80 Series resurrection.

[Chris5-7chev]

The strip down continues, bear in mind the sheds are now full, the yard has parts everywhere, the chassis is 3 miles away.

Stripping the axles;





Locking diffs went into a mates import some years ago but he left me with his open front diff and a working rear LSD so may use these on the build, diff swops are easy anyway so not too fussed there.

Bit of bush pushing going off.





Bush drifts being made;



Radiator mounts have fatigue cracks;





Ha ha, phone rang, chassis done;













The chassis has no rot, rot holes, there's some heavy pitting at the rear but that's all.

The coating you can see is not zinc primer, it's called 'Zinga'. It's millions of zinc particles applied wet but isn't paint, it's used on sea bouys and oil rig stuff, acts as a sort of sacrificial anode which protects the base steel more than I can describe. Worth googling for the full facts really.

 

[Chris5-7chev]

Some sheared bolts drilled out ok but the couple of not so critical ones ended up with rivnuts in.





Nasty;









Plenty have been there before eh;

Rear progressive bumpstops needed new plates, the remains of the old ones were removed on a bench mounted wire wheel;





Prepping axle for blasting, using perspex you can see where to cut and drill easily;







M10 studding all the way thro' the casing (old shaft seals still behind the washers;



Yeah ok then it's not mad but I maybe..

 

[Chris5-7chev]

More;

Now the plan to spray the chassis in the garage was there but to be honest, really didn't fancy the mess and couldn't really warm the place up enough.

Quick phone call and the same blasting place agreed to do it, all I needed to do was take it back. phew.

Here it is;







Along with some 'Zinga' coated powder coated bits;



The chassis was done with Chromadex 600 which is what they used on boat hulls, railway bogies etc, the finish is outstanding really.

 

[Chris5-7chev]

Chassis heading back in;



Had to start being careful!


Rear axle, a big nasty rusty lump of a thing;





New stainless bumpstop plates turned up;



More bits heading for blasting;



axle getting licked!!



back to dirty work;





New metal added;





There's a little bracket on the axle but no idea what it's purpose is/was?





It's questionably scrap? very rough..



Dunno, off to blasting it goes..

 

[Chris5-7chev]

In a mess but don't we call this progress or something?;




Starting to rebuild the front axle;

The knuckle or swivel balls have been powder coated inside and out so will be interesting to see how the fibre seals work over time?

 

[Chris5-7chev]

Axle built up without brakes for now;







Spent some time looking into the hardness of factory rubber vs polyurethane which was interesting;





Most rubber has a Shore hardness off around 55 with the softest poly moulds around 65 but a lot of poly sits around 85- 90 so a fair bit harder, we bought a few poly's and copied them in a softer material but don't tell anyone.



The truck for now is using a combination of factory rubber and some aftermarket poly and some blackmarket poly.

This is enjoyable;







Re-glueing the bumpstops overnight under a bit of pressure;



Aftermarket bumps are at 75 so a fair bit harder than factory 55's;



bits going on where possible;

 

[Chris5-7chev]

Back axle turned up, Zinga'd and powdered with no issues at all which was nice;







Didn't hang about popping it on;



It's all very well designed;








Thrown together loose for now;

 

[Chris5-7chev]

LSD going in;



Suspension cups fill with muck etc so dealt with those;




props cleaned;



LSPV condition ! ;










Lspv cleaned up ok and unions came undone so that's fine but the bracket that carries the thing was rough;



These things do differ from year to year, red is 1995;



Re- passivated a few bits;



Arb bushes;

 

[Chris5-7chev]

 

[Chris5-7chev]

Old engine and box going in (both getting swopped out so no cleaning needed really)












Starting to attack the body;

 

[Chris5-7chev]

Surely there can't be more pictures can there? Err yes plenty, see what this project has done to me......





Come on in then..



with a ratchet strap up the ramp, these bodies are seriously heavy;





yuk

 

[Gary Stockton]

Wow that's impressive stuff. Lots of hours tied up there - looking forward to the end result!

 

[Chris5-7chev]

Body corners are toast so they're coming off;



Some of the side step bolts were a bugger to get at and off;


Truck is getting a 1" body lift, if anything it''ll help clearance for getting the gearbox in and out later this year and it can be removed at anytime anyway.



Body support welded to the bench;



Did nearly loose it, was close..



Whole underbody cleaned and shutz'd;



springs back out;

 

[Chris5-7chev]

Seems a shame to hide the chassis under the old body but it has to be done;

















Front seat mounts with fatigue cracks;

 

[Chris5-7chev]

Starting to catch up to date so not many more pics;



tank guard stone chip primer;



same for the original tank;



Tank brkts unseized, one repaired;



inner wing repairs;

 

[Chris5-7chev]

 

[Chris5-7chev]

 

[John.Thome.2BWild]

I am in awe Chris - the project, your workshop and your capabilities.
Keep up the good work, looking really good

 

[Chris5-7chev]

Grill got damaged so had to stone chip the thing, sure there's another intact one out there somewhere?



old drag link seized so heated it with the mig;







cleaned threads with some slots;

 

[Chris5-7chev]

I am in awe Chris - the project, your workshop and your capabilities.
Keep up the good work, looking really good

Hi John, and thanks, am still trying to figure some of this stuff along the way tho'. Cheers..