obshouse

The truck started off as a 96 c1500 long box with a 4.3. The truck earned the name puddles due to it leaking every possible fluid in my high school parking lot. Drove the truck for 3 years then parked due to the cost of gas.

I had started to fix up the truck in 2015 but as i was removing a broken leaf spring the frame broke right behind the cab and i was defeated. My grandfather who had originally sold me the truck had passed away in early 2016 and i decided to fully restore the truck.
The day after i got the phone call, i had found a brand new factory replacement frame and bought it for 600$ (CDN) delivered. First set of parts bought were all new control arms, 2-4 drop kit, new steering components (other than box), poly bushings for leafs and cab and a "rebuilt" goodwrench crate motor.

obshouse

Bought a parts truck to get some less rusty body panels and a 5 speed swap with a nv3500. Tore both trucks down, taking the usable parts for my build and sending the remainder to the junkyard.

Started putting everything together after replacing cab corners and rockers on the cab.

obshouse

Tore down the motor to freshen it up and install vortec heads but unfortunately found that a folded over oil scraper ring had dug into to cylinder wall about 15 thousandths of an inch.

Machining a block is really expensive here in NewBrunswick Canada so i went out and picked up a 4 bolt main 30 over 350 block and ordered new parts, only reusing the crank and rods. Also picked up a bunch of parts off of kijiji (like a canadian version of craiglist). Any of the machining, like decking the block and heads, was done myself at home using methods that the old local hot rodders and circle track racers used back in the day and then was checked using some borrowed tooling.
Bottom end:
Summit coated hypereutectic flat top pistons
m55 oil pump
moly rings
new timing set
new bearings
summit k1106 cam

obshouse

Top end:
Vortec heads machined for 550 lift
GM LS6 beehive valve springs (GM PART # 12499224)
shim steel head gaskets
Gm performance single plane intake (used kijiji for 200$)
MSD pro billet ready to run with 8mm wires and blaster 2 coil (new kijiji for 200$)

Still want new rockers, valve cover adapters and a few other things but the motors mostly together. The engine has a calculated 10.2:1 compression ratio so hopefully its peppy enough for me and has enough power to at least be able to see to tail lights of my buddies vehicles.
Had also picked up some long tubes for the truck for 80$ on kijiji but there'll be more on the exhaust later.

obshouse

Put the grill and fenders on, starting to look like a truck. Btw I know ET streets shouldnt go on the front, theyre just place holders that i had lying around until i get my other old spares out of storage.

Oh i forgot to mention that the new frame is a shorty.The guy who sold it to me said it was a 454ss frame, idk if thats true or not but its an early storty frame none the less. I had picked up a short box from the junkyard for 100$ that didnt need too much work, just a bit of welding underneath.


I have a roll pan, hard tonneau and original gold tailgate. Probably going to have a gold and black theme, with black sides and gold hood, roof, tonneau cover and tailgate. The more people in town ask me "Oh what color are you painting it?" the less i care about what the truck will look like haha

obshouse

Picked up a g80 with 3.42 gears off of kijiji to maybe help the truck out moving its own weight, when its finally on the road, over the 3.08s and open diff i had originally. I know g80s are trash but it was 50$ for the whole diff. I installed a crush sleeve eliminator kit in the process to remove some of the hassle.


For rear brakes i am running 96 impalla ss rear rotors with enlarged stud holes, weld on caliper brackets, front 3rd gen camaro brake calipers, powerstop pads with .25" pad spacers. For the parking brake i picked up a wilwood mc4 mechanical brake caliper for the driver side. If thats not enough to pass inspection then ill add a mc4 to the passenger side as well.

obshouse

Bought most of a nitrous kit for 80$ and had the bottle re-certified. Planning to run a 150 shot, with the kit drawing from a 2nd fuel cell filled with race gas for a little bit of safety because i dont think the crappy "91" octane fuel available here is good enough while on nitrous.

Also started a bit of interior work by 3d printing a gauge pod to replace the heating control on the dash. The final print will be in black, this was just a test to see if i got the angles correct as i wanted all of the 2 1/16" gauges to face the driver. If anyone wants the .stl for the gauge pod to 3d print your own just send me a msg.


The gauges installed are temporary because i plan to buy electric autometer gauges. I also have a matching suburban overhead console that im building a gps speedometer with lcd display to replay the broken display on the console. The reason why im building a gsp speedo is because the wiring from both trucks was junk and im wiring the truck from scratch and its easier than figuring out the speed signal from the '95 nv3500

obshouse

For the exhaust im installing Hedman long tubes, summit 3" x-pipe kit with dual flomaster 40s and turn downs. It'll probably take a little work to clear the transmission crossmember but other than that it should fit well as there is no gas tank to get in the way.

For the gas tank, I found a killer deal on a 16 gallon RCI fuel cell. Will probably have to buy fuel cell foam because the pick-up is in the center of the tank and im worry about fuel sloshing around.

obshouse

I'm back, don't know if anyone actually read the thread or not but I'll just use this place to document the progress. Reason for the hiatus was my parents moving away and me being on my *** as soon as I graduated university. Got my own house now with a garage so the many projects can continue.
I've been working on the obs again for about 3 months now so the next couple posts will be catching up.

Got my 33 Ford and obs Chevy out of storage and into the new shop

obshouse

In case anyone wants to know how I routed 3" duals with H pipe and long tube headers. Had to abandon the xpipe, I couldn't make it fit the way I wanted with the factory cross member