my 82 chevy 3/4 ton build

[Mr. Moore]

Im a long time lurker.... thought I would post up my slow build...time and money. you all know the drill. So the truck. Its an 82 Chevy that started life with a diesel, so it has the hydro brake booster but now has a 350 in it with manual trans behind it. So far most of the work has been engine tuning and so forth since the truck sat for about 6 years before I got it. The flatbed was 9' long with 3' hanging out past the rear tires and a rack that was way to heavy for the truck. I have cut 2.5' off the bed and cut the frame off 9". I plan to do longer shackles up front and a shackle mount flip kit in the rear. I don't want a ton of lift, just enough to hopefully stuff some skinny 35" tires under it. This is going to be my toy/ adventure truck but I want to keep it reliable. I still need to finish the spare tire mount on the back end. I hope the pictures actually work....I'm not that good with posting photos yet. I tried to copy and paste them from my google plus acount

When I got it:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/TEs0Cau69rkBOZJ4fHYxwhaa4723aoqjrXdSO6vIfiE=w216-h162-p-no

After the rack was cut off:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-...AAAAFvs/XsDwz8dcleA/w884-h663-no/IMG_0637.JPG

now:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-...AAAAF-Q/yvxmOWuPC_c/w497-h663-no/IMG_0714.JPG
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-...AAAAGD0/Ab9wrHZB-mI/w884-h663-no/IMG_0747.JPG

 

[RoughRiderZ71]

I would make a Photobucket account. I had the same issues when I first started posting on here and gmt400. I use it just for pictures for my build. Rather easy too haha.
But anyhoo, awesome truck! Personally, I would look at ditching the flat bed and get a camper shell, and if you still want your spare tire not in the OEM spot, i'd either fab up or try to find a custom bumper with a swivel tire mount. Just a personal preference, i'm not a big fan of flat beds. Too many ways something can fly off when i'm not on a paved road.

 

[underdrive]

Nice Fords there, both your Superduty and your neighbor's mid-to-late '70s 4x4

Love the color of the Chevy, it's odd but in a good way. Shame you couldn't keep the matching bedsides though. Oh, I would use some of the square tubing you cut off to tie the two halves of your rear bed rail down the massive platform under the spare wheel, this will make it very strong and able to hold up to more serious side impacts. Also, do add a section of square across the top of your headache rack, same principle applies there as well (plus it's a good mounting spot for lights and such).

I'll be honest with you though, having the spare wheel like that seems a bit goofy to me. You really do not gain much by locating it there, and you lose some bed functionality. If that were our truck we'd still bob the bed, but we'd keep it nice and flat all the way, and then throw the spare (or two) on the headache rack - this way you still have all sorts of space for easy loading and unloading of whatever. And keep the color-matched bed sides after proper trimming, that would be pretty darn cool. But it's your truck, so do whatever works for you

350 with the SM 465 is a great setup for a play truck, heck even for a daily driver that doesn't need to get up to interstate speeds a lot. I truly love older creeper 4-speeds, we have one in our Jeep and I still miss the one in our diesel 1-ton.

 

[Mr. Moore]

Thanks guys! I will have to get a photobucket account. I am still playing around with different configurations for the spare. There isn't room under the truck for the spare anymore and the truck didn't have any of the mounts for it either. I had it up by the headache rack but I couldn't find a spot I like that didn't block the view out the back in some way. I will be welding a new tube across the top of the headache rack, just haven't had time to get that far as well as connecting the square tubing to the rest of the bed frame better. I'm kind of winging it 😄

 

[Bojak]

Nice truck. Ya got to love square bodies. I like the flatbed too. Good luck.

 

[Mr. Moore]

Nice truck. Ya got to love square bodies. I like the flatbed too. Good luck.

Thanks Bojak!

 

[Mr. Moore]

Nice Fords there, both your Superduty and your neighbor's mid-to-late '70s 4x4

Love the color of the Chevy, it's odd but in a good way. Shame you couldn't keep the matching bedsides though. Oh, I would use some of the square tubing you cut off to tie the two halves of your rear bed rail down the massive platform under the spare wheel, this will make it very strong and able to hold up to more serious side impacts. Also, do add a section of square across the top of your headache rack, same principle applies there as well (plus it's a good mounting spot for lights and such).

I'll be honest with you though, having the spare wheel like that seems a bit goofy to me. You really do not gain much by locating it there, and you lose some bed functionality. If that were our truck we'd still bob the bed, but we'd keep it nice and flat all the way, and then throw the spare (or two) on the headache rack - this way you still have all sorts of space for easy loading and unloading of whatever. And keep the color-matched bed sides after proper trimming, that would be pretty darn cool. But it's your truck, so do whatever works for you

350 with the SM 465 is a great setup for a play truck, heck even for a daily driver that doesn't need to get up to interstate speeds a lot. I truly love older creeper 4-speeds, we have one in our Jeep and I still miss the one in our diesel 1-ton.

Underdrive,
I would keep the bedsides, but they are actually toolboxes that are to long to fit on the bed now. they are going on a work trailer that I am going to be building since they wont fit on the truck anymore. I plan on having lockable storage boxes on the bed to replace the ones I removed. I may end up making the spare lay flat recessed into the bed, but I have not decided for sure. I am making it up as I go...

 

[underdrive]

Understood on the toolboxes! Put your new toolboxes under the bed, as that's typically a wasted space if you don't fill it up with something. Also build yourself some sliders while you're at it, this way you can lean onto things with both the sliders and the bed and chance of taking any damage is greatly reduced. Plus truck will look pretty cool all done up like that.

 

[Mr. Moore]

Under the bed on either side, right behind the cab the previous owner made mounts for big ammo cans. they actually hang down even with the bottom of the cab and help protect the fuel tanks. but sliders are a great idea. I'll add that to the to do list! I am also pondering making the spare lay flat rather than at an angle like it is in the pictures... as I said, making it up as I go. So far I haven't had to buy any steel. The rack was so massive that I have been able to re use from the pile I cut off the truck lol.

 

[Mr. Moore]

BTW Underdrive, thanks for the compliments on my Ford! she is my baby and my work truck.

 

[underdrive]

BTW Underdrive, thanks for the compliments on my Ford! she is my baby and my work truck.

We used to have one of those too, for a very short while - 7.3 with a 6-speed, reg cab dually, 4x4, 1-owner truck with low mile and never abused, great thing all-around. The guy bought it back from us though, he got real tired real quick of all the bells and whistles in the brand new Ford he bought, so he got rid of that "stupid spaceship that does everything on its own" and actually paid us more than we paid him just go get his old truck back... Hey, we never really needed that truck to begin with (it just came up for sale and knowing its history we thought of it as an investment) and it funded the engine for another project, so in the end it all worked out good for everyone

I keep forgetting those older GM trucks have the tanks on the outside, and I really I should know better since we had one of them till a few years ago. OK, so I guess full size tool boxes are a no-go then, but as long as you got some storage (the ammo cans) it's all good. Yes, definitely do build yourself some sliders, especially seeing how the not too well protected tanks now hold gasoline instead of diesel.

Spare wheel, just make sure it's not in a location where you'd be tempted to pile up a bunch of stuff on top of it, stuff that you'll likely have a hard time moving if you do need to get to the spare. On our 1-ton the spare wheel usually stays vertical against the left bedrail in the front of the truck, however if the truck is to be loaded with something the wheel gets moved all the way to the rear left corner, again vertical against the bed rail - this way we can pile up stuff in the front and the wheel is still easy to get to as it's right behind the tailgate. Sometimes we actually carry two spares, when that's the case they both go in the rear of the bed, one on each side.

 

[chilliwak]

Great potential there Mr Moore! As everyone else has said get a photobucket account and it will let you post pics easily. Check out my build in my sig. It might just give you some do it yourself inspiration for a camper. Cheers, Chilli...

 

[Mr. Moore]

Chilli, I have actually read through your build already! I have actually been thinking of building removable camper for it (although not as big as yours&#128516 love what you have done with your truck!

 

[Seabass]

Mr Moore-
I've never tried photobucket, but I do have the tapatalk app and it's really easy to post pics with it from my tablet and smart phone. Really cool truck by the way!

 

[Mr. Moore]

A bit of an update... I don't have any new pics yet but I did put in some time wrenching on the truck this weekend. Some basic maintenance and I pulled the ammo can holders off from under the bed. Now I have a question on what to do about the fuel tanks.... they are the saddle style tanks that are outside the frame rails and I am not sure if I should leave them in place or convert it to a single tank mounted on the flatbed? I don't think they will get bashed, but that is my concern. I know that they would be just as vulnerable if I had a standart pickup bed on it but I just wanted to get some input from people that use similar trucks like Chilliwak. Thoughts?
thanks in advance guys