1993 Shortbox Build

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RCSB_jonny

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Nice job!

"...build guitars & brew beer".
You must be Canadian.

Guilty :D

I haven't built any guitars for ~8 years or so, I moved away for college and therefore away from my dad's wood shop. Beer is much easier to do wherever, I did that in an apartment for a year before buying my house. Now I have my own brewery room in the basement.

Got all my brackets and frame members blasted, now they're at the shop getting powder coated.

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RCSB_jonny

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So I have a question and I'm not sure what section to post it up in, so I'll put it here and hope someone who knows sees it.

My understanding of replacing rivets with bolts:

-Rivets expand to fill the hole, eliminating any play
-The best way to replicate this with a bolt would be to drill out the holes so they are the exact size of the bolt replacement
-Using a bolt with a portion of smooth shank means there is no threads in the shear plane
-Grade 8 is generally preferred over Grade 5 (or 10.9 vs 8.8 in metric)

However, from looking around at things like drop hangers, it seems like they often come with fully threaded bolts. Is the thread in the shear plane not a big deal?

I've drilled out my holes to match M12 bolts, and ordered M12x40mm bolts since they listed them as "partially treaded" with a minimum thread of 30mm. However I got them and they are fully threaded, rather than having ~10mm of shank as expected. I get that stating "minimum" allowed for that possibility but the fact that they were listed as "partially threaded" annoys me.

Now I'm trying to decide if I order longer bolts to get some with a portion of smooth shank, or if I'm just overthinking this and should just use the bolts I have.
 

John Pippin

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Nice thread and truck. Definitely looking forward to seeing the progress. Rust encapsulator got me here lol Doing the same thing to my 94 stepside. That list dies get long and expensive lol reading about what your doing is possibly changing mine. I emailed a place Monday about powdercoating the whole frame. Seen on YouTube, but seen it can be well worth it of this place does it in the price range I seen online $350-500 thats worth not having to do it in my opinion. But we'll see what they say. I'm along for the ride.
 

RCSB_jonny

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Nice thread and truck. Definitely looking forward to seeing the progress. Rust encapsulator got me here lol Doing the same thing to my 94 stepside. That list dies get long and expensive lol reading about what your doing is possibly changing mine. I emailed a place Monday about powdercoating the whole frame. Seen on YouTube, but seen it can be well worth it of this place does it in the price range I seen online $350-500 thats worth not having to do it in my opinion. But we'll see what they say. I'm along for the ride.

Thanks! Lol, the list gets longer every time I google something. I thought about powder coating the frame, but I don't have the skills or space to get the cab off or engine out. If you can get it done for that price, go for it I'd say. I paid ~700 just to get all my loose brackets and cross members blasted+coated.





I have a question re: selling parts - looked at posting a question in the classified area but I don't think I'm allowed to yet.

I've got my stepside box for sale on Kijiji, trying to get rid of the box+tailgate+bumper all at once. A guy messaged me, offering a "couple hundred" for the four black plastic step pads. I haven't had much interest in the box at the price I've listed it at, I'm unsure if I should take that offer. Seems like a lot for some black plastic pcs, but if they are that valuable am I further hurting my chances selling the whole box? LMC seems to only have 1 of the 4 pads for ~$45.
 

RCSB_jonny

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Well, it's been over a year an unfortunately I don't have much of an update, but I figure if I post something it might motivate me to keep at er. It's pretty hard to work on it in the winter, between the cold and my dad piling a bunch of junk in the garage around it. He lives an hour away from me so carving out time to get there has been tough. Come spring I spent a month in NY with familty, then had bunch of wedding planning stuff and got married in August:

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The I redid the backyard, got back into playing sports again, work travel... life basically lol. Got back into it a bit this fall, but then winter came again too quickly.

Biggest thing I've done is replace the fuel lines and gas tank. Got the truck fired up briefly in November, roughly a year after I parked it. Had no trouble at all starting up thank god.

I finally sold my stepside box to a father and son who were doing their own project, and bought a fleetside. Also scored a tailgate in amazing condition, which is the last piece of sheet metal I needed.

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I got a mig/flux welder for Christmas, but haven't had a chance to use it yet as there's some sort of problem with the 220V circuit in the garage. Once that's figured out I can tackle the rocker panels and cab corners finally. In the meantime I've started disassembly on the front steering/suspension so I can clean up the rest of the frame and rebuild the from end. Stuck on the torsion bars right now, they do not want to budge.

In other news, my brother also bought a GMT400, his an 89:

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Drunkcanuk

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It's good that you have taken steps to continue your journey. Nothing like a little sibling competition to maybe spark a fire to complete it. Life gets in the way while making plans... believe me, doesn't get easier as time goes on.

Interesting about the "couple hundred" for the steps. I have plans for replacing mine, which are mint, with something else when the time comes.

Keep the pics coming, the more people I see picking away at projects motivates me to get started on mine, cab corner is sitting there waiting for me to fire up a grinder and my welder as well.

Curious as to why you are going from a GMC steppy to Chevy fleet.
 

RCSB_jonny

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It's good that you have taken steps to continue your journey. Nothing like a little sibling competition to maybe spark a fire to complete it. Life gets in the way while making plans... believe me, doesn't get easier as time goes on.

Interesting about the "couple hundred" for the steps. I have plans for replacing mine, which are mint, with something else when the time comes.

Keep the pics coming, the more people I see picking away at projects motivates me to get started on mine, cab corner is sitting there waiting for me to fire up a grinder and my welder as well.

Curious as to why you are going from a GMC steppy to Chevy fleet.

Yeah the step guy ghosted me actually, I still have them.

The Chevy grille and fleetside has always been my ideal truck, and I just figured they were easy enough to swap that I was willing to compromise on those when I decided it was time to buy one. Haven't done the grille yet but I came out revenue neutral on the buying and selling of the box, and the box I have now is in WAY better shape rust wise.

Usually the guy with the bag on his head is in the trunk.
Bro drives by the Braille method?

Lol, nah just wasn't sure if he'd want his face on the internet. Really I just spared you all from seeing his ugly mug!
 
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