1983 S-10 Rebuild Project here.... ALMOST COMPLETE!

[beretta]

just watch the oil level closely in that engine... if it gets 1 qt low and you hammer on it hard once.. its screwed LOL. had bad luck with them they have very week bottom ends, i managed to blow rods out of 3 of them and i didnt really drive it that hard, i mean it was my first car and all and a 5 speed so that probably didnt help LOL red line all the time and horsing around with it, but over rev once and you can pretty much kiss it good bye.

Ive had the car for over 8 years i guess now, its been sitting with no engine for the past 4 years but had a body and paint job done just before. i have all the parts to put it back together but just havent had the interest since i have the beretta. going to build a 3.1 turbo engine for the beretta, then ill maybe build the 383 for the bird.

Nice job though on the truck, i always enjoy seeing this kind of thing where its pretty much crap and fixed back up, i bought my truck for 500.. prob a little much for the condition but its 4x4 with a 4 speed with low so the drive line was worth what i paid, bought a good rust free box from a friend for 350. and got new rockers and cab corners and done all the repairs myself. trucks been sitting since last winter but im taking it to my shop this weekend i hope and i can get back to finishing it and park the beretta. i have a 74 nova 010 block but only 2 bolt main 350 2 barrel carb to throw in it for now, 60,000 miles on the engine so it should be good and strong still. and some nice headers to go with it.

I have a ton of photos before and afters of my truck on facebook.... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=51 ... aid=132039

[DTMAce]

Oh no! Not a Mexico reman! Or is that just Advance Auto engines?

Autozone, not Advance Auto. Different place.

But as I said, it has been fine so far, so it will continue to be used. I do know the impact broke the alternator mount and locked the waterpump, so those two things we have to replace yet.

[Money pit Beretta]

Ok, sure hope it's ok.

[DTMAce]

Bah. Not worried about it, not my engine. LOL

[beretta]

i seen this on ebay and thought of you LOL.. although its extended cab... its a brand new cab....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Chevy-GM ... ccessories

[DTMAce]

Wrong truck. That's for a full size. And definitely out of budget. lol

[3X00-Modified]

Oh no! Not a Mexico reman! Or is that just Advance Auto engines?

Autozone, not Advance Auto. Different place.

Yes and no... They sometimes use some of the same reman companies depending on the part...

[DTMAce]

lol

Yeah, you are probably right. Doesn't really matter anyway though anyway, as long as it works..

Haven't done much to it this week, I think he did some grinding and base fill around the welds on the driver's side, still has to remove the old rocker on the pass side and get that one done. then we have to start prepping for paint, doing some other small rust area fixes, etc. Have to flip it onto its back yet, so we can dress the bottom a bit too.

[scd88ga]

Oh no! Not a Mexico reman! Or is that just Advance Auto engines?

Autozone, not Advance Auto. Different place.

Yes and no... They sometimes use some of the same reman companies depending on the part...

We're talking reman engines here, not other random parts.

[DTMAce]

More!

About done with rockers.

Driver's side:



Passenger side:





Just has to do the finish work on that, then we flip her onto its back and work the bottom. Have to clean it real good, do some small rust fixing then primer/paint. So far so good. He wants to get the cab painted and ready to sit on the frame, so we can sit it back out of the way and bring the frame in and work on it next.

The messed up part about the new frame is the fact its an extended cab size frame, not a regular one. So he plans to shorten it down to the correct length and weld it back together. No worries, I have seen this done numerous times on stuff he has had to fix, from boat trailers to car haulers, etc. I suggested he keep it long and install a nice sized custom built storage box between the bed and the cab but have to admit, it would not really look that good. Plus that would also mean he has to have a different drive shaft, and other potentials. Simpler to cut and make it the right size. And since he got the frame and other parts for nothing, big deal.

[DTMAce]

More updates as of last Friday. I just had not gotten around to posting it:

Flipped the cab to work the bottom.









Shots of the tranny and engine...





It is continuing to progress.... More on the next post.

[DTMAce]

As promised.. LOL Dad worked on it quite a bit over the weekend while I was gone. The bottom is done and its flipped back forward. Already has gotten a lot of prep work done, so we can get the interior and the firewall painted:













Hopefully will have most of the cab done and ready to be put back to the frame this week. So far its looking good, the cab was pretty solid, not too much bad rust really, most was surface stuff.

Once this is mostly done, it will be frame time.

[beretta]

looks good, i really enjoyed working on my truck, im not a pro at body work, but the work i done was pretty dam good i think lol.

Cant wait to see this project finished it will be a nice truck when its done.

[DTMAce]

Well, I have more, he managed to get the interior and front of the cab painted so he could start putting some parts back onto it, to get it ready for the frame:









Starting to look better already. hehe

[KFLO 93 GT]

That's one hell of a project! Its looking good too.

I don't know what it is about older powder blue S10s and frontal impacts.... a few years ago one of my bosses has an 85 4x4 and that thing met its demise when someone pulled out in front of him. His had more rust than sheetmetal left though... so it definitely didn't get repaired.