My sons 4wd Shortbox build

[bigbadchev72]

Well I just picked this up from a co-worker this last week. The plan is to build it with my son and give it to him when he is of age. I have a couple other projects that I am working on so this will be a long build with many other side projects going on as well.

It came with more parts than I know what to do with, 2 cabs, one has been sodablasted, the other is an a/c cab. Tons of body parts, brand new oak bed wood, all polished stainless hardware, rebuilt 350/205, new 4" lift and brand new 33" Goodyear MTRs. Here are some of the pics.

[c10derek]

That's a great start, we'll be watching
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[bigbadchev72]

Here is the other project I am working on, Its a 67 longbox 4wd with a 400sbc, 400/208 6" lift and 35" toyos, I am getting ready to repaint it after sanding through the clearcoat while taking the orangepeel out.
Before

After

Now




And then after I get that painted, I gotta paint my Buddies mom's 71 monte carlo

[bigbadchev72]

I will edit this with some before pics of the blue truck as soon as I get the card uploaded. This is my bosses 72 truck that I just resealed the transfercase in and ended up buffing the paint out and detailing the engine compartment. The blazer in the background is mine as well.

[bigbadchev72]

Well I guess I wasnt kidding when I said this was going to be a long build, I have since quit my job that I was at when I bought this to go out with a good friend of mine and start our own electrical company.

It has been a great choice and the work has overwhelmed us and I have not had much any time to get to work on this. Three months ago I sold my 67' longbox to help clear out some space and free up some extra money for this build since I never had the time to drive it.


I did get a chance to sneak away for a local mud bog that was the first annual and took the blazer through it, alot of people were upset that it was too nice to be tearing up, but thats what I built it for. We had a good time, didnt win anything, but didnt get stuck or break anything.

[bigbadchev72]

Over the last couple years i have been able to pick up a few pieces here and there for the build. The 33" MTR tires that were on it were around 7 years old and had never seen pavement and have sat in a shop on roll around carts so he could move the truck around. I found a guy on craigslist that traded straight across for 5 35" BFG km2 tires with 1k miles on them, He had bought them and they were too big for his truck.

Looking the truck over and all the parts I got out of the deal, Literally boxes and boxes of misc stuff. The bedsides are pretty trashed and the thought of the little bits and pieces missing or having to find them I figured it would be easier to get a parts truck. I found this one out of Boise Idaho it has a little under 60k on the odometer and looking at the brake and clutch pedals looks to be accurate. The guy I bought it from was second owner and got it when his grandpa passed, he was moving to the oil fields and needed to get rid of it. I paid $1500 for it and this thing runs like a top, 292/4speed. I originally planned on just using the body and swapping it to the 4wd frame and cutting the box down to a short wide box. I may still do it, but this thing is pretty unmolested and straight, I may just convert it to a 2wd swb.

We made the 3.5 hour drive up and stayed with my sister for the weekend and brought this back home with us.


Everything sat for about a year and then we deceided we were gonna get a camper, we do alot of traveling and this made more sense than paying for hotels all the time.


I have a 60x60 polebarn that had no concrete in it when we bought this house, it was just sand and things were always getting stuck in it. Since we just bought the camper I was not going to deal with it getting stuck or sand getting in it. I had 40 tons of gravel delivered and we put it in the shop and compacted it all.




Doing all this meant I had to get EVERYTHING out of my barn. That was a full day in itself and is amazing all the crap you accumulate especially when you dont have to look at it everyday. While I had the tractor I moved the truck out of the barn and down to the shop. I figured it I left it down below I would have to start working on it.

[bigbadchev72]

First order of business was to blow out all the dirt and bird crap off it. The guy I bought it from had the frame blasted and the cab sodablasted and epoxy primed. He had a small mishap unloading the cab from the trailer when he got it back from blasting and dented the back of the cab. I had been eyeballing the stud pullers so now it looks like I got a reason to pull the trigger.



The frame is a 70' SWB 4wd frame and it had the open knuckle drum brakes on it, I had a 75' front end with different gears in it so I went ahead and swapped the disc brakes over.



I just realized I dont have a picture of it finished, but just imagine a newly turned rotor and brake caliper sitting there.

The guy I bought it from was going to paint it green, the same green that is on the shocks. The transmission. The transfer case. The diff cover. I can keep going....... My son likes blue, so the green was not going to cut it. I have a GM performance 290hp crate that was sitting in the shop looking for a home. This may end up with a new cam and aluminum heads before this build is over, but it will work for now. We went to the paint store and after half an hour of looking through paint chips we settled on a blue. I went ahead and threw some sealer on the engine block and then some base/clear shortly after.

[bigbadchev72]

Well we got I all torn apart yesterday and got the frame, transmission, transfercase, drivelines, and shocks all painted up.

[RRR18]

Very cool. I'll be watchin.