My 83 needs a little TLC

[TwinTurbo]

Hi all, been quite a while since I last posted here.

I've been driving my truck hard for a couple of years and it hasn't done it a lot of good. For a while I used it for a daily driver because my DD was wrecked and I didn't want to drive any of my other cars (the ones that were not in pieces)

Last year I got a nasty rain water leak somewhere from the cowl area, right above the fuse box so I parked it, waiting for when I had time to figure out what was going on. I also blew 2nd gear out of the TH400, must be the clutches because when I put it in 2 manually it works (bands)

Here's what the truck looked like... shame I can't drive it right now. It was always a lot of fun.






This is probably the culprit...all that white crap. I have some minor bubbling of the paint on the bottom of the front fenders. Caused by a blocked drain hole and fender rolling...



Anyway...time to check out what's up. After pulling all of the interior out I could see daylight around the fuse box. Not good! Time to pull the brake booster, and sure enough..there was the ugly. 2 panels seperated and rust coming from in between. Probably cracked sealant from the brake booster and the wiper motor deflecting the firewall.

I cut out the offending piece and found what I expected to find.. rust holes



\

Time to cut out all the nasty and weld in a fresh patch. The section I cut out was beyond repair so I fabbed a new panel for that too.





I ground the welds a little smooth (this can't be seen anyway) and liberally applied corrosion protection and seam sealer.

Welded on the fabbed new front patch panel



halfway there



almost there



done




Now, everything else looks like a big mess. So, only thing to do is tear it all apart.
I took the front section out, repaired a bunch of nasty bubba welding repairs and misc. brackets baked on by an idiot with a stick welder.






Old crap that came out (and some fresh powdercoated stuff in there)



I don't have a pic of the freshly coated rad frame, bracketry, lamp buckets and what not. (will this weekend)


So, what to do about the engine. It needed more oomph for sure and I have a lot of spare stuff from my camaros/trans ams and other projects. The decision was quickly made. I am installing a 3rd Gen F body serpentine system. This will take care of the annoying power steering belt whine. I only had 1 belt because I remove the other belt (no AC/smog pump) It's also a clean looking setup. I had it powdercoated matte black and the bolts are all gold zinc plated. The heads I also had lying around. Some TFS G1 Twisted Wedge heads. No one seems to like them, I do. I have 3 sets and only 1 set gave me guide wear issues because I was stupid enough not to use crane gold rockers and go with the recommended .010 longer push rod. A checker tool is a must with these to set them up properly.

I also have a complete HotRodLane/Street & Performance Multiport MPFI system lying around, it has a complete standalone harness w/ fuse box and a weatherpack ECM. Then I found my spare Procharger P600 bracket...and a P600 head unit Not a hard choice to make (can tune ECU myself, have the stuff..been there done that on 3rd gen camaro and GTA)

Initially I thought about running a Vortech carb enclosure..but EFI it will now be. I can run a 700R4 on it too without resorting to lockup kit (never worked to my liking on other cars)





... nah



...yay!





I have a Procharger FMIC for it but also have 2 smaller ones from a later F body. Have not decided which to run yet. I did remove the blanking plate from the rad shroud just in case. They are excellent holes to run piping through.

So...that's it for now...

[TwinTurbo]

Repaired and powdercoated rad frame, assembled w/ all PCed parts (what a crappy pic, didn't notivce that before...I suck at photography)



Repaired and coated inner fenders.. a little dusty from sitting

[ol'blazer]

nice truck man! what size tire you running?

[TwinTurbo]

255 and 275 15

better pic of rad frame



pulled the engine/trans


what a mess

[TwinTurbo]

Got some more done, there was more rust in the firewall and fenders I have the firewall fixed now. I'll tackle the fenders later. Building a new engine for the car, still ahve to install the procharger.

I will coat the underside of the car with some type of rock guard so I didn't paint the firewall below the belt line

[TwinTurbo]

More done. Sprayed the chassis w/ stone chip stuff, nothing fancy





did some more work on the engine. Waiting for plated bolts and powdercoated parts to come in and my Summit order (new cam and bunch of other stuff) so i can put it back in. Did finish the wiring harness for the engine & EFI

[rusty76]

Really cool. Did you fabricate the heater box enclosure for your truck?

[TwinTurbo]

Yes, it's TIG welded aluminium sheets. Easiest to have CNC turret punched. Couldn't get a non AC box anywhere here so I went that route. It's being powdercoated now.

I enjoy building stuff, especially in aluminum even if I'm not the greatest AC Tig welder. I like doing shet metal work and stainless exhausts too.

[TwinTurbo]

Got some more done. Buttoned up most of the engine after receiving my summit order and getting stuff back from the powdercoater.



pan with oil return for SC and a heat exchanger so oil heats up more quickly

[str8axle55]

Great work, that truck is going to be a fun one to drive.

[TwinTurbo]

Well not a lot done this weekend..forgot to pick up the bucket of bolts from the plater so I didn't have bolts for a lot of stuff. I did reinstall the powdercoated (custom) heater box and used torx screws to secure it all, much cleaner than what was in there.





Wiring still needs to be cleaned up, I cleaned up the wiring for the front, still have to do the engine loom and the starter harness. I can not stand those crimper AMP connectors and splices. I solder and heat shrink all my connections.



Got the engine done, all it needs now is the supercharger and the intercooler & piping. Didn't have the bolts to put the IC and pulley on. All hoses and everything is new.

[ol'blazer]

looking good!!

[legendman]

Looks sweet, nice job on the metal repair.

[TwinTurbo]

Progress is real slow, especially since it takes a lot of time to fix the hacked up wiring harnesses. I want to make them as clean as possible, redo all the connections and spliced with solder and heat shrink. I got all the harnesses done, except for the last section on the firewall running down to the starter and the section for the alt. charging wire and brake warning switch. All the others are done, the fuxebox is completely redone (some wires cut off with only a hair sticking out)





all the wires on the engine will have to be tucked away neatly too. I will mount the weatherpack ECM on the heater box. I disassembled the ECU so I can powdercoat the housing. Had to take it apart anyway to remove the calpak that was in there, I'll need to hook up an ostrich and do some tuning on it for sure and then burn a new prom and install that (so it's weather sealed again, which it isnt with the ribbon cable for the ostrich sticking out)

Bead blasted the steering shaft and had it zinc plated. The steering column end didn't come out so pretty because some residual grease leaked out and screwed up the finish so I painted that black



The engine is fully assembled YAY thinking about either painting the SC black or installing a polished one that my buddy has, the polished look would go with the intake although I don't really like bling stuff. I'm all about matte black and machined & anodized aluminum

[TwinTurbo]

Got a little more done

cleaned up rebuilt 700R4. Still needs deep sump pan (have it)


dropped it all in

[TwinTurbo]

Not a whole lot of progress here, waiting on fenders to come in from the US. I did finish th exhaust system and all wiring. I also painted the supercharger black.

Next is doing the intercooler & ducting

[legendman]

Awesome!!

[TwinTurbo]

Exhaust is all buttoned up now, so I started on the SC plumbing..started w/ the dr. side and made it to the rad frame I had prev. removed the blanking plate there. I'm going to run the pipes through there. Also started on the other side but quickly found out I'm lacking a 4" silicone coupler for on the TB. Will have to order that 1st in order to finish that side

[TwinTurbo]

TB inlet not yet finished, has temporary coupler.

I used an original procharger elbow and fabbed an oval piece from aluminum to extend it.



clear the accy drive just fine now

[tip]

This truck is gonna be mean!

[TwinTurbo]

Got some replacement fenders now, factory units. Also got a bumper off an 81 so I can put some fog lights in it. Also had the guy grab the trim off the truck (actually an abulance, it was spotless!! just what I neded) so I can replace the one with the dent in and my top one that is broken where all the clips were. Hopefull it'll be back on the road soon.

I did run into a bind, it seems my replacement drivesahft has the wrong joint at the rear. I know 1310s came in 2 trunion sizes, I need larger ones but it may also be a 3R joint that I need...will have to check.

[TwinTurbo]

All the IC piping is done

fabricated brackets for the IC, the thing had to be mounted at an angle otherwise the grille won't fit. It's still a tight fit nonetheless.





Made it around the corners LOL





And the other side... I cheated y making this a 2 pc section it would have been a major PITA to install it if it was 1 piece and the long silicone section gives me a lot more tolerance with engien movement.



custom blow off valve



done.. the tubing will be all powdercoated flat black.

[TwinTurbo]

[TwinTurbo]

Fabbed a new trans mount, there as no other way to get this 700R4 installed without doing it since I didn't have the correct parts. Upgraded the trans mount to a spare T56 one I had lying around which uses 2 studs instead of just 1

Also visible is the VSS adapter for the EFI VSS signal.



Mounted my fuel pump here so I could use the stock hard line and switching valve. Hope it works, not 100% sure it can pull the fuel properly from here but testing will show



Fram HPG1 fuel filter



Diagnostics connector and small external fuse box for EFI. Has a check engine light on it I will hook up the light in the gauge cluster too

[TwinTurbo]

Decided to put my spark control here....it's a bit more of a wiring cluster F than I would have liked but oh well.... form follow function I guess



Decided to redo the exhaust. It was already stainless but an ugly quickie job that I never really liked. Also the pipes are a bit small in the middle so I stepped up from 2.5 to 2.75 and tucked them up higher. I only finished the drivers side, the other side is still the old stuff. I had to modify the dr. side to clear my VSS signal adapter/cable coming out of the tranny.

I had issues with it scraping behind the collector. The exhaust now runs directly up from there with nice smooth bends.