Driver on a budget.
 

Towards the end of last year I decided it was time to look for a new vehicle since I was about to turn 300k on my current truck. In my former career I was a painter for some dealerships and I have built some nice rides in the past. So, I decided to go at it one more time. The goal - look nice, ride nice, new car reliability, four wheel discs and AC. The budget goal - $7k. I know some of you have that in wheels and tires, I want the whole truck. So here's a test of posting a picture, then I'll take it up to where I am now.

This is what I brought home in October 2011

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

Yep, kinda rough and plenty of rust. I HATE rust. At least it came with a decent set of doors. So the next morning I went and talked a guy selling another truck I looked at into trading beds, of course I had to give him a little money since I was the one that wanted it.

By that afternoon I had taken it a good way apart.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

If there is one thing I could use it is more space. I took as much as I could to the basement, to my two sheds and to a spare room, but I'll have to work in sections. I would probably be finished by now if I had the space to separate everything and start from zero, but we all deal with what we have. Did I mention I hate rust?

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

I didn't want to deal with my Harbor Freight welder I've had for 25 years so I bought myself a sweet Lincoln and gave the old one to my cousin. I didn't count that towards my budget and I sure have gotten my use out of it so far. Say bubye rust!

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

I see a red floor and I want to paint it black.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

Last one for tonight, I'll catch up to current progress later. Sold the old barely running motor (mostly due to the wiring nightmare) and got me something a little better!

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

I like it! Hope you make your budget.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

Hey thanks Maxx. I actually just broke $6k so I don't think I'll beat $7k, but I'm fairly confident I'll be under $8k. So technically 7 something.

I don't want to live next to "that guy" so I definately don't want to be "that guy." Well I had to be him for just one night. I pulled the cab, painted the front of the frame, put the cab back on the next day and got it all back inside.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

Remember in the beginning I said I used to paint for a living? Well during that time I used just about every paint known to man. Paint reps from every company were always coming by the shop and giving away product to try hoping to get the whole shop to switch. Any time I was working on a project for myself all I had to do was ask and poof, all the free paint I need. Even after trying them all, my favorite floor, frame, trim paint was rustoleum satin black. Now that I have to pay for everything I like it even better. By the way, even back then I couldn't get rustoleum for free, but I still used it because I liked it better. I had a cbr600 a while back that I bought in boxes. I painted the whole thing with rustoleum satin black. When I sold it the thing the kid liked most was the awsome paint job.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

Unsolicited product endorsement over. While the cab was off I finished welding the cab corners and slapped a little duraglass on.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

Floors, front and rear pillars, rockers? You betcha, DONE!

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

Subscribed! I literally lol'd at this!!

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

Gotta love the Stones. The young ones might not get that one.

So about this time it started getting really cold here. That means I didn't get a whole lot done and fell behind schedule. Not that I have a schedule other than forward progress. I did bring the engine harness to the basement to modify for standalone. Even if you are buying a harness or sending it out to be modified I highly suggest heading over to lt1swap.com and getting all the information you could posibly need for an lsx swap. I also suggest sending your computer to him for a very reasonably priced reflash. It's the least we could do for a guy that built an incredible sight with the sole purpose of helping people like us.

Before, during and after pictures of the harness. And one of the parts pile since everybody likes those.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

It that a 4.8 or a 5.3?

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

It turns out the spare doors that came with the truck weren't as good as I'd hoped. They were better than the ones that were on it so I worked them on up. I had to weld up many molding and emblem holes as they were off a camper special. There was a little bit of rust to cut out of both and the drivers door had the torn upper hing pocket thing. I had to cut off the top layer, weld up the hinge support and then fabricate and weld on a new outer layer. I forgot to get pictures of that one, doh! The drivers window frame was way out of alignment and would hit the cab when closed. Searching the forum I found this isn't terribly uncommon as the tolerances weren't that tight when these were built. When I first went to work in a body shop one of the guys told me, "there's a torch, a welder and a frame machine - everythings adjustable." So I set about adjustin.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

Nice build! Looking great and a shortbed restored with an LS drivetrain will be awesome if you can keep it under 10K much less 8!

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

I tried to stay within a budget once... that didnt work out so well... good luck! Trucks lookn good!

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

It's a 5.3

The window frame was much better, but still had a wider gap on the back edge than I would have liked. I had a friend that owned a very high end hot rod shop and he told me about tacking a welding rod to the edge to fine tune the gap. I had never done it but it turns out it was actually very easy to do.

My friends hot rod shop? He closed it down to go and be the chief fabricator for one of the top names in Nascar!

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

Thanks for the encouragement guys. As for the budget, it's not that I couldn't go bigger, I just want to challenge myself and show what can be done with labor vs money.

I almost forgot the gas blockoff, last one for tonight. Another half dozen or so and we'll be up to date. I guess I've done more than I thought.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

nice build, great job on the floors/rust. keep it goin!

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

I borrowed a spot weld dent puller from a friend. I didn't have the proper receptacle so I improvised. Don't try this at home, and whatever you do don't tell OSHA. :lol:

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

I went around the truck with the dent puller and there was one area on the passenger rear bedside that I just couldn't do much with. So I cut it off, beat it into submission and welded it back on.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

nice work!

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

Soda blasting is nice, but a can of stripper and some 80 grit is about $965 cheaper. Also did yet another test fit to tweak any edges.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

Got another tailgate in much better condition than the one I had. There are two mini junkyards around here dedicated to these trucks. I bought the tailgate at one and the factory AC stuff that was missing from my truck from the other. You can see the AC parts in the parts pile photo above.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

As you can see in some of the pictures, the yards here are very small and there is only about ten feet between my neighbors house and mine. That and the fact that I have an attached garage means there will be no spraying of anything that can't be bought at Home Depot here! Well you can't get epoxy primer at Home Depot and that is what I'm using. Epoxy, body work, epoxy, surfacer, block, paint. I found a booth I can rent, but it's only in the budget to rent one time. A search online and it looks like there are many people rolling primer for spots, but they all say it can't be done for a whole vehicle. Well, common sense will tell you that if you can roll a spot you can roll the whole darn thing.

I remembered a paint rep coming in one day and he was in total amazement telling us he just left the boat yard. He said a guy just painted a 50' sailboat in Imron with a brush and a roller and it looks just as good as any sanded and buffed paint job he has ever seen. This is coming from a guy that has seen every paint shop in a 50 mile radius so he knows what he's looking at. I do a search for boat, paint, brush roller. It's called tip and roll, do a search for yourself, youtube too. Primer doesn't flow out anything like paint does, it dries too fast, but you get a not too hard to sand smooth surface. If I was going with a solid color I would be tempted to try and paint the truck with this method.

Just for the record, you CAN prime a vehicle with a brush and roller!!!!!!

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

At some point I ripped out all of the rotten bed wood. I forgot to get a before picture but I'm sure you know what rotten wood looks like.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

very nice work. Keep it up. Subscribed.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

looking good! and yeah if OSHA found out you would end up being in a O$HIT! moment!

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

If you are going to do a lot of welding you can buy a receptacle for about $10 at HD it is basically the same as an elect dryer and be a lot safer.

I sprayed my whole frame and under body with POR 15 then over coated it with Rustolem Satin Black the biggest problem is that oil and brake fluid will I eat it up and with todays tree hugger laws the paint is getting worse they are doing away with oil base paint. If there is a old hardware store around you might be able to find some old stock. I found for around $100 you can get 1 gal Kirker Acrylic Urethane - Hot Rod Black Satin Finish & hardener which I will be using on the Core support and fender wells and re doing the frame and under body for a more durable finish.

http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/kirk...8-p-13771.aspx

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

Nice work , looking great !

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

With the epoxy on now it's time for a bondo party. Put it on and sand it off, repeat, repeat, repeat................................

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

I did use it that way but I was done in an hour and I was plenty careful around that thing. The extension I'm plugged into actually goes in the basement to my 30A dryer plug. For some unkown reason the spot welder has a 50A plug. I have a degree in electrical type things and I didn't even waste my time doing the math because there's no way a spot welder draws 50A. With that being said, I posted it as a joke and I hope no one takes me serious or even worse follows my lead. Be safe out there.

After the bondo comes more epoxy. There's a couple of minor imperfections to take care of before I put some surfacer on for blocking. It's going to stay in epoxy for a while though as I tackle some other parts of the project, such as getting it running.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

With this post we are current and up to date. I didn't get to this point nearly as methodical as the postings suggest. I usually have a couple of things going for various reasons, stip a panel, prime a panel, tinker with mechanicals, etc. Currently I'm working on prepping the interior for paint, painting the inside bed, painting the rear frame and getting the engine in.

To do an LSX swap a major hurdle is fuel delivery. There are several options

A) Buy a custom tank with electric pump for $1000+ NOPE
B) Buy a universal pump and hanger for $250 and modify it because it won't work with a 14" deep blazer tank. NOPE
3) Run an inline pump even though there are many problems of starvation because there is now way to mount the pump lower that the tank. NOPE
D) Buy a Walbro 255lph pump from craigslist and make your own hanger. WINNER!!

We have a ridiculously low budget here people. Regardless, I'm proud of how this one turned out.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

nice work on the pump !

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

That's my bro! He's awesome, ain't he? Subscribed.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

It's got to be hard living in a neighborhood and trying to build something. You are doing a nice job. I like the Idea of doing it on a small budget I'll be taking notes. I get a lot of my stuff from craigslist and then sell parts there to reinvest.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

Fuel pump looks good, but what about the float and sender for your gauge?

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

That really is my sister! It looks like she joined a classic truck forum.

I don't have a sender yet because I don't know what gauge I'll be using. The factory sender hole is still available under the blue tape. The fuel pump is very close, but I should be able to orient the sender in a direction that won't interfere. Looking at the picture of the tank, the pump and sump sit to the left of the bolted on top plate. I did this so the sump would sit on a flat part of the tank and not on one of the strap seams. Everything from the midpoint of the top plate and to the right is wide open.

Also, I had to mount the pump on that side of the tank because I wanted to take advantage of the factory reliefs for the sending unit to run the fuel lines in. As it is, I may have to shim that side of the tank down 1/2" and/or route a pocket in the wood to keep the lines from hitting the bed wood. The fuel filler is too close to the frame on the other side to shim it any. I won't know the answer to that question until the bed is finished, but it's no big deal to shim.

Re: Driver on a budget.
 

We had a cold rainy weekend so I had to stick to things I could do inside. First I shaved the gear indicator, painted and rebuilt the steering column. Then I welded and filled a patch for the rust in the header and filled some of the extra holes someone made in the dash.