Old school Chevy

[Dilldog]

Not sure if I want to double case it, although it would be fun, I have a second vehicle, so right now this isn’t my everyday driver, not till I get all the week spots checked and fixed if needed, I know I need new front floor pans, not good when you look down in the floor while driving and see the road, I’ll definitely deal with the rear diff, I’m already running 15”, I had somebody willing to sell me set of 16.5” mil spec Humvee rims for dirt cheap, and thought about it, but haven’t been looking at that yet, And I will definitely be checking the front bangs.
Thank you for all the advice on this it’s great to have someone that knows more about these than I do, this information is really going to help.

Oh also for body parts go to LMC Truck. They sell replacement sheet metal for old pickups and suvs. I would steer clear of most of the other parts from them as better quality stuff is usually readily available at the parts stores.

 

[79burban]

Not sure if I want to double case it, although it would be fun, I have a second vehicle, so right now this isn’t my everyday driver, not till I get all the week spots checked and fixed if needed, I know I need new front floor pans, not good when you look down in the floor while driving and see the road, I’ll definitely deal with the rear diff, I’m already running 15”, I had somebody willing to sell me set of 16.5” mil spec Humvee rims for dirt cheap, and thought about it, but haven’t been looking at that yet, And I will definitely be checking the front bangs.
Thank you for all the advice on this it’s great to have someone that knows more about these than I do, this information is really going to help.

Oh also for body parts go to LMC Truck. They sell replacement sheet metal for old pickups and suvs. I would steer clear of most of the other parts from them as better quality stuff is usually readily available at the parts stores.

Already have some stuff for the tailgate window ready to order, but the floor pans are I bit to far gone for the ones they have to offer for what I have, not home right now but will send pictures of the worst parts later, unless someone knows better on doing the work than I do, might just have to take to a body shop

 

[79burban]

Square body Chevs are a favorite of mine, there's so much you can do with them, I've been involved in a few builds. That guy being an old school 3/4 ton you won't have much to worry about drive train wise. You should be running a Dana 44 front axle and the full floating 10.5" rear diff. If it's an auto trans you should have a TH400 and a 205 transfer case. Are you running a big block or small block for engine? And what's You skill level for mechanical work and fabrication?

You basically have what I want to have for the basis of my dream build.

I'm going to bring in the 2 old school Chevy guys I know on here @AmericaMike @Rusty burbin

I’m not an expert on the mechanical side, but I can get the job done, but I’m not a body guy, I would be able to fill in small stuff with bondoe, but not much more than that, as for the radiator, it’s an oversized 4 core radiator

 

[Dilldog]

I thought it was in the 80s that the d44 went away. Anyway, I guess I should have looped @rumbledawg in on this as he's apparently our active resident old school Chevy guy. I'm glad you popped up man.

 

[Dilldog]

ya, your right, you could still get a 44 in the truck line in 1980, subs and blazers went a little earlier

Well dang, learned something today!

 

[79burban]

a '79 3/4 sub should have a 10 bolt fr axle. i belive it was '77 when the D44 was phased out of the sub line. but as been mentioned- never say never with squarebodies, a lot of "did'nt make it" is common on these trucks.
have a look at your diff, round-ish cover and "ears" on the bottom of it will be a 10b
View attachment 151331

a D44 looks pretty much like a scaled down D60
View attachment 151332
compare these pics with what you have. both are about the same for strength and durability.

my ''76 K5 blaze had a 400 sb wit a 203 case, but a T350 trans. i used a Milemarker kit to change the 203 to part time. very simple to do and about a 150 clams. nice thing about converting, you now have 2wd low, and a little better mpg's. as the 203 is splash lubed, you will need to run 4by every now and then to keep everything slippery if you part-time it.
the 400 is a decent block. lots of torque- not so much for hp. again as mentioned, they do have siamesed bores so temps are a good thing to watch. head gaskets are easy to pop on 400's.
usual mods will wake up a 400. all i did was add a good intake and carb, freer flowing exhaust and an Isky super cam. power jumped to around a "whopping" 250 horse, but it was a real torqueasaurus- prob in the neighborhood of 400 lbs.
View attachment 151334
first mod i would do is add some rear airbags....subs always seem to have a saggy butt. don't know if yours has it, but i got rid of the carpet in the back of mine and went rubber matt- way easier to clean up if your going off road. and if your going off road, you will most likely want better lighting, i would add relays to your headlights, or LMC has a harness now for like $25 bucks. it will make them old lights shine. other than that i would use it and see what you really need...or want...

Heavy-Duty Headlight Harness

Shop from thousands of parts and accessories to help you restore, maintain, and customize your Chevrolet, GMC, Dodge or Ford truck or SUV. Keep 'em on the road with the right part, right price, right now.

www.lmctruck.com

and always been a sub fan. my old '75, never insured it for the road, just used it for bombing around the back 40. an old set of springs from a diff project and some knarly 33's and it would go most anywhere...
View attachment 151335

Thank you for the info, the first picture is what I have for the front axle, it didn’t have carpet int the cargo area when I got it, just painted metal, rear floor boards are ok, but front are both shot, plan on bed lining the floors front to back, and up to the windows in the rear

 

[Dilldog]

That's some good looking work on your crew cab.

 

[79burban]

that's not so bad...seen worse.
i would check your front body mount though, it's kinda close to that hole. after beatin' on my crew for 20 yrs it needed new rockers and a piece of floor exactly where yours does.
for the size of hole you got , i would just use some flat stock, much cheaper than buying new floor. i put a channel in mine and just welded it in. it gets covered, so looks aren't a priority...
View attachment 151726View attachment 151727View attachment 151724

don't get discouraged, there easier to fix than you think. the rest of my floor was cruddy too. factory jute rusted to the floor
View attachment 151729View attachment 151730View attachment 151731

if you can, i would strongly say to invest in some sound deadening while you got the int apart. after patching in metal, i splashed 4 coats of POR 15 on it, followed by some dyno mat, closed cell foam, mass loaded vinyl, and a new floor matView attachment 151733View attachment 151734View attachment 151735View attachment 151736View attachment 151737

i would do your doors too. there like big echo chambers...
View attachment 151738

here's another sub i owned, '89 K1500. sold it to partially fund paint on the crew
View attachment 151739View attachment 151740View attachment 151741

There are more than the big ones, but can’t really see them with out a light underneath, and even with flash off they don’t really wanna show up well, not really that worried about the noises except for maybe the doors, wasn’t planning on putting carpet or rubber floors back in, just staying with the bed liner

 

[79burban]

That's some good looking work on your crew cab.

thanks...been dickin' around on it since the '90's

There are more than the big ones, but can’t really see them with out a light underneath, and even with flash off they don’t really wanna show up well, not really that worried about the noises except for maybe the doors, wasn’t planning on putting carpet or rubber floors back in, just staying with the bed liner

i'm not much for bodywork either. i did the metal work myself and then let my buddies shop take it from there....even if you cut out the old rusted and clean everything up and get it ready for welding, you'll save lots of money- prep is what costs, takes little time and effort to burn the pieces in.
have you maybe thought about buying a 110 buzz box and doing the welding yourself? there not that expensive new, and used ones are even cheaper.
not hard to learn either, with sheetmetal your not actually welding, your spot welding, which just about anybody can do after a little practice.

and i would prob consider throwing at least a floor mat over bed liner. my crew is a Custom Deluxe, big fancy words for a basic, bare bones truck, all it had was a mat over the metal.....can you say "rocks in a can" cause that's what it will be like....
and your exhaust will suddenly be 80 decibels louder too....

I’ve got a small flux core welder, I’m not a bad welder at that, just not confident enough to fab the spot under the door, as for the rest, already have floor mats in it, the last truck I had was a 1978 Chevy Scottsdale, with no floor covering, just bare metal, got to hot on the feet during long drives, so floor mats were a must

Edit: I finally got a better look at the before picture of the floors in your crew cab, and your right, its not much different than mine are now, I know I can do the main floor pans, but I'm not sure about the rocker, that still has me a bit nurvis

 

[79burban]

Ok all my small block chevy guys, I'm having some trouble getting the timing set on my 1979 k20 suburban with a sbc 400, any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[smritte]

Are you having issues, installing it?
They can be tricky if you've never done one. Once you see how to, their easy.

Cant get it to line up or......

 

[79burban]

Are you having issues, installing it?
They can be tricky if you've never done one. Once you see how to, their easy.

Cant get it to line up or......

I can get the distributor in all the way to engage with everything, but for some reason, no matter what I have tried, I can't get it to fire off, made a little progress the other day, but she acts like it's 180° out of time, when I rotated 180, it got worse

 

[64Trvlr]

Did you ever get it running?

If not maybe I can help.

 

[79burban]

I got it to run and idle, but as soon as I put it in gear, it stalls out

 

[79burban]

So just a little update, I finally broke down and took the suburban to the shop, just haven't really had the time to really dig in and get it running, so I asked the local shop to figure out what's wrong and I'm going to go form there.
I have a cousin that wants the chassis so he can rebuild his dad's old truck, so if it's going to cost more than I'm willing to spend on it, I might just take him up on the offer to trade for his 85 k5 blazer

 

[79burban]

Well, the shop went ahead and instead of just checking out the truck and letting me know what they had found they decided to go ahead and fix everything that was wrong, and now I am extremely upset with the local mechanic shop because they charged me $650 and said everything was good, and on my own stupidity I went ahead and paid them for the work, only to find out later when I went to pick it up I couldn't get it to start and that the ignition tumbler is now broken.
I did eventually get it to start and drove it home but it is running extremely rough, it will not idle, I am getting extremely frustrated with this thing

 

[devildog80]

Did you get your rig to run better? Sounded to me it is off a tooth on the distributor but.......
Tumbler for the key is relatively cheap at FLAPS for these older rigs. Just need to pull the steering wheel and replace. Pretty easy to do.