Project Mongrel - The 1500 to 2500HD SWB SCSB Step Side

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ddaxe

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As asked by many members of the forum, I will go through what it took to take a 90 SCSB step side and a donor 2500HD to make a bad *** lifted short frame HD with a 454.

It all started with 2 trucks... a 90 shorty.. and a 93 2500HD... both seen here undergoing a total strip down to the frames..

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ddaxe

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Once I had everything stripped down, I went about the task of which way to get the 2500's front suspension pieces to work on the 1500's... with both frames side by side, I kept looking at the unique features of each setup and tried to come up with a plan to meld the 2. After a few days contemplating the options, it became clear that the best way to achieve it was to 1/2 & 1/2 it together... better put.. take the front section of the 2500 and graft the back of the 1500 to it... sounded good in theory... It dawned on me that the common thread of the 2 chassis' was the torsion bar length and cross member location relative to each. After a lot of measuring I also double checked my theory on an ECSB.. and it was then that I realized this would be the way to pull it off....

pic below.. the 90 stripped down to the chassis

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ddaxe

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Some of my friends asked why I wouldn't just rebuild the 90 as it "looked" in decent shape, that is, until I started digging into it and realized it was just a pig with lipstick... the floor & inner rockers were rotted pretty bad.. as were the outer n inner fenders.. and rad support... the guy I had bought it off of 5 years earlier did a pretty good job to hide the fact... and it's sitting started to show just how much "cosmetic" fixing was actually done to it... I had stumble upon a 93 2500HD that was owned since new by an elderly gent(which I had wanted to do from the start) for a very good price, so I snatched it up.. and began...

the 2500 stripped to the frame... and the Big Block coming out...

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ddaxe

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I set to work measuring and planning the cuts to both frames... As I had mentioned.. the common spot on both frames was torsion bar cross member location.. so I left the mounting location on the 1500's back.. and cut it out of the 2500's... the idea was that when the 2 sections were brought together and the cross member bolted.. it would be in the ball park.. and all it should take is a minimal tweaking to get it square... for all intent & purposes.. that is exactly the way it went down... the first corner to corner measurement after loosely bolting the cross member was 1/8th of an inch off square.... Did I pegged that one... or it was just sh*it luck... you decide...

The pics show how I did it...

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ddaxe

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Once everything was square & level.. I set about welding & phish plating the inside of the frame... it should be as strong as it ever was...

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ddaxe

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Now that I had a complete chassis again, I took the rest of it apart, sandblasted the whole thing and painted it

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ddaxe

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I had sandblasted a bunch of pieces from the front suspension, painted them all, then moved onto doing the engine... The 454 in the 93 ran like a champ.. no hesitation.. no smoking.. no knocking... it had a couple oil leaks.. and an exhaust gasket leak that sounded like rockers ticking.. this was going to be no biggy to redo.. just a lot of time with a wire wheel cleaning the crude.. re-gasketing everything... but I had an idea to get this Rat to breath better...

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ddaxe

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Once I had the engine down to the block.. I set my sights on a mild porting n polishing just to smooth things out and take out the roughness and ridges from the factory casting process... I also lapped the valves to ensure a good seal

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ddaxe

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After about 10 hours doing the heads.. I moved on to redoing other engine pieces.. valve covers.. intake.. rebuilding the TBI unit..etc.. painting and cleaning up everything engine related.. When I tried to sandblast the oil pan... I discovered some pin holes where it had rusted... so I bought a new one.. and was back to engine assembly...

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ddaxe

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My attention turned back to the chassis where I had to figure how to adapt the Rough Country 6" lift that was designed for a 1500 and make it work in a 2500 HD configuration. But before I could tackle that.. I had to overcome some impossible to get out bolts that were seized.. tight... The old wheel bearings to spindle bolts were frozen in so bad.. I had to resort to "washing" them out with the plasma cutter I had bought about 6 months before starting the project without doing damage to the spindles, not easy... but it wasted no time getting them out.. along with other tasks I used it for.. I don't know how I ever did without one...

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