2002 chevy 1500 (Lunchboxes build)

[swampers1226]

ok, after 3 years of pondering and saving and buying parts and more pondering i decided to finally start tearing down my rig for my new biuld.after biulding my last truck ( a 85 chevy 3/4 ton, 38s, 350, 4 speed lockers, 6 inchas blah blah blah) i wanted something smaller with fuel injection to take more abuse on the rocks which is what i have enjoy doing. anyways i bought this truck 5 years as a daily driver and now ive got different plans for it.
so heres the basics,
powertrain: is going to be 4.8 vortec,93 chevy nv4500, 241-205 doubler,
axles: aam newer chevy 14 bolt rear welded with stock springs and a ord shackle flip, rear antiwrap bar.
86 high pinion kingpin ford 60 with high steer, detroit electrac locker front, custom radius arms with coils and hydro assist.
tires : 38 super swamper sx
full exo cage
tube bumpers front and rear
and a bunch of other shit i i have i cant think of right now.
anyways heres some pics of what im starting with and what i have done so far

so i bought the truck pretty much stock. used. its a 1500 z71, 4.8 5 speed nv3500, 261 t case . put a cold air intake in it, dual pipes, superchip and 33s, and after blowing 3 10 bolt carriers i put a semi float 14 bolt rear in it




and a good friend of mine bent me a rear bumper after tweeking my hitting a tree and a tire gate while he was at it


.

so it has been like that for a year or so now. now heres the parts going into it on stage two of the biuld

[swampers1226]

so i got the rear in pretty qiuck. the newer trucks are simular to the olders these aam 14 bolts pretty much bolt in with brake, ebake ect... plus there 1410 yoke. gotta relocate the shock mounts.



ripped the ifs out last week and cleaned up the frame. and got the 60 mocked up this weekend




got the radius arms mocked up and all the steering. and thats as far as i got this weekend and thats where it stands now
balistic joints and mounts, 2 1/4 14 inch wall dom lower and 1 3/4 1/4 inch wall dom upper. the steering, track arm and rear radius is also going to be 1 3/4 1/4 dom

[Y5mgisi]

So far so good! Looking forward to watching this get finished!

[swampers1226]

so i bought the ord (off road direct) transmission crossmember to gain the clearance for the front driveshaft,even thought il still have to modify it to clear with the doubler, its a good start point.
have to cut the cats and the cross pipe out and get them redone as the shaft is going to hit both in the stock location
also have procomp es 9000 12 inch travel shocks up front, rancho 5000 13 inch tavel shocks out back.
im bypassing the abs unit and pulling the fuse.
i pulled the airbag deployment canisters out of the dash and steering wheel and pulled the fuse.
the trucks going to have duel pistion calipers front and rear. the factory rear caliper was only single pistion. will see after i get it up and moving but i may need a bigger master cylinder to power the rear

[swampers1226]

and found some picks of the old rig in action. its scraped now but was fun while it was alive

[supersize75k5]

Nice build, I'll be watchin


One question, why did you want to pull the airbags?

[swampers1226]

not the airbags just the cylinders that deploy the gases to make them expand. i just wanted to be on the safe side i didnt want to bounce of a rock and have them deploy or have some electrical short someday some how and have them go. i know theres no power going to them but better safe than sorry. it was rather easy anyways the steering wheel took 5 minutes and the dash took 10 maybe.

[BurnBlue]

I love these body style trucks with sas...very cool build man.

[supersize75k5]

Originally Posted by swampers1226

not the airbags just the cylinders that deploy the gases to make them expand. i just wanted to be on the safe side i didnt want to bounce of a rock and have them deploy or have some electrical short someday some how and have them go. i know theres no power going to them but better safe than sorry. it was rather easy anyways the steering wheel took 5 minutes and the dash took 10 maybe.

I've beat the tar out of mine, jumped it, sudden stops, pushed cars around etc

I've kind of got the opinion if I ever goof up and drive strait into a canyon wall at speed or hit something large that I would want that air bag there.

You could keep them and just have an override switch. As for just going off though.. Nope. Not in my case.

[Mr Clickerson]

Override switch would be a good idea. I don't know if its a standard feature or an option, but all the trucks I've been in of that generation have had a keyed switch for the passenger airbag. Something like that would prevent the airbags from going off when you're bouncing into shit, and you could switch it back on when you're done.

I've seen your videos/thread, supersize- if you haven't had problems, I doubt swampers would either.

Why did you scrap your older truck?

[supersize75k5]

Old truck looked fun.

[swampers1226]

the old rig was a great truck. i beat the living piss out of it. it was a 85 3/4 ton concreate pump truck then i bought it for a grand. put6 inch skyjacker springs under it and it was torchured for 5 years. went throught 3 motors, 2 sm465s, 2 np 208s and 1 205, and countless other shit. i got it burried in a mud put out here on the coast line a while back. had a buddy tie to it to yank me out and the dumbass tied the chain to the top tube on the bumper, where the winch wire is on the pics above. he tugged on me so hard the bumper wrapped down and ripped the bumper and frame rails off right behind the radiator support......
after that it sat and sat then i parted it out. i really miss that truck. it was my high school rig,

[Grantski Barney]

Is this going to be a trail only truck, or will it be street legal? I want to do the same thing you are doing to my next rig and I was wondering how you are going to get the transfer case all set up.

[swampers1226]

its going to be a mostly trail truck. im keeping it reqistered and only doing hydro assist so i can drive it on the road if i have to but mostly going to see trails and trailers.
theres a bunch of vendors on here that will set up the t cases for you. ive done my research and was going to buy a atlas but didnt what to throw my money at it lol. i have a nv4500 trans out of a 93 chevy, ive got the stock np241 im going to send out to get the rear half and bottom half machined off and adapter plates welded on to alow it to bolt on a ford np205 behind it. that should give me options of 1-1, 2-1, 2.7-1 and 5.4-1 for low ranges. then il order drive shafts

[Grantski Barney]

Sweet deal

[BALTERBUILT]

Where's the shout out for the dude doing all the work in his driveway haha...truck looks like poop! I went out and starred at it and tried to get motivated to build the track bar today but then I took a nap and haven't recovered haha

[swampers1226]

That sounds bout right. Hay did u order the tube for the cage today.

[K5Cruz]

There are quite a few times I wished I would have built a regular cab instead of a limo. Looks good!

[BigChevy644]

how much clearance do you have with the radius setup when turned all the way in either direction? i keep getting told i will have to bend mine so my tires dont rub.

[BALTERBUILT]

I just went out and looked, it's gonna be close, if it wasn't raining I would cycle the tires. Worse case he might need some wheel spacers or a sligh bend

[BigChevy644]

oh ok, gotcha. in the photo that was posted that showed the driver side radius arm, is the upper arm welded straight to the lower or does it not matter? its just that most radius arm setups i have seen have a heim coming off of it w/ a poly bushing on the axle end. just curious.

[BALTERBUILT]

Either way (welded or adjustable) has the same function in the end. It's fixed solid. Toms are going to be welded since the axle will Be set where it needs to be. I believe they have the adjustment so u can dial in the pinion angle for varying lift heights...I'm no expert though and a factory arms are not adjustable...

[swampers1226]

thanks for the hijack jesse haha
yea the hiem or bushing on the upper of the radius arm is to allow the suspension to move more freely in tight bends and high flexing.one more point in the suspension to give a lil. at least that is what i understand from reading. i am no suspension expert eather. but i did do a lot of homework before deciding to go this route. to me its one less bushing to go out. one less point of the susension to give. the axle is sightly looser that way, and i may not get as much flex because of it but i wanted stability. i want to make this truck as versitile reliable as possible. thats why im not running 44s and 500 horses even though i would really love to have that kind of power and axle clearance i cant aford it yet.

we will see as soon as jesse and i get the suspension all tacked in and we can cycle it. its been raining like a bat outta hell here and it doesnt look like will be getting a break for a few days.
anyways before i decided this was ok i took a good look at the newer ford radius arms. there mounted in the same location on the axle and there centered or if anything a little inset on the frame side from what i can see. but ford frames are wider. ive also seen 35s rub on the stock radius arms of fords with too inset of rims.but the wheels im running are 4 inch backspacing and my 38s are only 12.5 wide.so we will see. il defantly keep you updated if it becomes a issue. i just gutted the trans, t case, exhaust, and all the ifs and trans crossmembers so the frame rails are pretty clean as of now. if i have to move the rear perches in to alow the tires to clear i dont think itl be to much of a bump in the road

[supersize75k5]

I run Cage arms with bends in them on my 07, i still needed 1.5" spacers not to rub at full lock with any tire over a 38

[BigChevy644]

Originally Posted by swampers1226

thanks for the hijack jesse haha
yea the hiem or bushing on the upper of the radius arm is to allow the suspension to move more freely in tight bends and high flexing.one more point in the suspension to give a lil. at least that is what i understand from reading. i am no suspension expert eather. but i did do a lot of homework before deciding to go this route. to me its one less bushing to go out. one less point of the susension to give. the axle is sightly looser that way, and i may not get as much flex because of it but i wanted stability. i want to make this truck as versitile reliable as possible. thats why im not running 44s and 500 horses even though i would really love to have that kind of power and axle clearance i cant aford it yet.

we will see as soon as jesse and i get the suspension all tacked in and we can cycle it. its been raining like a bat outta hell here and it doesnt look like will be getting a break for a few days.
anyways before i decided this was ok i took a good look at the newer ford radius arms. there mounted in the same location on the axle and there centered or if anything a little inset on the frame side from what i can see. but ford frames are wider. ive also seen 35s rub on the stock radius arms of fords with too inset of rims.but the wheels im running are 4 inch backspacing and my 38s are only 12.5 wide.so we will see. il defantly keep you updated if it becomes a issue. i just gutted the trans, t case, exhaust, and all the ifs and trans crossmembers so the frame rails are pretty clean as of now. if i have to move the rear perches in to alow the tires to clear i dont think itl be to much of a bump in the road

sweet deal! thanks for clarifying man, definitely keep me posted. im only running 37x12.50 and i dont know how much difference in the frame there is from your truck and a HD, i think mine is 43" and some under the driver and 35 1/2 at the front. Love the build by the way, cant wait to see the final product!