back for sure. Not to mention there's nothing wrong with them.

I couldn't help but think, man how easy it'd be to change em with it off lol.

[tecky11]

oh didnt realize they were air shocs ther i go again making and A@# of my self

[benoit454]

LOl it's ok. I only know because I own it lol. Yea if they were hydro, regardless of their looks or age I'd consider changing them too due to rust on them, unknown age, and what not.

In some of the pics you can probably see the black nut on the front or back of them and the line that's coiled up and zip tied to itself was was zip tied to the spare tire braces.

[benoit454]

frames done...

[benoit454]

cab corners are done, just need to prime, wet sand, wipe down, and paint.