Jojo's '70 Stepper

[jojo]

Got the drivers side inner bolted and welded in.

Check out how much dirt I pulled from between the drivers side rockers:

And yes I'll be replacing the cab corners soon

[highperf4x4]

Yikes!!

Looks like alot of fun though!

[jojo]

Originally Posted by highperf4x4

Yikes!!

Looks like alot of fun though!

Ya man. It keeps me out of trouble.

One thing I've realized is that the thing that takes the longest in all this is removing all the unwanted rusty parts. All the other things seam to go by quickly for me.

Anyways heres a list of parts currently on order and will arrive next week (God willing):
drivers and passenger side cab corners
drivers and passenger side kick panels
front and rear drivers side door pillars
passenger side hinges
gas tank relocation kit

My current plans for the cab after installing all that stuff:
finish the doors (install the window felts and all the hardware)
put POR15 on the floor and firewall in the cab
put bedliner or equal product over the POR15

I can't really think any further beyond that but we'll see what happens!

[mcbassin]

The rust repair is looking really good! Glad to see all the progress! Keep at it!

[highperf4x4]

So the LineX or whatever would be your floor covering instead of carpet or a mat then?

[jojo]

Originally Posted by highperf4x4

So the LineX or whatever would be your floor covering instead of carpet or a mat then?

No, I just wanna have as many layers to reduce noise (and future rust) in there as much as possible. Carpet would go on top of all that.

Do ya'll think that would help?

[highperf4x4]

It might help with noise some but I would imagine it would make a big difference in heat too if you run it up under that dash as well.

[jojo]

I never thought of heat. Thats just another benefit! I get all kinds of heat in there.

[jojo]

I got my LMC gas tank kit in today.

So I figured I'd take a break from the cutting and grinding and install the new tank...

And wouldn't you know it, installing the tank required more cutting and grinding. Everything is preped, I just need the bolts since the kit came with some stupid j-bolt things.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll finish the install and post some pics.

[my67chevytruck]

great progress JoJo!

[highperf4x4]

Cool, I'll be looking for the pics then.

[jojo]

Okay I didn't finish bolting up the tank yet because the bolts I purchased are about 1 inch too short. But I have some pics and thoughts about this already.

As you can see the tank is the LMC blazer conversion.

I had to cut off some of the cross sill on the old step bed. Doing so allows me to flush that tank up against the frame rails.

Then I decided to move the cross sill back some. I did that to allow me to center the tank in between the cross members and use 4 holes that already existed there in the frame rails. This also gives a little more clearance for the filler neck. As you can see in the 4th pic, positioning the tank in the center of the cross members puts the filler neck in a most unfortunate place. 5th pic shows fitment and easier access to the filler neck after moving the cross sill back.


Only 3 complaints so far:
1. Slight damage during shipping, I simply bent that thing back.

2. The tank has these under sized mounting holes (probably for the j-hooks but they only provided 2 hooks and no other hardware) so I drilled out those holes which allowed 3/8 bolts with washers to fit properly.

3. There is no turnkey "kit" for the filler/hose/gas cap available (that I know of). There's all kinds of custom set-ups but we're all sort of on our own for that.

[jojo]

One last pic for now to show another view of the tank fully raised into place and cross sill moved back (which also needs to be bolted in):

[jojo]

By the way, I've been considering what to do with the bed and this is what I've come up with:

Installing a stock style metal bed, but I don't recall seeing one for these steppers. So I'll have to probably snag a bed floor from a later model and make it fit.

This ain't gonna be a show truck (just a really cool daily driver) so I'm not concerned with having a beautiful wood floor.

[highperf4x4]

Cool, the tank looks great in there but it seems like it hangs down awful far. How many gallons is it?

You can't just add something to the top of your cross sills to elevate the wood bed a little bit?

[jojo]

Its 21 gallons. and it does hang a little low but I don't have a bumper on there so its sort of an optical illusion.

[jojo]

Here's some pics of the tank fully bolted up. It probably raised up a few inches from earlier pics. It's only about an inch or two below the exaust.

[jojo]

and in case ya'll are wondering how I stay so organized...

[68GMCCustom]

that looks pretty good. how about a low pic like that from the rear?

[highperf4x4]

1" below the exhaust huh? That should be good enough!

I wish I was as organized as you.

[matthew20061]

Looks good! I've got that same tank setup in my truck!

[jojo]

Originally Posted by 68GMCCustom

that looks pretty good. how about a low pic like that from the rear?

Thanks! I'll put up that pic from the rear tomorrow

Originally Posted by highperf4x4

1" below the exhaust huh? That should be good enough!

I wish I was as organized as you.

LOL you should see my office at work!

Originally Posted by matthew20061

Looks good! I've got that same tank setup in my truck!

Thanks Mathew, I sometimes check out your project thread for inspiration. You got a fine looking stepside mister!

[SATownChevy]

just checking in on another san anto build. read the whole thread, makes it look like im working at work.

working on mine right now. but unlike yours, i cant drive mine. it sucks big time

[jojo]

I hear you bud. I've tried to follow what I call the "K.I.D." rule:

"Keeping it drivable"

I never have more than a weekend's worth of work to get it on the road.

[jojo]

I should say, I'm surprised that I don't see more satown folk up on this forum.
I see our trucks are all over this city.