Project Drivabeater

I'm so glad to see you keep it, at least for a little while. One of the best documented builds there is IMO.

I like the idea for the interior. Black and silver are a standard for a reason.

Wonder how a single wide stripe down the hood, over the roof and down the gate would look with a superbee rear strip?

great job on the s10 so far. would u mind doing a recap on parts so far? theres lots of reading on ur build lol i have an first gen s10 too so very interested in this build!

umm......

beltech 1 inch coils
DJM 2 inch spindles
Moog problem solver LCA bushings
UB Machine UCA's
82 C10 2WD UBJ
ZQ8 steering box
ZQ8 sways

Jeep shaft
elltech leaves wi poly bushings and 2 iinch blocks
4 door blazer bilstein shocks
PFC Z compound pads

total from the last update:2168.87

 

stuff bought for this update:

seats from 95 pontiac firebird: 25

good CD player: 0 (kept it when i sold my protege a while back. put the stocker in it.)

Sub, amp, and accessories: 37

duct tape: around .25

Carpet dye: 7

 

so, ive been busy this weekend. friday after work, i decided that it was time to get the motor out of the bed of my truck. so my father and i hooked a chainfall to the beam in my garage and a chain top the motor. i could have used a hoist, but this seemed like the easier solution. i was really, really wrong. it took me about 4 hours from haning the chainfall to having the motor on the stand. dropped it once when a bolt broke. didnt get seriously hurt, but i did mess up my right hand for the weekend. its feeling some better today.

 



 

after that was out, and i got done tripping over two different sets of seats, a console, a complete carpet, and various other interior parts, i decided it was time to do someting about all tye crap that was in my way. i listed a bunch on craigslist, and put the rest in my truck.

 

so after finishing some work at the church yesterday mrning, i started. there really wasnt much left to pull out. just seats and seatbelts. i then cleaned the floorpans really good, and started laying down wire. i put in all my cables and such for my amp, rear speakers, and dome lights. the duct tape was used to hold it to the floor inside channels that were stamped into the metal.

then, i laid down the carpet. this carpet was origonally from a 4wd truck, so it doesnt fit exactly right. little short in some places, little long in others. i cut where it was long, and did my pest to minimize the appearance of where it was short. while working with that, i used my new can of duplicolor vynil and fabric dye to spray th carpet on the back wall black, and the plastics that hold the rear speakers in place as well as the seatbelt latches. got all this stuff installed, and added a whole bunch of screws that were missing to reduce rattles.

 

i then went on to put the amp and sub back in, as well as my giant rubber floormat that covers the hole where the T-case lever would be in the carpet.

 

i looked at the firebird seats i was tripping over, and figured that it wouldnt take too long to try out their fit. was expecting to have to grind and modify stuff to get them in. i will say right now that they are a drop in. just bolted on the blazer tracks and bolted them to the floor. i really like the amount of bolstering they have, too. not too agressivem but enough to be functional. i will have to shim the back mounting bolts a little, as the frontof the seat cuts into my fat and short legs. you may not have to do that.

 

i slid my console back in (ill bolt it in one of these days) and went to call it a day. until i tried out the stereo with the sub. my old CD player was having issues (got it free from a fried who took it out of his wrecked saturn), and decided that it hated the sub and amp and would no longer work. on my shelf i had the CD player for my protege that i sold. kept it and put the stock 6 disc back in. so i put it in the glove compartment. the rest of the supply of tape went here. i made tape rolls, and taped it in.

 

overall, a really good day.









 

i still dont like the stereo in the glove compartment, so im trying to figure out a way to put it where the ash tray is and make it look good. still havent come up with one.

 

lastly, i got to raid the parts that my father was going to throw away. its nice having a dad that is also a racer, who is friends with racers, and throw away stuff they cant use anymore. so i tend to get first dibs at their scrap piles.

 

dads included:

C5 calipers and abutment brackets. the calipers are spread, so the pads wear pretty badly. should be fine for my truck. if not, ill try to figure out a way to machine them so the pads run parallel again. and they need rebuilt due to the seals being baked.

 

 

 

he was also throwing out all his wiring and compuetrs from when it was injected. Jeff creech messed up the tunes so bad that dad wouldnt sell them to anyone, and he idnt truct the wiring changes jeff made either. so he was going to toss them. i can use them, i think. one is a 7165 from a MAF corvette, the other is a 7727 from a SD vette. ill need the SD, the MAFill either sell or something. both harnesses started out as painless harnesses.

 





 

thats all for now. tune in next week as i teach myself to recover a headliner.

michael

If you run across another set of C5/6 caliper let me know

Glad to see someone is getting some work done.

You could mount the head unit in that tray under the dash. Just need some 1/8" ABS sheet, Zap A Gap glue and Zip Kicker accelerator.

do what eric??

you lost me after plastic, and im thinking some really funny things now.

care to enlighten me?


and im assuming your progress is slow because yore in delaware. i know if NC is this damn cold, DE must be a freaking ice chest.

michael

looks good man, I have that same cd player in my truck.

i wonder if the bolts on the 2nd gen seat rails line up the same as the 1st gens?   I have a friend that has some 4th gen camaro seats I might have to borrow for a day.

do what eric??

you lost me after plastic, and im thinking some really funny things now.

care to enlighten me?


and im assuming your progress is slow because yore in delaware. i know if NC is this damn cold, DE must be a freaking ice chest.

michael

LOL, Zap A Gap is a great glue for ABS fab. It's what I used to make the bottom two in this (click)


You use the Zip Kicker (accelerator) to set the glue instantly which is nice.
You can get them at any hobby shop but here are some links.
http://www.micromark.com/MID-CURE-ZAP-A-GAP-2-OZ,7571.html
http://www.micromark.com/FOAM-SAFE-ZAP-KICKER-2-OZ-LIQUID,8719.html

And yes, it's is ridiculously cold here.

well, im kicking this thing to the corner of my property for a little while. the fuel delivery problem has now begin on the street, making it a pita to drive, and question wether its goin to get me home or not. and next wek, ive got an 89 RX7 with a stroker small block that will be occuping my work bay for a while. hes brining it to me for a full harness, headlight to taillight. full autometer instrumntation, stereo, etc. should make me enough money to be able to afford my caliper brackets, ECM tuning stuff, and rebuild parts for the 3.4.

then, ill pull the truck back in the shop, and start blowing it apart for electrical work, and maybe the motor swap.

would it be a bad idea to fire the 3.4 on the stand to make sure i have sensors and such right?

michael

Ohhh, the RX sounds fun.

I wouldn't fire the engine on a roll around stand. Even starting the engine may flip.

PM me for the brackets, I have a set of Ed Millers with all the hardware. I'll give them to you for less then I paid....

didnt think about the flip....

and i am excited about the RX7. i enjoy doing full custom harnesses. i just like wiring.
except trouble shooting factory stuff. that sucks.

pm on its way

i just like wiring.
except trouble shooting factory stuff. that sucks.

Same here

I've found that through unwanted practice I've become pretty good at wiring.  I still don't like wiring, yet I am good at it so i don't mind doing it. lol

well, it didnt get me home. knew it was coming due to the fuel delivery issue, but figured i could limp it till the RX7 was done. i was wrong.

so i assumed it was the fuel pump. all signs led to that conclusion.
i bought my last pump woth a lifetime warrenty. Adance was nice enough to let me upgrade for the difference. so i went with an L98 corvette pump (88 vette). bolted right in, and should be enough flow and pressure to fit ALL my plans for the 3.4. cost me an extra 8 bucks over the origonal.

so add in 8 bucks. anyone know what the total is now? there will be a test later....

anyway, my dad and i pulle dthe bed tonight. pump went in without a hitch. used the sock filter for a 92 camaro, also under the warrenty. they offered, so i ran with it.
when we got the bed off, we found more of the PO's hack jobs that i had not noticed before. like every wire to and from the pump assemble had been cut, and then crimp connectpred back together. the ground wire actually fell apart as i was removing it. that was probably my fuel problem all along, but i installed the new pump anyway. after cleaning, soldering, and heatshrinking all connections, i put it back together. also added a ground point for the filler neck.

thats it. runs and drives again.

next update after the RX7 is done
michael

don't you hate it when you find crap wiring from PO?

esp radio wiring.

Fuel pumps are cake on the trucks.  Well that is if your bed isn't rusted in place.

Good work.

pics of the rx7 that were requested.



when it was pulled in, after i had already started a bit.











as of tonight, about 20 minutes ago.























and why ive got a lot done this week





i hate snow. but enjoy wiring.

i've got the 3.4 in my 94 with a '7730 ecm.  even a stock motor with headers is alot better over even the built 2.8 i had it before it.  a good tune works wonders also.  you'll be really happy with the 3.4 upgrade.  i wont mention anything about the aluminum head swaps... opps. 

care to share some of the details ith me? like how you did the fuel lines, routed the intake tube, underhood shots, etc? im having difficulty finding many that have retained the mpi and dis when they did the swap.

michael

well since my truck was a 2.2 the fuel lines where in the back pass so i just ran hose around to the front and hooked to the factory plastic hose ends.  so in a first gen you could just come up from the factory ends and go right to the fuel rail.  as far as the intake tube, you wont be running anything stock.




those are from the 86 i had the 2.8 in with the 3.4 intake i have to run a dist with.

in the 2nd gen i just have a cone k&n stuck on the tb that fits betwen the rad and the motor.  makes a great whistle sound at part throttle.  the one in the pics is just pcv piping that i got from a hardware store.

any other things you wanna know, ask away.  loving seeing the mpi and sfi swapped into the s10s.  does wonders for the little motors in our trucks.

man, that intake setup looks pretty cool.