Parts Used In This Episode
Classic Industries
Tail Lights, Corner Marker Lights & Painted Side Mirrors
Matco Tools
Matco Tools are the Official Tool Supplier to Truck Tech
The Industrial Depot
Tools, Hardware, Shop Supplies
Tom Wood's Custom Drive Shafts
Custom Driveshafts
Video Transcript
(Narrator)>> Weathered and worn with unlimited potential. Today on Truck Tech we take delivery on our latest "Project Lo 'n Slo". Find out what's in store for this 53 year old C-10. Plus "RedTide" ties up some loose ends including gearing, brakes, and a brand new grille. ♪ ♪
(Austin)>> Hey, hey, welcome to Truck Tech. As you can see we're outside the shop today with a good surprise waiting for us.
(LT)>> One of the golden rules in the automotive world is to never purchase a vehicle sight unseen. Today we have done just that. We have a new project truck that just showed up, and this is the first time we get to see it in person. Man I think we lucked out so far.
(Austin)>> Let's see what we got. Yeah I believe so.
(LT)>> Well as you guys can tell this is a 1965 Chevrolet C-10, and it is wearing a beautiful original 100 percent authentic patina treatment.
(Austin)>> It is nice! ♪ ♪
(LT)>> We searched for some time to find a clean truck for our next build, and this one comes to us from Marshall, Texas. ♪ ♪ It's very solid since it hasn't been eaten up by road salt, snow, or humidity. You know of course you've got to have the old blanket style seat cover.
(Austin)>> I wouldn't have it any other way. I really wouldn't.
(LT)>> All those years in the sun have given this truck a unique and one of a kind look. You know probably most kids today wouldn't even know how to drive the truck. Three speed on the column.
(Austin)>> Probably not.
(LT)>> Actually one of the first trucks I learned how to drive, '69 Chevy, K-20, three on the tree six cylinder. Brings back some memories man. Right now it has a 305 under the hood. We're unsure of what engine it had originally but it was likely a 283. We'll get this truck inside and take a closer look. ♪ ♪ So right off the bat it's fairly obvious this truck wasn't just pulled out of a hay field somewhere. Along the way somebody's done a few odds and ends to get this truck running and driving and the first giveaway, well it's the fuel tank. On this era of truck it was originally mounted behind the driver's seat. In fact ours is still there but it's probably just full of rust. So it would have been easier just to mount an aftermarket tank behind the rear axle.
(Austin)>> Now one cool factor is the rear suspension on this truck utilizes a truck or trailing arm style suspension. Now we know this has performance potential because it's something that Nascar actually used in the past as a certain style of suspension. One other thing you may have noticed is this truck sits a little lower to the ground than a stock one would. Now they've done this by heating up the coil springs so it sags just a little bit to get that stance nice and low. Not the proper way but it's something we'll handle.
(LT)>> We got very lucky underneath the truck cause the cab floors and rockers, everything's in pretty good shape especially considering it's over 55 years old. The only exceptions there's a couple of small holes in the floor and rocker on the passenger side.
(Austin)>> Now we like the fact that this transmission utilizes the shifter on the steering column. We want to do something similar even though it might not be this exact one.
(LT)>> Now there's a lot of great potential in this truck. It's really solid underneath, and before we tear this thing apart we're gonna get it out on the road and see how it drives. ♪ ♪
Whenever you buy a project truck or a second hand engine the motor's definitely gonna have some miles on it. More often than not the seller's going to claim that it was driven by a little old lady to church on Sunday mornings and it has only 10,000 miles on it, but the real story is probably more like it was driven by a 16 year old kid and has had the snot beaten out of it. So how do you know what the true story is cause the health of an engine can definitely effect how much you should pay for it. So today I'm gonna show you a couple of quick test that you can do to easily give a health report to an older engine. If the engine is still in the vehicle or you can start it up on a stand the first thing I do is start the engine and run it for a little bit and see what comes out of the tailpipe. [ engine revving ]
(LT)>> Now hopefully you don't see anything but if you do see some light bluish smoke that's a pretty good indication the engine could be burning oil, either through the piston rings or worn valve seals. This one looks pretty clean but there is a more scientific way to see how your engine is doing. A compression tester is a tool that everybody should have in their arsenal, and it'll tell you a lot about the internal health of your engine. As the crankshaft rotates and the piston moves up and down it'll trap air from the atmosphere and compress it. Now in order to compress the air enough to make the engine run properly you have to have a lot of parts that are working up to par. You have to have a good finish on the cylinder wall, good piston rings, good valve seals, and of course a good head gasket to seal all that pressure inside the engine. Now depending on what style of engine you have and what modifications you might have done, the reading might vary greatly, but for a stock small block Chevy like ours we expect a reading somewhere between 140 and 180 p-s-i if everything is working perfectly. Now the first step to conducting a compression test is pulling all the spark plugs. To let the engine crank over quickly each of the spark plugs need to be removed from the head. Next the power going to the ignition coil needs to be disconnected, and the throttle plate needs to be held open for the duration of the test. With the adapter threaded into the head and the gauge connected... Alright hit it! ...we'll crank over the engine until the reading on the gauge stabilizes... Okay! It's about 140. ...and record the value. We'll repeat this process through all eight cylinders. So we measured a range between 140 and 170 p-s-i on all eight cylinders, with the average being 157. Now that's not great news but it's also not the end of the world. It just means that 305 is worn out, but at least we know what we're starting with inside that engine.
(Narrator)>> Next one bologna burn! [ tires squealing ]
♪ ♪
(LT)>> New Chevy and an old Chevy.
(Austin)>> Except he's passing us, we're not passing him. ♪ ♪ Feel the bumps! ♪ ♪
(LT)>> You know this was just before the days of air bags, and traction control, and ABS, and man we're lucky to have an f-m radio.
(Austin)>> Don't think it works but we've got one. [ engine revving ]
(LT)>> Oh she sputtered a little bit.
(Austin)>> I'm surprised it's got that pull like that.
(LT)>> Well like we said I don't think that engine's original. It says it's a 305.
(Austin)>> No but that transmissions about this big.
(LT)>> You know what I'm noticing now that we're getting on this curvy back road this steering is like, basically you kind of think where you want to go. You can just guess. You can point this wheel anywhere and it's going where it wants to. So what do we do to a truck like this? I mean it's got a beautiful finish on the outside. It runs fairly decent for what it is. What can we mess with?
(Austin)>> Maybe we get the heater working for starters.
(LT)>> Okay, that's a good point. Start with the heater.
(Austin)>> You know man I don't think we need to go super crazy on horsepower or anything. Let's get it exciting for sure.
(LT)>> You know one of my things is, I've said this a lot before, is I hate doing stuff that is common and that everybody has done. The first thing people would say is alright, throw an LS in it. Or because it already has a small block, well you know, put a new small block in it or something like that. To me that just, it's not exciting. What about maybe like a six cylinder?
(Austin)>> Straight six.
(LT)>> They had 235's, 250's, you know the 292. We could try to look around to see if we could find one of those.
(Austin)>> Yeah maybe get on the bigger end of the straight sixes with that 292 range and build that up. Do something a little different with it, I don't know. ♪ ♪
(LT)>> So the biggest question everybody's gonna ask us is are you gonna leave the patina? So let's get that out of the way right now.
(Austin)>> I think the answer to that is yes. I think we're leaving it. We're not touching it. Maybe we'll have a little surprise here or there.
(LT)>> You know it took the last 54, 55 years for this truck to kind of earn its color and earn basically how it looks, which is really unique and hard to duplicate. So I say we just leave it.
(Austin)>> Yeah I'm down with that.
(LT)>> Alright. ♪ ♪ [ engine revving ]
(Austin)>> What do you say we burn the rubber off these bad boys?
(LT)>> Why not. [ engine revving ]
(Austin)>> Oh yeah! [ engine revving ]
(Austin)>> Don't stop baby. [ tires squealing ]
(Austin)>> Even got smoke on now.
(LT)>> That's the old one tire fire.
(Austin)>> One tire Wanda we call that.
(Narrator)>> Next "Redtide" returns for a gear matched rear.
(LT)>> There's a lot of potential in this '65 C-10. So we've ordered some parts and we'll pick back up with it in a couple of weeks. Now it's time to turn our attention to "Project RedTide", our '88 Chevy K-1500 which started out life as a four wheel drive pickup. Since then we swapped the transfer case and front differential, and now it's a lowered all-wheel drive sport truck.
(Austin)>> And that front diff we installed is a 4.10 gear ratio setup. This will give us quick acceleration off the line but also nice cruising r-p-m's at that highway speed. All we need to do since it's all wheel drive is make sure that rear matches the front.
(LT)>> So today we're gonna swap gears in that eight and a half inch 10 bolt, and along the way we're gonna install some better brakes and a sway bar up front, but we'll get started by tearing apart that rear end. ♪ ♪ [ drill spinning ]
(LT)>> Rather than just re-gear to match the front...
(Austin)>> Got her.
(LT)>> ...we're taking this opportunity to do some upgrades along the way. We'll make the rear end stronger and improve its traction at the same time. Many people think that a 4.10 and a 4.11 are the same thing.
(Austin)>> Uh oh, it was empty.
(LT)>> But they have different tooth counts. You can actually order both for the 10 bolt. So make sure you pay attention to what you're getting. [ hammer banging metal ] ♪ ♪
(LT)>> We grabbed all the parts that we'll need to rebuild the rear end in our K-1500 from Summit Racing, and we started out with a 4.10 to one ring and pinion gear set that'll perfectly match what's in the front differential. The ring gear is going to be attached to this Detroit True Track helical gear style limited slip differential, which has a perfect split in power between the rear wheels giving maximum traction on the street. Now in '88 there were several different options for spline counts on the 10 bolt rear end. We're gonna upgrade to the stronger 30 spline, which means we need a different axle shaft to attach to it. So we grabbed these Mossier 30 spline six lug axles that are a direct fit into our 10 bolt's housing. We also grabbed all the remaining parts that we'll need to complete the installation, like a forged pinion yoke with a stronger 13-50 U-joint, an installation kit with all the shims, bearings, seals, and hardware that we'll need, and to strengthen the rear end just a little bit more we grabbed a Mossier differential cover with built in carrier cap supports. We'll get started by installing the ring gear onto the carrier. ♪ ♪
(Austin)>> While LT continues with gear matching the rear I moved up front to improve this truck's stopping power. And since we've more than doubled the horsepower with our LS swap these factory components just won't do. Summit racing offers a few choices for brake replacements. We chose this upgraded kit that has red powder coated single piston calipers, carbon fiber and ceramic infused brake pads, and also zinc plated drilled and slotted rotors, which would ensure better cooling and also improve pad contact. ♪ ♪ During teardown I noticed the brake line of the frame showed some wear. So I picked up some factory replacements for both sides. Body roll on these first gen Chevys were notorious, and I'll tackle that after LT buttons up the rear.
(LT)>> One unique thing about the 10 bolt is the ring gear bolts are left hand thread. A small dab of thread locker will hold them in place. They are torqued to spec and the carrier bearings are pressed onto the carrier. Then the new bearing races are driven into the housing. There are a few critical steps to setting up the ring and pinion, and I always start with the stock pinion shim and a setup bearing to get a baseline. The rear end gets assembled temporarily. ♪ ♪ So we can measure backlash and run a pattern check. Both of which will tell us what needs to be adjusted. We're going to add 10 thousandths of shim to the pinion, press on the bearing, permanently install the pinion into the housing, and tighten the nut until proper bearing pre-load is reached. Then the carrier goes in. We'll measure backlash, and run a final pattern check. Now that the hard work is done the 30 spline axles slide into place and they're held there with the stock C-clips and the axle spacer. The retaining spacer and snap ring locks it all in place, and it gets sealed up with our new diff cover. The cap supports get pre-loaded, finishing up the rear end.
(Narrator)>> Next ditch your dated grille for a modern look.
(Austin)>> Hey LT you mind giving me a hand with this rear sway bar?
(LT)>> Oh absolutely. Welcome back to Truck Tech. To keep "Project RedTide" level while cornering we're adding an anti-roll, or sway, bar out back. It first connects to the axles with the provided bracket. We picked up this bolt on kit from Summit Racing and all we have to do is mark and drill a half inch hole in the side of the frame, and the end links tie it all together.
(Austin)>> Out front the original sway bar is long gone. So it gets an upgrade with this inch and an eighth bar made from 41-40 chro-moly, which bolts to the stock location.
(LT)>> One of the last steps to completing our all-wheel drive conversion is getting power from the transfer case to both differentials, and since we swapped an engine, transmission, and transfer case none of the original links will work anymore. So we called up Tom Woods Custom Drive shafts and gave them a few measurements. ♪ ♪ The rear shaft has a 32 spline yoke to match up with the NV 149, and a stronger than stock 13-50 style U-joint to attach to our forged yoke. Since the front shaft will be getting power all the time we spec'ed out a double cardan design which will stand up to the high speed abuse which we have planned.
(Austin)>> Our '88 Chevy is gonna get a few cosmetic upgrades before she rolls out of here. So we went to Classic Industries to pick up a few restoration parts to help improve the look of this truck. It starts with this dual headlamp composite grille from a '98 GMC. We just prefer the look of this to that '88 dull chrome piece. Out back we're ditching these dated style taillights for these LED euro style replacements, and Classic Industries also sent us new headlamps, front corner markers, and painted side mirrors to round out our upgrades. Now let's get started by prepping the grille. Later model GM trucks of this era had body color matched grilles. So that is what we're after with "RedTide". I'll mask the center section so we can keep the black and chrome intact. ♪ ♪ Then it's on to the booth where I'll apply wax and grease remover, isopropyl alcohol for an anti-static agent, followed by a coat of Dupli-Color adhesion promotor. I'm mixing up some epoxy primer and catalyst designed to give our plastic parts a good foundation and fill in any imperfections. All we need is one coat. For base we're going with a single stage paint as opposed to a base coat clear coat system because our truck was previously sprayed with single stage and our goal is to come as close as we can. Single Source in Nashville, Tennessee has sent us a polyurethane "Victory Red". This will provide color strength and shine built into one application. It mixes six parts base, one part activator, and one part hardener. When setting up your gun it's always a good idea to refer to the data sheet of the product you're spraying. This will give you a good starting point for air pressure settings. I sprayed this one at about 25 p-s-i but at the end of the day it all comes down to personal preference. [ spray gun hissing ]
(Austin)>> I'm gonna give it three coats. I'll do a light coat on the first, followed by two full wet coats. There is no need to sand down any orange peel because it will better match the current texture of the truck. Also we will polish out any imperfections later on.
(LT)>> While Austin was out in the paint booth finishing up the front end for "Project RedTide" I had some time to build an intake tube for the five point three that we have swapped underneath the hood. I started out with some four inch aluminum elbows that we had kicking around the shop, and I tig welded them together leaving enough room for the electric cooling fans and the stock upper radiator hose. And the four inch diameter is gonna flow plenty of air to feet that 400 horsepower five point three.
(Austin)>> So that's what you've been doing this whole time.
(LT)>> You know you've got to keep busy doing something. I'll tell you what though I really dig this victory red. It's gonna pop outside.
(Austin)>> I agree man. What do you say we grab this thing and see how it looks?
(LT)>> Alright. Yeah man I love that GMC front end. It's gonna totally update this truck, bring it into the 21st century.
(Austin)>> That'll work for me. So this about brings us to a close for this project. A few odds and ends to wrap up. As you can see we've got that C-10 rolled in the back and we're excited to show you what we have in store for it.
(LT)>> Absolutely, and if you guys want any more information on "Project RedTide" or any of the other trucks that we build be sure to check out Powernation TV dot com. Thanks for watching Truck Tech and we'll see you guys next time.
Show Full Transcript
(Austin)>> Hey, hey, welcome to Truck Tech. As you can see we're outside the shop today with a good surprise waiting for us.
(LT)>> One of the golden rules in the automotive world is to never purchase a vehicle sight unseen. Today we have done just that. We have a new project truck that just showed up, and this is the first time we get to see it in person. Man I think we lucked out so far.
(Austin)>> Let's see what we got. Yeah I believe so.
(LT)>> Well as you guys can tell this is a 1965 Chevrolet C-10, and it is wearing a beautiful original 100 percent authentic patina treatment.
(Austin)>> It is nice! ♪ ♪
(LT)>> We searched for some time to find a clean truck for our next build, and this one comes to us from Marshall, Texas. ♪ ♪ It's very solid since it hasn't been eaten up by road salt, snow, or humidity. You know of course you've got to have the old blanket style seat cover.
(Austin)>> I wouldn't have it any other way. I really wouldn't.
(LT)>> All those years in the sun have given this truck a unique and one of a kind look. You know probably most kids today wouldn't even know how to drive the truck. Three speed on the column.
(Austin)>> Probably not.
(LT)>> Actually one of the first trucks I learned how to drive, '69 Chevy, K-20, three on the tree six cylinder. Brings back some memories man. Right now it has a 305 under the hood. We're unsure of what engine it had originally but it was likely a 283. We'll get this truck inside and take a closer look. ♪ ♪ So right off the bat it's fairly obvious this truck wasn't just pulled out of a hay field somewhere. Along the way somebody's done a few odds and ends to get this truck running and driving and the first giveaway, well it's the fuel tank. On this era of truck it was originally mounted behind the driver's seat. In fact ours is still there but it's probably just full of rust. So it would have been easier just to mount an aftermarket tank behind the rear axle.
(Austin)>> Now one cool factor is the rear suspension on this truck utilizes a truck or trailing arm style suspension. Now we know this has performance potential because it's something that Nascar actually used in the past as a certain style of suspension. One other thing you may have noticed is this truck sits a little lower to the ground than a stock one would. Now they've done this by heating up the coil springs so it sags just a little bit to get that stance nice and low. Not the proper way but it's something we'll handle.
(LT)>> We got very lucky underneath the truck cause the cab floors and rockers, everything's in pretty good shape especially considering it's over 55 years old. The only exceptions there's a couple of small holes in the floor and rocker on the passenger side.
(Austin)>> Now we like the fact that this transmission utilizes the shifter on the steering column. We want to do something similar even though it might not be this exact one.
(LT)>> Now there's a lot of great potential in this truck. It's really solid underneath, and before we tear this thing apart we're gonna get it out on the road and see how it drives. ♪ ♪
Whenever you buy a project truck or a second hand engine the motor's definitely gonna have some miles on it. More often than not the seller's going to claim that it was driven by a little old lady to church on Sunday mornings and it has only 10,000 miles on it, but the real story is probably more like it was driven by a 16 year old kid and has had the snot beaten out of it. So how do you know what the true story is cause the health of an engine can definitely effect how much you should pay for it. So today I'm gonna show you a couple of quick test that you can do to easily give a health report to an older engine. If the engine is still in the vehicle or you can start it up on a stand the first thing I do is start the engine and run it for a little bit and see what comes out of the tailpipe. [ engine revving ]
(LT)>> Now hopefully you don't see anything but if you do see some light bluish smoke that's a pretty good indication the engine could be burning oil, either through the piston rings or worn valve seals. This one looks pretty clean but there is a more scientific way to see how your engine is doing. A compression tester is a tool that everybody should have in their arsenal, and it'll tell you a lot about the internal health of your engine. As the crankshaft rotates and the piston moves up and down it'll trap air from the atmosphere and compress it. Now in order to compress the air enough to make the engine run properly you have to have a lot of parts that are working up to par. You have to have a good finish on the cylinder wall, good piston rings, good valve seals, and of course a good head gasket to seal all that pressure inside the engine. Now depending on what style of engine you have and what modifications you might have done, the reading might vary greatly, but for a stock small block Chevy like ours we expect a reading somewhere between 140 and 180 p-s-i if everything is working perfectly. Now the first step to conducting a compression test is pulling all the spark plugs. To let the engine crank over quickly each of the spark plugs need to be removed from the head. Next the power going to the ignition coil needs to be disconnected, and the throttle plate needs to be held open for the duration of the test. With the adapter threaded into the head and the gauge connected... Alright hit it! ...we'll crank over the engine until the reading on the gauge stabilizes... Okay! It's about 140. ...and record the value. We'll repeat this process through all eight cylinders. So we measured a range between 140 and 170 p-s-i on all eight cylinders, with the average being 157. Now that's not great news but it's also not the end of the world. It just means that 305 is worn out, but at least we know what we're starting with inside that engine.
(Narrator)>> Next one bologna burn! [ tires squealing ]
♪ ♪
(LT)>> New Chevy and an old Chevy.
(Austin)>> Except he's passing us, we're not passing him. ♪ ♪ Feel the bumps! ♪ ♪
(LT)>> You know this was just before the days of air bags, and traction control, and ABS, and man we're lucky to have an f-m radio.
(Austin)>> Don't think it works but we've got one. [ engine revving ]
(LT)>> Oh she sputtered a little bit.
(Austin)>> I'm surprised it's got that pull like that.
(LT)>> Well like we said I don't think that engine's original. It says it's a 305.
(Austin)>> No but that transmissions about this big.
(LT)>> You know what I'm noticing now that we're getting on this curvy back road this steering is like, basically you kind of think where you want to go. You can just guess. You can point this wheel anywhere and it's going where it wants to. So what do we do to a truck like this? I mean it's got a beautiful finish on the outside. It runs fairly decent for what it is. What can we mess with?
(Austin)>> Maybe we get the heater working for starters.
(LT)>> Okay, that's a good point. Start with the heater.
(Austin)>> You know man I don't think we need to go super crazy on horsepower or anything. Let's get it exciting for sure.
(LT)>> You know one of my things is, I've said this a lot before, is I hate doing stuff that is common and that everybody has done. The first thing people would say is alright, throw an LS in it. Or because it already has a small block, well you know, put a new small block in it or something like that. To me that just, it's not exciting. What about maybe like a six cylinder?
(Austin)>> Straight six.
(LT)>> They had 235's, 250's, you know the 292. We could try to look around to see if we could find one of those.
(Austin)>> Yeah maybe get on the bigger end of the straight sixes with that 292 range and build that up. Do something a little different with it, I don't know. ♪ ♪
(LT)>> So the biggest question everybody's gonna ask us is are you gonna leave the patina? So let's get that out of the way right now.
(Austin)>> I think the answer to that is yes. I think we're leaving it. We're not touching it. Maybe we'll have a little surprise here or there.
(LT)>> You know it took the last 54, 55 years for this truck to kind of earn its color and earn basically how it looks, which is really unique and hard to duplicate. So I say we just leave it.
(Austin)>> Yeah I'm down with that.
(LT)>> Alright. ♪ ♪ [ engine revving ]
(Austin)>> What do you say we burn the rubber off these bad boys?
(LT)>> Why not. [ engine revving ]
(Austin)>> Oh yeah! [ engine revving ]
(Austin)>> Don't stop baby. [ tires squealing ]
(Austin)>> Even got smoke on now.
(LT)>> That's the old one tire fire.
(Austin)>> One tire Wanda we call that.
(Narrator)>> Next "Redtide" returns for a gear matched rear.
(LT)>> There's a lot of potential in this '65 C-10. So we've ordered some parts and we'll pick back up with it in a couple of weeks. Now it's time to turn our attention to "Project RedTide", our '88 Chevy K-1500 which started out life as a four wheel drive pickup. Since then we swapped the transfer case and front differential, and now it's a lowered all-wheel drive sport truck.
(Austin)>> And that front diff we installed is a 4.10 gear ratio setup. This will give us quick acceleration off the line but also nice cruising r-p-m's at that highway speed. All we need to do since it's all wheel drive is make sure that rear matches the front.
(LT)>> So today we're gonna swap gears in that eight and a half inch 10 bolt, and along the way we're gonna install some better brakes and a sway bar up front, but we'll get started by tearing apart that rear end. ♪ ♪ [ drill spinning ]
(LT)>> Rather than just re-gear to match the front...
(Austin)>> Got her.
(LT)>> ...we're taking this opportunity to do some upgrades along the way. We'll make the rear end stronger and improve its traction at the same time. Many people think that a 4.10 and a 4.11 are the same thing.
(Austin)>> Uh oh, it was empty.
(LT)>> But they have different tooth counts. You can actually order both for the 10 bolt. So make sure you pay attention to what you're getting. [ hammer banging metal ] ♪ ♪
(LT)>> We grabbed all the parts that we'll need to rebuild the rear end in our K-1500 from Summit Racing, and we started out with a 4.10 to one ring and pinion gear set that'll perfectly match what's in the front differential. The ring gear is going to be attached to this Detroit True Track helical gear style limited slip differential, which has a perfect split in power between the rear wheels giving maximum traction on the street. Now in '88 there were several different options for spline counts on the 10 bolt rear end. We're gonna upgrade to the stronger 30 spline, which means we need a different axle shaft to attach to it. So we grabbed these Mossier 30 spline six lug axles that are a direct fit into our 10 bolt's housing. We also grabbed all the remaining parts that we'll need to complete the installation, like a forged pinion yoke with a stronger 13-50 U-joint, an installation kit with all the shims, bearings, seals, and hardware that we'll need, and to strengthen the rear end just a little bit more we grabbed a Mossier differential cover with built in carrier cap supports. We'll get started by installing the ring gear onto the carrier. ♪ ♪
(Austin)>> While LT continues with gear matching the rear I moved up front to improve this truck's stopping power. And since we've more than doubled the horsepower with our LS swap these factory components just won't do. Summit racing offers a few choices for brake replacements. We chose this upgraded kit that has red powder coated single piston calipers, carbon fiber and ceramic infused brake pads, and also zinc plated drilled and slotted rotors, which would ensure better cooling and also improve pad contact. ♪ ♪ During teardown I noticed the brake line of the frame showed some wear. So I picked up some factory replacements for both sides. Body roll on these first gen Chevys were notorious, and I'll tackle that after LT buttons up the rear.
(LT)>> One unique thing about the 10 bolt is the ring gear bolts are left hand thread. A small dab of thread locker will hold them in place. They are torqued to spec and the carrier bearings are pressed onto the carrier. Then the new bearing races are driven into the housing. There are a few critical steps to setting up the ring and pinion, and I always start with the stock pinion shim and a setup bearing to get a baseline. The rear end gets assembled temporarily. ♪ ♪ So we can measure backlash and run a pattern check. Both of which will tell us what needs to be adjusted. We're going to add 10 thousandths of shim to the pinion, press on the bearing, permanently install the pinion into the housing, and tighten the nut until proper bearing pre-load is reached. Then the carrier goes in. We'll measure backlash, and run a final pattern check. Now that the hard work is done the 30 spline axles slide into place and they're held there with the stock C-clips and the axle spacer. The retaining spacer and snap ring locks it all in place, and it gets sealed up with our new diff cover. The cap supports get pre-loaded, finishing up the rear end.
(Narrator)>> Next ditch your dated grille for a modern look.
(Austin)>> Hey LT you mind giving me a hand with this rear sway bar?
(LT)>> Oh absolutely. Welcome back to Truck Tech. To keep "Project RedTide" level while cornering we're adding an anti-roll, or sway, bar out back. It first connects to the axles with the provided bracket. We picked up this bolt on kit from Summit Racing and all we have to do is mark and drill a half inch hole in the side of the frame, and the end links tie it all together.
(Austin)>> Out front the original sway bar is long gone. So it gets an upgrade with this inch and an eighth bar made from 41-40 chro-moly, which bolts to the stock location.
(LT)>> One of the last steps to completing our all-wheel drive conversion is getting power from the transfer case to both differentials, and since we swapped an engine, transmission, and transfer case none of the original links will work anymore. So we called up Tom Woods Custom Drive shafts and gave them a few measurements. ♪ ♪ The rear shaft has a 32 spline yoke to match up with the NV 149, and a stronger than stock 13-50 style U-joint to attach to our forged yoke. Since the front shaft will be getting power all the time we spec'ed out a double cardan design which will stand up to the high speed abuse which we have planned.
(Austin)>> Our '88 Chevy is gonna get a few cosmetic upgrades before she rolls out of here. So we went to Classic Industries to pick up a few restoration parts to help improve the look of this truck. It starts with this dual headlamp composite grille from a '98 GMC. We just prefer the look of this to that '88 dull chrome piece. Out back we're ditching these dated style taillights for these LED euro style replacements, and Classic Industries also sent us new headlamps, front corner markers, and painted side mirrors to round out our upgrades. Now let's get started by prepping the grille. Later model GM trucks of this era had body color matched grilles. So that is what we're after with "RedTide". I'll mask the center section so we can keep the black and chrome intact. ♪ ♪ Then it's on to the booth where I'll apply wax and grease remover, isopropyl alcohol for an anti-static agent, followed by a coat of Dupli-Color adhesion promotor. I'm mixing up some epoxy primer and catalyst designed to give our plastic parts a good foundation and fill in any imperfections. All we need is one coat. For base we're going with a single stage paint as opposed to a base coat clear coat system because our truck was previously sprayed with single stage and our goal is to come as close as we can. Single Source in Nashville, Tennessee has sent us a polyurethane "Victory Red". This will provide color strength and shine built into one application. It mixes six parts base, one part activator, and one part hardener. When setting up your gun it's always a good idea to refer to the data sheet of the product you're spraying. This will give you a good starting point for air pressure settings. I sprayed this one at about 25 p-s-i but at the end of the day it all comes down to personal preference. [ spray gun hissing ]
(Austin)>> I'm gonna give it three coats. I'll do a light coat on the first, followed by two full wet coats. There is no need to sand down any orange peel because it will better match the current texture of the truck. Also we will polish out any imperfections later on.
(LT)>> While Austin was out in the paint booth finishing up the front end for "Project RedTide" I had some time to build an intake tube for the five point three that we have swapped underneath the hood. I started out with some four inch aluminum elbows that we had kicking around the shop, and I tig welded them together leaving enough room for the electric cooling fans and the stock upper radiator hose. And the four inch diameter is gonna flow plenty of air to feet that 400 horsepower five point three.
(Austin)>> So that's what you've been doing this whole time.
(LT)>> You know you've got to keep busy doing something. I'll tell you what though I really dig this victory red. It's gonna pop outside.
(Austin)>> I agree man. What do you say we grab this thing and see how it looks?
(LT)>> Alright. Yeah man I love that GMC front end. It's gonna totally update this truck, bring it into the 21st century.
(Austin)>> That'll work for me. So this about brings us to a close for this project. A few odds and ends to wrap up. As you can see we've got that C-10 rolled in the back and we're excited to show you what we have in store for it.
(LT)>> Absolutely, and if you guys want any more information on "Project RedTide" or any of the other trucks that we build be sure to check out Powernation TV dot com. Thanks for watching Truck Tech and we'll see you guys next time.
