Rowdy 57
 

This will be my very first build thread, i have used forums for years researching and building rock crawlers but this is my first attempt at a street truck. A little about myself. My names Cory im 33 and have two boys 8 and 10 we live in the Pacific NW and i have a passion for trucks, the 55-59 chevy/gmc trucks have always been my favorite! A little about the 57 and plans.

box frame and brace
Turbo LQ4 completly rebuilt (shooting for 800hp @crank)
4l80e
Holley terminator x
coil overs all 4 corners
Camaro front clip
4 link rear
body work maybe

And a picture of the truck when i picked it up with my youngest goofin around

Re: Rowdy 57
 

i bought the truck out of northern washington, drove almost 7 hours one way and paid 4500$ it already has a camaro clip grafted on and dropped in the back. i loved the stance and was really excited to bring it back to life. My goal is to get this running and driving this year. i wont to any of the body work till its running and driving other than fix damage going to leave it in all of its multiple colors while i work out the kinks. Because i have never done any body work i want to enjoy the truck while i slowly pick at it.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Now to start catch up. First thing i did was strip the truck down and start to get into the frame. it already had a 9" rear axle and camaro clip. i ordered new a arms with coils from Performance online, they where very helpful when i was having trouble figuring out exactly which front clip i had finding brakess was a pain.

First up frame repairs

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Not sure why some photos are sideways, ill try to figure that out, anyways after I patched all the rust i started on the 9" rear axle, i wanted to 4 link it and shorten it so I could fit 14" wide rear tires.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Looks like you have great platform there.
welcome to the best truck forum around. You will soon discover that there is a great deal of knowledge and helpful people in this community..

Marc

Re: Rowdy 57
 

After I welded on the 4 link brackets I had a local hotrod shop weld on the new bearing cup and re true the axle, didn't want to chance it myself.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Next up was tearing apart the donor 6.0 LQ4, i parted a truck and kept what i wanted, and a picture of my new little turbo. So far i have all the parts to finish the front and rear suspension, im working on plating the frame so i can run some tube work between the frame rails kind of like setting it up for autocross. Figure over build it now so I don't have to address it later.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Great Start! Looking forward to following your build.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Got the frame plating started tonight, I'm going to try and notch the rear of the frame and start the tube bracing this weekend.

QUESTION! Does anyone have a picture of a truck frame with a Camaro clip and a LS motor/4l60e would like a idea of how far back the trans sits. so I dont put tubing in I will have to cut out.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Finished the boxing this weekend and got the C Notch in, starting tube work now.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

plating finished start of the tube work.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Got some more tube work finished. cant decide on the back half of tube if i should leave the 45/90 and go to c notch or just end it at the straight bar. have a little more bracing to add but the main structure is finished.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

yes! tube work! triangulate the world!

Re: Rowdy 57
 

I also love tube work it can make the simplest things look so much cooler! Got a couple more tubes in hoping to have it all welded up today and tomorrow so i can repaint the frame and start bolting on suspension.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Love it! I wish you were close and I could pay you for some tube things!

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Small victory almost a rolling chassis again, waiting on one caliper for driver side they sent two of the same so one side bleeder screw was on the bottom. also waiting on pads then i will have a complete roller stopped by the machine shop to drop off pistons for balancing and he said about a month out, so i think ill start working on fuel tank and lines while i wait.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Nice build, just wondering, how will the rear end do going over diagonal dips like driveways? I'd be curious to jack up one wheel to see what it does.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

I jacked up each wheel when I finished cause I was worried about the same thing, if the links had enough clearance. It’s the performance online kit and I have it at it’s lowest setting which is a 6” drop. There is only about 4” of uptravel before bump stops and even with the axle sitting at bump I can clear a finger between link and frame

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Man, that's gonna be one flex-free frame! Did you do the tube-bending and notching yourself?

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Yea I built the plates and did all the tube bending myself. Got the last of the brake parts this morning I was waiting on and got it to actually sit on all 4 tires. So now that it’s a roller time to mount a fuel cell still need to pick one and start running hard lines while I wait on machine shop. It’s a little nose heavy might have to get creative with the rear 4 link to lower it we will see when the body is back on.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

I've had the photo issue before where it looks OK until you copy it somewhere. I just flipped this for you.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Well unfortunately life gets in the way sometimes, my wife blew up her wrangler, so I spent most of the summer fixing that, ended up putting on a super charger while I had the motor out because I can't leave anything alone.
But I did get my motor back from the machine shop a couple months ago and now that the shop is clear again, I can start back on it.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

So, the last couple weeks me and my youngest son have been slowly putting back together the motor.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

still don't know what I'm doing wrong with the pictures when I look at them on image viewer, they are right side up not sure why they rotate on upload.
Anyways this weekend we got the long block finished, and tonight I got the 80lb injectors installed, soon I'll be loading the motor in the chassis with the transmission so I can build a trans cross member then start plumbing in fuel and brake lines.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

More progress ill let the photos do the talking.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

more pics

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Hooker turbo manifolds fit like they where custom built for this chassis about 3/4" clearance from everything.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

wow, agreed, hard to ask for a better fit.

plan to wrap them?

Re: Rowdy 57
 

got the transmission mocked up and a cross member built, for now it is permanent but i will get some tube flanges and weld them in when i tear everything down for paint.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Im not 100% sure if im going to wrap the headers or not, i planned on wrapping the exhaust out of the engine bay with the turbo but the headers seem like they would be a nightmare to do. we will see and catching myself up is mock up of the fuel cell. Still not 100% sure how i want to mount it. i have been looking at alot of other threads trying to find ideas just not sure how to make it work with what i have going on.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

i like being cheap when i can, and i like building stuff so i made my own flat bar bender and made some tank straps myself. 32$ in steel from my local yard and i have a new tool and tank straps!

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Tank straps are 3/16" x 1" flat bar should be plenty strong to hold up 20 gallons. Once the tank was mounted where i want it started mock up of where i am going to mount the fuel pump then started running lines A1000 fuel pump and filters will sit rubber mounted to the frame between the tube work then AN-10 feed lines to the pump and AN-8 up to the engine bay with a AN8 return. im hoping to finish the fuel system this week to start brake line's i will be starting from scratch with 3/16" hard lines plumbed to a new wilwood master.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Got the Derale 13470 trans cooler bolted into place after welding in some tabs to mount it. Then the little guy helped make some AN6 lines to plumb it to the transmission. Last thing we finished up last night was getting the fuel pump/filters rubber mounted to the frame so we can start running fuel lines, i will start brake lines this weekend then we will drop the cab on to start wiring it.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

well since the chassis is almost complete i started working on the cab, i wanted to get rid of the red and primer it white before i set it on the frame and started wiring. so i took the cab to get blasted and set up a paint booth in my shop.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

tent pictures, now just gotta figure out how to get the shop to 65-70 degree's the pellet stove strugles to do it alone.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

And last thing i did was borrow some stands from a buddy to get the chassis up off the ground so im not bent over finishing wiring, exhaust and brake lines.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

Alright now i need some help, i dont know what i did wrong, and because of it i have a couple questions.

Let me start with saying eventually i will do the body work and paint, for now i just want a driver that is 1 color.

So i sprayed my first coat of Epoxy white primer this weekend. I heated my shop up to 70, shut down the fire heaters mixxed up my primer 4:1:1 like the guy who sold it to me instructed.My problem is the white turned yellow/egg shell.

I Used all High teck brand primer/hardener/reducer.
I have never used a paint gun and im a little stumped. when i mixxed the paint with hardener/reducer the hardener almost looked like mapel syrup it was clear and brown but it wasnt thick. when i mixxed it with the primer/reducer it was almost a cream color in the gun, but when i sprayed it on it was white. It didnt start to turn yellow till after it was drying. Hopefully someone has a idea to point me in the right direction, till i figure out what i did wrong im not going to put on any more coats.

Re: Rowdy 57
 

first, was the primer in the can stirred/shook throughly before pouring out of can ? also beware of what your recoat window is, or you will be sanding it down to recoat

I made sure the primer was nice and warm, and then stirred it till I got rid of the taffy at the bottom but I don’t have a shaker or anything like that, basically stirred it till my arm was tired lol
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Re: Rowdy 57
 

if you bought the supplies from anautobody suppies dealer they probably have a shaker but sometimes you gotta jog their memory on getting your purchase shaken. if they dont have a shaker you may be able to get a local house paint supplier to shake it for you, they usually don't like to shake an opened can though.
they say the epoxy part will last for several years if kept in a warm environment but the catalyst part is usually not that long lasting they say. darker color is ok, they say, as long as it is not thick. it seems like if it was bought recently and kept in the proper environment and not frozen then it should have been no problem if mixed correctly. personally i would have doubts if the catalyst was dark. maybe call and ask the supplier. the base coat is not where you wanna skinp on quality, it would be like skimping on the foundation of the new house.

after sandblasting there can be quite a profile on the surface of the steel. it is recommended to sand that down before coating, otherwise the high spots of steel in that profile can be exposed above the new coating. in that case a flash rust could show and possibly change the color. what I do is clean the surface as good as possible to remove contaminants that could be pushed into the surafce by blasting, then sand blast blast, grind off any newfound bondo so it is bare metal everywhere-bondo is not a sealer so moisture can get through it and start rust under the bondo, then sand the blasting profile down smooth-a rag dragged across the surface doesn't catch on the profile, wipe down with silicone wax and grease remover-use lots on the rag and use a good clean rag to wipe it off. use several cloths when wiping so you don't just take contaminants from one spot and move them to another. I have learned to use a quality paper towelling for this as home rags can be holding fabric softeners etc, which will leave streak marks and pinholes in the coating, let sit to flash the solvents off, then spray the coating. I don't worry too much about using a tack cloth when doing epoxy because it will get sanded again anyway. you will likely need a few coats so watch the recoat time but don't lay too much on or the outer layer will seal the inner layers in and they won't be able to flash their solvents off. this will mean the outer layer will dry but the inner layer will flash it's solvents under the outer layer and leave bubbles in the outer layer-known as solvent pop.
there are a few sites that will show you how to set up your paint gun for a proper spray pattern and flow, some of which can come down to air line and quick connect fitting size and flow rates. if you end up with a dry pattern it could, I suppose, allow for different colors like that shown in your pics. possibly some spots where the product dried in the air, more or less, before it contacted the surface. that would leave a pebbly surface.
all things being done right, i would lean towards a bad product. possibly not the suppliers fault at the dealer end. could be his supplier?
what have you got for a gun, regulator, drier, seperator, etc? and, most important, breathing protection?