My 88 Shortbed build

[RyanMerrick]

Almost there!

 

[mybigwarwagon]

Fuzzy pics. I was tired and didn't realize they were bad.


Looked in the shop and found a brand new AC compressor I bought for another truck. Put it on. Then flipped her over and installed the oil pan.

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Turned it over and slapped on a few more things.

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No work on it today. I have to attend a birthday party for a 2 year old. Yippee. Might be out late tonight.

 

[mybigwarwagon]

Got more stuff put on today.

After having a tree fall in my work area ( before the tent went up) some bolts got lost. Having to scramble around and hunt for them. Makes things more interesting.

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No Exhaust manifold

This engine came out of a van. I didn't realize the difference in the manifolds until I had them both on and the one of the drivers side was a good 8 inches in front of the passengers side. Since the original engine was smogged I had to fight the smog line out of the manifold and I will go find the right sized plug for it. It appears the passengers side is identical except for the bung for the smog line.

Alternator will look better in a while. I put Vaseline over the black. It will wash off and look better.

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More stuff on.

I like to have never figured out how those stupid sensors went on the bracket. I played with it for about 30 minutes. Finally I found one picture in the Haynes manual that happened to have the sensors in it.

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Passengers side all dressed up.
Gunner inspecting my work.

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Waiting on paint to dry.

The original manifold was nasty ( and the other side was already painted) so I painted it. I will get it on later tonight.

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At this point it started looking like a monsoon was rolling in on us. I was drenched in sweat anyway and it was about 5:00. Rain never happened. I will go out later and stick more parts on.

 

[mybigwarwagon]

Only thing left is installing it.
Ran out of paint on the passengers exhaust manifold. Oh well, it ain't a show truck.

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[mybigwarwagon]

I got up today and went to a doctors appointment. Turns out that I wasted my time. Appointment is tomorrow. Heath played with my tablet and changed the date. Oh well. The secretary is cute.
So I came home.

Progress.

After taking care of a few housekeeping items today we got the engine dropped in the truck. Also put the Torque converter back in. All I lack now is finishing.

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Lowered the pop up canopy and called it a night.

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Came in drenched in sweat and dog tired.

 

[mybigwarwagon]

Things are moving slowly, but moving.

Steph started doing her unpaid student teaching so I am at home with Heath 5 days a week. It is about impossible to get anything done while trying to watch him. If he thinks he isn't being watched he puts those little legs to good use.


Some tiny progress.

Made a list of what is left

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The work force
Steph and Heath lending a hand.

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Got the belt on finally.

Had to try three times to get the right size.

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Heath helping out more

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Heath added an auxilliary belt
NO word on what it does yet.

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Fuel lines hooked up (and a stray piece of tape)

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And a roadblock.

The TBI I am using is off a 94 truck. It has all the ultimate TBI mods done to it . Only problem is my 88 transmission has a kickdown (TV) cable the 94 didn't so there is no provision to hook the cable up. I spent some time removing the stud from the 88 TBI.

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Not much there to work with.

Good thing is I have a friend who has a machine shop. I dropped it off with him and he is working on it now.

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Made an engine primer

This old distributor was locked up and no good. A little work on the bench and I have it freed up and ready to use to prime the engine with oil when we are ready to start it up.

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[mybigwarwagon]

Heath has the spirit.

He spent the morning working on his truck.

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My buddy who has his own machine shop made me a TV cable stud.

He said he made it long so I could shorten it.

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Stuck it on an old TBI.

It definitely needed to be shortened. A little quality time on the bench grinder and all was right. Not pictured: I got the TV cable installed, hooked up the y pipe with new gaskets, got the fuel lines attached, and removed all the old exhaust.

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Had to put the hitch back on

After trying to install the exhaust I soon realized it needed to clear the hitch. I had to put it back on to make sure i got it all in the right place.

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Had to move the bed too.

After way too many trips in and out from under the truck to wrangle the 3 year old back into sight; I decided to move the bed that was dangling from the gantry crane.

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Much more room to work.

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Grabbed some Zip ties and mocked it up.

The "complete" cat back exhaust kit did not have a long enough pipe to reach the factory cat. Now that it is all mocked up I can measure for a pipe and go snag one.

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[BoxerPitMix]

Looks like it's coming along! Looking forward to seeing it back together!

 

[mybigwarwagon]

After being diagnosed with 3 herniated discs i have been taking it easy. I couldn't stand it any more so I had to do somethin to Spooky.

I decided that Spooky had sat long enough. So I hooked her to the WheelHorse and dragged her as far as it would. I have got to get some weight in the back of the tractor.

After digging some nice sized holes I decided I need a bigger gun. So I got the S10 Blazer. Spooky came right out of the tent.

I started to hook up the plug wires, but soon found I was missing one spark plug ( thanks Heath) and the coil wire. I used it on CB when the new set of wires for her didn't have a coil wire.

So I attacked the exhaust. I bet I have 8 hours of work into figuring it out. Well today I had an epiphany. It was nearly impossible to get things right with the truck sitting at an angle. So I got both floor jacks out and raised the front end till it was levilish.

Once I had it level I was able to see things a bit more clearly. I used about 15 pieces of rope to tie the pipes up to the frame in the proper position. I needed an intelligent octupus to help. I just didn't have neough hands.

The exhaust kit will not work with the receiver hitch if I want to run it out the back. After some head scratching I turned both rear pipes out to the side. It worked perfectly. I was able to get the measurements I needed for the pipe I need to buy - 29 inches.

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I need to do a bit of trimming. Or I could just start a new trend.

And, yes, things in the yard are a mess. I have 3 herniated discs and it is just not a priority right now.

I also bought the Suburban in the pics above and this 88 Longbed for parts.

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Brand new tires worth more than I paid for the whole truck.

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[mybigwarwagon]

I had my surgery on Aug 15th. All the doc will let me do now is walk around the yard. So now I walk past Spooky over an over while walking my mile. It just looks at me as if to say," What the heck man, FIX ME."

I want to work on it so bad I cant' stand it. Don't want to undo the surgery and wind up sliced open again.