At some point in my life, I'm going to regret making a build thread for this thing.

[dgoizo]

Why have I not been reading your builds. They make my life such a better place

[HooWybrow]

Build Break Repeat!

Darn tootin'.

Did you at least get a video, Jeff? Sucks to see it broken.

No video, unfortunately.

BADASS little truck you have there sir, backed with great project methodology.... 'can it break?' 'if yes, break it, apply bigger and better parts, repeat.'

Thanks, man. It's the only way to build shit.

How much did those QA1s run ya?

About $500

Digging the set up dude, I might have to go to that when I do a fuel cell/if my 4-link fails.

Yep, works great.

What trans are you running behind the 5.7?

Right now, a broke-ass NV3500. I've got one that I just had rebuilt that I need to pick up and jam in, although I've found an LT T56 that I would much prefer building the shit out of and putting it in the truck.

Why have I not been reading your builds. They make my life such a better place

Hahaha, thanks a lot, man.

Well, we had some hiccups in the geometry of the 4-link, we completely rebuilt it, started from scratch nearly. There is so much to explain and I'm sure no one cares. Regardless, the truck has exactly factory wheelbase now, stock driveshafts will work again, has proper 4-link geometry.

I've put a little over 1000km on it since I brought it home... last week sometime? I think... I forget, either way, it's been working quite well.

I forgot, in all honesty, to take good pictures of the "new" setup because I was too excited to toss the bed on and drive it home that same night. (Sorry).

Here are some half-assed ones when I had it on the hoist the other day checking bolt torque's and changing the oil.

Ok, I lied, I found one on the hoist with the new setup, although it's a pretty bad picture. This shows the driveshaft loop that was added post-driveshaft annihilation. It also shows how the Belltech bar will STILL work with the 4-link (I'm fucking pumped about this). I just need to fab up some longer brackets to weld to the diff so it spaces the bar down about a half-inch over where it used to be.



The lowers used to mount to the factory spring perch pictured here, but have now been moved up to have the lower bars level at ride-height.











Again, ALL of this junk fits with room to spare under the stock bed floor. As far as I know, there is not another street-driven S10 with a bed floor and coilovers anywhere.

This is the AN line flared onto the factory steel hardline up inside the trans tunnel, was a horrible experience flaring these lines, very, very tight for space.





This weekend, the back-half of the frame will be boxed in and welded. The box will be back off again, so I will grab some decent pictures then. Wiring is temporarily done until this is taken care of. I also need to add back the vent valve and charcoal canister (yes, with a fuel cell), so that this thing legitamitely passes e-test here.

Burnouts start in second gear now.



Stay tuned.

[Stupid Kid]

Man this truck is just about as cool as your caviler

Do you daily it or something else?

[SheaMoose]

Nice welds.
Nice geometry.
Nice work.

What was wrong with the old setup?
Because I care.

[HooWybrow]

Man this truck is just about as cool as your caviler

Do you daily it or something else?

Thanks, dude. It is, in fact, my year round daily. I have been contemplating putting it away this year, simply due to the fact it was hard enough last year driving it with the 6 cyl and leaf springs, this year it will be life-threatening.

Nice welds.
Nice geometry.
Nice work.

What was wrong with the old setup?
Because I care.

Thank you! I can't take credit for the welds, my friend (welder by trade) did all the welding, usually I'd do all my own, but with the goals I'm looking to achieve with this thing, "I'm pretty sure these will hold" is not what I wanted out of my welds.

The geometry was all dinked. The lower bars should be level at ride height, and the uppers should slope down towards the front of the truck (side view). If you drew an imaginary line from the bars, they should intersect somewhere around the front of the camshaft.

It was quite ass-backwards the first time around. My bars sloped away from one another, and when you put a load on them it unloaded the suspension, taking all the weight off of it and essentially just made the truck entirely useless.

Blew a brake line on the way home tonight, can't win with this stupid truck.

[andybob]

Sucks to hear about the brake line, always something.

4 link looks wonderful though. Glad you got the geometry sorted. Bet it rides a bit nicer with the coils instead of the old leafs.

[CraigSnedeker]

Dude, the flares are gonna look SICK! I've always wondered what flares looked like on a lowered S10 and am debating doing it on mine. I'm so glad I came across this build thread.

[CrackerTeg]

Damn dude. Sucks about the brake line but the truck is a shitty badass. Oxymoron?

[LOCALTHIRTEEN]

Can someone please pick my bearded jaw up off the floor..............Thanks.

[SheaMoose]

Thank you! I can't take credit for the welds, my friend (welder by trade) did all the welding, usually I'd do all my own, but with the goals I'm looking to achieve with this thing, "I'm pretty sure these will hold" is not what I wanted out of my welds.

The geometry was all dinked. The lower bars should be level at ride height, and the uppers should slope down towards the front of the truck (side view). If you drew an imaginary line from the bars, they should intersect somewhere around the front of the camshaft.

It was quite ass-backwards the first time around. My bars sloped away from one another, and when you put a load on them it unloaded the suspension, taking all the weight off of it and essentially just made the truck entirely useless.

Blew a brake line on the way home tonight, can't win with this stupid truck.

Haha, well tell him he has beautiful welds.

Suspension geometry can be such a pain, that's great that you figured it out.

[dgoizo]

That burnout pic.... WINWINWINWIN lol great work on that four link man. Great work in general!!

[HooWybrow]

Boy oh boy, I left this build thread alone for too long. A lot has happened recently. A local guy has been parting out his truck, so I wound up buying a bunch of goodies including:

-My old vette wheels
-ART tubular lower control arms
-UB machine upper control arms
-QA1 dual adjustable coilovers.
-Another box
-Clean front fenders/inner fenders
-GMC hood
-Bench seat center console (in grey, but, oh well)





Old garb:





In with the new:



We aligned the front to -2* camber, which sunk the front wheels in a considerable amount.



I have two sets of Diamonds, both sized at 15x8 -25/-38. I got curious and wondered how the -38's all around would work. They work rather well.







I think shortly I'm going to re-align it (mainly because the coils settled and I've got some unwanted excessive toe) and dial in a total of -4* camber. I'm kind of fond of the whole drift car set-up lately for some reason and it looks decent on the truck, so I'm going with it.

Before all this, I blew up my diff. Luckily, I have about seventeen of them laying around. I took this opportunity to change out the sluggish 3.08's for a 3.73 gear set. This woke the truck up a lot.





Saturday night, we finally tackled my notches. The bolt-in notch just is not enough anymore, and with the extra power/traction/all around greatness the truck is turning into, I wanted to start making the frame stronger, I've already twisted an S10 frame in my lifetime and I do not intend to do it again.

Old bolt-in notch:





You can see here how the stock frame bows out, we squared that off and started boxing.







We got it all welded and boxed and also added a shear plate on the outside rail, just because the frame is only about 1-7/8" tall here. More so a precaution.



Boxing:



Having the new notches allowed me to lower the truck another 3/4" in the rear. Having the coilovers/4-link is the greatest thing in the world for adjustability.

Rear fitment is pretty delicious:



With the new box and fenders coming this week, I will finally have solid wheel arches to roll properly and really bang the fitment out on this thing.

Back to the wheels, with them being from two different sets, they're two different colours. I now want to change it up, and I think I've decided on a very pale blue. Mike (e30urobutch) did a photoshop for me yesterday and I love it.



That, I think, is it for now. You're mostly caught up.

[LOCALTHIRTEEN]

I like the pastel blue wheels. Goes great with the rust and blue. Only other color would be an off white or cream color.

[electricalbox]

Sweet its looking great!

[frink84]

nice update, the blue looks great