Clutch's 93 RCSB

I decided to start my project thread.  I'm trying to take as many pictures as I can while I tear apart my truck and give it as close to a full restoration as I have time and money for. 

To start, a little background.  I was at the dealership in 93 with my dad when he bought the truck, loved it since day one and always told him, if he ever decided to sell it I was going to be the one to buy it.  Fast forward to 2003, my dad finally decides he needs a new truck and sells me his s10 with 190,XXX miles on it.

First priority, rip the ugly seat covers off, flip the TBI lid, install a RAZO shift knob and a monster pro comp tachometer.  Right after that I lowered the truck 2/3 with DJM springs and blocks, installed an un-painted roll pan and a 33mm front sway bar. 

Drove the truck around like this for a while, it ran great, was reliable and was an all around fun ride.  Throughout the next couple years added a few more parts but nothing major.

Fast forward a couple more years, truck was in a slight fender bender just before I moved to Arizona to attend UTI.  Well I couldn't show up to an automotive tech school with a red truck sporting a broken windshield, gray fender from pick and pull, orange hood from a friend of a friend and a black LMC front end, so the weekend before I moved, a couple good buddies helped me pull the truck apart, do the body work and lay down a couple coats of PPG DP90 for a nice flat black look.     

Well, more than a few years go by and the truck now has 314,XXX miles with that same primer on it and i'm married with a supportive wife who know's cars are my passion and is completely sick of me complaining about my un-finished truck.  30th birthday arrives and she lets me spend WAY too much money for all the materials to paint my truck.  Decided to go with Grabber blue and a satin black hood with black stripes down the front fenders. 

Then I came into a few bucks and decided it was time to address the torn up suspension while i'm at it. 

So, as some of you may have read in my "tell us about your suspension thread" I went out and bought ZQ8 leafs, ZQ8 rear sway bar and frame brace.  Purchased UB machine upper control arms, tall ball joints, tie rod adjusters, beltech drop spindles, moog problem solver lower control arm bushings and KYB GR2 shocks all around. 















Also got my new used rims cleaned up and installed some Dunlop Direzza tires in 245/45/17


Went ahead and purchased new brakes as well, powerstop slotted rotors, hawk ceramic brake pads, moroso long wheel studs and Drag Neo-Chrome lug nuts. 
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Not the same lugs as mine, but the same color


Saw this online and thought it was a cool idea, maybe not for everyone, but I dig it.


So I did mine the same way. Duplicolor mirage paint, keeps the rust away and the colors a little like my lug nuts at certain angles.




So now my work bench is covered in parts and gallons of paint and clear and primer and etc., etc., etc.,


Time to start the process of tearing it down.  Decided to go all the way and ordered a POR15 kit from eastwood to go ahead and paint the frame while I have all the suspension off.






Got busy today and tore out the gas tank, leaf springs and and pulled all hardware and bolts from the frame to start cleaning it up.  2 cans of oven cleaner, half a gallon of simple green and lots of scraping with a putty knife and this is what i've got now. 



Yes there's a little surface rust left on it, but my main concern was any left over factory coating and the 18 years of crud that had built up on it.  I still have to do a little more work to it and apply POR's metal cleaner and metal prep before I get busy with the brushes.  Here's where i'm at as of today though, I was just itching to get the thread started, figured it would help me stay on track for getting this thing done up. 

Good start to a build.

Great start in fact, looking forward to following it.

awesome start!  so what are the driveline plans?  ditching the tbi for mpi perhaps?  3.4 upgrade?  I love the 60 degree motors.. power of a v8 minus some torque (dont need loads in a s10 anyway) and alot less weight to throw around.  but thats just me.   keep the good stuff coming!

Thanks everyone, it's good to get encouragement to keep on truckin (no pun intended).. okay maybe a little. 

As far as drivetrain, yes I have a pushrod 3.4 sitting on the engine stand in the corner.  Got it out of pick and pull on a half off day, and swapped some fiero valve covers for the camaro ones before i took it, so I only have about $75 into it so far.  I also have a 4.3 TBI sitting in a cabinet waiting to be smoothed and rebuilt.  Hopefully I won't have more than $1000 into it to fully rebuild and swap in.  Probably going to be this summers project.  I'm really trying to get the suspension, paint and interior done first. 

Hopefully i'll get some more progress on it tonight, maybe even bust out the POR15 and get to painting.  I'll post pics if I do.

The truck looked really clean to begin with but it should look great after the POR job

awesome start!  so what are the driveline plans?  ditching the tbi for mpi perhaps?  3.4 upgrade?  I love the 60 degree motors.. power of a v8 minus some torque (dont need loads in a s10 anyway) and alot less weight to throw around.  but thats just me.   keep the good stuff coming!

As much as I love the 60* engines, it's not quite V8 power levels, even with a little boost or spray. And for weight, the iron block 60's with aluminum heads are pretty close in weight to an all aluminum LS engine.

Yea, i could get more power out of a v8 and keep the weight down with an LS motor, but i live in cali and didn't want to deal with the headache of a smog ref to make sure i did everything correctly.  Plus right now, i'm not looking for crazy power, it's still a daily and i wont be at the strip trying to break any records, so i'll be happy with it.  I may do some research on a LS swap in a 1st gen in the future when there's more money and time to devote to a swap like that.  For now i'll be stoked to have a fresh engine that doesn't leak oil anymore or have over 300,000 miles on it.

A little progress from today, wish I had gotten a little further, but i spent a lot of time prepping the frame properly for good adhesion, plus the dry time is kinda long when it's not real warm outside, went ahead and shot some rattle can satin black on the tank too.  

looking really good man!

Looks good but.. am I understanding this project as parts are just getting unbolted & painted?

Not exactly, the truck is getting all new suspension, so while it's apart the frame is getting stripped and coated with por15 and the underside of the bed and fenders are getting undercoated.  Next step is to prep and paint the jams and then finish up body work and finally paint the truck.

Ah, ok.

It's been WAY too long since an update.  Quite a bit has happened, let the pictures commence!

After assembling the rear suspension:



Then after a quick lunch break, truck was reversed into the garage and the front end came apart:


Cleaned lower control arms, pressed the bushings out and finally sand blasted them:



A nice coating of POR15 on the control arms and the battery tray:

Time to pull the crusty engine out:



Starting to clean up the front 2/3rds of the frame:


Front frame horns coated:


And finally got the rest of the frame cleaned and painted:



Also got the bottom of the cab all cleaned up as well, this is the side view of the underside of the cab.  If you look you can see the clean side and the remaining sludge:


Now fully cleaned and degreased:

After undercoating the bottom side of the cab:


Another view, please ignore the red stripe, this was my tape line while shooting the undercoat.  I purposely taped it on the inside so that when we tape off the rockers in the paint booth i'll have panel for the tape to stick to instead of undercoating.  It will be touched up after the truck is painted.


Cleaned up and painted the driveline:


Cleaned up fuel lines and brake lines, by the way a little steel wool with make GM lines polish out really WELL!


Shot some degreaser on the trans and started scrubbing:


Nice and clean:


Started cleaning up the firewall:


And after a coat of POR15 Gray:


Now for the inner fenders:


And finally, freshly sand blasted radiator support:


First coat of Gray POR15:


A new purchase!


Also found out I had the wrong tie rod adjusting sleeves so they swapped me out for these billet aluminum ones:

Yes I weighed them on my wifes kitchen scale, these things are SOO light! 


And finally, the front suspension is almost back together:

looking good!

Looks awesome

OCD much?
Nice build, keep it up.

It's been too long since an update.  Here we go, this will be picture heavy.

Engine and trans before clean up


Engine in primer


Engine painted


Accessories installed and hiding the nice fresh paint


Firewall completed


Engine back in it's cleaned up home


Started to clean up under the bed


All cleaned and prepped for undercoating


Undercoating all done


Finally got all of the body panels back on and took it for a quick test drive around the block.  It was around 2am so I tried to stay out of the throttle since it still had no exhaust

http://youtu.be/OwQMftkKjgE

Got the new exhaust routed and the 4" hole cut in the side of the bed for the exit



All put back together and a new windshield installed the day before I left for Run to the Coast for my first racing event.


All washed and ready to head to L.A. for the event


Waiting for everyone to complete tech inspections in the pits


A quick video of one of my auto cross runs.  No, that's not clutch slip that's tire spin because of the open diff.  It was such a fun day, getting to re-learn my truck after it being in pieces for over a year.  I was extremely happy with how the suspension performed.
http://youtu.be/cMQMzdQue_U

This is the unorthodox club me and a couple buds have.  It doesn't matter what make or model, we just love playing cars.


Finally started body work to prep for paint


So much sanding!!!


I ordered a real piece of carbon fiber plate to make an exhaust cutout plate



Cardboard template


All cut out and rounded the edges


Setting up my marks for the bolt holes


All drilled and setup


Test fit


And more paint prep, finally got the bed in some filler primer


Now I'm working on the wet sanding and that pretty much brings you up to date