1995 SCSB fixer upper....

[Andy L]

Hey Guys, the build thread doesn't allow for feedback and I would really like some interaction. Sometimes what seems like a good idea doesn't work out that way and the opposite is true as well. I want to make sure I keep my focus and don't let the magazines dictate what I should or should not do.

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I bought my '95 Cheyenne about 5 years ago with about 119K on it, 4.3, auto, a/c, tilt, cruise, and little else. No p/w or door locks or carpet, just a blue mat. The tires were not in good shape and were big, like 31x10.5x15. Truck needed a lot of small stuff: exterior door handle broken, a/c not cooling, cloudy mirrors, broken grille and air dam, worn out original appearing shocks, clear coat coming off wheels, but solid bones. The house I was living in was a rental, so I couldn't do much there, and I didn't have the extra $ anyway. Within a couple months, I managed to buy some ebay rims, american eagle 15x7's. When I went to have them put on, the bigger tires were in such bad shape they would not balance correctly so I had to buy tires right then. Not in my plan or budget at the time. Got some black wall 235/75-15 for good price. I also ordered new shocks, Monroe Gas Magnums which made a huge difference and $40 or so for some ebay drop shackles. The next several years I started fixing all the little broken or missing items trying to get it back to where I thought it should be. This is how I drove it and what it looked like up until last month when I started the mods. Also moved into a different house and built a garage. It looks a bit empty, so had to do a lot of work in the garage before doing truck work.

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[Andy L]

I had been researching and gathering parts for the past 8-10 months to fix up the truck the way I wanted to. It is a fairly tight budget so got parts when I could at the best price I could. Here is the plan: lower the truck 2/4", add rear disc brakes, rear sway bar, fix rear leaking pinion seal, upgrade fuel pump, bigger front sway bar, upgrade front brakes, swap in 5.3/4.8 w/automatic trans.

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This is part of my accumulation of parts..While I mentioned it was a new garage, it was not ready to work in. No shelves etc. After a few months, I built shelves, a work bench, a welding table, got some needed tools, and even had the floor epoxied. I also needed back up transportation to get me around while working on the Cheyenne. We were given a 2002 Jeep Liberty:
It looked pretty good on the outside, but it had 190K on it and needed a lot of work to be a dependable driver. I ended up replacing all the suspension parts, brakes, steering parts, radiator, water pump, hoses, etc...about $1800 worth of parts... Needless to say, working on it kept pushing the Cheyenne off.

 

[Oldblue98]

After years of having lowered trucks, I would love to have a unmolested SWB stock height truck. If I had it all to do over again !?!? Getting harder and harder to find nice stock height trucks. But that is a nice solid straight looking truck.

 

[Andy L]

Finally, took about 2 month to do all the work, it is a driver and I could start on the Cheyenne. Timing was close, at this point, the Cheyenne now has 179K and is needing work. The front suspension is worn out, front brakes pulling to the left under moderate braking and the under hood area is leaking several fluids. Time to stop driving it until it can be fixed. Thinking ahead, I was going to be needing tools..an engine hoist, engine stand, some way to remove the truck bed, move it around, etc...

With the new garage, it took more time to build some shelves, a work bench and make it a workable place. Back to the build...this past Christmas, Santa was good to me and I was able to get an engine hoist and press...

I built a bed dolly to put the truck bed on once removed so I could push it around and keep it out of the way. I didn't have to do it, but thought it would be helpful and easier to work on the truck with the bed off. I also had to get the truck bed off some way. I couldn't find the build pics, but do have some of the 2 finished items.

The bed dolly was made out of a 4"x4"x8' cut into 4 equal pieces. Then the 2x4's added to the sides. Bought casters on sale at Northern Tool and bolted them on. I did that so I might reuse them on something else when the dolly was not in use. The dolly has 5" swivel casters and is about 28-30" tall and is about 3 1/2' x4' square. It rolls easily. I put some small casters on one side later so when not in use I could turn it on its side to take up less space and still move it around.
The lift was made from 2"x2" 1/8" steel. I did some work at my church and was given the metal, it was to be scrapped. I made it so it could extend side to side and front to back to accommodate different size beds in the future, this shot, I have not made it front to rear adjustable yet. It's not pretty, but it works well.
I added the 1x2 steel to side arms to go up under the bed rails and the rebar loops to hook the chains to so the load would be more evenly distributed.

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[Andy L]

Time to pull the bed and get started. I broke the project down into sections. I decided to do the back of the truck first....I used some doubled over cardboard saved from a new hot water heater to protect the cab. Use something between the bed and cab to protect from scratches. The lift worked very well and was able to pull the bed with the tool box in place. Only 4 bolts on each side. I did have to remove the class III hitch to make it a bit easier to get to all the rear bolts.

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This is the front drop anchor installed. I can't say about a long bed, but for a short bed, you must modify (trim) the front bed mount bracket for the hanger to fit. You definitely need to get (if you don't already have one) a 4.5" angle grinder with cutoff blades and grinder disc. You will use them I guarantee! The bracket bolted up nicely. Note, the emergency brake cable bracket was adjusted later to be straight, not at the angle in the pic. It takes a bit of work to grind off the rivets holding the stock hanger. ALSO, on the driver side, you need to run most of the gas out of the tank because you will need to move it out of the way. There are brake lines, fuel lines and electrical wiring behind the driver side frame rail. With the gas tank low of fuel, it's not hard to do.

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Also, while things were apart, I replaced the leaf spring bushings with new moog bushings. Here is the rear shackle. I had originally installed this several years ago for a 2" drop, now with the front hangers, it will be a 4" drop.

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No pic, but my rear end was leaking fluid and I replaced the pinion seal. I posted up more detail of my drum to disc brake conversion over in the appropriate section. If you want to see more details and pics check that out. Here, I'll show a before and after pic.

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I purchased a kit from Little Shop Manufacturing. Reason I did was: good price, said it would fit over my 15" wheels and could be installed without removing the axles. Well, after tearing into things, both of my axles seals were leaking so axles had to be pulled anyway. Turns out, I think that is the best way. Axles seals are only about $5 ea. so don't cheap out, go ahead and replace them. If I had not pulled the axles, I would have had to cut off the drum brake backing plates. It was easy to simply unbolt 4 bolts and take them off intact, just in case I might need them in the future for another project. You only have to unbolt the brake fluid line on the back of the plate and disconnect the emergency brake cable... they come off very easily. The hardest part of the swap was manually bending the brake line 90 degrees to fit the new bracket. Not hard, just have to be patient....

 

[Andy L]

A couple of extra pics of the rear brake set up.
The brake line before:

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and after:

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This is just showing the gas tank, I replaced the fuel pump with a 255 lpm pump in anticipation of the upcoming 5.3 swap. I've read many different ways to go about upgrading my fuel system for the 5.3. I decided to go with as much original parts as possible not only for a stock look but reliability as well. For fuel lines to the motor, I am going to take the ends of the Tahoe lines at the motor and have them grafted to my existing lines (professionally of course). It will look stock with the factory connections. I'm hoping to do that for under $50.

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This is just behind the gas tank, but shows why you must drop the gas tank when using drop hangers. There are brake lines, electrical wiring and gas lines inside the drivers side frame rail. Don't even try to drill holes in that area without moving the gas tank over. Best to drive most of the fuel out of the tank before starting the project. With only a couple gallons in the tank, it was easy to handle and get out of the way. That fresh nut and washer is the front bolt for the Bell Tech sway bar. Shortly after the pic was taken, I needed to move both sides mounting location about 1" forward .

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Here, the shocks are installed, rear sway bar is in place. Just double and triple checking to be sure all needed bolts are torqued properly and everything lines up. I found I needed to re-drill the forward mounting holes for the sway bar. I thought I had it right, but, I could see the bolts were at a slight angle after putting weight on the suspension and wanted them straight. I hated putting more holes in the frame, but I would also be pissed every time I saw those bolts at an angle and didn't do anything about it. I am pleased now and can sleep.

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[Andy L]

Once satisfied all was good, the bed was put back on. At this point, I had not bedded the rear brakes yet. The truck is not being driven. After I complete the front end work and can drive the truck, I can bleed and fine tune the brakes. I like the new rear stance. It sits about 1" lower than the front, that is going to change. New tires are coming and they will be a hair taller. I would like to take it lower, but, I still need the truck to be a truck. Seeing the amount of distance from the axle to the frame, I wonder if I may need add a "C notch" even with a 4" drop? Time will tell...

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[Andy L]

After years of having lowered trucks, I would love to have a unmolested SWB stock height truck. If I had it all to do over again !?!? Getting harder and harder to find nice stock height trucks. But that is a nice solid straight looking truck.

Thanks, forgot to add, that's original paint too. I believe if/when I do this again, I would lower the back 2" and call it a day. I like it the way it is, but I hate dealing with coil springs and dealing with odd front end alignments and worrying about hitting low stuff....

 

[Andy L]

While working on the back of the truck, I knew I needed new tires. I decided to upgrade my 15x7's to 17x8 in the rear and 17x7 in the front. I chose American Racing VN215 series. I love the wheels, but wanted a darker spoke. After researching wheel paint, I chose Dupli-Color Graphite wheel paint and clear coat. Here was my process...I read somewhere, to use pinstripe tape to initially tape off the leading edge. Pinstripe tape will not let any paint bleed under it like masking tape might. I had some red 1" tape. I cut it in half and taped off the area to be painted. It does work very nicely.

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The wheel if fully taped off, tire covered and center cap area taped as well. I know what you are thinking, why not paint the wheels before mounting the tires. Looking back, it would have been easier, but I tend to do things the hard way. It wasn't until I had the tires mounted and put on the truck that I made the decision to paint them. I think they look great, but against the blue truck, I wanted more contrast.

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Looking good! the graphite gray is a great color. Goes on easy. I applied several coats of paint, followed by a couple of coats of clear.

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After I took all the plastic and tape off the wheel, I re-taped around the tire itself and sprayed several coats of clear on the entire wheel....The polished aluminum looks great now, in a few years, age and the elements will make the lip dull. I want to keep it looking like new. I was able to paint all 4 wheels the same way with 1 can of paint and 1 can of clear. Got the paint at O'reilly Auto Parts for $4.99 a can....great price for the results.

For anyone wanting exact spes on the wheels/tires, they are American Racing VN2157874 17x8 w 5.05" bs and 14mm offset, the fronts are VN2157773 17x7 w 4" bs and 1mm offset. I originally went with a 17x8 w a 4" bs. Looked really good with a deeper offset. When mounted in the rear, I put a flat edge on the face of the wheel and it made contact with the inner wheel lip. With a tire, it would have caused clearance problems. If the truck was not being lowered, it would have been ok (not really a fan of wide wheels/tires extending past the body line, at least for a street car). So, I traded them in on the 5" bs. Fits perfect. The tires are Falken Ziex ZE950's in 235/60-17 front and 265/60-17 rear. Going to be mounted with Gorilla lug nuts with matching locks. It's a really nice fit with the rear disc.

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[Oldblue98]

Once satisfied all was good, the bed was put back on. At this point, I had not bedded the rear brakes yet. The truck is not being driven. After I complete the front end work and can drive the truck, I can bleed and fine tune the brakes. I like the new rear stance. It sits about 1" lower than the front, that is going to change. New tires are coming and they will be a hair taller. I would like to take it lower, but, I still need the truck to be a truck. Seeing the amount of distance from the axle to the frame, I wonder if I may need add a "C notch" even with a 4" drop? Time will tell...

Mine is 4/6 with c notch, flip etc and I still get a every once and awhile bottom out ! And I drive like a old lady. But I must say it is not that often, usually when I am not paying attention to speed bumps etc.