In reply to JohnRW1621 and wae:
With the truck in the garage, I was able to take the time to get the window replaced. Turns out, the clips can be slid out of the bottom of the window tracks, and snapped onto the replacement window. I further damaged the window weatherstripping, so I will definitely want to replace it. May have to wait until after the challenge, depending on budget, as its about $110.
wheels777 wrote: Tim, If you find a cheap(er-ish) Nova/Camaro posi rear with good gears, AND a set of 89 and later 28 spline S-10 axles, I will cut it down for you. I have the right pucks and experience. If you can live with a Ford pattern wheel flange and a rear 1-1/2" wider than stock, do a Ford 8.8' with 2 right side axles. They are 31 spline, decent lockers, excellent gear selection, disc brake and cheap.
Thanks! I knew of the 8.8 swap, but am not confident enough in my cutting/welding skills. I'll keep my eyes open for an 8.8" explorer rear with track-loc. Are you set up to modify them too?
A new yard opened up this weekend, I may go there tomorrow. It has what appears to be a lowered Sonoma, so I may be able to snag some suspension parts, and if its a 4.3HO/5-speed, I'll luck into an 8.5 that will bolt up, just need to shorten the driveshaft a bit.
In other news, got the truck inspected and titled today! No need to take it out onto the street until the salt is gone in the spring now.
mav .. what city in Ohio are you near? If Cincinnati (by chance), where is the new yard and what name?
Thanks!!
einy wrote: mav .. what city in Ohio are you near? If Cincinnati (by chance), where is the new yard and what name? Thanks!!
Yup - Cincinnati - Its on Kemper near 275 and 75
https://www.lkqpickyourpart.com/locations/LKQ_Pick_Your_Part_-_Cincinnati-253/
BTW - I call dibs on the wheels on the 86 Buick Regal, if they're still there tomorrow 
Cool! Please let me know if you happen to spot a "blemish free" bronze colored hood for a late model (like 2003) S10 !! Mine has infamous GM peeling paint disease and I'm keeping eyes open for a no labor replacement.
If you need a hand with some work on your swap project, drop me a PM. I'm up in Loveland.
In reply to einy:
I ended up there before seeing this post. I don't think I saw a bronze S10 there, but I could have missed it.
As for needing help, the more the merrier, I'm only a few exits away down in the Eastgate area. When I get a donor, we'll probably try to get as many of us together to strip it as quickly as possible.
I've given up on the idea of trying to get the engine started, but want to make sure it can rotate before I put it up for sale. Only been able to get 4 of the six spark plug wires off. The other two are slowly coming apart rather than being willing to come loose. May have to wait til the engine is out before putting atf in those cylinders.
It's above freezing, so I am hoping to hit the truck box with the pressure washer a bit later today. I'm traveling again for most of the week, so today is the last chance I have to get any progress for a bit. Once I return, the search for a donor vehicle will start in earnest.
What has three wheels an a mullet and only costs $375?
wae wrote: What has three wheels an a mullet and only costs $375?
I'll take bad decisions for $375, Alex.
That would be a non-running 3rd gen fireturd. What have I gotten myself into.
That's weird, Ovid_and_Flem was listed as the last poster, but I don't see their post?
wae and I dragged it home today. Got it to run for a few seconds on starter fluid, neither of us could hear the fuel pump running. I'm hoping this means it just needs a fuse, relay or the fuel pump. Will get a photo up sometime, but on an early inspection, it seems to be in way better shape than I thought it was last night when I bought it.
It also shows full on the fuel gauge, which iirc, is the failure mode for a GM fuel sender. Would be funny if it's main issue is being out of gas.
Unfortunately, the windows were left open for a while, so I need to use the wet vac on the interior once it gets above freezing here.
Oh yeah, it's only an L03 (TBI) 305 with a 700R4, so not exactly a performance engine, but the hope is it'll let me get the swap up and going quickly, and either build this engine up a bit, or get another more powerful engine. Don't know if I'll be able to zero it out, but should be able to recoup a decent amount in sell offs.
Here's the Fireturd in all its glory:
And the final sale price. If anyone had bid it up more, I would've dropped out, as I'd set a limit at $400:
Being a 91, its a Van Nuys car, and you can tell from the paint. Still, its a lot more solid than I thought it would be.
Also, tried to sell the truck box today, but the buyer flaked on me, after already postponing getting it once. Their number is now blocked.
This weekend, I'm hoping to do some diagnosis on the electrical system in the S10, and figure out why nothing is powering up when I hook up a battery, and also, I'd like to see if I can manage to get the Firebird running, and see if the engine/trans will be good to go.
Anyone got a set of decent performance 305 heads laying around?
You know, it could be made really sharp for the Concours by taking a polisher to it, touching up the black where it needs to be touched up, getting two more 2nd gen alloys and two-toning the set, and then adding a little red pinstripe where the silver bodyside meets the black roof/hood part. Sort of like this, but lowered and a real truck instead of a 5 minute photoshop.
In reply to G_Body_Man:
That does look nice, and I will probably keep the two tone paint job, or use some vinyl over the silver. I do prefer more old school wheels, though. For the challenge, I'll use whatever fits in the budget, but afterwards, it's probably getting a set of 15" or 16" Cragar Soft 8 wheels, maybe with white letter tires. Somebody keyed the truck, including a little cursing on it, so the silver needs to be painted over or covered over somehow. I'm actually thinking of just roller painting it over with gloss gray paint, to keep it close to what it is now. The black paint is not in the best shape, but I plan to just touch it up a bit and polish it. Frankly, I don't want this to look show quality, I'd rather it still have some blemishes.
Vacuumed a gallon or two of water out of the fireturd yesterday, and started trying to diagnose the S10 electrical system. I think it's related to the starter wiring, but I'm not 100% sure. Today, I plan on hooking the positive terminal of the battery directly to the fusible links that lead to the fuse box. If I get power then, I'll have a very limited area where there can be a problem. If I've still got no power, then it's probably the fusible links, or damaged wiring somewhere. I really despise electrical problems.
Woohoo! Running a cable from the positive battery terminal to the fusible links has lit up the interior and under hood lights. Some of the headlights and tail lights work, and the fuel pump primes. Now that I have a rough idea of the condition of the wiring on the truck, I'll start tearing up the front end, and pulling the engine and trans. But before that, I will be seeing about getting the fireturd running, and I think I'll be making a junkyard run in the morning. I realized the truck I got the manual steering box from may also be a non-AC truck. If so, I'd really like to have the underhood heater box from it.
Dash control is different too, and if i remember right, heater box as well. So get it all if you want to do it right.
Dusterbd13 wrote: Dash control is different too, and if i remember right, heater box as well. So get it all if you want to do it right.
Hmm, I wonder if that means I should just do what I've seen online, where someone has hacked up their heater box, then fiberglassed it back together, without room for the evaporator.
I didn't feel like dealing with the fireturd today, with how windy it was outside, so I took some time and starting demolishing the S10. The damage on the front end made it pretty hard to remove the bumper and grill, so it took longer than I had planned, but at least the bumper, grill, radiator, and condenser are out now:
The bumper mounts did get knocked out of alignment, presumably whenever the truck had its accident. I'm hoping I can just put a few shims on the passenger side mount to get the new bumper lined up well.
I'm going to try to figure out how to remove the core support without taking the fenders off. Should make it a lot easier to yank the engine and transmission as one unit.
wow. That thing has a lot of flash rust.
Scooter wrote:
Probably lived a little too close to the ocean for too long. Still way less rust than I'd see if I'd sourced it from here in Ohio. I haven't broken any bolts yet.
Well, it should be a lot easier to pull the engine and transmission now:
The frame may be a bit more out of alignment than I thought, but I still think its good enough for this project. In the future, if I decide to make any major changes, I may see about getting a better frame off CL, but for now, that's way too much.
On another note, I cleaned up the tools I found in the truck tool box, and found a closed end wrench made by Lectrolite, in Ohio. Its 3/4" on one end, and 25/32" on the other. Kind of wondering what was made that uses that size bolt head. Judging from a quick search on the internet, and looking at pictures of different designs, it's possible it dates back to the 1930's. Kind of neat.
No new pictures, but a bit of progress this evening. I disconnected and labeled most of the wiring on the engine, and inadvertently broke a heater hose.
Shouldn't be too much more work before it's ready to be pulled.
In reply to eastsidemav:
I keep wanting to see a picture of that wrench.
In reply to Stampie:
Here you go:
I've been tempted to get a hold of an ultrasonic parts cleaner for a while now. I'm curious to see how much this could be cleaned up.
Here's a link to a site where I found some info about Lectrolite: http://alloy-artifacts.org/lectrolite-corp.html
But what kind of Lectrolite is it? Red or Black?
Ashyukun wrote: But what kind of Lectrolite is it? Red or Black?
Okay, that made me laugh in real life. I really need to toss that movie in the DVD player sometime again soon.
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