My 88 Shortbed build

[mybigwarwagon]

I had a woman call me to come clear some scrap metal out of her yard. Under a tree was an 88 Chevy short bed with about 3 feet of pine needles covering it. I gave her $500 and left with it. It had to work on the way home. We loaded 4 work benches on it. I towed it behind my 94 Chevy Suburban that died shortly thereafter. The little S10 is my wife's 500K mile S10 still doing work.

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It sat in the yard for a few weeks with no real hurry to get it on the road. We started it up and it smoked like a house on fire. It also had no brakes. That was a fun test drive.

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Then the 454 in the Suburban decided it was time to retire.It has a mystery electrical fault that will not let it go past 2500 rpm. ( and before the suggestions come rolling in on fixing it - yes I tried that) It left me with no work truck. So rather than fix the 11 MPG beast I decided to get the 88 on the road.

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[mybigwarwagon]

Pulled the engine.
It was covered in grease and oil and grunge from a massive oil leak. Some Purple Power and a pressure washer and it looks pretty good. Still have some cleaning to do.

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Decided to hose the outside off too.
Most of the pine sap and mold came off on the first pass.

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I bought an engine.

Guy said it was perfect. Got it home. One cylinder was full of water and it had 60psi compression on 2 cylinders. If I wanted to rebuild one I would rebuild mine (which will happen eventually). Took it back and got my money. I was called every name in the book. I was bigger than he was so I got my money and left.

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So if you are not too far from Charlotte NC and have a cheap 350 let me know.

While I am looking for an engine I decided to clean some more

Pulled the bed off and hosed it with degreaser.

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[mybigwarwagon]

The under side is covered in oil and gunk.

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The bed was full of trash and pine needles.

Propped it up for cleaning

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[Jorge6.5]

Nice score. What are your plans for the truck?

 

[mybigwarwagon]

Right now get it on the road and drive it a while.

 

[mybigwarwagon]

Final wash of the engine bay
Next comes paint

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Back cleaned up nice too
I am going to lift it up with the crane tomorrow and get under the cab.

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Under the bed
Still gunky but getting there. My shoulder gave out so I had to stop.

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[mybigwarwagon]

Needed to clean the underside so the gantry crane lended a hand

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Flipped the bed. Still have some gunk to clean off it

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Better shot of the underside hosed down with degreaser, Bottom on the cab is nasty!

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Do you endo?

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[scottx]

Nice job getting that for cheap! I'd like to have that truck. Good luck with it.

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[BoxerPitMix]

Looks like a nice clean slate for a fun project, nice work!

 

[mybigwarwagon]

Got an engine for the 88 today. Compression and leakdown tests showed it has a blown head gasket or cracked head between cylinders 2 and 4. Not a big deal since I wanted to go ahead and do the heads any how and I have 2 sets of heads if these are cracked.
No pictures because I figured ya'll already knew what a nasty 350 looks like.