Twin_Turbo
Der Maulwurf
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2008
- Messages
- 7,575
I've been driving the 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.
Repaired and powdercoated rad frame, assembled w/ all PCed parts (what a crappy pic, didn't notice that before...I suck at photography)
Repaired and coated inner fenders.. a little dusty from sitting
[/QUOTE]
better pic of rad frame
pulled the engine/trans
what a mess
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 have 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
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
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
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.
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
cleaned up rebuilt 700R4. Still needs deep sump pan (have it)
dropped it all in
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.
Repaired and powdercoated rad frame, assembled w/ all PCed parts (what a crappy pic, didn't notice that before...I suck at photography)
Repaired and coated inner fenders.. a little dusty from sitting
[/QUOTE]better pic of rad frame
pulled the engine/trans
what a mess
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 have 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
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
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
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.
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 aluminumcleaned up rebuilt 700R4. Still needs deep sump pan (have it)
dropped it all in
