Bring My Old Drag Truck Back To Life

Pacfanweb · July 3, 2018

Sorry for the lack of updates. Not a lot has happened. Right after I got the bed off and was going to take it to the sandblaster, my dog was sick and I took him to the vet and found out he had cancer. Had him looked at for a second opinion about 1.5 weeks later and he died 2 days later.

So that sucked, but it also cost me some truck money.

But I'm back on it now....except it's DAMN hot here. Going to get the bed on the trailer and get it blasted and see what's under the paint, and proceed from there.

mjm-1957 · July 3, 2018

Sorry to hear that about your dog. Had to put my German Shepard down from liver cancer and it wasn't easy. Felt like losing a member of the family.

Edited July 3, 2018 by mjm-1957
grammar

Pacfanweb · July 30, 2018

On 7/3/2018 at 7:29 PM, mjm-1957 said:

Sorry to hear that about your dog. Had to put my German Shepard down from liver cancer and it wasn't easy. Felt like losing a member of the family.

Yep, it wrecked me. He was only 5 and died in our living room with all 4 of us around him. Went from walking around the yard just fine on Friday to gone just after noon on Sunday. I've had a lot of old and sick dogs down and been there holding them every time, but this one was awfully tough.

Anyway, I now have the bed on my trailer. When I get a minute, will set up with the blaster dude to take it over. Yeah, I've been kind of slacking on this, but it's HOT here. I work outside (I'm a dealership vendor, fix water leaks, wind noises and sunroofs) and when I get home, the last thing I want to do it work outside some more, lol.

But it's going to get done, especially when it cools a bit. I will get it inside my garage when it's blasted where it's not so hot and get it knocked out.

Side note: I've been researching the sheet metal parts I need and all the bottom corners are available, no prob. But I need the front part of the bed floor and nobody seems to make it for a short bed. They make it for a long bed. They make the back floor section for a short bed, but not the front, which has the spots for the fuel filler neck.

They do make a generic patch piece I could use, but it's just the floor ribs, doesn't have that place for the filler neck. I could fab it, but didn't really want to.

Would love to find a junk short bed that I could cut out the front section of floor, but that's kind of unlikely...they're all as old as mine with probably some of the same issues.

CrustyC10 · January 7, 2019

What size tires are those? And wheel back spacing? I curious to know as much specs as u can give?? Wheel mounting surface to wheel mounting surface on rearend? Backspace on wheels... as much info as u can share would be appreciated... Working on building one myself and I like the setup u have on urs... Thanks

Pacfanweb · January 11, 2019

On 1/7/2019 at 12:08 PM, CrustyC10 said:

What size tires are those? And wheel back spacing? I curious to know as much specs as u can give?? Wheel mounting surface to wheel mounting surface on rearend? Backspace on wheels... as much info as u can share would be appreciated... Working on building one myself and I like the setup u have on urs... Thanks

I can eventually, but it's cold here right now, lol. I can tell you the rims are 15x14. I don't remember the back spacing, would have to remove them to accurately measure.

Slicks are 16x33, I believe.

75z28 · January 11, 2019

On 4/29/2018 at 7:50 AM, Pacfanweb said:

So I have a 1979 Silverado short bed. Dad bought it in 1980 with 5k miles on it. I took my drivers license test in it. First thing I drove on the road by myself. Got my first 2 speeding tickets in it, lol.

He started racing it in 1983 and it's never been on the street since. He passed in 94 and had given it to me a year or so earlier. I raced a lot in the 90's, last went in about 2002. Been sitting in my driveway...hasn't had a cover in several years now, and it shows.

So my kids and I have been watching Street Outlaws No Prep and they want to go racing. Well, you don't have to twist MY arm to make me want to do that. Daughter and I dragged it out of its resting spot yesterday.

Got some rust on the left side of the bed. A bit on the outside, and at the front left corner of the bed floor. Rest of it is pretty decent. Our first move is probably going to be to remove the bed and fix those spots, then move on to whatever else we find.
Not looking for a total restoration here, just want to make it look decent again so it's not embarrassing to show up at the track.

It is a factory 454 truck. Still has the original tranny, although it has an ATI 8" stall converter and a reverse manual shift valve body. Currently has a 427 that is a weird oversize: .072" over. Previous owner of that motor didn't want to go .090 I guess, but the cylinders were wallowed out so they honed the biggest one until it was perfect and custom ordered JE pistons to that size. Doesn't make sense to me, but whatever. He spent a grand on custom pistons. He could have gotten a new block and had it machined for less than that.   It ran strong.

14:1-ish compression. Closed chamber rectangle port heads. .714" lift roller cam. Old school horsepower.

Ran just about 7.00 in the 1/8 mile at 99 mph. Just over 4,000 lbs with me in it.

Ladder bar suspension with coil overs, Dana 60 with 5.57 gears.

Here is my old friend yesterday as we pulled it out into the sunlight, with the next generation at the wheel:

Sweet truck! 14:1 is crazy. That must be a quick little truck.
I ran a 7.3 in the 1/8 but my car was pinging like crazy with only 10:1! Sadly, no more drag strips near me, so no more racing so I am switching it over to a manual!

Pacfanweb · March 22, 2019

Had the bed sand blasted. Been chipping away at the rust repair since the weather finally broke here recently. We've had a record amount of rain the last 6 months or so.

Slowly but surely

Pacfanweb · August 5, 2019

So, an update: The bed rust has given me some problems, but I bought a used bed that was "repairable" for parts. Turns out it was just about in better shape than mine. I was so far into mine that I'm still using it for parts and fixing mine.

Am well down the road to getting this bed finished now.
Been hot here and I've been busy, but I'm determined to get this thing done so I can get to the fun and easy part of getting the mechanical stuff fixed.

riverbanks · August 7, 2019

Do you think you should get the cobwebs out of the motor,and show us a smokey burnout?

Pacfanweb · January 6, 2020

On 8/7/2019 at 11:20 AM, riverbanks said:

Do you think you should get the cobwebs out of the motor,and show us a smokey burnout?

Ha, I'd love to. Still working on it. Bed is coming along nicely. Just don't have the time like I'd prefer, but if the weather here will cooperate a bit this winter, hopefully I'll smell some smoke this year. Worked on it this weekend. Got a good bit done.

Also bought a cheapo plasma cutter to help with this part, and WOW....how have I not owned one of these before?

Edited January 6, 2020 by Pacfanweb

Pacfanweb · January 13, 2020

So, been back cutting, grinding and welding (if you can all what I do with a welder "welding") a bit.

Making progress.

When the bed is ready, that's by far the toughest part of this thing, which is why I decided to tackle it first. You see all sorts of project hot rods, where some gear head gets a body in rough shape and he's not much on body repair. But he knows engines, so he builds that first, and then it just sits there for years while he scratches his head on the body part, then he gives up and sells it all.

So I am avoiding that...the engine is the fun part for me, and since I grew up in a body shop, I hate it, lol.

Oh, and how did we ever live without plasma cutters? They are AWESOME.

Edited January 13, 2020 by Pacfanweb