$900

[MikeM]

So I was in the market for a pickup with 4 doors, and acceptable gas mileage. Something I could take the family on road trips in, transport mine and my sons motorcycles, and tow a small camper. Then my old lady got a trailblazer, so my priorities got downgraded to hauling motorcycles, and be as bad ass as possible while doing it. Oh, and I only had $1800 to spend, leftover money from the trailblazer. I checked out a few old trucks on craiglist and found this 72 listed for $1200. I talked to the seller and found out it has a mildly built 400 and th350 in it, I forget what he said they came out of.

[dnorris009]

$900? I love it!
Let's see that motor

[67chevy1series]

well looks like a good start if you want to haul then get a long fleet or a longhorn more room the better when your haulin or haulin a@!

[MikeM]

The motor started up and sounded real healthy and a lot of little things had been replaced recently. The torque converter was frozen, so I couldnt test drive it. I offered him $900 and he took it. I figured if it was too much work to get drivable, there was 2 grand worth of parts to sell off it easily. The body has lots of rust and rot, the chassis, suspension, and driveline dont. I actually prefer beaters, so that was ok with me.
As I started going through it, I found a lot of half assed work, and stuff thats just not really safe. This pic of the engine bay has quite a few examples:

[dnorris009]

I see that, mine is quite similar.
I'm getting it safe & reliable.... brakes first.

[MikeM]

First up: the brakes
The previous owner put the clamps for the steering links on backwards, and the first time i turned the wheels, one of those clamps ripped out a brake line. Dammit. I have a good auto parts store in my town that can get anything in one day, so the following day I replaced both front hoses - $55. When I pulled the calipers off, i was shocked to see that the pads have never been used. I took apart one caliper and it seemed to be unused also.

heres my copilot learning how gm calipers come off



We bled the lines, but the pressure wasnt as good as it should be. After some more bleeding I determined the master needed a rebuild. My parts guy informed me that a new master was only $11 more than the rebuild kit (the 'other' benefit of manual brakes) so one day and $50 later I replaced it.
Now my fronts work great, but the rears still arent getting enough pressure. Im pretty sure the proportioning valve is toast, but Im gonna fix that some other time.
Oh, brand new never used shoes in the rear too

[MikeM]

Originally Posted by dnorris009

I see that, mine is quite similar.
I'm getting it safe & reliable.... brakes first.

damn youre reading my mind while im typing it.

ok try to guess what im gonna do about the frozen torque converter lol

[MikeM]

I was having a surprisingly tough time finding a cheap converter for a non locking 350. Nothing on craigslist, and the junkyard guys wanted $200 for a used one. Hell no!! Then some of my friends convinced me that if im gonna go through the trouble of dropping the tranny out, I should put a 700r4 in instead. I thought about it for a while, and I agree. Low first gear, overdrive, locking tc - definitely the right move. Hit craigslist again for a week or 2 but nothing good on there, just old shot cores and guys wanting $250 and up for them. Junk yards were asking between 500 and a thousand for unknown condition 700's, hell with that. Everything is expensive where I live. Then last week I was visiting family in Kansas visiting family, and I was bored sitting around my mother in laws house so I decided to check CL for 700's. Man there were a ton of them for good prices. I settled on a mid 80s one with that was recently rebuilt, and came with the converter and the cable for $175. Win! Luggage went on the roof for the 1200 mile trip home.



Anybody know a good way to get tranny fluid out of carpet? Im sort of in trouble until I figure that one out.

[MikeM]

So thats where Im at right now. Im gonna try to get the 700 in on sunday and then its drivable.

My plans for it:

Suspension - its got aftermarket lowering coils in the front, Im guessing 4", and torched coils in the rear. I like the height of the front but not the lack of suspension travel. Id like to get some 2" drop spindles and some 2" longer coils. The rear will get air bags and new bumpstops.

Engine - Probably just gonna redo the wiring and fix up all the "presidential solutions" in there. Im not a fan of edelbrock carbs, so im gonna keep an eye out for a similar cfm holley, thats low priority though.

Body - i'll fix the holes in the cab, i dont really care about the holes in the bed floor. If I find an enormous piece of diamond plate i'll grab it, but im not holding my breath.

Paint - Primer black, clear coat, and a big vinyl punisher skull on the hood. My son plans to cruise around with me and shoot bad guys lol.

[oldblue1968chevy]

cool! i think you may have to do a few things to change the 700 in..not sure

im in for the build

[1LoC10]

cool truck, and nice price, have fun with it

[jablack]

I've been there before. Try using Tuff Stuff. It's cleaned all my messes out of the family ride..

[MikeM]

I was supposed to take the tranny out yesterday but it was just too hot to be out in the driveway, so I just sprayed all the related bolts with PBB and went inside and read other peoples build threads while enjoying the ac.
Today is a bit cooler, I started removing the driveshafts, which do not appear to separate from each other without pressing out the u joints. So it looks like after removing the bolts from the yoke on the diff, and then the carrier bearing support, the whole 2 piece shaft should slide out the rear. One of the 4 bolts on the yoke is stripped too badly for a socket to grip it, so im gonna cut it off after it stops raining.

[MikeM]

driveshaft out, didnt have to cut anything. but now its too hot and humid to work any more. the carrier bearing spins freely and the rubber seems to be good enough, so thats 1 less job to do.

[jablack]

Too hot?

[oldblue1968chevy]

too hot!! wuhh? lol i was outside ALL DAY

it is hot though, get a big fan lol

[red69ss]

looks like a good deal, those are some custom spark plug wires I've never seen any done like that ,you might want to check the rubber hose at the rearend for the rear brakes they are known to close up on these trucks and cause a lack of pressure to the rear brakes.

[marks1972]

hot!!! come down south and you will find hot. our heat comes with its own little special ingrediant (100+% HUMIDITY). if you are wering glasses you have to stand there a min when you walk outside becouse your glasses are foged.

oh yea cool truck. nice find and GOOD LUCK on the tranny fluid in your wifes trailblazer.

[VA72C10]

sounds like a cool build...I'll follow along

[jablack]

I learned a long time ago that you northern boys can't handle the heat down here, although you do handle the cold alot better than we do.

[MikeM]

Originally Posted by jablack

Too hot?

Originally Posted by oldblue1968chevy

too hot!! wuhh? lol i was outside ALL DAY

it is hot though, get a big fan lol

Originally Posted by marks1972

hot!!! come down south and you will find hot. our heat comes with its own little special ingrediant (100+% HUMIDITY). if you are wering glasses you have to stand there a min when you walk outside becouse your glasses are foged.

oh yea cool truck. nice find and GOOD LUCK on the tranny fluid in your wifes trailblazer.

Originally Posted by jablack

I learned a long time ago that you northern boys can't handle the heat down here, although you do handle the cold alot better than we do.

I start to b1tch when it gets over 80 lol, and its been in the 90s lately. I dont think i would make it in the south!! I'll take 20 degrees over this, then i could just put a coat on haha.

[MikeM]

Originally Posted by red69ss

looks like a good deal, those are some custom spark plug wires I've never seen any done like that ,you might want to check the rubber hose at the rearend for the rear brakes they are known to close up on these trucks and cause a lack of pressure to the rear brakes.

yup the wires are definitely in need of some attention. thanks for the tip about the rear rubber line, i havent replaced that yet so i guess i'll order one when i stop by the store today.

[MikeM]

Weather was cool enough today for me to get some work done, so I took out the th450. Everything went smooth except the cooler lines. The previous owner used about 6 pounds of red loctite on the connectors and they're not coming off. Theres some poor craftsmanship at the radiator end of the cooler lines as well so i just cut them and declared them scrap. I dont expect generic brake lines to be expensive so i'll just bend some up when i put the 700 in.



I was surprised to find the 700 is almost the exact same length as the 350, I was really expecting the 700 to be longer. Looks like the tail piece of the 350 is longer than it needs to be, maybe thats for a reason. My 700 is from a mid 80's chevy half ton, I think. Tonight Im gonna read all about wiring the TCS to lock up by itself in 4th, the way to do it without the brake and vacuum switches.

[MikeM]

Got back to work on it. The 700 went in pretty smoothly. Only 2 issues:
1. the cooler lines were pretty much epoxied into the th350 so i cut them and bent up some new lines. easy enough.
2. with the tranny bolted to the block, there is a half inch of space between the converter and the flexplate. I used spacers, but im really not happy with that solution. Is there a different shaped flexplate i should have got?

[pugs]

there should be enough travel for the converter to bolt up with out the spacers
also make sure you have the converter locked in right by spinning it or you could f-up the trans real quick