78 k10 step side daily driver build

[91samurai]

This is my 78 k10 stepside that I bought for my first pick up

On the trailer leaving the sellers house back in April.

To start i'm still in high school, so this won't be a high dollar build. I have been dreaming of having a square body chevy 4x4 for about the last 8 or 9 years. With my samurai finally to offroading status after a five year build, I began looking for a k10, k20, or k30. Scanning craigslist for about 4 months every day, looking for one in my price range. I saw the listing for this one the day I left for Zuwharrie and made arraignments to look at the truck when I got back. Carefully looking the truck over; I knew that it needed work(windows didn't work, rust, wouldn't start). So I offered 2/3 asking price. Later that day me and my dad were headed back with a trailer. It has a low mile 350 crate engine and a sm465 with a np205 behind it. When I got it, it had a locked up 12 bolt rear axle, and a 10 bolt front. There was a considerable amount of rust. It's the perfect truck to me though, no headliner, vinyl floor mat, manual trans, bench seat, and a v8. My plan is to make a daily driver with the ability to tow my samurai to uwharrie and other local wheeling places, the flats, dpg, etc. Now Being high school means that my parents made some rules if I was going to drive an old truck without air bags every where. I had to have four wheel disc brakes, a roll bar, and four point harnesses. In this thread I will also be including the progress on my suzuki, because I don't have a tread for it.

My Samurai for reference.

My first order of business was to wash it to remove the mold from sitting for two years. The paint looks a lot better in the photo.

Underneath all that crud is what I believe to be a goodwrench crate motor.

A carb clean as well as a little steel wool action on the valve covers and air cleaner lid. No photos but one of the cylinders the jet shoots gas into was melted, and a bunch of aluminum build up on one of the butterfly valves. Also no pics but gapped plugs. Dropped, cleaned, patched and painted(rustolium under coating sucks) the gas tanks. All new fuel lines and a fresh oil change. A quick cooling system flush and she was ready to start. To pull the rear axle I had to turn the truck around. The rear axle had magically unlocked it self by rolling backwards down the drive way. It drove easy but the power steering pump sounded like a sawmill.

A 12 bolt is nothing compared to a rockwell or 14 bolt that i'm used to. Upon close inspection the ring gear was chipped, pinion gouged, and the carrier destroyed(gov bomb).

After math of 2 years sitting with the cover off. I purchased a master rebuild kit and hunted down a set of gears. Thanks to Chris at Marsfab for hooking me up with a set of 3.08 gears (I know, but think highway) and an open carrier.

The rear bumper was beef(6in channel, 3/8 and 1/2 plate), but Fugly. I changed the hitch, and angled the bottom corner up 2in.

Threw down some mig welds on the receiver tube. I had done the same thing on the bumper for my dads LJ bumper and I like the look.

Mounted on the truck. I sprayed it silver to try and tone down the blue on the truck. No pics but I had Andy Zuber set up the gears.(Hit him up for any gear work you need) Anybody looking to throw discs on a truck 12 bolt while on a budget, I can give you a parts list. I drilled the axle shafts out to take a front wheel stud and installed some front rotors. For caliper brackets I used some cheap and crappy ebay weld on brakets. Next year I'll be looking to upgrade to lugnut4x4's ebrake kit. The best part is, it still fits under the stock 15in rallye wheels. still looking for a spare wheel though, anybody with a cheap 15x8 thats 6x5.5, pm me.

Also started messing around with my tig.

While I had the tig out I finished up my cart. It's mostly 3/4 DOM. And it was free to build.

 

[91samurai]

Then the worst part started, rust repair.

The door sort of fell off. It was in need of a lot of help. Also as you can see the truck was originally white, then painted, blue metallic, And then the blue the outside is currently (the whole interior is the blue metallic).

The rust just got worse. I vacuumed up some of the floor. New rockers and some floor sections were needed. Being on a budget I ordered some lmc rockers and decided to make the floor patches my self. Drivers side was much worse.

However the rest of the floor was solid. No pics of the rocker install, because I worked on it a little at a time after work during the summer.

Much worse. Also trying to leave the door on made it more difficult; worth it though. I usually work by myself and bolting a fullsize door on is a lot harder than a samurai.

I removed the front clip to make engine work and floor/body panel repair much easier. The previous owner was mr. smart and painted the radiator shroud and the water pump pulley orange.

I was surprised by my dad with a brand new body mount to replace my completely rusted out one. I only used a section of the replacement rocker, because there was good metal to weld to. All of the replacement panels needed some massaging to correctly fit. For instance the body mount rails were to high and needed to be hammered down to make the floor flat.

I took a Saturday off of k10 work to go to the jeep jamboree at uwharrie with my brother's cherokee. It's on 31 inch buckshot mudders, has a welded rear dana 44, winch bumper, and sliders built by me. He completely walked the hard line on the dickey bell hillclimb.

Crawled under my samurai and found some carnage from uwharrie. A lot worse than the photo, dented a 1/3 of the way in. Yes my knuckles are painted orange.(Hate all you want ultra 4 crowd)

Finished my patching my drivers side floor. Much quicker than pass side. Got fully welded after photo was taken.

Painted up the hubs. Pulled front axle for rebuild earlier.

Ordered the orb of traction for my samurai rear end. Broke my welded spiders 2 months ago. Got a super good deal online.

Every weld broken and gears cracked all the way through. Not the best weld job I know, but the samurai carrier makes it a pain to weld. I set up the gears and jammed it back together after dark in the pouring rain. It also swaped the samurai's wheel cylinders and brake shoes for new ones. And I finally have a working ebrake! Went to uwharrie on the Saturday during hurricane Matthew and didn't even spin a tire on any of the hill climbs; no pics though, to much rain to get the phone out. But the mud hole at art lilly was about 3-3 1/2 feet deep(well past the door bottoms).

 

[91samurai]

The samurai came home cleaner than it left. All the rain also made its way into my floor boards on the trailer ride home.

One of the main problems with borrowing my dad's pick up(chevy 1500hd), is that it's two wheel drive. I can remember at least three times when the offroad rig has been unloaded to tow the truck through the field at DPG. Even with 4to 1 t-case gears i'm not confident the samurai could tow the k10 with trailer. So in the quest for traction I ordered the second spartan locker i've had(first ones in front of samurai, totally awesome). Only paid 235 after yukon summer rebate.

This large amount of bling showed up recently. going to thin them up by removing the chest strap, and submarine belt. They're also blue.
I have also acquired a blue saddle blanket seat cover, gun rack for back window, cab lights, and confederate flag license plate. It's gonna look pimp. I will also be doing my signature slash cut square tail pipe on both sides

Fresh studs, rotors, calipers, ball joints, bearings, tie rod ends, steering stabilizer, lug nuts, u-joints and seals.

Spray bombed the floor Yesterday. I will be repainting it with a better matching paint soon. Awesome new inner fender in background. Mine was rotted under the battery like most square bodies are.

In preperation of throwing the axle in tomorrow, I polished up the trim rings.

My most recent progress was tonight using a borrowed flare tool I started mounting my prop valve. Im going to make a support bracket soon.
Next for the brakes is to mount my electric line lock in the front brakes. It's just for hill starts I swear.

However I can get distracted from working on things with stuff like this. (losi mrc with some fancy low COG mods)
This weekend I will do my best to get my roll bar started and tube bender fixed. I will try to keep this thread as up to date as possible. My rule is do one thing a day, so it doesn't just sit there.

 

[91samurai]

Friday night I threw the passenger side hub together and slapped the front axle under the truck. feels good to have the truck back on it's own weight after a month of no front axle. It's got brand new u-bolts, shocks, and leaf spring bushings.

Also installed some new hinge pins and bushings. I pinched my palm like 3 times hammering out the old bushings.

Looking for a suggestion on tires. I plan on new 31x10.50x15 sometime soon after the truck is running and driving. I'm looking at either the Procomp Xtreme mt2 or the Mickey Thompson MTZ p3. The truck will see almost all street time DD/ Tow pig duties. But I can't say that without thinking the truck will find it's way into a muddy field or a mud pit. I don't really care about road noise within reason. (truck has dual exhaust, and I have plans for possibly some subs/ serious tunes) Hoping for some decent wearing tires aswell. Also looking for some speaker/sub ideas that will still leave room for a roll bar and a decent amount of room behind the factory bench seat slid all the way back. I plan to have my axe/ hidden long gun mount at the bottom of the roll bar.

 

[stewartgivens]

sweet build - looks like your family likes blue vehicles - I've counted 3 so far in the pictures.

 

[Infamous1]

That K10 is pimp, Keep up the good work, I love those old stepsides, I have an '83 that was a 20 year want before I got one.

 

[91samurai]

That K10 is pimp, Keep up the good work, I love those old stepsides, I have an '83 that was a 20 year want before I got one.

Thanks dude. Got any pics of the '83? I always dig seeing these old trucks.

My office while planning the roll bar. Bending tube tomorrow morning. Also going to try to knock out the harness bar for my brother's elcamino. The new version of bendtech pro is so much more confusing; I had to break out an old laptop with a previous version. I think the roll bar will be secured well enough with the lower mount attached to the floor and bolted through the cab structure and also tied into the upper seat belt holes with 3/4 .120 wall DOM slugs. (to control forwards and backwards movement)

Found a old pic of my rear axle before installation. This shows my brake setup very well. It does kind of make it a pain to install the axle shafts with the rotor already attached, I did manage to find a way to use a slip on rotor from a 90's gm 4x4 but, it requires having the axle flange machined. Which I have neither the time or the money for. I don't know what exactly the calipers are from, because I didn't order them. They were all ready in the garage for my dads 14 bolt (they are quite possibly k20 calipers). I do plan to upgrade to the eldorado calipers once the truck is driving.(budget again) I would like to find a little shorter brake line, because the current ones have to be sleeved with some heater hose to stop the leaf springs from wearing holes in them. The rear axle hardline is all stock just with the ends shorted and reflared.

I stated to look at how the routing for my front line lock would be and realized that there may be a problem with the fitting sizes. The front brake line going into the master cylinder is 5/16. The inlet on the line lock is 1/8 npt. Is it ok for me to just throw a reducer on the hard line going into the line lock and reverse a reducer to go back up to the size on the master cylinder? The line lock is a jegs brand.

I have a question not relating to the the k10 also. My brother is looking to upgrade to disc brakes on the back of his 82 el camino. He is trying to keep the 14inch s10 wheels that came on the car. Since his has a 10 bolt rear axle I was wondering if the disc brakes from the rear of a late model s10 blazer would work? I've done some research and 14inch wheels are supposed to fit on the blazer.

 

[paradisePWoffrd]

One of the main problems with borrowing my dad's pick up(chevy 1500hd), is that it's two wheel drive. I can remember at least three times when the offroad rig has been unloaded to tow the truck through the field at DPG. Even with 4to 1 t-case gears i'm not confident the samurai could tow the k10 with trailer. So in the quest for traction I ordered the second spartan locker i've had(first ones in front of samurai, totally awesome). Only paid 235 after yukon summer rebate.

Im not sure how much you are going to like that spartan in a DD/towing duties. Wet/icy roads, a trailer, and lunchbox locker gets hairy, fast. I would suggest putting one up front, or a selectable/LS in the rear. That way you have the traction when you need it, and not when you dont.

My office while planning the roll bar. Bending tube tomorrow morning. Also going to try to knock out the harness bar for my brother's elcamino. The new version of bendtech pro is so much more confusing; I had to break out an old laptop with a previous version. I think the roll bar will be secured well enough with the lower mount attached to the floor and bolted through the cab structure and also tied into the upper seat belt holes with 3/4 .120 wall DOM slugs. (to control forwards and backwards movement) View attachment 230512
Found a old pic of my rear axle before installation. This shows my brake setup very well. It does kind of make it a pain to install the axle shafts with the rotor already attached, I did manage to find a way to use a slip on rotor from a 90's gm 4x4 but, it requires having the axle flange machined. Which I have neither the time or the money for. I don't know what exactly the calipers are from, because I didn't order them. They were all ready in the garage for my dads 14 bolt (they are quite possibly k20 calipers). I do plan to upgrade to the eldorado calipers once the truck is driving.(budget again) I would like to find a little shorter brake line, because the current ones have to be sleeved with some heater hose to stop the leaf springs from wearing holes in them. The rear axle hardline is all stock just with the ends shorted and reflared.

I stated to look at how the routing for my front line lock would be and realized that there may be a problem with the fitting sizes. The front brake line going into the master cylinder is 5/16. The inlet on the line lock is 1/8 npt. Is it ok for me to just throw a reducer on the hard line going into the line lock and reverse a reducer to go back up to the size on the master cylinder? The line lock is a jegs brand.

I have a question not relating to the the k10 also. My brother is looking to upgrade to disc brakes on the back of his 82 el camino. He is trying to keep the 14inch s10 wheels that came on the car. Since his has a 10 bolt rear axle I was wondering if the disc brakes from the rear of a late model s10 blazer would work? I've done some research and 14inch wheels are supposed to fit on the blazer.

Im not exactly sure on your exact question, but we put s10 disc brakes on a 10b from a camaro, for a 55 chevy build for a customer years ago. If the backing plate flange is the same, i suspect it will bolt up. For your truck, I would look into camaro rear calipers, also. They were cable parking brake and cheaper than eldorado, but it was years ago when i researched that.


The biggest downfall I see with your plan for the rollbar; it will only do you any good with a pure vertical impact. If it gets pushed in from the rear, it will fold down just like the cab. You need some other support to help you with side/front/back impacts. Even an angled bar beside the seat will be better than nothing. Also you will want some X/cross bracing inside the hoop to give it any strength. If you are just doing it to check a box, then carry-on.

 

[Infamous1]

Here is a pic of my ole rag. I put it on a set of CUCV axles and a few other odds and ends and just dirt road ride it.

 

[91samurai]

Im not sure how much you are going to like that spartan in a DD/towing duties. Wet/icy roads, a trailer, and lunchbox locker gets hairy, fast. I would suggest putting one up front, or a selectable/LS in the rear. That way you have the traction when you need it, and not when you dont.


The biggest downfall I see with your plan for the roll bar; it will only do you any good with a pure vertical impact. If it gets pushed in from the rear, it will fold down just like the cab. You need some other support to help you with side/front/back impacts. Even an angled bar beside the seat will be better than nothing. Also you will want some X/cross bracing inside the hoop to give it any strength. If you are just doing it to check a box, then carry-on.

I agree that a selectable locker would be better, even a limited slip, but I paid 235 dollars for this. A limited slip is more than double. If I had the money for a selectable like an arb I would have instead put the truck on one ton axles, but spending 1000 dollars on an axle is something I just can't do. For what it is I actually have very little money in the rear axle. Personally I haven't driven a whole lot with a mechanical rear locker, but if i'm sideways on the road it's usually on purpose. The plan is for a winch before a front locker. Its on the list to lock the front, however a new carb is also higher on the list.

Now on the roll bar. I will definitely be adding two cross bars. (roll bar is in cab) One for shoulder strap mounts and The lower for lap belt mounts. As long as this truck will be a DD it won't have door bars. I'm aware it won't have the strength of a full cage. Also I'm not a super short dude so having the seat all the way back or most of the way back is important. With the layout of the back of the cab It's impossible to run a door bar down the side of the seat and have it all the way back. The bar will be just tied into the body not the frame, it's not going to stand a serious roll over and still be in the same position all square and unharmed. However it will still help a lot during a side impact or a not so serious roll bar. It will also stiffen the cab a good bit.

In the past few days I've managed to bend the main hoop and cut/ notch the crossbars. It's five bends all in the same plane. I managed to get four bends completely right, but the fifth accidentally had some rotation put in it. A quick slug and reweld took care of that.

The plasma cutter didn't want to work while cutting one of my floor plates today, so I tried some thing I've wanted to for a while. Set up a fence with some scrap on the vertical band saw and make a perfect 90 degree cut. This is one beast of a saw; it's a 4x6 harbor freight bandsaw converted to a benchtop vertical only bandsaw with a deck made from a gen one swag offroad portaband saw plate for a Milwaukee.

 

[91samurai]

Roll bar fab is done. All thats left is paint and install for last time. I also achieved my goal of bing able to put the seat all the way back.

 

[meatheadwes]

View attachment 231194
Roll bar fab is done. All thats left is paint and install for last time. I also achieved my goal of bing able to put the seat all the way back.

im liking this build dude. i have a 86 step side on 3/4 tons! im pretty sure i have a detroit style posi track for a 12 bolt at the shop.

 

[95ford150]

Popcorn. Ive got a 76 K10 that will eventually get the love she deserves.

 

[91samurai]

Progress has been slow lately because of school, but I have been able to tinker with some parts of the truck and make a trip to uwharrie.

Repaired the standard squarebody inner fender rot.

Got my passenger door mounted. After aligning both the doors and adding new striker bushings, they shut excellent.

My parts haul from last Wednesday. I went for door panels, but came back with door panels, windshield, clutch pedal assembly, sill plates, a fresh gas bottle and a box of wire.

Thanksgiving morning I set about fixing the bender again. To accompany the swag ram mount, we installed the swag return spring. The mounting system for the pro tools 105 is terrible. It makes the spring go through the bender, which makes it not return all the way. Using a part from the old mount for the ram end, I fabricated a forward mount.

I wanted to make it out of 2 pieces of 1/8 laminated and tig welded. However the widest 1/8 steel I could find was 3in. It was wide enough to cut the top plate, but not the bottom plate. So I cut 2 pieces separately and miged them together.

Ground the mig welds down and slapped the top plate on. I know the tig welds aren't the prettiest, but it was good practice. You can tell I hadn't tigged in a while. I then drilled all the holes out to 1/2 in and bolted it on.

Swag should be taking notes, this thing has some force now. Almost like I planned it to be parallel to the ram. Then I got to test it out making a new spare tire holder for my dad's trailer, with room for two spares.

Added some new body bushings from energy suspension. I was hoping this would solve my fender alignment problem. It actually made it worse going from a 1/2 in spacer to a 3/4 in spacer under the front body mount.

Then on Sunday I took the samurai up to Uwharrie. This is coming down daniel towards the double parking lot. Minus some loose bolt and a heater hose crack, there were no problems.

Pulled the steering wheel and column. Then pulled the old clutch pedal assembly.

Old clutch pedal. Hacked together by previous owner, Pedals not parallel. Stiff as hell to push too.

New pedals. Nice and parallel. Gonna try and clean this thing tomorrow and through some paint on it.

 

[91samurai]

I pulled the dash pad to unbolt the gauges for more room to pull the pedals. Again the truck was originally white. This is after cleaning the dirt off the dash. To confirm the farm truck status, there was horse farm paper work shoved under the dash and a few rusty nails trapped under the dash pad. I was surprised to find the dash speaker missing as well.

The first aluminum tig beads I have ever laid down. I got a lot better after burning through two more rods.

 

[91samurai]

It took a lot of work but I finally finished rebuilding both vent windows. All new seals, the glass reglued into the frame, and new window felts.

 

[91samurai]

Started installing my new pedals, but I ran into a problem. 1/2 ton brake pedals(which I have) are different than 1 ton pedals(that I pulled from a cab and chassis truck). I did some research and they're different because the 1 tons had hydroboost not vacuum assisted brakes like the 1/2 and 3/4 tons. I drilled out the brake pushrod to 5/8 to fit over the new pin. I'm also going to have to make a new bracket to trigger the brake light switch.

This is a bracket made to hold the proportioning valve. The tension of the old line kept bending the new line. I just plasma cut it all out of some 1/8 flat bar. The bracket mounts to front of the master cylinder mounting studs.

Bracket installed and prop valve bolted on.

 

[daljitgroup]

awesome pics i think blue is your favorite color.

 

[91samurai]

awesome pics i think blue is your favorite color.

Thanks man. Yeah I like blue; there was even a plan to paint my samurai blue at one point.

 

[91samurai]

The other day I threw the gun rack in the truck. I had to make some bars to lower the gun rack, because of the roll bar it sat to high on the back window. I just used some 1/8x1in flat stock to go between the holes that were in the back of the cab from the previous owners gun rack. The rifle is my savage mark II left handed .22, it can shoot 1in groups at 100yrds with the new scope(BSA sweet 22).

But like everything else on the truck it wouldn't just bolt right up. I naturally assumed that the holes in the back of the cab were symmetrical, of course it wasn't. I just drilled a new hole and used a file to make the two holes into a slot.

I know it's not critical to driving the truck, but the bezel was out anyway. This is what I started with, a hole cut for a newer radio. I don't plan on reinstalling the radio or one similar. While it is very far down my priority list, I would like to install a amp with a phone jack.

Ahh, brushed aluminum. I just marked it out and zipped it out on the vertical bandsaw. After the photo I drilled some holes in each corner to mount it. Now I have a place to mount switches, easy since there is no plastic behind the middle of the aluminum panel. Also my truck has a storage area in the top of the bezel on the right side, I think it's really cool because I've never seen one before.

Now the left side is a little more interesting with both the head light and winsheild wiper switch in the panel. But since I had about an hour to work on something the other night, I figured I would make the panel for the other side. The hole on the left didn't have anything in it when I got the truck.

After I cut out the panel, I brushed it with some 220 grit on a sanding block all in one direction. Then to prevent unnecessary scratching I taped off the front.

Here it is finished and installed. To get the panel to sit flat I had to grind down the little "Lights" label above the light switch. The way I laid out the screws is much better on the second panel I did. You install the panel after the bezel in the truck, which hides the mounting screw. It looks much better than the other side. After I mounted it up I took my marker and traced out the holes on the back side. I then removed it and used a hole saw to drill the hole for the headlight switch. Next I used a dremel tool with a cut off wheel to cut the rectangle for the wiper switch. I cleaned up both with a file and done.

A rare pic of both the samurai and the k10. The samurai needed a new shifter sheet in the transfer case.( It locked up while in the driveway the weekend before ) I installed the front fender too. It looks like a truck again. The fender is only sorta installed.(needs alignment)

The steering column went in last Saturday. I still need to connect the wires and throw in the last few bolts. I did paint it to get rid of the rust but it was really cold in the garage at night so the paint didn't dry very well, but it's one of the easiest parts of the interior to paint when assembled, so I can repaint it once the weather warms back up.

The steering shaft wasn't to hard to install but the splines on the steering column were all messed up. I used a triangle file to clean them up most of the way and it still took a couple taps from a dead blow to install the steering shaft.

 

[91samurai]

On Sunday I managed to get to uwharrie before it closed for the winter. We dragged both my Sami and my bros Cherokee up there. Right when we got done takin photos on poser rock it started to pour rain.

Both rigs flex pretty good for what they are.

 

[91samurai]

After having most of the parts for a long time, I finally bought a new window roller for the passenger side. All of the window seals are installed except the ones on the inside that hook on the door panels.( Door panels won't go in for a while) Its very weird for me to see the vent windows in the truck. Since the windows didn't work when I got it, I removed them almost immediately. ( It's sweet to not have to put trash bags over the windows)

The other side is done too.

So this is the seat I'm working with. I really like the factory seat upholstery but the driver side has a big tear.

This is the tear. The rest of the seat is mint.

The first seat cover I've installed completely by my self. I wasn't impressed by the factory mountings, so I just added some zipties around the corners to tighten it up. Next I had my brother help me throw the seat back in the truck.

Once the seat was in I had to try out my new harnesses. They need more adjusting and I didn't have any 7/16 bolts but it was still awesome.

 

[91samurai]

I finally got the front end back together. The drivers side inner fender is all that's left to install.

Most of the carriage bolts came out with just grabbing the bolt with vise grips and unscrewing the nut, but there was no way to stop the back 2 from spinning. So I welded some junk nuts to the top and spun them out with a impact.

I cleaned out the bed and then took out all the boards. There was at least ten bolts per board in the bed. That's around 100 total!

Three of us pulled the bed with the fenders still on it, and set it on some saw horses. I then started the process of wire wheeling all the bed rails and frame.(still not done with the frame)

 

[91samurai]

Got a little bit of time to work on the truck today. I bolted in the other seatbelts and did some other little stuff. Threw in my cheap floor mats to just temporarily until the vinyl mat goes in. The shoulder belts for the middle seat are installed just tucked behind the seat to keep them out of the way.

 

[91samurai]

After the bed was removed, I discovered the spring hangers were far worse than I originally thought. They were recently painted; all the rust flakes in the bottom fell off from just working on the truck.

Cut a X in the top of the rivets with a deathwheel and hammered off with an air chisel. That was way easier than I thought.

Bought some used rust-free hangers from the same guy I got my windshield from, but upon inspection the hangers don't match. Popped some new holes in the brackets to make the mount sit in the same spot.

Burned in some extensions into the top and some full length gussets to tie it all together.

Done! They aren't gunna fall off.

The day before leaving for my hunting trip to Mississippi I went and picked up the start of my next project. A cowl from a 1951 CJ3a for $25. I'm gunna build a LCOG LJ Willys(long wheel base, single door opening, four seater) with a high hood(CJ3B) cowl height and a 3a hood and grille, to effectively highline the fenders. I'll slap it together on the cheap with s10 blazer motor/trans/tcase, D30, 8.8, and 33s. The plan is to drive the crap out of it on the street, also hopefully to the trail, wheel, and cruise home. The cowl is the only complex part of the tub.( i'm gonna make the tub myself) I will always be able to buy hoods, grilles, and windshields used but cheap cowls are rare; so I decided to jump on it.

Had some rust in the drivers side inner fender. cut it out with the deathwheel, measured the sides and cut a patch. I also started the little step bend on left side.

Tacked on one side an started hammering and forming the first part of the
patch to the inner fender. I completely welded the left side so I wouldn't break tacks when hammering the panel.

Here is where I called it good enough for an inner fender. Hammer and dollied it enough to match the factory bodyline.

I had to cut the bottom off of the bumper support bracket to work with the new bumper angle. I welded some 1/8 flat bar to give it some strength. Ignore the crappy torch work, the previous owner hacked them to match the custom bumper.

A ball joint press is sick for removing stuck u-joints. If this doesn't make it move, stick a breaker bar on the end and it WILL move.

When the u-joint is moved all the way to one side, take it out of the press and tighten the cap down in the vise. ( 2 vises make this process super fast) twist and the stuck cap is removed. Repeat for the other side of the u-joint. This whole process can go from stubborn old u-joint to brand new u-joint in less than 3mins on some driveshafts.