Let me start off by giving you a little run down on the truck. When I was 13 my dad gave me his truck it's an 81 f100 custom 2wd short bed, That same year he lost his battle with cancer. The truck originally had the 4.9 straight 6 and when I was younger I remember my dad saying he would like to put a v8 in it.
When I was in high school I put a 351w out of an 79 ranchero gt, I put long tube headers, edlebrock cam, intake, carb. I thought it was pretty cool and I bet my dad would have been proud.
As I graduated from high school and headed off to college I needed something that would get better gas mileage and I didn't want to rack up a ton of miles on the truck so I parked it for about 7 years, 2007ish I decided I was going to restore the truck it had the usual rust spots on the cab corners, bed sides,rocker panels and floor pan. I took it down to the bare frame sandblasted and painted the chassis and fixed all the rust spots on the cab, as finances were tight I decided to hold off on finishing it. Unfortunately I lost all my pictures from when I did this work( lost my camera)
I've been itching to get back to working on the truck the last few years. I have been on hear learking and and learned a lot from just reading through all these rebuild threads and getting some ideas as to what I wanted to finish the truck that would make it not only a head turner but a 1 of a kind bad a$$ little street truck.
long story short I have decided to do a Ls swap, I got a 2005 5.3 with 113k and a t56 out of a 02 ss Camaro, it is lowered with the drop beams up front and and I built a 4 link for the rear with coil overs I have a few pictures of the build, I have the drive train 90% complete and was actually driving it around my yard and left some rubber on my drive way. I have a lot of body work yet to do especially to the bed, I hope to knock it out this winter and have it ready to paint by spring. know I just have to figure out how to get some pic posted.

 

Here it is about 1 year ago, I was moving it from my house garage to my new garage I build in the back yard so I could have more room.

 

3" drop beams





I decided to ditch the king pin front end and go with the newer ball joint style so I could align the camber and have better brakes. I got everything for a 96 f150, everything bolted right in once I got the newer radius arms





Beams installed

 

Front 4 link brackets I made.

















I used 1x1 square tube to set my ride height while I fabed everything and get it set where I wanted it.

 

Here is the t 56 6 speed trans





I wanted to keep my bench seat so I put a front shift conversion in the trans





Found some broken synchronizer keys so I up graded to the billet keys while I had it tore down.

 

Here is the 5.3 donor engine. I got it complete with computer and harnes for 600

 

New motor mounts installed














I had to modify the left side engine stand about 2 inches and the engine dropped right in.

 

I purchased a radiator from summit, I'm very happy with it





Fan is mounted

 

I welded a sump to the bottom of the new tank and coated with some undercoating.

 

Lifted the cab off so I could drill some new holes for my trans crossmember, I had to be scooted back about 4 inches.

 

I made a temporary drive shaft so I could wouldn't have to push the truck around every time I wanted to move it.





Old driveshaft with the gm yoke, I had some extra drive shafts laying around,





This will do until I get a new on built.

 

Some pics from underneath.























I got some 2.5" j pipe from summit and built my exhaust, the muffle is a magnaflow








O2 sensor bungs installed

 

Lifted up the cab to paint the fire wall.





After paint with the brakes installed.

 

Cold air intake installed

 

Hurst shift stick.