Topic: Whole Lotta LUVin'

[GDubb5150]

Here's the project thread I've been putting off because I'm going through a divorce 

1980 Chevy LUV
Buick 231 V6
Chevy T-350 transmission
Advanced Adapter to Toyota transfer case
Toyota axles






My main goal was to get this thing mildly trail ready so that I could take my 6 yr old son wheeling and camping this spring and summer. These pics are a few years old and the truck is pretty much the way I bought it except for: The passenger side shock hoop, header, motor mount, AND starter were all crushed/broken from the previous owner pulling some Duke's of Hazzard and landing hard on the right front. The wheels and tires which were 35's were sold so I bought the used 38's on black and chrome modulars you see in the pics.  The electrical system was and for the most part still is haggard but I have everything working at least but this thing could sure use a new harness.  I still have a short I have never been able to find so I just put a disconnect in the neg wire. The carb on this this was a jerry rigged Motorcraft 2brl with a adapter to fit the Edelbrock 4brl intake. I replaced the carb with an Edelbrock 600 because the guy at the parts store said "Oh yeah It'll work... I've seen tons of V6's run fine on these!" Not true. It sees an uphill has a panic attack and dies and refuses to start. See...


So i drove it as a DD/ work truck for about 1.5 years when I was still living in Albany, Oregon. I was having trouble with keeping air in the 38's so I thought the beads were shot so I bought some 36" Swamper Radials.  I had Begg's Tire and wheel swap them over and within a couple days two of the 36's were flat so I took it back and they said the rims were rusty and corroded so they would clean them up a little but couldn't do much without charging me for their effort. So I still need some new rims.  I bought some small wheels and tires to trailer it up to Washington when I moved up here and they hold air just fine so it sits like this:




The 36's sitting in the garage:


I started working on it last week to get it running since it has been sitting for quite a while.  First I charged the battery. Then I had to pull my Hurst shifter out to figure out why it wouldn't go into park which turned out to be an easy fix... clean out the grime, lube the mechanism and see how the thing REALLY works when its not all gunked up. I never knew you had to pull up on the handle to get it into park because it was so gunked up that it was stuck in the UP position the first two years I had it. Then when it finally slipped down without me noticing I thought something broke so I had to disconnect the shift cable and use pliers to push the cable into park. I'm ashamed to admit that it took me 3 years to figure that out.   

So I got that done and started checking the fluids so I could run some Seafoam through it. I ran and got the Seafoam and a can of gas, put the gas in, started to fill the radiator just to find that over the winter the damn thing blew a freeze plug! 

So I went to Napa and bought the 64 cent freeze plug and spent an afternoon pulling the header to get to the starter, then the starter to get to the freeze plug hole then ran out of daylight.

Now everyone is up to date after reading this small novel. And since you all were so gracious as to waste your time reading my thread... here are some anti-flex shots of my stiff  suspension:





I know you guys are LUVin the hearts!  That was my ex's great idea for Father's Day a few years back and the sun cooked it into the single stage, extremely oxidised paint... its ok though... I'm a proud Daddy! Just gotta get to sanding and scraping the rest off (there used to be MUCH more on the front clip) and then one day paint this thing olive drab.

[JanMarie13]

1)  Sorry to hear about the divorce 

2)  VERY nice lookin truck!!   

3)  I don't have much else to contribute because I don't know much about much, but I do know it takes a man to sport the hearts and the "best dad" tailgate.....I wouldn't change a thing!   

 

[NorCalToy]

SIck, i had a chevy luv that i wanted to be like this fora awhile, plans changed and i bought a TOYOTA, but one day, ill do it...

[GDubb5150 [OP]]

SIck, i had a chevy luv that i wanted to be like this fora awhile, plans changed and i bought a TOYOTA, but one day, ill do it...

My employer's bro-in-law has a mid '90s 4cyl runner that he said he would take 2500 for and he's building a house. Since construction is what I do I considered working to earn the runner then using the parts off this thing to do the sas... but I'm partial to the LUV.  I wanted it since the day I first saw it and it took a while to get the owner to trade me straight across for an '89 Suzuki RMX 250 that I blew my knee out on and couldnt ride for a while anyways... so as far as I'm concerned... I stole it! Besides... its kind of unique. You dont see many solid axle LUVs and I like unique!

[NorCalToy]

yea, i had an 81, it was yellow and fairly clean, i wanted a 4.3 in it, yota drivetrain, etc..

[GDubb5150 [OP]]

Not really much of an update, but I got the freeze plug replaced and went to get new header gaskets but Napa had to order them so hopefully by the end of this week I'll have this thing running again.  I've been excited to get the seafoam run through this thing and see the difference it makes because I know it could really use it.   My next undertaking on this truck will be rebuilding a Holley model 2300, 500cfm 2 brl that my dad sent me that he used to run on his oval track stock car. That is gonna have to wait until the IRS gets around to sending us those rebate checks because the rebuild kit is $95 and I also need to replace the fuel bowl since it has some stripped out things on it which will be about $60 or so.  The Holley "Trick Kit" has a baffle that goes in the fuel bowl to help with fuel slosh so hopefully it will work decent for off-road. Either way this carb is more well suited to the V6 than the Edelbrock 600 that is on it now. The engine in this thing already screamed and I never even had it tuned right and the carburetion has always been wrong so hopefully after the seafoam and carb change and a tune up/ oil change this thing will be insane.    If it has the affect I hope it will I'll have to post a vid of this thing running. Being built the way it is and having the dual flowmasters it allready sounds like a built small-block at idle, but definitely screams like a V6 when the rpms come up.

-G

[BLACKDOG]

good looking rig

[porkchop]

Good looking rig man!

[GDubb5150 [OP]]

Thanks for the compliments guys. I do love this truck and I'm pretty proud to own it even though I havent had the funds I wish I had to put into it, and it has been a pain in the  to work on because it's such a mutt, I hang on to it. Someday this truck will be what I want it to be... May take forever... but someday.

[Colt]

WOW, i like your truck! 

[GDubb5150 [OP]]

WOW, i like your truck! 

Thanks!

I picked up the header gaskets and collector gaskets today so hopefully I'll have it running and putting Seafoam through it tomorrow.  I need to replace a couple collector bolts that broke too.  Also one of my solid motor mounts is broken despite the chain on that side so now I need to find somebody willing to weld that up for me. Until then I'll just tighten the chain a couple links I guess.  I wont really be driving it anyways other than to run the seafoam through.