My one handed 88 Shortbed build.

[UncleWillie]

Heath has the spirit.

He spent the morning working on his truck.

My buddy who has his own machine shop made me a TV cable stud.

He said he made it long so I could shorten it.

Stuck it on an old TBI.

It definitely needed to be shortened. A little quality time on the bench grinder and all was right. Not pictured: I got the TV cable installed, hooked up the y pipe with new gaskets, got the fuel lines attached, and removed all the old exhaust.

Had to put the hitch back on

After trying to install the exhaust I soon realized it needed to clear the hitch. I had to put it back on to make sure i got it all in the right place.

Had to move the bed too.

After way too many trips in and out from under the truck to wrangle the 3 year old back into sight; I decided to move the bed that was dangling from the gantry crane.

Much more room to work.

Grabbed some Zip ties and mocked it up.

The "complete" cat back exhaust kit did not have a long enough pipe to reach the factory cat. Now that it is all mocked up I can measure for a pipe and go snag one.

It is pretty exhausting to work for 15 minutes then go chase Heath back in to the yard, get him out of the chicken pen, pull him out of the scrap metal pile, stop him from hammering on the truck with a prybar, or whatever else he gets into. Steph is finishing up her student teaching and has a job lines up with the school system so she will not be able to corral him while I work on it. Maybe I can put him on a leash.

 

[jcramsey]

Looks like you got a lot of truck for your $500! Looking good.

 

[UncleWillie]

I decided that Spooky had sat long enough. So I hooked her to the WheelHorse and dragged her as far as it would. I have got to get some weight in the back of the tractor.

After digging some nice sized holes I decided I need a bigger gun. So I got the S10 Blazer. Spooky came right out of the tent.

I started to hook up the plug wires, but soon found I was missing one spark plug ( thanks Heath) and the coil wire. I used it on the blazer when the new set of wires for her didn't have a coil wire.

So I attacked the exhaust. I bet I have 8 hours of work into figuring it out. Well today I had an epiphany. It was nearly impossible to get things right with the truck sitting at an angle. So I got both floor jacks out and raised the front end till it was levilish.

Once I had it level I was able to see things a bit more clearly. I used about 15 pieces of rope to tie the pipes up to the frame in the proper position. I needed an intelligent octopus to help. I just didn't have enough hands.

The exhaust kit will not work with the receiver hitch if I want to run it out the back. After some head scratching I turned both rear pipes out to the side. It worked perfectly. I was able to get the measurements I needed for the pipe I need to buy - 29 inches.



I need to do a bit of trimming. Or I could just start a new trend.

And, yes, things in the yard are a mess. I have 3 herniated discs and it is just not a priority right now.

I also bought the Suburban in the pics above and this 88 Longbed for parts.


Brand new tires worth more than I paid for the whole truck.