33 Chevy

[dnsfailure]

It ain't a 4x4, and I don't care

I picked this up last year, put on some new tires, exhaust, and tinkered a bit. Put about 4,000 miles on it last fall while deciding what I wanted to do with it, longest trip being 600 miles round trip.

First up, get rid of the automatic transmission. I have a TKO 500 ready to go in. Also some aluminum heads, camshaft, and a few other things for the motor. Motor is a run of the mill 350 crate.

The bigger issue I was having, was that it rattled and squeaked so bad when driving. The interior structure was all wood, with the sheet metal panels screwed, nailed and bolted to it (I'm guessing that's how it was from the factory, I'm not very familiar with these old trucks). With nails and screws popping out everywhere. I've started pulling out all the wood, and re-making the structure out of steel. It'll take me a while, it'll be a slow burn. But I was looking for a project. It won't be a "cage" per say, but it should be stronger than the old wood structure, and squeak less 😆

I do have a hood for it.

I'm gonna build it to be a daily driver. Nothing to crazy. Basically I want a comfortable driver, that's fun to drive around in.

 

[ridenby]

Nice truck. I did not know they are wood framed? under the sheet metal.

 

[dnsfailure]

I'm told that they had an all wood structure for the interior body. But it looks like someone has already made the A pillars and doors out of metal. Or maybe that's how it was, I don't know really. Folks on the HAMB suspected the A pillars should have been wood, but they aren't.

 

[subybaja]

At first "ehh, dude's got a cool hotrod. Yawn."

But then "...and I'm going to gut it and rebuild the entire structure."

😎

Don't forget the free pic hosting!

 

[dnsfailure]

Heads and cam are in, I'm waiting on pushrods and an oilpan gasket.

Here's the current state of the interior. And got a start on the driver side B pillar. It has a slight curve to it towards the bottom, so I rolled some 1x2" tubing, cut it up and have it tacked in place, it fits the door pretty good.

I also opened up the rear window, whoever chopped the top before me made the rear window like 4" tall. So I'm opening up the window to be almost as tall as it was before. You can see how short the rear window was in the first post.

 

[dnsfailure]

Here's the hood, which I've already cut out to fit the exhaust. I'll add a lip to it at the bottom later.

Fortunately I didn't have to cut any of the louvers, that would have been fun welding back together... hah

 

[SurfnSnow]

Awesome project! keep posting photos

 

[dnsfailure]

Here's what I did with the window. I'm not really much of a sheetmetal guy, so fortunately there's no curves here!

I found a usable non-chopped window piece, and cut out the sections that I needed to enlarge mine.

I cut the window trim in half, moved it down about 4-5 inches, then took some good parts of the non-chopped window and filled in the sides of the trim. My window trim was in better condition than the one I found, so I used as much of mine as I could. Basically un-chopped just the window. I did this back at the end of 2019 or so, right now it tacked up, haven't fully welded it yet.

 

[V30crewcab]

looks like fun.

 

[dnsfailure]

You’re still not going to be able to see shit out of the rear window It will look a lot better with the bigger rear glass though.

anything will help.

 

[McBastard79]

That’ll be a sweet dd!

 

[WaterH]

Nice. Seems like a guy on the 4BT swaps had one of these. Probably not as fast, but gets good mileage. He had to rebuild a bunch of the wood too. You may want to look his thread up.

Anyways, I'm sub'd

 

[dnsfailure]

Nice. Seems like a guy on the 4BT swaps had one of these. Probably not as fast, but gets good mileage. He had to rebuild a bunch of the wood too. You may want to look his thread up.

Anyways, I'm sub'd

Thanks!
Yes I'd love to!

Thanks for the tip, if nothing else it would be good to see what the interior of his looked like before tearing it apart. Hardly anyone does stuff on the Chevy's, it's all Ford on most hotrod sites. I know my truck has been worked on before me (it was chopped about 15-20 years ago), but I have no idea what it looked like stock on the inside.

(edit) I'm not finding any 31, 32 or 33 chevy trucks on there, I see a Ford or two, I'll look some more though :-)

 

[Crawl Away]

Cool truck.

 

[WaterH]

Thanks!
Yes I'd love to!

Thanks for the tip, if nothing else it would be good to see what the interior of his looked like before tearing it apart. Hardly anyone does stuff on the Chevy's, it's all Ford on most hotrod sites. I know my truck has been worked on before me (it was chopped about 15-20 years ago), but I have no idea what it looked like stock on the inside.

(edit) I'm not finding any 31, 32 or 33 chevy trucks on there, I see a Ford or two, I'll look some more though :-)

I looked it up. I see it's a 32'. See if this works.

https://www.4btswaps.com/threads/the-diesel-deuce.89129/

 

[dnsfailure]

I looked it up. I see it's a 32'. See if this works.

https://www.4btswaps.com/threads/the...l-deuce.89129/

I think the trucks were a fair bit different than the cars/sedans. I'll check it out though, thanks!

(edit) Looks like his plan for interior structure was fairly similar to mine. Start with the rockers, then do the B pillar, then the rest of the structure. Thanks for the link :-)

 

[dnsfailure]

Mods, could someone move this over to the "other builds" section? Either it wasn't there when I started this thread, or I didn't see it. Would be more appropriate over there.

(Edit) Nevermind, I didn't realize we could move them on our own!

 

[CJ-Mech]

I like it

 

[dnsfailure]

The engine is just about ready to break in the camshaft. However, I won't be ready to put the engine back into the truck for a while (months, possibly not until fall, depending on my work schedule). Would assembly lube/grease still hold up after sitting that long?

I did use a thicker break-in grease than the red stuff that comes with the cam, thinking it might cling to the cam better for the longer down time. (I used "Driven" brand Engine Assembly Grease)

Would yall build a quick stand for the engine, hook up the radiator and break it in outside of the vehicle? or just wait until it's in the vehicle? I have a hand-held tach that I could use to get the RPMs.

 

[Wolfe_Man]

I'd wait for vehicle. Just prime it will through the distributor hole to get oil flowing before firing up and breaking in.

 

[dnsfailure]

engine is ready for cam break-in. I'll cover it for now, and bolt the flywheel, clutch and transmission on when it's ready to go into the truck... when ever that is :rolleyes:...

I polished up the valve covers, pulleys and air cleaner like it's gonna be in a car show

 

[dnsfailure]

on an unrelated note, my neighbor and I have been trying to get this old alcohol drag car started, it starts!

 

[dnsfailure]

Front axle, steering and leaf springs are out. Man, this stuff is WAY lighter than offroad components, I'm liking this

My plan is to run an IFS setup from TCI, the parts should arrive in a week or two for that.

I've never had an IFS vehicle before, I gather there's quite a lot of adjustments that can be made for the alignment, caster, camber, and what not. My plan once I get it all in is to just eyeball everything to what feels about right, and then take it to a local alignment shop to have them laser align it. But.... that won't be for a while.

Almost every bolt I take off of this truck is a grade 8 bolt. I should call it the grade 8 Chevy I think I'll keep that theme though, and just continue to use grade 8 everywhere. On the red rag there, that's just what I removed today. Some of the nuts aren't grade 8, but all of the washers and bolts are.


Next step is to cut the front crossmember out, and then wait for the IFS to arrive. I don't know how critical it is to keep the frame rails where they are, but I'm going to bolt them together with a piece of tube before I cut the cross member so that they stay put until the IFS is in place.

 

[dnsfailure]

never seen this bolt head pattern before. any idea what it is? the head is dished, about 1/16". If I'm corect, these should be about 15-20 years old, from the previous owner. They held the leaf springs to the front axle, which I'm 100% certain is modern, or at least not original.

 

[CJ-Mech]

Need a head scratching smilie for that one.
Never seen that marking before.

 

[Rooney77]

This things is badass. I love the old trucks.

 

[dnsfailure]

Removed the front cast iron spring mounts, they were just riveted to the frame. I ground down and punched out some of them, and drilled out some of them. Drilling seems to be quicker, and less likely to gouge the frame. Next time I remove rivets, I'll start by drilling them out.

Also removed all the rivets holding the front crossmember, but it was also welded to the frame, so I cut it out. I was hoping to remove these items in-tact, incase I found someone doing a restoration that could use them. But, in the interest of time and sanity, I just cut the crossmember out in pieces, leaving part of it inside the frame, it would have taken alot of work to get it out cleanly, and would have made even more repair work for me on the frame.

Then welded up all the rivet holes in the frame. I use a piece of copper to back the hole, then fill it.

And I traded my neighbor some parts for these seats. He thinks they are maybe out of a Van from the 70's. They are comfortable, and pretty low and with a fairly thin back to them. I want to get as low and as far back as I can, for leg room.

I'll leave them covered like this until I eventually get them mounted, then I'll have them re-covered in whatever color scheme I go with (NOT green... haha!). I'm thinking I'll go with Black and Tan for the truck, but I haven't decided yet.

 

[dnsfailure]

Made a shift knob for the transmission.

I had an old shift knob (the last photo here) that I made a while ago. But I wanted something new for the 33.

The old "screaming idiot" shift knob will have to wait for another vehicle. 🙃

 

[dnsfailure]

Here's this weekend's work. Started painting the TCI suspension parts 3 coats of primer, and 3 coats of black enamel paint.

then brought them back inside for the night to dry. The finish turned out pretty good, we'll see how it holds up :-)

​

​

​


And while the parts sat drying, I started getting the front crossmember setup. Took a few times of fitting it, removing it and grinding more, and fitting it back up again, but I got it right where it needs to be. A few times of measuring and looking at the level gauge, then tacked it in place. I think the next step will be to box the rest of the front part of the frame, then weld up the front crossmember fully

.

 

[WaterH]

Just got cought up. Nice work! Is your friend going to drive the alky soon?