OK...so i figured its about time I started explaining a few things. First of all, the nickname haha. At WyoTech, the automotive kids wear blue shirts. So kids from other programs call us blueberries. I embraced the name with my ugly blue old S10. Now thats done, Im sure a few of the members here have been looking through the pics Ive been posting. And maybe youve seen something you werent quite sure you were looking at in the pics, or wondered why I did what I did. The time has come to sart adding captions haha.
***Progress has begun! :) what Ive decided to go with is a truck I can use in SCCA racing. It will have C4 Corvette suspension and an LQ9 6.0l vortec backed by a T56 6 speed. The drivetrain will sit back approx. 10" to change my weight ratio. Iside there will be a 6-point cage with stringers goin to the rear corners of the bed. Frame is getting boxed in the rear where the suspension mounts and portion that is boxed from the factory gets welded inbetween the factory welds. Below are pics from teardown. ENJOY***
The blueberry sitting in front of where i work in Laramie.
And again. Notice the little toolbox...
An interior pic after taking out the seats, carpet, and jump-seats.
Some Jack-ass's idea of a clutch job.
Most of the interior junk in the bed.
The bed full of misc. parts in the pen at school.
Up on the lift at school. Bed, spare, and gas tank removed.
Again on the lift.
Front clip pulled off. Looks nasty
Front end neatly set aside.
Eww. The little slobbery 2.8L and T-5 pulled out.
Engine and heater housing removed.
My roommate/helper sitting on the truck.
C4 Corvette suspenion and Z28 rims.
Another look at the donor suspension.
Rear suspension pulled off.
Front suspension and bumper pulled off.
Tack welded to fixtures on a frame bench.
More fixtures holding the truck at ride height.
Rear crossmembers removed.
Frame rails squared up and cleaned off.
Front crossmember and suspension mounting points hacked out.
Truck sitting at ride height on the frame bench. Front:5" Rear: 6"
Boxing plates partially welded onto frame rails.
Filling unwanted holes in the frame rails with the welder.
Me welding the plates on the frame.
A properly metal-finshed corner weld.
Top edges metal-finshed. Using the original crossmember as bracing.
More hole fills.
New sticky rubber. Falken Ziex 245/50/ZR16.
Free mounting onto the Z28 rims by an instructor at school :).
All welds metal-finished.
Frame boxing complete.
Original crossmember welded in and plug welded through rivet holes.
Cross member in place and brace removed.
Donor rear and wheels.
Both rear crossmembers in place.
I cut the orginal crossmember to fit inbetween the boxing plates and welded it in.
Donor rear bolted in to brackets I fabricated and welded in.
View of the brackets holding the rear in place.
Bracing for the brackets. Diminishing holes to dress them up a bit.
Donor rear at ride height.
4-link held at ride height with a "height adjuster". (spare tire jack)
Fabricated torque arm and Micro-flex bushing.
Masking tape pattern to fill the void.
Torque arm in place. More diminishing holes.
Bracket to hold torque arm. Holds pinion angle at 2*.
Finished torque arm assembly.
3/16" plate tacked in place to hold the 4-link bracket.
Only thing held with height adjusters now are the control arms.
Finshed bracket and bracing in final position.
Bracket holds 4-link dogbones out away from the frame 1 1/4".
Yet another view of the bracketry.
Leaf spring bushing hole filled with one of the hole-saw
blanks from the torque arm fabrication.
4-link assembly complete.
Dogbones level at ride height.
Fabricated shock mounts with the dimishing holes.
Both brackets complete.
Both brackets welded in place at 4.8*.
Close-up of finished product.
KYB shocks hanging in place.
Mono-leaf and links installed.
Donor front and wheels. Setting the anti-dive angle
with a digital angle finder. Accurate to .1*.
Drilling out spot welds on factory front shock mount.
Front frame rails squared up and cut at even distance.
Boxing plates tacked up to cap frame rail ends.
Caps welded in and metal finished.
Donor front in place in relation to axle centerline
and lower control arm mounting height.
2x4" .188" wall tubing for replacement frame rails.
Cut a releaf for the angle of the attachment brackets.
The factory front crossmember attachment brackets dettached from the donor frame rails.
3/16" plate to cap the releaf cuts welded in.
Oops. Forgot about clearance for the steering rack...haha.
More 3/16" to cap the new releaf cut.
New frame rails tacked up in place.
That....would be me. Caught a little off gaurd haha.
Risers welded on to frame rail and metal-finished
to hold crossmember mounting bracket at 12.5*.
Front end coming together. Yes there is a person in the cab haha.
Frame rails completely welded in place.
Plastic and seatbelts ripped out.
No more door panels.
Dash removed. Looking to sell it...no cracks. Dark blue. Contact me.
Shock mounts loosely bolted in place to get ideas for bracketry.
Two 1x2" .120" wall tubes tacked together to make a 1x4".
This will make my frame rails 3x4" where the shock mounts locate.
But, bracket also tilts in towards the top so i made a tapered releaf.
Tricky stuff haha.
The beginning of the front shock mounts.
Finished front shock mount.
Shock mount tacked in place.
Shock mount fully welded to frame rail.
Shock mount's bottom lip also helps hold the
crossmember in place for the 12.5* anti-dive angle.
Corvette front frame rail brace narrowed to
fit fabricated frame rails and welded in.
All Corvette peices welded in place.
Torque boxes welded to floor to mount roll cage main hoop.
Main hoop tacked in.
Making templates for transitions between
fabricated frame and S-10 frame rails.
Had to cut some of the fender mounting brackets away for transitions.
Front transitions tacked in place.
To cut down on cutting, welding, and grinding; I chose
to bend some of the pieces to cover two areas at once.
Templates for the rear portion of the front frame rails.
3/16" plate cut with the plasma torch to match template.
Gussets tacked in for the rearward front transition.
Another view of how the front transition fits
with the mounts for the radiator support.
Halo tacked to main hoop for roll cage.
A-pillar down bars tacked to halo.
Transitions for rear part of front frame rails metal-finshed.
Starting to hang front suspension
Front suspension on. Just missing mono-leaf and sway bar.
With slight fender flares, the tires should fit the body quite nicely.
Most of that stuff in the bed is useles. Haha.
As expected, the truck sits all stupid with
the Corvette springs. Wayyyy too stiff.
From here you can see the extreme anti-dive angle.
Those lower control arms should be level....
engine weight should compensate.
Even with all that junk in the bed, the rear suspension
doesnt sit where it should. Guess Ill need custom springs.
Goodies? Happy Day.
Oh yes. C4 tailights to be frenched into the rear.
Its like Christmas. Everything I need to mount the
body, radiator, and bed. Courtesy of LMC.
Starting to shave the gas fill door.
Cleaned off the paint in preperation for filling the taillights.
As you see I cleaned the bed out a little haha. Tailgate and
all related hardware removed and all the paint along the edges.
Filled in the taillight holes with the pre-stamped fillers I bought.
They come a little over-sized as you can tell.
Took the bed of the truck so its a little more accesible.
Just a cart made from scrap wood and casters.
View from the rear with both lights filled.
Just finishing up MIG welding the inner seam.
Finished beside after planishing out the warpage caused from TIG welding.
You can hardly tell where the filler metal is.
Thought it looked cool without the bed..
The fruit of a day's labor. A test strip that has
all the curves and body lines of the tailgate/rollpan.
Now just to duplicate this on a piece of 20 ga. 54" wide...
The skin with all the body lines and the hemmed edge added.
Just need to form the contour and bend top 90* edge.
Set skin over rear and scribed the inside edge.
This is the skin after being cut.
Welded a 1"x1"x.072" square tube inbetween bed sides.
Shiny spots are for the plug welds.
The holes punched for the plug welds.
The skin just hanging in place by the tube.
Filled the holes where the previous owner had bolted a camper
shell through the bed side. Black stuff is rust converter.
Beginning of a taillight bucket.
Skin fully welded in.
Plug welds complete and ground flush. 40 to be exact.
Ring for the taillight bucket welded and sides flared out
to match contour of taillight.
Rear of bucket set in place with taillight screwed in place.
Bucket fully welded and sanded down.
Holes cut and buckets partially welded in.
View from inside bed of partially welded buckets.
Welding of buckets complete and sanded down.
Rear portion of license plate/ reverse light box.
Reverse lights from '96 Corvette.
Partially TIG welded box for license plate and reverse lights.
Yes, Im originally from Iowa haha.
License plate box MIG welded in. Exhaust port cut out.
Bar and clamps are to keep bottom edge straight.
Flared reverse light mounting holes so screw will sit flush
under license plate.
Small tunnel for exhaust port. Keep bottom edge
of skin from flopping around
ALL welds officially ground down.
Corners filed down. Flange with plug welds ground down.
Mechanically sanded bedside down with 80 grit.
Ill hit the body line and nooks and crannies with the
sand blaster.
Ill sandblast the whole inside of the bed as well.
Didnt get the whole bed, but got what I needed to prime it.
Applying wax and grease remover.
Blasted whole front, body lines, wheels arches, and few rust spots.
Look closely and you can see that I leaded the body line
above the taillight fillers. I will then go back in and file it down
to blend the factory and reproduction body lines together.
Sadly, I did not get the body in filler before my classes ended.
Protecting the bare metal was of more importance.
With the epoxy primer/sealer I used, filler can be applied right over top of it.
With a little massaging and filler, that rear will be
smooth as glass.
A little peek inside.
My babies together haha.
The truck's rear in all its glory. Now, if only I had some exhaust
tips hanging in place...or an engine for that matter :)
All the hard work paid off in the end. I receieved
WyoTech's "prestigious" Outstanding Student Award
upon graduation for all my efforts in Streed Rod.
BUILD TALLY
Truck______________________________________________________________________ 450
Z28 Rims___________________________________________________________________100
C4 Suspension _____________________________________________________________1000
Falken Tires_________________________________________________________________380
MicroFlex Bushing ______________________________________________________________8
Steel_______________________________________________________________________345
Taillights____________________________________________________________________100
Body Mounting Hardware _______________________________________________________160
Taillight Fillers ________________________________________________________________35
Reverse Lights________________________________________________________________15
Sandblasting _________________________________________________________________75
Lead Filler ____________________________________________________________________4
Epoxy Primer _________________________________________________________________60
I bought this '84 S10 for $450 from a guy in Fort Collins, Colorado. He was actually going to convert the 2.8 V6 backed by a T-5 5 speed in to an electric powered drivetrain. I was told that it didnt have any oil pressure and would need towed. I jumped it off and fired it up just to check. Sure enough there was 50 lbs. of pressure so I just took off with it. After warming up, it ran like a champ. I have the feeling it was a sending unit/loose connection problem. Well, needless to say the truck wont stay in this condition long. Even though its in great shape for its age (only 44,xxx miles), i plan to do extensive mods to the body/interior/ and especially drivetrain. im thinking a 350 or 383 stroker crate engine backed by a Richmond T-10 4 speed. The first mods will be the suspension/chassis in my Motorsports Chassis Fabrication class while attending WyoTech. Tubular A-arms up front and ladder bars in the rear with a coil spring conversion will take up quite a bit of the time in there. Motor mounts will also be made for the truck. But i dont plan to just shoehorn a small block in there. Im going to modify the firewall/dash and set the engine/tranny back about 8-11" to get a weight ratio more favorable for traction in the rear. As I tear into it and make modifications ill be sure to keep everyone posted.
So the verdict is in...drum roll please :P...an LS1 backed by either a built 4l60e or a T56 6 speed. For now I just beat around on the truck and I love rippin' through the gears! 4:11 gears would also make this thing get up and go in a hurry. ...Maybe this will keep my top speed down a little and keep me outta trouble :) hahaha.
So while searching and searching through CarDomain...I have yet to find a first gen. S10 with an LS1. so if all goes as planned Ill have the only one ;)
The LQ9: its a 6.0L Vortec cast-iron block truck engine. It uses the LSx block design. Found in the Escalade and Silverado SS from '99 to '04. It boasts a higher compression and better flowing heads than the standard LQ4 6.0L Vortec truck engine.
Below you can see the paint scheme I plan to spray on the truck when its all said and done. Its charcoal gray-over-white with an orange pinstripe seperating the two. It's inspired from the Dale Jr. custom edition Camaro.
The logo im thinking about making that combines the ls1 with the s10 and the colors of the paint scheme.
Meanwhile check out my '96 S10
