Slippery slope 60 with LM7

[Lucky1386]

removed headliner, replay ****ed up here as it ws in great shape and I destroyed it in the removal process... Then started on removing the sound deadening, what an absolute s***ty job this was. Dry ice and iso alcohol do help but not as much as shear determination Ruined 2 pairs of shoes much to my wife's dismay and will probably never get all the tar off my garage floor.

 

[Lucky1386]

So after untold hours of burning myself with dry ice and ruining a bunch of clothes/shoes I proceeded to wash everything down with thinner and then alcohol to clean offf any residual grease/tar. Came out super nice but in hindsight this step was not the best use of my time, I am most likely going to use lizard skin and then dynamite on top.

I only found rust in the usual spots and all in all wasn't so bad.

I need to do a deep dive on what is the most effective and cost effective route here for sound suppression.

On a positive note found that my cab has the upper bolt for rear seat belt, that's a little win.

 

[Lucky1386]

Since this is going to be my daily I wanted to have electric windows/locks. I was able to find a really clean set of power window/lock doors local to me and swooped em up.
I disassembled all of them down to the shell and took 5 thousand pics so I can remember how it all goes back together once I get all the hardware vapor honed and coated. Then I pulled the non power doors of the truck and swapped them with he disassembled doors.

I also removed any and all pieces of trim, moldings, tabs and anything that was left on the body before getting ready to take this thing to paint.

Was super sketchy getting the truck on the trailer with no winch and only my wife and son trying to help. But we did it and celebrated the small win!!!lol

 

[Lucky1386]

The next step was to get the body off to paint @kelly saad in AZ. So I towed the truck out there. The plan is while Kelly gets the body ready Ill get the frame all done with the drive train. Was really cool to meet Kelly and gang super excited to see this thing all painted and pretty.

Once I got back home I took my frame to work and cleaned it out on the wash rack with hot pressure water. It was amazing to see the amount of s*** that came out off the inside of the frame. I probably spent 2 hours open washing it and still didn't get everything perfect but I stopped giving a s***...

 

[Lucky1386]

Started cleaning the balls on my axle housing and getting it ready for powder coating. Also got all the parts I needed to weld in the tabs for the front sway bar. Next step after this was to prep frame for powder.

 

[Lucky1386]

Started by taking off the c channels so I could replace with @TRAIL TAILOR channels. I don't know how any of you are able to get yours off with the body still in place. It took an air chisel and the torch to make it happen. It made the dynamat removal seem fun..

Then realized that my frame was missing some of the cups that hold the body mounts. @orangefj45 to the rescue, Georg had a frame that was getting cut up and I was able to go and get all the cups off his frame. Super appreciative of all the help from valley hybrids, we are really lucky to have people like this in our community. Then did some more research and it seems 81 up to 84 don't have cups on every mount, its an 85 and up thing... Stupid is, stupid does.

Luckily I remembered before to weld on the upgraded front sway bar mount to the front axle before powder.

Next stop will be powder coat on frame, front axle and some misc parts. Rear axle will get done later once I add the leaf spring perched to the 80 housing.

 

[orangefj45]

Happy to help my friend.

Keep up the great work & progress!

Georg @ Valley Hybrids

 

[Lucky1386]

Pretty much where I am at today. Chasing all the threads and starting to put together the front axle housing.

 

[Lucky1386]

By the end of next week hoping to have front axle housing all together, frame sitting on front suspension and axle housing. First need to disassemble old housing, evaporust knuckle and hubs then give it all a nice coat of paint. As long as all the parts show up in time should be easily doable.

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

Nice work!

 

[dbbowen]

Pretty much where I am at today. Chasing all the threads and starting to put together the front axle housing.
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[Lucky1386]

Man I miss Chris Farley. one of the greats!

 

[BurntToast]

By the end of next week hoping to have front axle housing all together, frame sitting on front suspension and axle housing. First need to disassemble old housing, evaporust knuckle and hubs then give it all a nice coat of paint. As long as all the parts show up in time should be easily doable.

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Did you buy the 3rd locked? Eaton? Keeping 4:10s?

 

[Lucky1386]

Did you buy the 3rd locked? Eaton? Keeping 4:10s?

Yeah I purchased the diffs from valley hybrids. Eaton(Harper) E locker with 4.56s if my memory serves me correctly.. My setup is 6.0lq9, tr4050, hf2a with overdrive gears/part time conversion and 4.56(might be 4.88s) on 35s.

I am not sure how it's all going to work out with the low gears in the hf2a and the granny gear in the tr4050 it might all be too low. But it isn't that big of a deal to change the gears later down the road. I intend towing an off-road trailer a fair amount.
@BurntToast what gears/tires are you running?

 

[BurntToast]

Yeah I purchased the diffs from valley hybrids. Eaton(Harper) E locker with 4.56s if my memory serves me correctly.. My setup is 6.0lq9, tr4050, hf2a with overdrive gears/part time conversion and 4.56(might be 4.88s) on 35s.

I am not sure how it's all going to work out with the low gears in the hf2a and the granny gear in the tr4050 it might all be too low. But it isn't that big of a deal to change the gears later down the road. I intend towing an off-road trailer a fair amount.
@BurntToast what gears/tires are you running?

I am running stock 4:10/11s with ~34” tires. 6.0l, 6l80, splitcase Works fine for now, I’ll had to go see what RPM I do 75mph at today. I’m thinking about electric lockers and figured I would ask about ratio at the same time

 

[Lucky1386]

I am running stock 4:10/11s with ~34” tires. 6.0l, 6l80, splitcase Works fine for now, I’ll had to go see what RPM I do 75mph at today. I’m thinking about electric lockers and figured I would ask about ratio at the same time

Electric lockers just seem less finicky than air but each def has their pros and cons.