A couple s-10's

I drove one the first year it came out, mostly out of curiosity, and loathed it. Then bought my ex an '09 I think and I didn't like it, but could have easily lived with it for a DD. Both had stock wheels and tires on them, and tire pressure alone helped a lot, but it still felt numb to me.

It's definitely one of those things where it's all personal preference. Again I haven't had the opportunity to drive one hard so I can't say. Hearing that was enough for me to shy away from doing something like kenny was talking about retro-fitting the set-up on an s10. I can see the benefits you are getting at though kenny with the infinite adjust-ability.

What I have driven and liked was a car retrofitted with the electric power steering pump from some 80's import(sorry, can't remember what anymore) that had a box tuned to match it's exact flow. The boost was constant, not variable with rpm so it was really consistent in feel. It is on my want to do list for my blazer, but may not make it to the final show.

Were they the base models or were either the S/C or turbo?  Wouldn't surprise me at all if the performance versions had more feedback tuned or engineered in.

They were both non-SS models, but not the base. That could make one hell of a difference I suppose.

What made me pay attention was that there was no less feel than one with manual steering. Much of this will have to do with alignment, bushings and tires. Not to mention the variable ratio steering gear. The cool thing is that if you don't feel the steering has enough "heft" to it without power assist, you can actually add resistance...... Pretty cool stuff. It may knock another 30-50 lbs off the front end with no pump drag as a bonus.

With the lengths I am going to for weight relocation and reduction, this fits every criteria. It is a very compact drive unit located at the base of the steering column.

Now I need to find an affordable way to build a LiFePO4 battery pack for a reasonable cost....... Braille is charging WAY too much...... A 4 lb battery is definitely in the works!

It's been a long time since I've been in here. Love the group of guys in here. Just finished reading through some build threads, it actually hypes me up so much to work on my truck.

I've been living in bc for a couple years now and the '84 has just sat stagnant for that period of time. I'm on vacation back home for 3 weeks however and have been picking away at it during that time. It feels so good to work on this truck again. I'll try and catch this build thread up a bit.

Got it down off the jacks and changed out the tires.  My dads finally starting to get his boss together.






First thing was get the interior back in it. I installed the new carpet (royal pain in the ass) and the nos gm headliner (so easy)

Wiped down the entire cab and got the last of the sulphate out of there from when the fire extinguisher blew.






carpet and headliner in, the carpet took a while but it contoured to floor nicely after a few days,







next on the list was fix the oil leak on the blower snout,



When I resealed it I just simply did a poor job and there was a spot on the left side where it was weeping out of.









Good thing I did this when I did. When I took the snout apart I noticed the new seal I replaced was ripped as well. So I went and picked up another bearing and seal.









Next on the list was a shitty one. Replace the tahoe badge on the passenger fender. The only way to do this is to remove the fender and pretty much the entire front end.









Then while I was at it I finally deleted the rest of the A/C system in favour a small heater box.



I had to do a little trimming to make my old a/c resistor fit in the new box. I would have rewired the plug but I didn't have a heat only resistor so this was cheaper/easier. Pretty easy install aside from the blower motor/squirrel cage. I read on a sy/ty that all you had to do was swap out the fans/squirrel cages and you could reuse your old blower motor. The heat only fan is much shorter and damn near fits. However when you try to bolt it on it hits the firewall. In my case I had to use the heat only motor and squirrel cage.












all back together,





only to see this 2 days later,


yup the fucker broke off once again. I'm really not sure why this has happened twice. The first time I thought I over tightened the tabs. This time I put some silicone grease on them and very gently snugged them up. Needless to say I won't be doing this again.

not the way I wanted to do it but enough was enough.



Also replaced the drivers door handle. The shit lmc one broke right before I left.



more to come in a bit

This thing is way too clean, I love it.

The engine bay has a long way to go still but it's nice to look back on how far it's come.








I sold the colorado and bought a sierra. Got tired of the 4'5" bed on the colorado.




Levelled it, colour matched a few things, took a few things off and put some better rubber on it.












The wife and I packed up our stuff, bought a small trailer and moved 5000km's west to BC.



The '84 sat like this for 2 years.



The sierra has been a great vehicle thus far.





I bought a contractor canopy and built an aluminum rack for our canoe. It was a great rig for camping but I'm going to be doing a lot of commuting now back and fourth so I sold it. Going to build an all aluminum rack for the canoe that's a little lighter.

oh totally forgot to mention my dad bought a house outside of town, with an 1800 sq ft shop. What a difference. Going from a 1 car garage and a driveway you couldn't work in to a huge flat driveway and a 6-8 car garage. Friggen thing of beauty.

taken from another forum


Picked up some 3x3 1/4" tubing on Friday.


Bought a chopsaw,




decided 3-1/2' was to high so I cut the legs down to 2'




need another 24' length of 3x3 but it's just about done,





My dad made up some plates and I picked up 3/4 bolts to use for adjustable legs.


Just need to make up some dollies for ease of moving it when I get some more time,


laid out my front suspension so I can make up a list of everything I need to make or buy and get it together.


bolted up the zx3r fronts to the rear just to see what they would feel like. Big difference between 8 and 10.5's when it comes to traction. I didn't think it would be as significant as it was.



Picked up another length of tubing. Just need to get some 3 x 1/4" bar now and I can make up the front and rear cross-members for the table.



Spent a few minutes drawing up how I want to do the upper control arm bushings. Also ordered the lower ball joint pockets and screw in cases.



did a quick test fit, upper control arm is way out on caster/camber but it gave me a good idea of what I'm looking at.  I will definitely be making a different shock mount, it clears comfortably but is just not ideal. Also I'll be  moving the upper control arm mounts.



Still picking away at it though, one thing at a time.










I decided to do something that wouldn't cost me anything. I had the material and even the 3m spray adhesive so I set about recovering my headliner.



It was sagging and super faded,


As soon as I started trying to remove the material I knew it wasn't going to go well. The headliner was just so dried out and crusty it was just falling apart in my hands. The backing (tan) separated from the Styrofoam (white)



So I called out about 9 junkyards in a hour proximity to me and no-one has an ext cab with a headliner. I priced them out on ebay, lmc a couple other sites and they all run about $130 + anywhere from $70-$140 for shipping. So much for the won't cost me anything project.

brought the hood to the body shop as well,




got some parts in,


Hopefully the pockets will be tigged into the control arms before the week ends,


the new cases are quite nice,



hood still isn't painted. If the guy doesn't do it this week I'm just going to take it somewhere else.

some pics of the '84 so glad to finally have the hood painted. Just need to fit it properly when I have some free time.







Just about got the lower control arms done,



lowers done, just put a quick coat of paint to keep them from rusting before I get them refinished,


Here they are mocked up with the uppers in the right orientation. quite a bit better. Next up is lower control arm bushings and relocating the upper shock mount.


been incredibly busy with work so the hood still isn't fitted nicely but we picked this up,


It's going to be so nice and convenient to be able to work on stuff at home now,

I think we got a really nice deal on it too. Came with a collet set and mitutuyo read out and some other misc things. After gas and the farmer next door helping us unload we have just over $2000 into it.


next up we got the mill situated,


picked up a snowblower on the cheap but it was missing some of the lift components so we've been piecing that together,


also working on getting the new shop heaters installed,


I know the next steps I'm going to take on the front end but time is very limited right now and it's likely going to be sitting until after christmas untouched.




Lastly I've been playing with the idea of selling the colorado and picking up a fullsize chev. One of the owners of a company I'm familiar with is trading in his 08 crewcab 4wd, z71 fully loaded truck, leather power seats, everything it's in immaculate shape and with about 60k miles on it. He said whatever they offer him on the trade he would sell it for. If I can grab it for under 15k I think I may jump on it.


Picked up a cab for mock up



Then set about installing the brake bias adjuster

I had forgotten you're using the 4x4 frame to make coilovers cleaner, definitely looking forward to more updates. The Camber with the vette spindles looks off, I know it's not set up, but just looking at control arm angles, you may need a taller lower ball joint, or shorter upper.

i like the 4x4 frame designs better too in general.

good to see "real" dampers being used

Robert, it's a long way out. I'll be redoing the coil over mounting location as well as the upper control arm mounts. Man that is just so far down the road at this point though. I've got to be honest the entire new frame/rolling chassis is probably like a ten year build down the road. I have two hang ups; 1 - no place to work on it, 2 - paying off my debts and actually squirrelling some money away to work on this. Right now I'm happy to drive the '84 and attend some events and just get it running properly.

yeah greencactus they are much better. Nearly fully boxed,