Project "Insert Really Cool Title Here"

[kerber63]

Since I was running drop springs and blocks, I put in a c-notch just to make sure the suspension would travel. At that time, I started crunching numbers to see how fast I could go with the new transmission. I was running my stock 3.73 open rearend with fresh internals and axles. I calculated that in 6th gear, to be going 70 mph, the motor would be turning 1500 rpm. That was a little low for me, since I would almost never be able to use 6th. So I started looking around for something different to put in back. A buddy at work told me he used to have a '65 suburban, and still had its rearend laying around at his place. He wasn't sure what the ratio was, but he gave it to me for free. I tore into it right away, pulled the cover right away and found a . . . posi unit staring me right in the face. 4.11 posi put me at 70 mph at 1650. It went straight in, of course.

[kerber63]

After the rearend went in, I sprayed some new frame paint cab-back. I took my glass in to a local shop to get it tinted. When I went to pick it up, I looked at it and saw tons of bubbles under the tint. I asked the guys why there were so many bubbles, they told me that the glass was too old and dirty to get a the tint to sit nice and flat. I said oooookaaaaay, please take this garbage off because I won't pay for it. I took it home and did it myself with some tinting from Napa. It wasn't nearly as hard as those idiots made it out to be. 20% on the door glass and wings, 5% on the back glass. No dirt, no bubbles, no problem.

[kerber63]

With my new expertise in the relay wiring world, I wired my dash gauges to act like turn signals. 5 relays hooked up just right lets me use the 2 left gauges as left turn indicators, and the 2 right gauges as right turn indicators. They blink on when the headlight switch is off, and blink off when the headlight switch is on.

[kerber63]

After spending some time putting the outside pieces back together, I took a break to focus on the interior again. I installed a new repro firewall pad set, and a new gray carpet. With the fuel tank out of the cab, what else could I do with the extra space than build a sweet speaker box. Sorry no pics of the build. 5/8 MDF board was used to fill the space behind the seats in approximately the same shape as the fuel tank. I built it to fit down into the cab corners, so 1 big box wouldn't work. To get everything to install (and fit) I built 3 boxes - 1 behind each seat and 1 in the middle between the seats. Then I carpeted the whole setup to match the floor. The soundsystem is all Powerbass - 6 1/2" rounds in the kick panels, 6x9's in the cab corners, 12" sub, and an amp under the passenger seat. It kicks butt. The seats are from a '93 astro van, reupholstered in gray cloth. The shifter knob is a billiard 6-ball.

[kerber63]

I finished getting the motor dressed up, got the hood installed and lined up. The scoop lined up right in the middle of the hole (whew).

[kerber63]

I built the exhaust - 3" aluminized tube with turbo mufflers. You can see just how low the whole setup was - really low. The system ends just after the mufflers, turndowns point down at the ground in front of the rear wheels. I don't like the look of exposed exhaust tips.

[kerber63]

Next up was the bed. I'm running 275 wide tires, and the stock fenders just didn't offer enough room to hold them. I bought a pair of repro fenders and used them to extend my stockers. It's weird, with the small tubbing, the inside of the bed looks huge.

[kerber63]

I had previously put in 3/4" marine grade cherry plywood. It was nice, but didn't have much of a lifespan. I decided to go with solid hardwood, and started looking around. While I was at it, I decided to make the boards all equal widths to make it look a bit cleaner. I contacted a local hardwood dealer and they hooked me up with some ash boards they planed to the thickness I needed. I ripped them down to size, and used a table saw to add the dados. I ordered a complete set of skid strips and used a couple of my old ones. There are more boards in my equal-width setup than with the stock configuration.

[kerber63]

6 coats of clear varathane left me with some really nice colored bed wood.

[kerber63]

Before the wood went in, I sprayed Raptor bedliner inside the bed, tailgate, and on the skid strips. It was a really easy product to use and covered great.

[NEWFISHER]

Looking good.

[kerber63]

Started putting the bed wood in. With modified board widths, every hole in the crossmembers had to be redrilled. What a pain. Stainless carriage bolts went in easy and look great. My fuel cap access door turns on a stainless piano hinge.

[kerber63]

Put the back end back together, made some more progress on the fuel cap access door - lockable toolbox latch hooks to a u-bolt on the back side of the rear bed crossmember.

[kerber63]

The project was almost wrapped up and a buddy of mine invited me on a rod run up to Portland for the annual portland transmission run. I said sure, it would be good to start putting some miles on it. I had been driving it around for a while working the little bugs out and had about 30 miles on it. So I buzzed up to Salem to meet the group, and I was definitely the odd man out. There were about a dozen rigs, with all of them but mine an early '30s ford ratrod. I was the youngest there by about 30 years, but it was a pretty cool group of guys. The leader of the pack jumped in his Hemi-powered rod and says "ok boys, try to keep up" and I was ready to take him up on it. We all filed out onto the freeway and busted up to ... 60. It was one of the most boring drives I've ever experienced. I was lugging out in 6th turning about 1400 rpm, getting passed by every pos in Oregon. We eventually made it to the show, lots of cool rigs to drool over. We all left together and took a scenic route back towards home - those guys were definitely into treating every trip like a sunday drive. When we got back to the freeway I decided to stretch my legs a bit. And a bit more, and a bit more. It was a fun ride.

[kerber63]

I put the finishing touches on the interior - door panels painted to match the color scheme.

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by kerber63

The leader of the pack jumped in his Hemi-powered rod and says "ok boys, try to keep up" and I was ready to take him up on it. We all filed out onto the freeway and busted up to ... 60.

I had to laugh when I read this.
I know all too many guys like this who seem to have forgotten why they wanted a hot rod when they were 16-17 year olds.

I however, am not one of them....
Not even in my daily driver.

I tell my soldiers...
"If you drink, don't drive; but if you are going to drive, buckle up and drive like hell!!"

[kerber63]

Almost had everything worked out, still needed a few things. Couldn't pass up a local car show.

[kerber63]

To finish it all off, I decided to cut and buff the clearcoat. This was my first time trying it, and it took a loooong time. I had put sanding far behind me back in the bodywork phase, and I hated going back and grabbing a sanding block. But it paid off and made a huge difference.

[kerber63]

I put the trim on and called the project complete the morning of the Springfield Cruise. And, as with all my other "complete" projects, I had to tear into it again and change it.

[kerber63]

Now to get you all caught up to what I'm currently working on: Back to the days when my dad and I were still bench racing our future projects. He was talking big about building his 460 with a big blower sitting on top. I've never been a fan of blowers, but I went along with him and said if he would do that I'd look into a turbo/twins setup for my 454. Well, one day he called me up and said he had a surprise for me the next time I was at his place. The next time I saw him, he had a big 8v-71 blower sitting on his workbench getting ready for a major transplant project over to his motor. Of course I was eager to meet the challenge, so I told him that I'd better start looking at some turbos. He laughed and said that he found the blower sitting in an abandoned corner at the truck shop he manages, so he picked it up and brought it home. And sitting right next to that blower was a big CAT turbo, which he also picked up. Then he handed me a big honking turbo, free of charge. What choice did I have but to put it on?

[kerber63]

I dug into the specs on the borg-warner turbo, it came of a CAT 3116 diesel. After looking over turbo books and calculating my flow requirements, I figured it should work just about perfect for me. The first thing I had to do was fab new exhaust. Remember the old pipes that scraped the sewer drains? Byebye.

[kerber63]

I settled on making some log manifolds that dumped towards the front of the motor and have the turbo sitting off the passenger side head. The turbo has a split turbine housing that corresponded to a split exhaust manifold when it was on the diesel. That allows it to split exhaust pulses evenly across the turbine and keep it running more smoothly. I kept the same approach and fed the two sides of the turbine housing from each head.

[kerber63]

Here's what the turbo looked like sitting on the flange. It clears the hood by a little bit with the wastegate valve installed.

[kerber63]

I connected the driver side manifold to the turbo flange with a pipe that runs in front of the motor.

[kerber63]

I'm running a 4" exhaust, so there wasn't much room between the block, the frame, and the cab. I cut out part of the passenger inner fender. The pipe runs behind the front wheel - pretty tight fit, but it clears through the whole range of suspension travel.