First-Gen S10 Corner Carver

[jerome]

Hi, my name is Jerome and my project is a 1982 Chevy S10. I've posted some questions about it on here, and it's about time that I made a project thread.

I bought it summer of 2006 for $200 with the intention of pulling the knocking 2.8L and slapping in a V8.


That went out the window as I just kept digging deeper and deeper during teardown, and within a couple months, there was nothing bolted to the frame





The frame was sent out to be powdercoated

Just some background, I'm a mechanical engineering student at college away from home in WA. So this project is going to take forever, as I can only work on it over school breaks.

Engine:
383 small block chevy
stock 400 crank
2-peice rear main 350 block .030 over
4 bolt mains
stock rods w/ ARP rod bolts
forged TRW 11:1 pistons
AFR 195 heads 75cc
Comp Cams retrofit hydraulic roller 12-433-8
Holley HP 750 double pumper
Edelbrock Performer RPM intake
Milodon oiling
Shooting for 450-500 flywheel HP

Drivetrain:
sixspeedsinc.com rebuilt LS1 T56
Mcleod flywheel, single disk clutch, pressure plate
stock hydraulic throwout bearing
Ford 8.8 rearend from Explorer, stock with 4.10's, traction lok posi, disk brakes
rebuilt with carbon posi clutches

Front Suspension:

ATS tall spindles and steering arms
C5 brakes
stock lower control arms w/ Del-A-Lum bushings
SPC upper control arms
Howe ball joints
700lb springs and hidden adjusters from Speedway Motors
Bilstein S10 shocks

Rear Suspension:
offset 3-link w/ panhard bar designed by me: converging lower links and driver link offset to passenger side. panhard from driver's side frame to passenger side rearend.
johnny joints for links
heims for panhard
varishock coilovers

Wheels/Tires:

C5 Corvette wheels 17x8.5 front and 18x9.5 rear
Sumitomo HTRZ 245/45/17 front and 275/40/18 rear
2.25" wheel adapters for front

Exterior:
still can't decide between silver, metallic blue, copper, white, or black paint.

How it sits now:


Just got my rearend back from the welder, he did a great job. If you are in the Pacific NW and need welding, Bill Scribner is your man. Search for Scribner Welding.


Driver's side front looking backwards


Driver's side looking forwards




Jerome

[Mike Holleman]

That is going to be one neat truck Jerome. An S10 is on my list of to do's. My son has a 92 that would be a great starting point.
Keep us posted on your progress.
Mike Holleman

[muthstryker]

nice truck looks like its coming alone nicely.

Hi from another washington member.

[syborg tt]

Man I'm feeling the love for trucks.

Especially us mini-truckers

[Tony_SS]

Cool project Jerome! Look forward to the progress.

[BADNBLK]

Looks real nice! Can't wait to see more!

[GM_muscle]

i am gettin close to gettin done with my 97 s10.

[GM_muscle]

yours is looking good so far

[dusterbd13]

this is scary. i was thinking of doing almost the exact same thing as a new DD and track toy. ill have to watch your progress, as well as a few others for planning the build.
did you box the rear section of the frame while you were at it?
more pictures please. help all us researchers out a little.

michael

[TPI Monte SS]

Very cool project! Sounds very well sorted out, and looks like it's coming along great! Personally, I think a copper exterior (like Bad Penny) would look badass. Are you going to leave the grill and bumpers chrome, or do them body color?

[jerome]

I didn't box the frame, looking back that is one of things I regret. I was in a rush to tear it down and get the frame powdercoated. I really should have built all the suspension, and then had it powdercoated. The rear suspension crossmembers will force me to box portions of it. Really hurts to grind off new powdercoat, but it's what has to be done. I'll probably end up painting over the fresh sections.

Does anybody know if existing powdercoat can be rebaked so that new powder can be cured?

The grill and rear roll pan will probably be body color. I'm not a big fan of chrome, the wheels are enough for me. But the bumper I'm looking at getting only comes in chrome, so I may just leave it that way. Chrome looks good in moderation.

I ordered the oem ls1 hydraulic throwout for the t56 yesterday. I had the wrong one from mcleod before. I'm going with wilwood clutch and brake pedal master assembly, gotta figure out how to brace the firewall so that it doesn't flex. Also ordered ZQ8 bumpstops for the lower control arms, they are supposed to be better than just rubber, they have softer, more progressive spring rate.

Not sure what to do for swaybar, would love to get a splined one with bearings, but that is alot more money and effort to find an arm that works. Would be much easier to go with the stock one, get greasable poly bushings, and make adjustable heim endlinks.

I'm also wavering back and forth as to whether I want to put in a roll bar. I really would like harnesses, but a bar just makes it less comfortable to get in and out of, and is a ton of work. I'm uncomfortable with how the current seatbelts attach to the floor, because it's just one bolt and washer. The other problem is that the seats sit too high, and the floor needs all the bumps flattened out of it for the seats to sit low enough.

angle is kinda crappy, so you can't quite see what i'm talking about.

[Crafty One]

To help you out in getting the seats mounted..... go to the salvage yard and remove the inner front seat mounts from a 4dr 1st gen blazer or 2dr w/ buckets. There is about 8 spotwelds per bracket (4 brackets) that will need to be drilled. Transfer them to the exact same spots in your truck and re-weld. Hope this helps some.... I did this on my 92....

[ROACHZ28]

Nice progress. I drive a 03 GMC ZRX Sonoma with a Street Rider
package as a daily driver. Can`t wait to see it done.

[Fawkes]

1st, very cool project.

2nd, howdy from another Washingtonian. I'm in the Kent/Auburn area.

3rd, you could possibly mount a harness bar behind the seats. I've never seen one in a p/u, but hey, why not?

[backtobasics]

Man I'm feeling the love for trucks.

Especially us mini-truckers

Once I saw the quality of work, I knew your interest would be piqued.

Reminds me of your build, with the tear down, etc.

[lower90xcab]

project looks good.....

[lower90xcab]

Not sure what to do for swaybar, would love to get a splined one with bearings, but that is alot more money and effort to find an arm that works. Would be much easier to go with the stock one, get greasable poly bushings, and make adjustable heim endlinks.

im sure you are aware the ZQ8 package from GM, might look into those sway bars for the truck....im running the front and rear ZQ8 sway bar on my truck...im happy with the way it handles...belltech also makes a really nice set of sway bars for the s-series pickups....

[jerome]

The ZQ8 bar is pretty beefy, and I already have slightly higher spring rate (700lb) than stock. Actually, do you know if the ZQ8 bar is hollow? That might explain why its so big. I'm not planning on putting a rear bar on, so there's a good chance that the stock bar will be adequate. It all comes down to tuning, and then adjusting bar size to make it handle and accelerate right. I already have a stock bar, so I think I'll just slap that back on and see how well it works.

Does the rear ZQ8 bar go behind the rearend? Part of the reason I'm not planning on a rear bar is that the pinion is offset to the passenger for the ford explorer 8.8, so a S10 bar probably wouldn't work. Also I'll be running a panhard and coilovers that would make it pretty much impossible to run a bar behind the rearend. It would have to be in front of it, I think II much has a setup like that. I figure if I get the reasonable high spring rate for the back then I won't need a bar. I still don't fully understand how spring rates affect everything, so i'll need to do some reading on it.

Anybody with an S10 and coilovers have their spring rate handy so I at least have a ballpark number to start with? syborg what did you go with, or how did you pick a spring rate?

As for the seat track, I do have seat tracks, but I think the original owner put them in himself (possibly to get buckets instead of bench) and they are held in with 4 bolts. I need to get the seat lower than it is now, so I don't think tracks would help, I just need to cut out the humps in the floor to make it sit flat and then weld in reinforcing plates. Thanks for the tips though!

Jerome

[s10cyncrvr]

Does anybody know if existing powdercoat can be rebaked so that new powder can be cured?

It depends on the color. Usually darker solid colors can be rebaked without any color change. Clears and lighter colors like white tend to turn a little yellow if they are baked too long or rebaked. Do you know the manufacture and/or color name? From the pics it looks similar to Rally Wheel Silver from HotCoat.

It's looking nice. Should be a fun truck when you're finished.

[Code Red]

looking good