Stacey David's Knucklebuster Chevy Squarebody C10 FULL BUILD Video

now you're watching gears [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign you're watching gears hey welcome to gears you know some of the biggest challenges that a Gearhead is going to face when they're laying out their project is how do you make it reliable keep it cool and not blow your budget good questions now the only answers to that is you have got to plan the project out you got to spend your money wisely on the right parts and you've got to do the work yourself now if you do these three things you're going to be surprised what you end up with [Music] now if you are trying to keep your costs down and still have something cool well there are all kinds of 70s 80s and 90s Vehicles out there and they are cheap I mean I'm talking Monte Carlos and Mustangs and El Caminos and Camaros and all kinds of trucks but whatever you find is probably going to end up looking something like this foreign [Music] okay what we've got here is a 1973 Chevy pickup and the last time it was really worked on was sometime in the late 80s which explains why it looks like it does with the little Cragar wheels and the tube Grill and the teal paint all this thing is missing is some parachute pants but it's got a lot bigger problems than that I mean the motor and transmission completely worn out my first car had a shifter like this the brakes whoa no brakes son just a distant memory the suspension is completely shot there's some insane body lean man and the worst part is the stereo only plays Boy George songs the good news is it is easy to bring something like this back to life bring it up to date and make it cool so that's what we're going to do we're going to dig into this project we're going to call it the knuckle buster because this is something that anybody can do as long as you're willing to do the work yourself and bust your knuckles okay the first thing that we're gonna deal with is The Stance now as you can see these trucks have huge wheel wells and we need something a lot bigger than these little weenies to fill them up but we're not just going to put bigger wheels and tires on now we're going to lower this truck too but we're not going to slam it all the way to the ground because the owners of this truck very similar to most of you guys they'd like to drive this every day so we're going to drop it three inches in the front four inches on the rear that's going to give us a nice low mean look but it's not going to destroy the use of the truck as a hauler this is how we're going to do it come on this is a djm suspension system and we ordered it right out of the style and trucks catalog now the cool thing about this is it completely replaces your stock upper and lower control arms with these big heavy duty tubular guys take a look at these there's your upper control arms notice you got your bushings installed and the ball joints are in place and then this is your lower control arm now once again take a look got the urethane bushings in place bump stops and the ball joint now to go with this we also got some performance shocks to finish it off now the cool thing about this setup is all that three inch drop is engineered into these control arms that means you reuse your stock spindle and your stock spring if you want to that can save you some serious money but the best part about this system is how easy it goes in let's get to it all right with the wheel out of the way and now you can see why we didn't have too good of brakes look at that that rotor's shot so it's time to start taking things apart Shocks come off rotor caliper everything's got to go now don't be surprised if you run into a little problem with your brake hoses here because they are notorious for rusting in place and they can swell shut over time so now is a perfect time to replace those that's why we call this a knuckle buster foreign [Music] with a jack under the control arm to support the spring time to bring out the big gun we'll use this to separate the tie rod end and the ball joints from the spindle so we can remove it foreign then we'll just lower the Jack and pull out the spring well what do you think it's not too bad so far from here on out it gets even easier because these control arms just pop off with just a couple bolts so let's get to it [Music] foreign okay now comes the time in the project where you're going to get really dirty because you definitely don't want to put this nice stuff up against that old nasty frame and cross member now make sure you take a few minutes to clean everything up you're going to be glad you did now we are ready to start putting on these new control arms and they just bolt in place using the stock Hardware foreign [Music] next comes the spring and here it is now I know some of you guys are looking at this going wait a minute I thought you said you were going to reuse your stock spring well that is what this is just cleaned it up shot it with some of this Hammer tone paint it looks like brand new foreign [Music] now we're ready for the spindles and the brakes and instead of messing around trying to rebuild this mess we're just going to totally get rid of it and replace it with this stainless steel brake system that we got from styling trucks now the heart of this system are these new spindles that have been modified to fit the big brakes and you can see I hit him with the hammer toe and paint to make them look good then what bolts to these are these big four piston calipers those are going to give us the clamping Force we need to bring that truck to a stop then they clamp on these 13 inch slotted rotors that's about two inches bigger than our original rotor of course they come look at this they got all the new bearings and the hardware the hoses everything that you're going to need to actually put this in in your shop now you might be looking at this going you know is this really necessary well look at it this way you're going to have to completely rebuild this anyway new rotor caliper bearings and by the time you do that you're going to have brand new 1973 brakes it is a much wiser investment spend a little extra money and get a Modern Performance brake system this is one of the smartest things that you can do on an older vehicle especially if you're going to drive it a lot [Music] the best part is everything just bolts in place of the stock pieces [Music] [Music] and that takes care of the front now you're not going to get the full impact of this until we put some wheels and tires on here and get it down on the ground but at least you know now it's going to stop and handle better than it used to that's for sure all right time to move on to the rear come on now the rear drop is similar to the front drop and the fact that it reuses your stock Springs other than that it's completely different that doesn't mean it's not something that you can't do matter of fact in a lot of ways this is an easier deal back here because in the rear you just utilize this drop shackle and then in the front you've got this relocation bracket so the first thing we have to do is get a jack under the rear end and unbolt these leaf springs so make sure you got plenty of lube because you're going to need it once everything is unbolted we'll lower the rear end and get it out of the way then we'll follow that with the leaf springs smoking [Music] now modifying the rear shackle is as simple as replacing this little short one with this much taller one that comes with the kit and it just drops into the stock hanger and that is all there is to it now the front hanger that's a whole different deal because these stock rivets have got to come out and the best tool to use is an air hammer and a chisel [Music] now just Bolt the new bracket in place using the stock rivet holes and the new hardware [Music] since we have stainless steel brakes on the front it's only fitting that we use their conversion kit on the rear now check this out this is a pretty cool deal you got new rotors you've got calipers with emergency brakes all built in got all your hoses and Hardware to where you can convert from drums on the rear to discs now the good news is you don't have to pull the rear end like this to do this you can actually do it right on the vehicle we've just got this out because we're going to paint it the bad news is this doesn't go on quite as easy as that front brake system it was just bolted on but it's still something that you can do take a look the thing that makes some people nervous about doing this style of conversion on a c-clip style rear end is that you have to pull the axle out to get this backing plate off but before you can pull the axle out you have to go into the rear end and release the c-clip so you can pull the axle out but really it's not that big a deal because all you've got to do is pull off the cover remove the pinion shaft then just push the axles in to release the c-clips then with the axles pulled out of the way you can unbolt the backing plates [Music] first new piece to go on this axle is this caliper mounting bracket it just slides onto the rear end and bolts in place now once you have it on you can slide your axle back in now when you reinstall the axle you want to take your time so that you don't tear up the Rubber seal out here on the end of the axle shaft now the c-clip it's got it follow that with the dust Shields and the caliper mounting hardware at this point the only thing left to do is Slide the rotors on and install the calipers on the brackets now obviously we are not going to reuse these stock brake lines because first of all they're Rusty second of all a brake caliper needs to be able to move a little bit that's why the kit comes with hoses and hard lines so what you need to do is grab one of these lines and bend it up so that it fits over the rear end comes down and is held in place with a factory tab then you just connect it to the hose make sure you have plenty of slack and you're ready to go and that is it the brakes are on the rear end is ready to go back in the vehicle after you spend some time cleaning it up and putting some paint on it don't you put it back in the vehicle looking like this you know better than that at this point we are ready for the final step of a suspension and brake upgrade and that is wheels and tires now obviously these old Cragar SS's have a classic five spoke look and we want to keep that style but we don't want to go with this size now we need to upgrade them a little bit so we went to our buddies at Billet Specialties and we got what they call the dagger wheel now take a look at this it's obviously a five spoke but it's completely different it's all polished aluminum has huge Windows here and has ribs running right down the spokes this is a very aggressive looking wheel now the size that we're using is the really big news because the fronts we're using 18 by eights and on the rears we're using a 20 by 10. yeah it's a lot different than those little 15s now tires the same thing we needed something aggressive and something that was Modern so we went to our friends at Nitto got what they call the nt420s as you can see it's got a very aggressive tread but it's also a Modern Performance tire so this old truck is going to handle like a new car are which is great now the size that we're using on the front is a 255 50 and on the rear is a 280 550 because we need something huge to fill up this big old Square wheel well and this is it as you can see in just a short period of time we've taken something that was completely neglected and dated looking and given it a completely different attitude now take a look at this look how the wheel wells are now filled out and all the gaps are about the same and got a great hot rod rake happening here and we also upgraded the braking and the handling at the same time the best part is this is something that you can reasonably do in the course of a weekend in your own garage and that is what gears is all about this week we're going to tackle one of the major issues that everybody faces when they dive into a project engines and drivetrain and there it is an old worn out 350 with all kinds of leaks and all kinds of evidence of some pretty creative mechanical work here now when you're faced with a situation like this and you don't know the history you don't know what kind of hacking's been done over the years on something the best thing to do is pull it all out and just start over that way you can methodically handle all the problems as they come up and when you're all done everything is new that way you don't accidentally keep something like this that can cause you a serious problem down the road since the whole drivetrain is going to come out the easiest way to do this is to pull off the whole front clip that way you'll have complete and total access to the drivetrain in the front end with that done pulling out the engine and transmission is a breeze now if you are going to reuse your stock wiring harness make sure that you take a few minutes and Mark where they go this will help you when you go to put the project back together however as old and brittle as this stuff gets it's best just to replace it here it comes [Music] like butter that's why we call it the knuckle buster okay just a hair higher pull it back okay take it up [Music] take hold it back we're clear [Music] a successful Automotive project takes planning and organization but instead of using an old tablet or notebook there's the gears Deluxe project planning book this was designed to help you lay out a project the parts the tools cost and keep it organized with colored tabs a pouch for receipts and even a place to attach photos if you decide to sell the vehicle it serves as a complete history of what's been done if you have a project or plan on starting one the gears project planning book is the best way to lay it out and make it happen now it's cleanup time and if you haven't decided on a color for your vehicle this is the time to do it you got great access to the firewall and the frames a perfect time to paint them now for this truck we're going to use this sem hot rod black now it's not a flat black it's a Satin Color which is just going to make this truck look evil so that's what's going to go into the hood too all right when it comes to a new engine most people will go with some sort of a crate engine because that's a lot easier than rebuilding this so we went to our buddies at styling trucks and got this GM performance 350 crate engine now this thing is kicking out 350 horsepower which makes it a lot more powerful than that and it's going to make that truck a lot of fun out on the road the problem is as you can see it's not the most attractive thing and there's no accessories here on the front but we got the solution to both of these problems come on this is a complete GM performance accessory system designed to go right with that crate engine now take a look at this man you've got all kinds of pulleys and Hardware you got a new alternator new air conditioning compressor new power steering pump all kinds of brackets everything that you're going to need to put a modern Serpentine system onto your engine now the key to any good looking engine is the right amount of paint polish and detail so to make all this stuff look good we're not only going to paint it we're also going to add these accessories we got from Summit Racing now look at this these are Cal custom finned aluminum valve covers matching breathers and a matching air cleaner and a matching oil pan now once we get all this stuff painted up and detailed you're going to be surprised how good it looks all right with the engine painted first thing we're going to put on is this oil pan now one thing that a lot of people Overlook when they're putting on custom accessories is hardware for example you don't want to put that old nasty junk up against a polished and painted engine no so what do you do well you may want to invest in one of these Garner Westcott dress-up kits and this is all polished stainless steel hardware for the oil pan the intake manifold the headers pretty much all of your exterior accessories and this particular kit comes with a little bow tie embossed right in the heads for really cool custom look of course you can get them for Ford Chevy Dodge pretty much anything you're working on we'll follow that up with the valve covers the breathers and the air cleaner and we've got an engine that looks a lot different than what we started with [Music] now with all this junk out of the way it's a perfect time to deal with all this other mess under the hood as you can see this old steering box is leaking all over the place and it's completely worn out as is all of this steering linkage now if you replace your suspension components like we did last week and you leave all of this junk what you're going to end up with is a cool lowered truck that still wanders all over the road you don't want that the good news is all of this stuff is cheap and it's just a phone call away let's take a look the steering parts come from a place called LMC truck and if you've got an old truck you need to pick up one of their catalogs because these guys carry just about anything that you can imagine and most of this stuff would be really hard to find at a local auto parts store for example I've got a brand new power steering box and all the hoses we have a new center link new inner and outer tie rod ends with adjusters we have the idler arm and a pitman arm now instead of just bolting these things on all black and ugly once again we took just a few minutes and painted them with this Rust-Oleum Hammer tone paint this is about the toughest thing that you can spray on right out of a can so you save yourself some money there as you can see it looks incredible now we also got some stuff that did not come stock on the truck like front rear sway bars and a steering stabilizer now the rear sway bar and the steering stabilizer both came once again from LMC truck because these are for a stock application they'll just bolt right on the front sway bar we got that from style and trucks because remember we have modified control arms on this truck so we needed a sway bar that would work with the modified control arms now this is really important when you are piecing something together like this that you order the right parts so you don't have a big surprise when you go put it all together now all of this stuff along with that lowered suspension is going to make that truck handle like crazy which is something it did not do when we first drove it foreign the new steering box and linkage is pretty much a bolt-in deal once you got everything cleaned up and painted and it's definitely a lot easier with the front clip removed [Music] the new sway bar utilizes existing holes in the frame and once again it just bolts into place [Music] wow what a difference a few hundred bucks and just a couple hours makes it check it out now we are going to deal with this mess because remember we got brand new brakes on this thing and then this old nasty master cylinder so we're going to replace that with this one from stainless steel brakes and a power booster because we want to put on power brakes now servicing and maintaining brakes brings up a whole bunch of questions so that brings up this you know everybody understands how important your brakes are but when it comes to bleeding or flushing the system that's where things get iffy for a lot of folks so for today's Tool Tech we're going to feature some tools from Phoenix systems they're going to completely change the way you approach your brakes and keep them working to their full potential okay the first thing that we're going to look at is bleeding the brakes now in the past the scenario has always been you get Cousin Eddie or Aunt Thelma inside pushing on the pedal while you're down opening and closing the bleed screws at the wheels and in doing this hopefully you run all the air down and out through the bleed screws the problem with this other than Cousin Eddie hitting the pedal at the wrong time is that you're shoving that air in exactly the wrong direction the air wants to rise so Phoenix systems came out with this tool called The Max Pro and instead of pulling the air down through the lines it forces the fluid in at the caliper or the slave cylinder foreign [Music] then it pushes all the air up and out the top of the master cylinder reservoir which is where it wanted to go anyway and in just a few short minutes you have got the best firmest pedal that you can get and the good news is this is something one guy can do no more Cousin Eddie and this system works great on any small hydraulic system brakes clutches whatever you're working on now a lot of you know that you have to change your fluid from time to time Purge the system the question is when do you do it I mean this isn't just something you look at the fluid and say it's dirty it's time to change it that is where these brake strips come in because these measure the amount of copper in the fluid and the copper level goes up as your corrosion increases and high levels of copper can damage your expensive ABS systems in your newer Vehicles so copper is not a good thing to test all you have to do is dip the strip into the fluid and wait for it to change color the darker the purple it gets the more copper you got in your fluid as you can see it's time to flush this system and put in some new fluid so if you are serious about keeping your brakes in top working condition man forget about the way you've done it in the past check out these tools from Phoenix systems at breakble.com they will make your life a whole lot easier which is what a good tool is supposed to do with the engine all cleaned up and detailed it's ready to go in the vehicle right well you know we do need to do something about the transmission so instead of rebuilding that old nasty one we got this new b m turbo 350 and this 2400 hole shot torque converter from Summit Racing now this combination is going to give us great launch it's going to give us firm shifts and plenty of beef to handle that 350 horse or more if we want to add it later on the first thing to do is install the torque converter into the transmission making sure it's seated all the way in then Bolt the transmission and converter to the engine [Music] finally had all the rest in its new home it's awesome man with the engine in place now comes the fun part because it's time to start putting your accessories on now we've got some ceramic coated headers from styling trucks we've got new throttle cables from locar got all of our brakes and all of our other accessories now is the time to put them on all right here we go yeah quite a bit different than what we started out with now we're just about ready to put the front clip back on this thing but before we do that a few things I want to show you now we've been pretty lucky on this project because most of these original body panels are really solid but not all of them take a look at this this core supports rusting out here in the bottom the cancer goes all the way under the battery here and into these inner fenders so we're going to replace those with this new core support and inner fenders from LMC truck now these are just bolt-on Replacements so once you get them on then you can put your front clip back on all right the last thing that you want to consider when you're doing this kind of major engine surgery is your cooling system now if your radiator looks like that you got yourself a problem and we're going to deal with that problem with this new aluminum radiator from flexolite now check this thing out it's a big heavy duty radiator not only designed for that engine but for air conditioning or whatever hot situation we want to subject it to now for fans we got these dual electric fans that are built right for this radiator and they're designed to give us enough airflow to keep everything cool now to go with this we also got an auxiliary transmission cooler because we want that transmission to survive for a long time the best part is all of this stuff pretty much bolts in place of that you know one of the biggest mistakes that people make when they put a more powerful engine and transmission in their project is that they don't do anything about the rear end to help you get that power to the pavement now granted most people would want a locker or a limited slip in the rear of their vehicle but they don't do it because they don't think they can and that is where you're wrong because this is something that you can do but to prove that we got to go back in time back to where the rear end was out of this vehicle oh there it is the area that most Gearheads avoid like a like a trip to the doctor which is ironic because inserting a locker into this rear end is simple and won't hurt a bit trust me I'm a doctor the first thing that comes out is the pinion shaft [Music] we're going in now you can push in the axles to release the c-clips and then just pull out the axles [Music] now that that's over it's time to have some fun because we are going to gut this case and get rid of all this bad stuff starting with these spider gears followed with the side gears all right now that we've got everybody in a state of panic here we probably ought to show you the locker that we're going to use and we got this from Summit Racing it's built by power tracks and it basically replaces everything we just took off with a functional Locker now come on in here check this out you got drivers you got couplers you got spacers and then you've got a few Springs that is it this is how to put it on first we'll grease up the teeth of the drivers and the spacers [Music] and seat the Saddle Springs into their holes then install the couplers into the case where the side gears were meant the ring gear side axle can be slid back in and the c-clip installed next we're ready for the driver and spacer assemblies and the ring gear side goes in first [Music] followed by the other side [Music] okay with the drivers in place we've got to do something to keep them there so we're just going to rotate this axle about a quarter of a turn revealing that spring slot then we'll take these little Springs double them up and pop them in the slot now at this point you're probably getting a little concerned because it seems like we have forgotten to put on the other c-clip that holds this axle in place and obviously there's no room to put it on now right now all you got to do is rotate the axle look at this you got a slot right there drop in the clip and pull that on the axle to seat it of course the final piece to go in is the new pinion shaft and the retaining bolt to hold it in place and you've got yourself a locker all right we are all done in here so now we're going to clean up this housing put a coat of paint on there so this thing looks great when we put it back in the truck [Music] the last piece that we're going to put on to go with these disc brakes is this polished aluminum cover we got from Summit Racing because that will give us a great looking rear end which is always important we are going to dive into another major area that always seems to need some help and it's right where you live the interior now keep in mind that this truck belongs to a family that has some young kids and they want to be able to carry them around comfortably and safely so as you can see we've got some work to do in here the good news is out of all the things that we've done to this vehicle so far revamping the interior is the easiest one to do something that you can probably do in a weekend so let's get to work the first thing to do is get everything out of the way see carpet everything [Music] all right the big question is what are we going to find behind this seat remember the last time it was worked on was the late 80s so what do you think's behind there there they are speakers blowing right into the back of the seat obviously all of this stuff needs to go too [Music] [Music] now this is very typical of what you'll find in an older vehicle and notice somebody's put some new carpet in here at one time but they also use just a bunch of cheap foam as a sound deadener as well as tried to reuse all this old nasty stuff so we're gonna get rid of all this because there's a better way to do this okay if you're doing a project like this and you want it to come out like that well obviously you're going to need some new parts and for a truck like this that's as simple as going to LMC truck and ordering what you need now the first thing that's going to go on that floor is the sound deadener now this is a heavy duty asphalt based material just like the original and it's going to hold sound down then we have this heat shield that's going to keep heat and sound from the drivetrain from getting into the cab and then of course we got brand new carpet now if you haven't decided what color your interior and your vehicle is going to be now is the time to do it but we're not just doing carpet here no we also got a new tilt steering column a stereo system air conditioning vents gauges bezel seat belts door panels we've got everything we're going to need to make that truck better than it was new [Music] now if your floors are solid all you have to do is set the sound deadener in place and hold it in now we were really lucky on this project because these floors were just solid as a rock of course it spent most of its life inside a garage now if you've got rust in your floors you got to cut it out and you got to weld a new metal but if you just have surface rust like this you don't have to cut that out that's good and strong all you have to do is hit that with something like this bill Hurst Miracle Paint now what this does is Seal up that metal doesn't let any moisture or any air get to it and stops a rust now once you've got your floor all covered and treated got your sound deadener on now you're ready for your heat shield [Music] foreign this just lays in and is held in place by the supplied tape finally in goes the carpet and that's just a matter of fitting it around the door seals and the transmission hump and smoothing the wrinkles out [Music] okay now that we have this floor mess taken care of we are going to turn our attention to another mess in here that is the dash now as is typical on an older vehicle like this especially a truck this started out Life as a standard shift on the column then it was converted to an automatic on the floor but you still got the standard shift column and you got a whole mess going here so we're not only going to get rid of the column we're going to get rid of the old gauges the dash basically strip this whole thing out and start over [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] all right with all this old wiring out of the way let me talk to you about the wisest investment you're going to make on your project a new wiring harness now a lot of people don't realize that over time your wiring can get brittle that means it can crack and that means it's susceptible to setting your vehicle on fire that's why you see a lot of classic vehicles burning up on the side of the road they didn't replace a wiring harness now this harness comes from painless performance and it's a direct replacement to what was in that truck now check this out you got your fuse block that goes right to the firewall like the original then these wires here are for everything in the cab air conditioning heater dash lights stereo everything you want to put on that vehicle it's already wired up ready to go now this harness here is your under hood harness plugs in at the firewall just like the original and then this is for your motor headlights tail lights everything that's outside the cab now I know some of you guys are looking at this going you make it sound easy but that is a lot of wiring I can't do that let me show you something that painless has been doing for a long time if you notice about every five inches the wires actually have printed on them where they go so that makes this pretty much just a plug and play deal you know one of the first true freedoms you experience as a kid is that first bicycle man it becomes your transportation to the world or at least the local neighborhood and in my neighborhood man we all had bikes and we'd stick playing cards in the spokes and we'd suck on black licorice make it look like we're big biker dudes and it was magic but a bike wasn't just about Transportation no it became an extension of your personality and there were all kinds of bikes out there there were 10 speeds there were mountain bikes there were stingrays there were BMX bikes and they all had their strengths and weaknesses and that's where the idea for the story of the purple bicycle came from because just like a bike might wish it had the talents or skills of another bike so do we sometimes Overlook our god-given talents and wish we had somebody else's talents skills because they seem to be better than ours it's a simple lesson but something we all need to be reminded of from time to time [Music] now this may look intimidating at first but you're going to find that painless has everything well marked so it's just a matter of plugging it in and routing your wires next we'll pull out the old junkie gauges that don't work anymore and replace them with the new ones from LMC truck foreign [Music] the crowning touch to any restoration project is the dash now as you can see this is not just one of those phony cheap little covers no this is a full padded Dash it's going to go right in place of that junk we took off [Music] here we go yeah nice [Music] we'll follow that up with the bezel and the vents and the trim then we'll stick in the new stereo and hook up all the wiring yeah looking pretty good in here but we are not done yet now the next thing to go in this Dash is this new steering column now since this is designed to fit right in this body style of truck it's going to bolt right in and it's going to hook right up to that new wiring harness and you've got to love that all right slide it in [Music] [Music] now we're going to top off that steering column with this dagger wheel from Billet Specialties now if you think that dagger name sounds familiar well you're right because it matches the dagger Wheels on the truck take a look at this you got the same design and the spokes on the steering wheel as you do on the wheels on the truck that is cool but that's not all we also have a leather half wrap on the steering wheel plus this smooth Billet adapter that flows right into the horn button this is going to look incredible on that polished column as you can see the interior still has a stock look to it because that's just cool except now it's all brand new just like it was in 73 except we did upgrade the steering column with a modern tilt system we have a new stereo in it and a new speaker up in the dash let me tell you a single speaker is not going to get it on this project so we're going to expound on that with these new kick panels with speakers built right in and if you look up we have a new headliner panel with four speakers blowing right down on your head so no more speakers behind the seat no more problems here in the music the best part is all of these panels are available from LMC truck they slide right in place of The Originals all you have to do is hook them up now for door panels you've got a couple of choices here once you have the door painted the way you want it take your new door panel and just slide it in place of the original like that and it's just held in place with these screws now if that's the look that you like you can stop right there but if you want a little more plush looking or if somebody has cut some big holes down here for some speakers yeah you know who you are that is what this panel is for now it just sits in place and is held on with these screws at this point there's really only one thing left to do on the interior it's a big one the seat now remember this truck is owned by a family that has small children so obviously they want as much usable space as they can get and a bench seat will do that for you come on take a look now you can buy brand new Aftermarket seats and just bolt them into the vehicle but the best bang for your buck on a project like this is to reupholster your stock seat now I know some of you are looking at this going oh man I don't know anything about upholstery work well now is the perfect time to learn and you're going to be surprised how easy it is the first thing you'll need to do is disassemble the seat back from the seat bottom and then remove the hog rings and pull off the old upholstery [Music] that's nasty now if your seat cushions are worn out now is the time to replace them because your new upholstery will never fit right if your seat cushions are all broken down and worn out like these are look at this we're right on the metal there and then years ago somebody tried to put a bunch of filler material to try to fill in this indentation so we're going to get rid of all this junk these pads just lift off of the seat frame go to the junk pile [Laughter] and then the new piece just lays right on the seat frame [Music] once the pads are in place make sure the upholstery is nice and warm and then turn it inside out and just slip the upholstery down over the cushion unrolling it as you go now make sure you take your time here because you can rip the upholstery if you try to go too fast and force it now it's just a matter of pulling the upholstery tight as you continually work out the wrinkles [Music] then using the supplied hog rings attach both sides of the upholstery under the seat [Music] once you have both sections upholstered all you have to do is reassemble the seat she's ready to go back in [Music] now the Moment of Truth for those of you who thought you didn't have the time the ability or the money to redo the interior of your project check it out it's comfortable usable [Music] affordable [Music] and it looks good foreign [Music] do yourself over the weekend so now you have no excuse to ride around in this when you could be riding around in that now there is one part still needs to go back on and that of course is the hood we pulled that off because it's a lot easier to hook up a new wiring harness if you got the hood out of the way however we are not going to put this original style hood back on no I got something a lot cooler than this check it out this is lmc's all steel cowl induction hood and they make these things for just about any truck you can imagine so you're good to go no matter what you're driving now not only is it steel but it's got a functional cowl induction scoop built right in and then the back side is completely finished out with a steel inner panel just like the original Hood but the best thing about these hoods is how easy they are to put on all you have to do is transfer the latching Hardware from the original Hood bolt this sucker on [Music] after that we hooked up with Malcolm and the boys at West Kentucky Collision Center where they smoothed out the flanks and laid on some new colors but I do enjoy the show and and it's uh it is it's been I appreciate you giving us the opportunity it's been really a fun cool exciting uh to be a part of this [Music] now just in case you're thinking that this is just a boring old flat black no think again this is a PPG finish called eggshell and the flattening look comes from the clear that you shoot over the color so you can get this effect out of any color that you want to shoot on your vehicle now the cool thing about this eggshell stuff is that you can shoot it as a straight flat like this or you can mix it as a satin or a semi-gloss so you can get exactly the primer or suede look that you want out of your vehicle this would be a great color on anything from a nostalgic hot rod to a late model car truck now the Final Touch was some airbrushing by Steve Ray of airbrush ink and it features a beat up hand with some bloody knuckles to remind you what it takes to build something like this [Music] now if you'll remember the truck had a tubular style Grille on it from the 80s and while that was a step in the right direction a lot has changed with grills since then both in the way they look and in the way they fit now what we've got here is a Billet aluminum Grille from LMC truck and if you'll notice everything is powder coated black on it except for the Leading Edge of the bars which of course is polished now what this does is make these bars look very long and thin and it also makes them look like they're floating in that Grill opening all by themselves it's a great look and this is going to be really cool on a black truck since the grill sits in front of the Stock hood latch an extension Rod needs to be added to relocate the lever [Music] then The Grille just bolts in place using the supplied Hardware all right the next thing to go on is headlights and bumpers so we went back to LMC Trucks picked up some of these Euro style headlights because they not only throw more light further down the road they also look really cool now to go with these we also got these clear turn signal lenses and the Amber bulbs to keep them legal and then we got some new chrome headlight bezels then to finish everything off we've got some new bumpers check these out now notice these are a lot smaller and less cumbersome than the original bumpers and they have driving lights built right into them these are going to be great on that truck [Music] all of these new front end Pieces Just bolt right in place of the stock parts and when you've got them all on you can see how well they all work together to really clean up the front end of these old Chevys we also got a new rear bumper now as you can see it matches the style of that front bumper perfectly except of course there's no driving lights now hopefully this thing's going to bolt right in place wrong since the rear frame had been buggered up some to hold the old bumper we needed to fix that first also since the original rear bumper bracket disappeared back with Jimmy Hoffa we got some of those new from LMC truck too [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign and that's it for the bumpers and trim now while we're back here what about this bed I mean it looks fine the way it is but it sure would be great to have some wood back here don't you think yeah but how was that possible I mean we got a middle floor here that is what we're going to show you next come on [Music] this is a system that comes from Bruce horkey's Wood and parts and this is called the show deck and the whole idea behind the show deck is to allow you to mount a wood bed over the top of your stock original bed now the show deck as you can see comes with top quality Oak planks that are already pre-cut and sanded notched to fit your bed perfectly and of course they come with the stainless steel strips to really finish them off now at this point it looks like a typical wood bed right now what makes the show deck different is all of this Hardware that allows you to mount this right over the top of your stock bed and then still be able to remove it in just a few minutes now of course you got to have a good finish on the wood so the kit also comes with top quality varnish brushes Hardware everything that you're going to need to do that now I know some of you guys are looking at this you're kind of skeptical well I'll tell you what we're going to put this all together and you are going to be surprised how well this looks [Music] thank you [Music] with the main pieces in place it's just a matter of installing the outer boards around the wheel wells once again squaring them up and clamping them in place with the skid strips foreign [Music] [Music] remember since all beds are just a little bit different don't be surprised if you have to massage the boards a little bit to get them to fit perfectly [Music] foreign [Music] piece to go on is the polished rear sill plate that adds a nice Finishing Touch to the bed yeah what a difference that makes now if you'll notice the show deck only sits about an inch and a half above the stock metal bed once you get that tailgate on there you're not even going to notice that the best part about this show deck though is it comes out in about five minutes all you got to do is pull out one of the center strips and take out the two sections you don't even have to disassemble them that way if you need to carry a big old greasy engine in here you just pop out the wood throw in the engine and that way you don't mess up your wood the last thing we're going to deal with is the exhaust system and for that we went to MagnaFlow and got one of their full stainless steel dual exhaust systems to really bring that thing alive now check this out all the stainless steel tubing is pre-bent so it's going to fit right where it needs to go all your hangers are welded in place and the ends are flared so basically they just slip together when you put a clamp on that that's not going to leak then of course we have two poly stainless steel Mufflers to give us the sound and the flow that we're after and then we finish it off with all the clamps and all the hardware to actually be able to mount this thing on the truck so let's get to it [Music] the first thing to do is get rid of the old exhaust system and penetrating Lube deep well sockets and a Sawzall do wonders on Rusty brackets and hold nasty pipes [Music] once the old Junk's out of the way the MagnaFlow system just lays in place and fits like it should foreign and that drives home the importance of buying a quality exhaust system that is designed to fit your particular vehicle because the last thing that you want to do is spend the afternoon laying under your vehicle trying to make something fit that doesn't and that finishes off the knuckle buster project and as you can see it's a lot different than what we started out with what we have here is basically a brand new 1973 Chevy pickup and by choosing your parts wisely and doing the work yourself this is something that just about anybody can do for a heck of a lot less money than it would take you to go down and buy yourself a brand new truck and if that's not motivation I don't know what is now we do have one last thing to do we have to give it back to the Burtons after we take it out and break it in properly hahaha [Music] we're going in [Music] [Applause] [Laughter]

Channel: Official Stacey David

Views: 816,843

Keywords: staceydavid, GearZ, Hot Rods, Trucks, mavtv, revntv, motortrend, stacey david

Id: bVSnkXvA6W0

Length: 58min 48sec (3528 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 13 2022