OLD BLUE Build Thread - 71 Chevy

[oober]

Could.....not......stop.....welding...

It was entirely overkill. To be honest though, it was really satisfying.


Got my new spool of wire today, should get back to it sometime this week.

[DMANbluesfreak]

I can imagine welding a giant steel ball would be extremely satisfying. How long did the fugger take to cool?

[oober]

Originally Posted by DMANbluesfreak

I can imagine welding a giant steel ball would be extremely satisfying. How long did the fugger take to cool?

I have no idea how long it took. I waited for it to cool enough that I could drop it back into the differential and bolt it together. We did use the IR temp gun on it though, and at the point we measured it the whole ball was over 700*



Progress today:



Part of the reason that I post small achievements are because it is good to realize just how long projects take. I worked for about 2 hours today and only got a couple of things measured and some leaf spring brackets cut out that still need another hour of cleanup/grinding/welding before they are ready to weld to the truck.

The posts that show a stock truck in one picture and a couple of months later it is a full tube rock buggy are cool... but for the rest of us, it takes years.

[oober]

Got a couple more hours in today





Gotta make mini-skid plates for the bottom and they are ready to weld onto the truck.

[oober]

Got almost everything welder'd up. Thanks to Jadon coming by and helping yesterday, we got a lot done.

Got all of the leaves feathered and painted with graphite lube on all wear surfaces. Gotta build some spring retainers though.






Now I just have to finish building the axle, shock mounts, limit straps, bump stops, etc...

[kmo1188]

Subb'ed for awesomeness!

[barnumb]

Kool project!! My wife wants me to build up one after the Jeep is done.

[oober]

Thanks Guys, I hope to get some pics of it at a place other than the driveway here soon...


Got some stuff done today. Those welded on cast leaf spring mounts are a bugger. Check out the pile of grinding dust No black boogers though, respirators work.

Also shaved the diff almost flat. My grinder was hating life today.



Not my proudest weld ever, but I think it'll hold. There was some undercoating or something down in the crack that I couldn't get out with the grinder and it kept getting into my weld.



Pre heated, welded, Post heated and tucked in for the night


Leaf mounts, truss, pinion guard, etc are going on next.

[oober]

Diff shave, even shaved the WFO pinion guard




Made some leaf spring retainers. These are exactly what I had on the blazer and they worked pretty well.



I made a set for the front, but due to it being kind of close to the frame I decided to wait to weld those on until I flex it a couple of times.

[oober]

Worked about 12 hours today and go pretty much done.


The WFO axle kits are awesome. Went right together.



I got some s10 bumpstops from a buddy but did not get the cups that they go into... so I made some.


Bend the tabs in to retain the bumpstop




Had some old f250 front shock brackets from the blazer when I cut the frame off. So I cleaned them up and re-purposed them. I think it came out pretty well, the first hole always hurts the most


These were the same shocks that were on it. They originally only had 2" of shaft showing. Once I took them off and measured them, I found out that they are actually 13" travel. To get the full use of them, I had to make some modifications...






I'm ganna put the exhaust on tomorrow and take it for a spin. Open headers on this thing is nuts.


The only things I didn't get done were the limit straps because tractor supply only had 24" straps which are waaay too long. I usually try to use axle straps and weld washers inside of the rings so I have a bolt hole, it is much cheaper this way.



I also need new bushings for my shocks, but apparently the only things you can buy at the autoparts store anymore are LED's and air fresheners...

[oober]

Didn't get a chance to put the exhaust back on or drive it today.

I did spend 3 hours sweeping up grinding dust and organizing the garage though...

I still need to build some kind of crossmember in towards the rear. I still need to decide if I am going to try to put the gas tank back under it.







I think it might fit in the garage. Now all I need to do is throw the d60 under it that is in its parking spot.

[racecar8791]

Damn I'd love to hear and see that machine in the pit! Killer truck.

[Grantski Barney]

Truck is looking real good, keep the updates coming!


Sent from my iPhone on the toilet.

[oober]

Thanks guys.

Just got back last night from a week in Costa Rica . Awesome, but I was ready to do work.

Cut the side pipes off so the mufflers dump just before the axle. It sounds completely different, and in my opinion better.

Took it for a drive and the difference in ride quality is amazing. Night and day from what it was before. The front is still stiff, but it is next on my list.

Proof that it actually left the driveway:







Love the welded rear so far. It was raining and the truck couldn't hook up to save it's life in any gear. These tires might not last very long

No wheel hop so far, we will have to see how it does when it is dry out. The blazer never had a traction bar in the rear with the same setup and rarely had hop.

To do stuff:
Buy SRW d60 hubs (ouch)
Raise/build new transmission xmember and build new engine xmember (hopefully flat belly)
build new spring mounts and throw the d60 under the front with the 52's
Bump stops/limit straps for the front suspension
Limit strap the rear suspension

Future to do stuff:
Huge tranny cooler
E-fans
Trans temp gauge

[THEWHITEZOMBIE]

Looking great man keep it up

[ToyAJ]

Just read through the whole thing. Glad to hear/see Gertrude pulled through. In her "approval" shots, she looks alot better than the sick pup she was. Oh, truck looks great too!

[oober]

Originally Posted by THEWHITEZOMBIE

Looking great man keep it up

Thanks man

Originally Posted by ToyAJ

Just read through the whole thing. Glad to hear/see Gertrude pulled through. In her "approval" shots, she looks alot better than the sick pup she was. Oh, truck looks great too!

Yep, she is and has been fully ballistic ever since she got better. I am not sure it is possible for her to live life more fully than she does.


Took it for another drive today, it was dry out and she still has problems hooking up. I can pretty well smoke them through first and on some occasions second. I do still think it needs a bit of professional tuning though, it has a slight off idle stumble if I give it too much gas at once. I know there is more power to be had.

Got some work done on the front end parts. Got the 52's mostly prepped. I was disappointed to find one of the bottom leaves cracked, so I am debating on if I should just leave it out or cut down some other leaves I have to make up for it. In the end it just depends on where the height ends up.






Got the bottom of the D60 cleaned up, I wouldn't call it a full shave just a smoothing. Got the diff cover ready for some reinforcement before I lost motivation and had to go for a drive.



It *almost* fit in the garage. It would if I took the garage door opener down, but hopefully after the new front suspension it will fit like a glove.





I don't think the 'ol girl has seen the inside of a garage for a good 10-20 years, too bad the paint is already toasted.

[Rebel Customs]

Awesome build man, really dig these obs chevy's. Only thing i see that you may want to address with that huge power plant your running is your rear leaf spring setup. You are running 63's which are rediculously long and with those huge tires i bet your wrapping the sheeeeet outta them. I didnt see a ladder bar but if you dont already have one i would seriously ponder the idea. Get some one to hold the brake and mash the throttle or just take off from a light while you watch that pinion angle. Would probably be suprised.

[oober]

Originally Posted by Rebel Customs

Awesome build man, really dig these obs chevy's. Only thing i see that you may want to address with that huge power plant your running is your rear leaf spring setup. You are running 63's which are rediculously long and with those huge tires i bet your wrapping the sheeeeet outta them. I didnt see a ladder bar but if you dont already have one i would seriously ponder the idea. Get some one to hold the brake and mash the throttle or just take off from a light while you watch that pinion angle. Would probably be suprised.

I totally agree. I first need to make a bunch of other decisions about what direction I am headed with the truck though. I need to get the drivetrain raised so I know where the exhaust will end up, then I will start looking at/designing a traction bar for the rear.


I got a couple of hours to work on it today and took a leaf out of the front passenger side leaf pack. It looks like somebody added the bottom leaf anyways because it did not match the rest.

While I had the leaf pack disconnected, I took the shackle off and lowered the bottom bolt hole by 3/4" to get the spring to stop hitting the frame.



Overall it lowered the front passenger side about 1 and 1/4". It will probably even go down some more when I get the u-bolts back on and tightened down, and get the driver side bottom leaf out.




In the end the front will need to go down at least another 2-3 inches to be even with the rear. I don't feel like dropping 1g right now on D60 high steer arms, steering box, tie rod, wheel hubs, etc. right now. At least this way I will be able to beat on it a little harder without the springs hitting the frame and the front end up in the clouds.

[oober]

Took the other front overload out last week.

Got A LOT done today, mostly small stuff.

Got my phenolic carb spacer and shield installed today. Maybe it is all in my head, but I think it helped. This thing just freakin roasts tires with anything more than 1/2 throttle.




Trimmed fenders







Turned out really good. Taking out the bottom leaf dropped the front by 1 1/4". That is as good as it is going to get until I rebuild the front with the D60 and 52's.



Tightened and adjusted a bunch of other stuff, and took 'er to the car wash to clean off the last couple months of dust so she would look purty for the cruise in. There wasn't a whole lot of people because it kinda looked like it was going to rain.



My truck
FIL's Camaro
Dad's Army truck

We have an interesting collection of vehicles going on in the family.

[oober]

SSSSSSSSSSSSCCCCCCCOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRREEEEEEEE!!!! !


Taurus fan, giant oil cooler off an old chevy truck, and s10 rear bumpstops from pick and pull $29.71



Got the torque converter cover trimmed and installed. I haven't started it yet though to see if I cured its rubbing.



Gotta rebuild the engine crossmember. It had been modified for oil pan clearance but only has 1/4" of clearance. I am finally able to drive it hard enough that on turns there was a solid thump every once in a while. Turns out it is the oil pan hitting the xmember.

[oober]

Made some headway on the Taurus fan.

I learned from the blazer after the very first time I got some real air that e-fans need to be securely fastened.

So here is what I came up with so far. I wanted to make it drop in from the top. I am hoping that it is beefy enough that I won't have to make any supports attach from the bottom.





I got it off, fully welded, and painted. I just gotta drill some holes, get it bolted up, and wire it up.


New sticker I got for my burfday. It is sad that my cameraphone takes better pictures than my real camera.






I did some measurements today and I am pretty sure that if I somehow change up the leaf packs in the front again to lower it another ~1" then I can bolt in the D60 with the current push pull steering setup. The only thing holding me back now is the fact that I am sandbagging on buying a ~400 dollar set of SRW hubs...

[60crazy]

take a torch cut the dually plate off with a torch. clean up with grinder and have the face machined probably less than 200 bam done

[oober]

I actually already torched off the outer plate on the hubs. I would just need to get the inner surface machined and drill out the holes to fit studs.

The only thing I was debating is the safety factor. Some have raised concern, and others think it shouldn't be a problem. I have read a lot about it, but have yet to make up my mind. If nothing else, I guess it would be good for mock up.

I do plan on driving this on the street one I get it licensed.

[oober]

Got the mount done. Now I just have to wire it up and find some temperature sensors. I am looking for a 195* for low speed and 210* for high speed.





I was going to put more bolts in than 3, but by the time I got these 3 mounted it already seemed pretty beefy.



This is the fitting I took out of the oil cooler I bought. Does anybody know what this is called or where I could find a fitting like this?