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

[silver_bullet]

good idea to replace all fasteners with ARP bits... we've seen several of the factory fasteners on LS motors lose their heads quite literally!

[Barry Donovan]

knocking 1 thousand pounds or more off the 5.3 driveline..
that is going to be a nice truck.

Aluminum heads on the iron munch oem gaskets here local...
maybe add a nice brand while it's all out
multi layer steel or something.

I'd be finding a way to be all iron..

still going to be nice whatever you do with it.

[DanStokes]

Having recently completed a PnP search for replacement seats for Vanna the Van I noticed that pretty much ALL of the vehicles that I looked in with leather seats - well, they were trashed. Generally, at least at our PnP, the cloth seats were generally in better nick (been watching Edd China). Of course, a lot of the "leather" seats seemed to be be not-quite-leather except on the seating surfaces. The cloth seats usually needed cleaning and quite a few of them had what I suspect were seed pops (if you know what I mean) but all in all my conclusion is that, at least with current technology, the cloth ones last better. So it's interesting that "premium brands" generally feature leather.

The HHR seats I finally harvested seem pretty decent and even the foam still has it's shape. Besides, all the power stuff works, too. So maybe the moral of the story is that HHR seats wear like cast iron.

Dan

[silver_bullet]

what condition are those front seats in? pix? I'd like to compare the upholstery to the Avalanche's...

[DanStokes]

Sold 3 doors and the bent rear bumper for $302 yesterday.

Chris I just gotta ask - how did you decide on $302? Seems like an odd amount. Now $305 I could understand!

Dan

[Dan Barlow]

Whats the chance of putting those leather seats in the pickup or are they too large for the cab or are you trying to keep it a 3 seater ?

[74NovaMan]

We've got everything we need for the swap off of the donor. Hope to get rid of it in the next couple of weeks. Motor, trans and wiring:

[74NovaMan]

Sold 3 doors and the bent rear bumper for $302 yesterday.

[74NovaMan]

Thanks for the ideas. We're pretty firm on the truck looking like a 73-79 from the outside as well as the interior of the cab. That 56' looks very nice though.

We sold the front clip for $300 last night so the donor got about 30% cheaper.

[STINEY]

That's what my friend Jim did in his '56 GMC. He used the steering column as well.

[silver_bullet]

May be able to figure out a way to fit original cluster in behind a custom panel?

[silver_bullet]

Contact andy4639...He could probably give you some good pointers! Just a thought...

[74NovaMan]

Progress from last night. Separated the engine wiring harness from the fuse block and ECM:



This box is part of the drive by wire setup:



Bumper and fenders removed. Have a buyer coming tonight for the front clip.

[74NovaMan]

Grab everything that you can... It's easier to cut it down than add to it later...

Good advice. I'd really rather not take the whole dash apart if I don't have to though. We'll see is I can get comfortable enough with what is going on to take some shortcuts on that side.

[silver_bullet]

Grab everything that you can... It's easier to cut it down than add to it later...