1964 C10 Project - Part III

This is when things get interesting. Everybody knows that - at some point - the wheels are going to fall off the project's plan (pun intended) and the project is going to run wild. There's no better, or more likely, place for this to happen than at Brent's shop. Before too long, I had the truck completely blown apart, I was modifying the frame for air suspension and I had a 2000 Silverado to serve as a drivetrain donor. 

Believe it or not, when designing a suspension setup, one of the first things you need to do is select wheels. One would think wheels is one of the last decisions to be made but in some cases, that's wrong. In my case, I knew I needed to narrow the rear axle from the 2000 Silverado. But how much? The only way to know that is to know how wide the wheels' width and backspacing. I spent several weeks searching and selecting the wheels and when found the Rocket Racing Attack wheels, I knew they were the ones. I bought 18" x 12" for the rear and 18" x 9" for the front.

Armed with the wheels' specs, I bought 4" narrowed axle shafts from Moser Engineering and Brent taught me how to properly narrow axle housings while keeping them straight. I custom made air bag cups for the lower control arms and many other aspects of the front suspension.

Rather than C or Z the rear frame section, Brent talked me into cutting it off and custom making the entire back-half. I bought bending dies for 2" square tubing to use with Brent's JD Squared bender and a crapload of 2" square pipe with 1/4" wall thickness. If you're thinking that bending 2" 1/4"-wall square tube is a challenge, you would be correct! We even broke one of the bender's arms!

One of my greatest memories of this era was when we had the new frame sections mounted, which we 'ran wild' rearward, I wasn't sure how to cut the frames to the proper length so Brent clamped the chopsaw to the frame and went to town!

I never cared for the factory placement of the rear axles so when I remounted the trailing arm crossmember, I moved it back 1.5 inches.

I prepared the 72,000 mile LM7 from the donor truck by adding a Sloppy Stage 2 camshaft & LS3 valve springs and preparing it to be managed by a Holley Terminator X Max engine/transmission controller. I also had the 4L60E transmission reclutched and converted from 4WD to 2WD (new tailshaft & housing). 

I made the motor mounts, transmission crossmember, built the sub-chassis for the air suspension management, and then mocked-up the cab, a box side and front fender to make sure everything was physically where it needs to be. 

Then I got a blow it apart again, have the frame sandblasted, paint it and do a final reassembly of the chassis.

Brent had been diagnosed with small cell carcinoma in 2019 and by this time (summer of 2021), his health was starting to fail and I felt my presence at the shop was not helping matters. After a brotherly blow-out one evening, it became clear that after almost 3 years, I had worn out my welcome and decided to put Ol Blu together the best I could and take it home.

At home, I properly routed the air lines, fuel lines and brake lines, and finish a few other miscellaneous items.