AlikB
Newbie
Hello all, I'm just a guy from SC who is getting ready for a big project and I finally registered so I can have access to the wealth of knowledge entombed here.
I have a 96 c1500 with a 5.7 vortec and an nv3500
My grandparents raised me and my grandaddy has been in love with and racing Chevy's since he came back from Nam. He bought my truck (which I call old gold) when I was ten years old and I've loved it ever since. I finally bought it from him this year. He got it with 50k miles on it and it's crept slowly to 230k now. Motor leaks everywhere along with the trans and the original rear end finally burnt up last year. Electronics are getting sketchy and the front end has reached the end of it's life and started to death wobble occasionally. This truck has always had a bit of the factory luck and while mostly stock (straight piped, eBay air intake and a big triple plate clutch) routinely puts 3-5 lengths on any other stock gmt400 any of my friends have ever brought around. Maybe Grandaddy did something to it while I wasn't looking but I don't think so.
But a new season has come upon me and I think it's time to really crank it up. My grandparents bought an 86 pace arrow camper, 454, 3 speed and an 8 lug rear end with duallys and disks out back. They've finally parked it for the last time and we're in talks to let me buy it. The shell isn't worth saving and the electrical gets worse every year but that big blocks only sitting on 50k miles. So here's the plan.
Strip my truck to the bare bones. Lexan side and rear windows, small, tasteful and light weight flatbed leaving room for some fat tires out back. Ditch the gas tank and grab one of the hundred gallon round tanks from a semi and mount it on the very back of the flat bed to get some weight out back. Run an in tank pump up to a frame mounted wahlbro 255 with a return line. A quick can paint job inside and out. Rewire all the lighting and ditch all ecm/pcm crap to cut down on complexity. Aluminum sheet dash and door cards with roll down windows. Two aluminum bucket seats and five point harnesses mounted to a small roll bar. Rebuild the front end with 454 SS parts and a fast gear box. 454, rear end and trans in. Keep the build as simple as possible, very few wires. Quadrajet up top with a cheap intake, possible cam depending on how it runs once it's in. Cheap set of headers run backwards to fender exit and keep out of the way of everything. Get an aluminum universal radiator to cut front end weight. Move the battery to the back. Pretty much try to balance the truck as much as possible while keeping weight down. Keep the motor iron on iron and low compression so that one day down the road when I'm ready and all the kinks are gone I can put a small set of twins turbos on it if I decide it needs them. Between us we can do all the fab work and I'm super excited to start but I'm also wanting to not drag this into a six month thing.
The whole build will be my first "hot rod" project and simplicity and ease of service and modifications are at the top of the list. Looking forward to chatting with everyone and I promise when we get underway I will have plenty of pics and vids for everyone. Happy hunting everyone.
I have a 96 c1500 with a 5.7 vortec and an nv3500
My grandparents raised me and my grandaddy has been in love with and racing Chevy's since he came back from Nam. He bought my truck (which I call old gold) when I was ten years old and I've loved it ever since. I finally bought it from him this year. He got it with 50k miles on it and it's crept slowly to 230k now. Motor leaks everywhere along with the trans and the original rear end finally burnt up last year. Electronics are getting sketchy and the front end has reached the end of it's life and started to death wobble occasionally. This truck has always had a bit of the factory luck and while mostly stock (straight piped, eBay air intake and a big triple plate clutch) routinely puts 3-5 lengths on any other stock gmt400 any of my friends have ever brought around. Maybe Grandaddy did something to it while I wasn't looking but I don't think so.
But a new season has come upon me and I think it's time to really crank it up. My grandparents bought an 86 pace arrow camper, 454, 3 speed and an 8 lug rear end with duallys and disks out back. They've finally parked it for the last time and we're in talks to let me buy it. The shell isn't worth saving and the electrical gets worse every year but that big blocks only sitting on 50k miles. So here's the plan.
Strip my truck to the bare bones. Lexan side and rear windows, small, tasteful and light weight flatbed leaving room for some fat tires out back. Ditch the gas tank and grab one of the hundred gallon round tanks from a semi and mount it on the very back of the flat bed to get some weight out back. Run an in tank pump up to a frame mounted wahlbro 255 with a return line. A quick can paint job inside and out. Rewire all the lighting and ditch all ecm/pcm crap to cut down on complexity. Aluminum sheet dash and door cards with roll down windows. Two aluminum bucket seats and five point harnesses mounted to a small roll bar. Rebuild the front end with 454 SS parts and a fast gear box. 454, rear end and trans in. Keep the build as simple as possible, very few wires. Quadrajet up top with a cheap intake, possible cam depending on how it runs once it's in. Cheap set of headers run backwards to fender exit and keep out of the way of everything. Get an aluminum universal radiator to cut front end weight. Move the battery to the back. Pretty much try to balance the truck as much as possible while keeping weight down. Keep the motor iron on iron and low compression so that one day down the road when I'm ready and all the kinks are gone I can put a small set of twins turbos on it if I decide it needs them. Between us we can do all the fab work and I'm super excited to start but I'm also wanting to not drag this into a six month thing.
The whole build will be my first "hot rod" project and simplicity and ease of service and modifications are at the top of the list. Looking forward to chatting with everyone and I promise when we get underway I will have plenty of pics and vids for everyone. Happy hunting everyone.
