Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

I have been a member for many years and do a bunch of work to my trucks but never seem to get around to a build thread. Figured I would document a truck I bought to flip but fell in love with.

I will turn it into my shop truck and am having a hell of a time not going full restoration on it. My wife reminds me frequently that this one was for a daily driver that you can actually use to haul old junk parts in.

It had a lot of things I liked and almost as much that I didn’t. Here are a few photos of what I started with.

Enjoy the ride and comments are certainly welcomed.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

Love the 5.3 LS and the 4l60e but the stock drum brakes and the nonfunctional gauges weren’t going to make it for long. Also, I believe the stock ride height springs that were torched to lower her down would not meet the safety standards I was going for.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

So a call to Travis at AZ pro performance was in order and we settled on some 5 lug disc brakes and 2.5 inches drop spindles along with a power booster and bracket set up.

I figured a better stopping vehicle would be a good thing since the LS is way faster than the braking potential of this truck.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

Got the drop spindles on and the brake rotors. This caused a need for new wheels since my 6 lugs would be replaced by 5 lug steely wheels. The best thing in my mind was to do a semi patina looking truck while making everything modern underneath.

Plan will be to add AC, Dakota Digital Gauges, repair all the rust, new seat, add carpet, relocate the ecu, add electric fans, drop the rear 4 inches, replace the bumper, add new interior paint, add some tunes, new tires, new exhaust, fresh tune in the computer, pull out the big dents, weld the spare tire rack to hold a 5 lug wheel, add seat belts, tint the windows, rebuild the door window tracks and regulators, add some new mirrors, all new door gaskets, and more I have not discovered yet!

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

Bought and installed 4 inch drop springs in the rear and as mentioned in earlier posts I went 2.5 drop spindles in the front. Since this will be my daily driver I am keeping the stock front springs and the 235/75/r15 tire sizes for a great ride.

Have it lowered but I forgot to take final pictures😁😁

I will do better as I go. People love pictures and I apologize for slipping up.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

After the drop the next step was rust repair. The previous owner replaced the roof skin but nothing else as he hated the job and decided he was done with any more rust work.

I went to show a buddy how solid it was above the windshield and promptly pulled the sun visor down and completely yanked it out of the “fiberglassed” inner roof panel.

Got to give them credit, it looked stock. They did a great job of hiding all the rust up there.

And so it begins.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

And inner and outer rockers. The cab corners were incredibly solid and stock as far as I can see.

Passenger fender lower cap and behind the tire was bad too.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

Start the cuts and watch them grow.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

New metal going in.

You all have seen this a million times but it is still a big deal when you actually do it. We thought it was a small area but as you can see it was bigger the just a couple or quarter sized holes.

I don’t want any cancer on this truck, it can have scratches and scuffs but no rust holes!

Check this out.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

Starting to take shape.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

A few more.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

I have seen some of your trucks. this is going to get interesting.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

So we welded up the two kick panel vents, the gas fill hole, the 4 BIG holes in the door for the really ugly side mirrors that were gone when I got the truck, about a million holes in the floor, the fender cap and patch panel on the fender, and of course both side inner and outer rockers.

The inner front roof skin went in very well and fit like it was meant to.

Oh, we also had to pull a dent in the front part of the hood and if you look at a couple of the first pictures you can see where some type of emblem was drilled into that same area that came complete with 4 drilled holes needing to be fixed.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

Well it has definitely been fun. We have done all this work in the last 4 weeks!

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

So I figured if I was this far then a little lizard skin treatment was in order. That should help with noise and heat. The plan will be to add carpet as well when I put a bench seat back in her.

The old interior had a bunch of open holes and only the plastic floor cover.

Needless to say this truck was a base model!

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

Then we had to bodywork all the holes in the cab and also smooth the inner roof panel so a complete interior respray was done to get that like new feeling on the inside. We went with the factory color of blue inside on the entire interior.

Check it out.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

You might have noticed the new holes in the dash for the classic auto air unit we will be installing in the very near future. Figured it was a great time to cut before paint and while the dash was bare.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

Next I started on the power brake booster that became a PIA due to the old location of the ecu. Remember the early pictures, turns out it was right in the way when I added the bracket and the booster and master cylinder.

One step forward and two steps back. Anyhow we relocated the ecu and moved the funky fuse block into the truck under the dash to keep it out of the moisture.

Here is a picture for your viewing pleasure��

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

I like what I'm seeing. Are you staying with the blue interior?

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

That answered that.You were posting more while I was typing my question.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

Also worked on installing the classic auto air. I bought the LS kit that came with the necessary compressor bracket and the belt.

The good news and Bad news was I had the 130 amp alternator (good) which caused the belt not to fit(bad) because it had a different pulley on it.

I could either replace the pulley and use the supplied belt or put a longer belt on. I chose the longer belt.

I then had to relocate the fill tank that was right in the way of said bracket. It too became a PIA as it had a special factory hose that was a two piece “y” that attaches to the fill tank and the heater core. Of course when I moved and bolted it in the perfect location I figured out the hard way that the hose would need modification and the tank would now be in the way of the hinge when I got back to installing the hood!

I love a bit of a challenge so we just redid it again.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

Cool truck it looks like you have your work cut out for you!

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

So,I had a big day today and we got the ac all buttoned up inside, built the custom hoses to the compressor, installed all the vents and hoses, installed the Dakota Digital Gauges, and installed the windshield.

I was so tired and semi frustrated (AC Fans wouldn’t work) that I didn’t get any pictures.

I will try to remember tomorrow.

So here is a teaser of the updated front end I finished today as well


That will now catch us all up to speed until tomorrow

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

Yes sir. The last picture with the door panels on the back of the bed will give the best shot of the actual color it is now. That was the factory interior color. Don’t remember the code but it was on the glove box.

The white exterior color is factory as well.

Re: Flipper turns keeper... 67 upgrades
 

Thanks. I can’t wait to get it back on the road again. We are getting close and by the end of the week I should be driving it again every day.

I am semi retired so I can work all day every day except for one week a month when I actually have to work to pay some bills!