my 4.3 stretched 4 door build

[bike_mike]

Like it, are going to make another drive shaft for that rear prop?

[dice11]

Originally Posted by jstop

Your correct... I'm not talking the body, I made a drawing a while back just need the funds.

thats pretty sweet. you're not planning on just cutting the fenders out and leaving the engine bay wide open like everyone else are ya? with that arch in the front fender it would be easier than you think to rebuild the fender well. Ive been waiting to see more that weren't just hacked up to clear the tires.1 sheet of 18 gauge sheet metal took care of my floor and most of the rear fender chop. it was well worth it.

like the design of it though.

for my link setup i plan on buying a piece at a time if it takes it and just saving it all up until the day i have everything i need to do it. never built one before so i have allot of research ahead of me on the geometry of it.

[dice11]

Originally Posted by talonxracer

I love the suicide doors!

thanks. i couldn't think of a better way to do it. it was a thinker for sure....

by chopping out the hinge sections from the front half of the doors and using them on opposite sides if the vehicle, it worked out pretty slick. i used the targa bar as my vertical line to measure back from. i just used a drywall square to continue the line down to where the bottom hinge sits. this gave me a good reference point to determine how far back to set the bottom hinge point. then i just added some 3/16 strap to lengthen the hinge. in the pictures below i had a piece of sheet metal tacked in to fill in the hinge. i diddnt have the strap handy at the time. figuring out how to get the lower hinge right was a thinker. its countersunk into the body. once the lower hinge plate was welded into the door, i was able put the door where i wanted it and mark how deep it needed cut in.




then i just used a piece of sheet metal over that to flatten it back out. where the hinge point is i had to build an indent to clear it. it doesn't flex at all when the door is opened, but i still want to add some type of beef behind it just in case.




the latch was easy. just moved the striker to the lower door sill and slammed the door against it to make a mark where to notch for the latch. then i centered the latch over the notch, shut the door until it latched and used spray paint through a straw to mark where to drill the holes. i just drilled the holes to 1/4" and the conical shape of the screws for them sucked in and made it look like it was meant to be there. for upper latches i used tail gate latches off of a Toyota pickup.






here the door is just hanging off the upper hinge.


on the upper hinge it needed built out to match. a piece of 18 gauge sheet and a 3/16 piece of strap is the perfect thickness. i welded the nuts to the back of the sheet metal, used a unibit to drill two holes in the targa bar that fit around the nuts and rosette welded it in place. then i drilled the 3/16 strap to with slightly bigger holes and welded it over that. its not welded to the body, just the targa bar.

if anyone really gives a crap

[purevil71]

Originally Posted by dice11

if anyone really gives a crap

Hell yea, keep the updates coming!!

[dice11]

Originally Posted by zukiscoot

x2 on the doors. ive never seen an intake plenum like that on a 4.3 liter. was that stock for 94?

yea its the CPI intake. it came along just after the tbi. its basically the same thing only they split the output of 1 central two wire injector into 6 and directed each one to the intake ports. they all fire at once via poppet valves.


then they went to csfi which had 6 centrally located injectors that fired via poppet valves and a plastic upper intake.



then to sfi which had 6 electronically controlled injectors located on each arm of the central spider that was a direct fit into the same intake.


then they went to an externally mounted rail and 6 injectors.


i am tempted to try and convert my CPI intake to a sfi. it looks pretty easy. only thing that seems tuff is figuring out how to connect the fuel lines to it. i like the beefy aluminum intake. its just asking for boost.

[dice11]

Originally Posted by bike_mike

Like it, are going to make another drive shaft for that rear prop?

yep.... as much as i love that shaft, i have to let it go.... i just whacked one off to slip on for an idea of how bad i screwed myself.

i somehow got lucky and stretched the thing to fit a 94 4-door blazers rear shaft. "yes it was luck" if i swap out the slip to one off of the 94 suburban to add 1 inch to it then add on a spicer 2-2-1679 flange yoke via a 3-3130 u joint it should be good.

that knowledge didn't come naturally. Ive been chasing my tail for damn near a year on the shafts. i have to shorten the front shaft to fit. thats gonna suck. new learning experience

[dice11]

thanks for the warm welcome and all but you know im a rookie, right? when does the flaming start lol? i was looking foreward to it......

[dice11]

by the way if some have noticed, some of these pictures are a bit large. didn't mean for that to happen. if you hold the (ctrl) button and use your mouse wheel it zooms out. from here out ill try to keep them down to a decent size.

[hybrid-theory]

Some pretty damn cool ideas going on in this build man! I admire your patience for body work! Cuz I would never be able to do that! Good job. Wade

[MudKick]

I like crazy thinking! Good work.

I'm in the middle of building an Xtended cab sidekick based truggy. I can appretiate the challanges involved in sheetmetal work.

[zukiscoot]

Originally Posted by dice11

thanks for the warm welcome and all but you know im a rookie, right? when does the flaming start lol? i was looking foreward to it......

you started a thread right and provided a lot of creative input.they only flame for retarded first posts round herewelcome

[bigyota]

OK, Hey DICE, if I was you, I would quit this stupid build. You dont know what your doing. Load it ALL up on a trailer and bring that the steaming pile to casper. Me and the GREENMUDDER will dispose of it probarly.












OK, there is flaming, Glad to see you still hard at buddy. Get it done and we will get ours done, then get together and go do some much needed wheelin'.

[dice11]

Originally Posted by bigyota

OK, Hey DICE, if I was you, I would quit this stupid build. You dont know what your doing. Load it ALL up on a trailer and bring that the steaming pile to casper. Me and the GREENMUDDER will dispose of it probarly.

OK, there is flaming, Glad to see you still hard at buddy. Get it done and we will get ours done, then get together and go do some much needed wheelin'.

nah, i think ill keep it. it would be like being given another mans wife anyway. its only good until you catch onto all the issues. good to hear from ya again. glad to see you guys are still up to no good over there. hopefully this thing will be moving this summer. then maybe ill actually get out and do something.

messed around with it a little the last few nights. just finishing up some of the body work and digging into a few things Ive been putting off.

Ive had this done for a while now. just thought id post it up to show how i pulled of working two different latches with one handle. it was a cluster fuck at first. then i simplified it. somehow work flawlessly. pull the handle and both latches go click. now i need to duplicate it on the other side. the top half of it will be blocked off so that it only has a gap to grab it. i needed to open it up like this so i could build the handle. the doors shut smoothly too. just like the fronts. I'm kinda proud of it. just ignore the bird shit welds on the inside there. i was having a bitch of a time with this at first. needs gone through and cleaned up.





decided to tackle the fuel tank filler. i hated where the fill cap was originally. besides the fact that because the tank fits within 1" of the frame rails i have no room for anything sticking out of it or it wont fit up in there. i couldn't put the fill cap along the sides anyway. because there is no body there. i had to put it up front on the tank. i wanted to move the fill cap to a more logical place anyway. ill be coating the tank with sealer here soon, so i needed to make up my mind. now was as good a time as any.



the old wheel well was just left there to hold up the roll bar. once i get the cash saved up to build one that actually works, ill be chopping all of it out. so i just beat it in to make room for now.


if it all works out as planned, the hose will run down the wheel well and across the floor. then it will punch through a rubber boot and connect to the tank. i highlighted it in red. then ill build a removable box over the top of it. should be pretty easy.


also got all 4 fender flares on it now. i picked up some 5/8 rod to edge them with. but its still up in the air on how i will stiffen them up. it was brought to my attention that the added weight of the rod could do more damage than good.

sorry about the pics. it wont let me resize them. i tried.

[MudKick]

Hey Dice...

What is it about those Arctic Blue Zux that makes us paint them over (except the interior and then cut them up and make them into something totally different???




Looks familiar?

[dice11]

because i got tired of people asking me where barbie was.

[THEDOORMAN]

If you what to make your Barbie cool then you need this! This is for the non bitchy Barbies that don't have to have a Jeep!


And then you can come pick up our fullsize version!

[dice11]

Originally Posted by THEDOORMAN

If you what to make your Barbie cool then you need this! This is for the non bitchy Barbies that don't have to have a Jeep!


And then you can come pick up our fullsize version!

thats fuckin great!!! a dented up and lifted pink samurai. proof that there are still some women out there Worth marrying!!!!! there is still hope.

[THEDOORMAN]

Yep it was shiny and dent free 2.5 years ago, when we built for this chic and then see never paid us for it so she met the repo man! Did blow up motor and most of the damage is from Moab. As for marrying stock, Save your money and buy Whiskey!!!!

Now were just parting it out!

[dice11]

what the fuck is up with the search function on this forum? typed in 4.3 and was expecting a ton of links, but instead i get a single 3.4 swap link. Ive never liked the search on this forum. always found it to be useless. its pretty ignorant that it throws me the wrong shit and then makes me wait to search again. chicken shit, over complicated bull shit!!! guess ill fucking google it....

[dice11]

felt like shit tonight, but i decided not to waste the whole night being a pussy and fabbed up a shifter housing for the ratchet shifter. then ran out of wire mid job. just wasn't the night to get anything done i guess. my buddy threw me the shifter and reverse pattern manual valve body out of his Camaro when he went with a standard tranny. it didn't work out to well for him when he dropped it into first gear doing 60-70 mph. lucky me....


i have to pull the seat and remove the lower cover so i can grind away some of the foam for clearance. lucky I'm an upholsterer. ill just shape the seats to fit it. it will look like it was meant to be when its done. then i can screw the housing to the floor.

ill be building a lock box that sits behind it once i get this just where i want it. no room for much of an arm rest with a ratchet shifter.

tomorrow ill be dropping the oil pan and timing cover to get them ready to be resealed so i can start the engine. its been so long since its ran its going to need to be prelubed really well before it fires up. shit that reminds me. i need to get the oil filter thread fitting for the block. I'm deleting out the oil cooler adapter. isn't needed now that the engine isn't so cramped. wonder how fun it will be to find the fitting.....

ah found it
gm part #14081300


id have all my parts ordered by now if it wasn't for the IRS not having their shit together with the tax returns. I'm finding im not as patient as i use to be. at this point I'm starting to run out of shit to do because I'm running out of supplies to to anything. i don't spend outside of the budget. this is why this project is taking so long. sometimes i miss being irresponsible. seemed to get allot more pussy back then too.......

[dice11]

Originally Posted by THEDOORMAN

Yep it was shiny and dent free 2.5 years ago, when we built for this chic and then see never paid us for it so she met the repo man! Did blow up motor and most of the damage is from Moab. As for marrying stock, Save your money and buy Whiskey!!!!

Now were just parting it out!

it still in that shape? what do you want for it? i have an engine for it... il fix it up for one of my daughters.....

[jstop]

Originally Posted by dice11

thats pretty sweet. you're not planning on just cutting the fenders out and leaving the engine bay wide open like everyone else are ya? with that arch in the front fender it would be easier than you think to rebuild the fender well. Ive been waiting to see more that weren't just hacked up to clear the tires.1 sheet of 18 gauge sheet metal took care of my floor and most of the rear fender chop. it was well worth it.

like the design of it though.

for my link setup i plan on buying a piece at a time if it takes it and just saving it all up until the day i have everything i need to do it. never built one before so i have allot of research ahead of me on the geometry of it.

Thanks... No, there will be inner fender liners. I have stared buy parts and will start when I have everything.

[dice11]

Originally Posted by jstop

Thanks... No, there will be inner fender liners. I have stared buy parts and will start when I have everything.

nice.. looking forward to seeing your build.

i just blew close to a grand on parts to get mine running, moving and stopping. looks like i have a shit load of work ahead of me. by this weekend i should have enough supplies to have me running in circles. and from there they should keep piling in throughout next week. for the most part, its just me on the build, but I'm betting my dad chimes in when he sees the pile of parts sitting there. he falls prey to the temptations of tech easily. its a habbit we both cant seem to kick.

I'm needing tips on a cheap paint job from any of you willing to chime in. I'm probably going some sort of camo later, but i need to get the bare metal sealed up asap, and as "cheaply" as possible. I'm bedlining the floor, wheel wells and maybe even the belly of it. if i have to ill roll the shit on. but i want to try and keep rust out of the picture. this will be a mud, snow and water crossing rig. so it will see shit loads of water.

i think i may have over killed the size of my tank. after measuring it and doing the math. it looks like i have close to, if not more than 25 gallons of fuel capacity. 156 lbs give or take a little. im wondering what kinda fuel mileage this thing will have. if it all goes well its going to be my DD.

[THEDOORMAN]

Originally Posted by dice11

it still in that shape? what do you want for it? i have an engine for it... il fix it up for one of my daughters.....

Yep is still like that less the tires, transfercase, and now windsheid frame. But make me an offer on whats left and it could be your daughters.

[T_bonex2]

Subscribed! I cannot wait to see the outcome of this one! Thats some crazy A$$ stuff. Keep us updated on the progress.