My build. Project Karma. 71 stepside.

[B17CRX]

looks awesome Del!

[hgs_notes]

Turned out awesome man. It's a great feeling when you actually get this close to calling it done isn't it?

[lyrikz]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Turned out awesome man. It's a great feeling when you actually get this close to calling it done isn't it?

Ya, i was just sitting, staring at it.. My buddy at work and wife were just looking at me like "uh, what do we do now" ahaha..

I need to figure the temp guage out and go from there.

[lyrikz]

I got a kick out of this.

Before/after.

Whats funny is the kid in the first pic is now the big one. The little one was only 2 when i got it. ahah. Also, my wife cant take a non fuzzy pic to save her life i guess either.

[IMG][/IMG]

[67cheby]

Wow. !!! Holy smokes killer pics !!

[lyrikz]

Originally Posted by 67cheby

Wow. !!! Holy smokes killer pics !!

Thanks, i just found your build the other day. ahaha. Looks awesome.


Just an update.

Day before the show, the truck just wont idle at all. I call up our carb connection and drive down there. The guy yanks off my quadrajet, plugs these two holes and reinstalls it after checking everything else out and sends me on my way... Truck doesnt die at first, then dies or wants to die the whole way home anytime i came to a light. So that was a waste..

I also come to the conclusion that my torque converter is either BROKEN or they never put a stall converter in it.. Im supposed to have a 2000 stall, but when you put it in drive, it moves. There is no lag anywhere. So i will have to deal with that later.

That night at work, i pulled the truck in to check some wiring. I noticed my front wheels were not spinning freely.. Found that my 40 year old calipers gave up on me.. So i slapped on some new calipers and brakes.

My temp guage that was reading WAY high was the old guage itself was just to weak. I took my guage cluster out, drilled out the three holes a bit bigger, removed the front bezel of the new autometer guage and then screwed the factory cover right to the autometer and reinstalled it.. Works perfect and fit like it was SUPPOSED to be there... The next day we were leaving for the show.

I took it to its first show.. It was in longbeach wa. I towed it down. Basically to save on gas... Plus you add in the fact that the higher gears in the rear with a 3 speed transmissioin does NOT make for a fun highway cruiser. Plus the tow rig gets 14 mpg while towing.

Tow down went smooth.. Got a bunch of thumbsup. Liked that.

Got to my moms house and pulled it off the truck. She loved it. I noticed that the rear brake line had a small drip coming off it... I had just replaced the rear junction line and the old line just wouldnt seal. Oh well, can fix that later...

That morning we wake up and its nice and cold outside. Fire up the truck and it loves the cold.


Runs and idles AWESOME.
Kids eager to roll out


Warming up, idling. Loved the smoke.


Driving to the first car show.. Following my mother in her 66 chevy caprice 396.



By the time i get to the show, its starting to want to stumble and die at idle again.. ARGG its pissin me off. Get to the show. Get a lot of people checkin it out, TAPPING MY Rims to see if they are real. ya, seriously.

Head out from the show and i have to two foot it whenever we are idling to keep it running.. even in nuetral. I get it home and shut it off. I immediately fire it up and it runs great. All i did was up the idle a tiny bit more. I think im idling at 1100 in park. That night we took it for a cruise and downtown was PACKED. People were stopping cars and taking pictures.. it was fun. The air suspension was a big hit.

My view at the show. It was nice sittin in the shade watching people watching cars.



That next day, it drove and idled fine again. And when we got home it still stayed idling. I dont know what the hell is going on with it.

I need to do some work on my hood jams. Just the edges. They arent very finished looking. Fix the brake line and then start on the interior. Nothing fancy.

If you have any thoughts on the carb, let me know.

[67cheby]

congrats she looks gorgeous......

[Bennett68C10]

Beautiful truck
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[kev2809]

man that truck turned out nice!

what brand of paint did you go with and material? and did you paint it together or apart? paint turned out like glass..came out real nice man...

[lyrikz]

Originally Posted by kev2809

man that truck turned out nice!

what brand of paint did you go with and material? and did you paint it together or apart? paint turned out like glass..came out real nice man...

I asked around at autobody101 and found that House Of Kolor black is the blackest black there is. I went with that.

I went with SPI on the clear coat. I cant spray SPI clear to save my life.

I did this in my garage. I attribute the paint and clear to my wetsanding and polishing skills. Those were probably the only skills i had when i started this project. I painted two silver cars before this, but that was about it.

I painted it in sections. The bed was done months before the rest. I had panels painted while some still where in the factory color. I attribute that to my lack of planning. I could of saved SOO much time. Good thing about black, is you dont have to worry about when you paint it. The panels match 100%.

[trenz68]

what size wheel and tire combo?

[lyrikz]

Originally Posted by trenz68

what size wheel and tire combo?

20x9 22x10

tires. hmmmmmmmm. i would have to go look.

[lyrikz]

Working on the stereo and finishing up the interior.. Dont know what to do with the interior yet.

I wanted to do some type of fabric for the interior roof but didtn know how funny that would look.

[lyrikz]

Currently building my stereo box. Never done a fiberglass enclosure so we will see how this goes.

More pics coming. 2 12" kickers. Maybe some LED's lol.

Starting the sanding process now on the fiberglass...

[hgs_notes]

Nice pics, the truck is looking good. Hard to say what's up with the idle. Some engines just need a little more rpm, especiallywhen they warm up. The carb itself gets warm and it changes the mix slightly. Even a couple degrees of difference on the timing can make a big difference between a cold and warm engine. Basically, if you have it running ok and are satisfied with the overall power, feel and sound then it is probably as close to "right" as you can get.

BTW, even a stall convertor will move at idle. It just changes how tight it is. Stock is pretty tight just off idle to around 1800, a high stall will have more slippage until the stall rpm is reached, which for drag racing I think you want somewhere around your peak torque rpm, but I'm no expert on that. I just read a lot and I stayed at a holiday inn express once.

Wish I could have drove mine to the show this past sunday. I'm just glad I'll be able to go anywhere I want with it next summer.

[nickp51chevy]

Damn!!! I've been MIA too long. Looks like you've been busy though. Congrats on getting her on the road again!!

[quandelgarage]

love me some stepsides

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Truck turned out good...

[lyrikz]

Some background is i have worked with metal/ body work/ built a few sub enclosures. I had 91 prelude with 4 12's in the trunk that i hit 146.6 at a DB drag event. I did have to open the sunroof a crack and one of hte doors was cracked. But it hit 146.6 ANYWAYS.

I didnt build another sub enclosure since then. 10 years ago or so. Now im building one for the truck. I wanted 2 12" in the back but i knew i didnt have much room. I knew i would have to use fiberglass somewhere. I was excited about that since i have never used it before. I immediately built the back ground for the box and made up a generic jig for my cheap ass router to make speaker rings.

Built the box where the front was removable.



I then bought some resin and some fleece and went to work.



Added a few layers of resin over the fabric.


I then sanded down some of the rough spots of the fleece and started to treat it like a car panel and do body work.









I eventually got it nice and smooth. I was going to paint it but i wanted to try to put vynil on something since i have never done it before.. It came out pretty nice.




Now, i dont have pics of it sititn in the truck yet. I have two gaps next to the box that i was going to make some side pods. I couldnt figure out how to make the curve. Its flat on the bottom then curves up like a helix. After reading here i got the balls to just start gluing crap together and came up with this abortion of a frame.



I used carbboard and put resin over it.. It was strong. ahah.. But i figured i would make something better and stronger as a frame.. So i got some metal bar and bent the top piece to match and added the frame to it.. Came out nice.


I then grabbed a t shirt and wrapped it up nice and tight and added some resin.


Now i was going to try and actually use some fiberglass. The first time i did it, i did it way wrong. Just picture a guy with resin on both hands with white fur mittens attached to both hands. It was sad.. I finally got the hang of it.

I cut out the speaker hole and then added my speaker mount and fiberglassed the back to hold it in place. I then needed to figure out how i could make some kind of pod for the speaker.. So i found a bucket that fit perfect in the whole and resined it and added fiberglass. It came right out with a little bit of air and left a nice solid pod. Came out neat....










Today i am duraglassin in the front and getting that shaped. THen tomorrow add the final and finish that pod and get started on the next one.

[hgs_notes]

Cool, sometimesyou just have to give it a shot after some investigation on how it's done. It's usually not that hard.

[67cheby]

hey i am also working on my first fiberglass fronted box....but i put fiberglass cloth down on top of my fleece, is that an extra step that is not necessary ?? just asking because i put 2 layers and sanded it semi smooth and was going to put 2 more layers of cloth and resin ??

[lyrikz]

Originally Posted by 67cheby

hey i am also working on my first fiberglass fronted box....but i put fiberglass cloth down on top of my fleece, is that an extra step that is not necessary ?? just asking because i put 2 layers and sanded it semi smooth and was going to put 2 more layers of cloth and resin ??

I just used fleece and resin. I have a front piece of wood. If your front of your box is just fiberglass, i would make sure i had at least 1/4 inch of build with resin and fiberglass. that should be about 4-6 layers of glass.. Cool lookin box. I did mine in 3 pieces. Then realized i could have done it in one. But oh well.



Update:
Installed the other corner and speakers. Sounded really good. The speakers are very inexpensive 12" kickers. 150 watt rms speakers. I had about 250 watts rms going to them and it just did not seem as loud as it should of been. Soo, i returned that 500 watt rms amp and picke dup a 1000 watt rms amp. Installed it and THIS is what i was talking about. Reminds me of the old days.. Bass hit so hard that the dishes in the house rattled in the cupboards. LOL.

****ty final pics... Making the front pods when i get back from disney and pay off my new handgun.





\Now that im fairly confident in my vynl and fiberglass skills im going to make some door panels.

[lyrikz]

Originally Posted by 67cheby

hey i am also working on my first fiberglass fronted box....but i put fiberglass cloth down on top of my fleece, is that an extra step that is not necessary ?? just asking because i put 2 layers and sanded it semi smooth and was going to put 2 more layers of cloth and resin ??

After looking at your pictures i see you built the box then realized the speakers wont fit. lol. I did the same thing. I was only off by about 1/4 inch if htat.. I just routed out the back of the box. You can see it here.



What are you going to do with yours???

[67cheby]

i knew they wouldnt fit as i was building it , just not enough room , i am routing the back enough to put some heavy guage metal in and then putting dynamat on the inside of the metal piece

[lyrikz]

Originally Posted by 67cheby

i knew they wouldnt fit as i was building it , just not enough room , i am routing the back enough to put some heavy guage metal in and then putting dynamat on the inside of the metal piece

That should work no problem. I ran into that. I couldnt come out any further because i want the ability to go full front and back on the seat.. One day im going to upgrade my cheap kickers to these bad boys.

Going to get dual voice coil 8 ohm speakers all hooked up should drop it to 2 ohm and im thinking 500 watts rms to each speaker should pound even harder then mine does now.

Love those speakers.
You have the square kickers??? I wanted those but bestbuy didnt carry em.