74 NovaMan's 1979 Chevy Truck - LS Swap - 5/6 Drop

[74NovaMan]

Current state of the shop/project:

[74NovaMan]

Since the bolts are out, we may as well remove the bed! I got all the mounts replaced and the bed off in under 4 hours.

[74NovaMan]

Speaking of bolts, here are the bed bolts. Their spectacular intactness is a testament to not buying a vehicle from the salt belt! If this truck were from around my place I'd still be working on the cab mounts and gone straight for the torch on these.

[74NovaMan]

Yesterday I replaced the cab and core support mounts (another LMC score).



Nice chunk of mud!







The LMC kit was pretty complete. I only need to reuse a couple of these from the rear cab mounts. Fortunately they were in decent shape.



All the bolts came out without breaking or spinning any captured nuts!! With the exception of the 2 bits mentioned above, I reused all of the original hardware and just replaced the rubber bits. This is what was left of the cab and core support kit. I was going to order just the rubber bits but it was quite a bit more expensive that way. The whole kit including bed bolts was $139 plus shipping & tax.

[74NovaMan]

Old inner fender:



New one (way to shiny - I may have to smear mud on it or something). All but one of the fender nut clips broke taking the old one off so I ordered a fender install set from LMC for $10.

[74NovaMan]

Installed:

[74NovaMan]

Ready for reinstall with new parts (heater core, AC core and AC vacuum actuator (also a discontinued part - found on ebay)):

[74NovaMan]

This bit is available at LMC. I also got a replacement box stud from them as well.



This is a discontinued GM part my buddy helped me find at a dealership across the state. You can buy singles off ebay for $30. I got 2 shipped to me for about $25.

[74NovaMan]

Box repair - not pretty but functional and solid:

[74NovaMan]

Heater box deconstruct:



Need to fix this - New box is $400!!



Removed the inner fender so I can properly reattach the AC box (the lower bold was missing when I took it apart)





Two bits of almost unobtainium:




Found all of this in the heater box:

[74NovaMan]

Thanksgiving weekend progress started with taking apart the heat and AC systems





These mud dauber things are everywhere on this truck!

[oletrux4evr]

Progress!

[Deaf Bob]

Check your box mounts.. Might be bad/fudged

[74NovaMan]

Here's the next batch of parts to install:

[74NovaMan]

In addition to lowering the rear I need to address the fact that the drivers side is 1" higher than the passenger side. These measurements are at the wheel opening. I may replace the rear springs.