The Lunchbox Build... 4x4 chevy shorty van

[Lunchbox2]

After that I finished up the crossmember, it's now ready to burn in once the motor is in. I started grinding down a weld so I had to do all of them. I wish I would've just left them and painted over the welds, I don't like how it looks now...





ACTION SHOT! with my bald head.... hahaha

Last thing of the day was getting the motor mated to the tranny/transfer case combo. Everything's ready to go up in there now! I'll pick the van up with his massive cherry picker and pull it over the top of the motor, then lower it down onto jackstands. Then lift/jack the motor combo up into the van and weld in that crossmember.

 

[Lunchbox2]

I was able to sneak away for a couple hours today to try and tidy things up for monday. I ground down the rest of the welds on the crossmember and laid down some big ol' fatty beads to burn it all in, I feel much better now about that....





Then I spray bombed it all.... It doesn't need to look perfect, I just don't want it to rust...





Here's the big ol' cherry picker that I'm going to use to pick the van up and set it down over the motor. I'll use the smaller one to reach in through the door and pick the motor up with, this one obviously won't fit....

 

[350outrage]

Man, kind of a BIG project!!

 

[Lunchbox2]

Man, kind of a BIG project!!

haha no doubt! She's finally coming together though, I should be able to make some pretty good head-way this week....

 

[Lunchbox2]

I wrestled with this for 4 hours today, but she's in there!

 

[Lunchbox2]

I still need to lift the motor up an inch or two, but she's sitting right about where I need her to. I'll put the tranny crossmember in tomorrow and burn things in. I will have to rebuild my twin stick shifters though, they need to move forward 5-6 inches. I'm not sure if I want to just bend up some more sticks, or build a bracket that mounts everything about 6" forward....

 

[Lunchbox2]

last week sucked.... I wasted a couple days on a stupid transfer case crossmember, trying to reuse the stock piece. Then I had to work for a couple days, so nothing got done until saturday. But I snuck away for a few hours and made 2 of these! They were a good start to a crossmember on monday...



Then I cut up some 2x3 and welded up a simple crossmember...



I ordered up a set of transfer case mounts for a 72 K30, and made a mount for them to sit in. Then I cut up some tubing for a small bushing and bolted everything together before I tacked it together...















Then I sprayed bombed it with some matte black and bolted everything up

 

[Lunchbox2]

Then I made my way to the front crossmember.... I put the radiator and shroud in so I could tell where the motor was supposed to sit, turns out they don't sit in the center of the van, good thing I checked! Once the motor was where it should be, I cut a couple of short pedestals and tacked the engine mounts to the crossmember. Then I pulled everything out and burned it in good...





I hit it with a little paint and she was ready to go, this ain't no show-truck!

 

[Lunchbox2]

I'm heading back out tomorrow with the front Dana 60. The plan is to prep the axle to go underneath the van on thursday. I need to weld on a driver side perch, install the 2nd stud for the passenger side mount, and put the leaf springs on. I want the front axle in it by friday.... Well, I HOPE I get the axle in it by friday...lol

 

[philos]

You're working fast!


Sent via flux capacitor

 

[Lunchbox2]

A big street rod build just came into the shop, so I gotta get my junk out! lol This thing needs to be a roller ASAP....

 

[Herbie]

Nothing like a deadline to ensure forward progress. I swapped my pop-top and tent from my donor van to my new van in about 3 days after my friend called and said "Look man, I kinda need to you to get that van out of my shop's lot."

 

[Lunchbox2]

Nothing like a deadline to ensure forward progress. I swapped my pop-top and tent from my donor van to my new van in about 3 days after my friend called and said "Look man, I kinda need to you to get that van out of my shop's lot."

HAHA no kidding right?! This truck wasn't supposed to be here until after christmas, then it was dropped of on monday... UGH So this week I've been getting at it.

 

[Lunchbox2]

I tracked down some drill bits and hole saws on wednesday, along with some metal for the mounts, so I could get right to work on thursday when I got to the shop. I spent the day making what will be the leaf spring mounts. This is what I ended up with.

I robbed the bushings from my rear shackle flip, and welded in a 1 3/4" pipe for the bushings to sit in. I'll have to call curt at Diy4x and get a couple more bushings sent to me. So this will be the start of my rear leaf spring mount.



I got the front square tubing cut for the front mount



Then I go the springs mounted up to the axle, we gotta see where this thing is going to sit! That's where I left on thursday...

 

[Lunchbox2]

By the end of the day today, I had a pretty good idea where everything needs to go. The front mount is just roughed in to get an idea of where the axle needs to sit, but will undergo a re-vamp in the morning. And I have a pretty good idea of how I'm going to mount the rear shackles to the frame. This is my first taste of how big this thing is going to be.... HOLY CRAP it's HUGE! The pics don't do it justice....Hopefully I get it to come down a couple inches and everything will sit about where I want them. The front axle is sitting a few inches forward from where it was from factory, so that may change a little bit once I start the final fitting of things tomorrow... But here she is!