Hello,

My name is Jeff and I live in the Dallas area. I really like old cars and trucks, not really very loyal to particular brands...I love them all. I've rebuilt a couple of old Chevy's and a Mini Cooper and thought I'd take a break from this but stumbled on this old truck in my neighbor's backyard. It was so solid and clean, I couldn't resist.

My plans are to put a Coyote in it and although I've done a couple of LS swaps, this one is new to me so I'm a little...I don't know not nervous but gun shy I guess. I also want to put a C4 suspension under it. My last truck had a Mustang 2 in it and 4-link in back. I wasn't super crazy about it...just never really felt good, planted, and confident to me. A pic:



But more importantly, here is my newest project. Someone is coming on Monday to pick up the Chevy truck.

 

Like I said, I want to do a Corvette suspension under the truck so I started looking on eBay and found front/rear suspensions on pallets for about $1500. They're still 25 years old and need new bushings, etc so I looked on Craigslist and found this '84 for $800. I bought it and the guy agreed he'd deliver it since it was already on a trailer.

I dug into it right away. It took me most of Saturday to get the front end apart....old, greasy, nasty. I didn't have the heart to just cut the subframe out so I took it apart.





and no more....I still haven't been able to get the rack out. Trying hard to not just cut the subframe to get it out but it's looking that way. No idea how they ever replaced these racks in a driving car.

 

It's been parked in my driveway for 4 days now. The neighbor that rarely talks gave me a semi-dirty look today as I was walking out there this evening. ha. I agree though, it is an eye sore.



Tonight after work though I got the rear end out. That wasn't that tough but heavier than I thought for being aluminum. I gotta say, pretty state of the art for 1984. I'm impressed. Not a great pic, but it is an IRS with disc brakes.

 

Like I said, I sold my Chevy last week and the guy is coming to pick it up on Monday. As soon as I get that money, I'm going to order the Flat Out Engineering subframe and start looking for a complete Coyote pull out. I called a yard about 3 hours away and they offered a complete motor, tranny and all the extras for $2700 but it does have 82k miles. I'm sure that will be fine but I think I'll keep that in mind and see if I can find something a little closer in the Dallas area.

No idea how many miles are on the Corvette but it's grimy and nasty so I'm going to send the rear end out for a freshening and order the new bushings for the front and rear.

I put the Corvette on Racing Junk today and within 10 min someone offered me $150 for it. He's coming on Saturday night to drag that ugly car away. A week of looking at that thing was a little much and I'm sure the neighbors will love to see it gone. I'm surprised I didn't get a notice. ha

So as of today, that's where we stand. I'll start spending money as I get the money for the other truck.

Jeff

 

Liking the sounds of this project! I want to follow along! Keep up with the pictures! And welcome to FTE!

 

One word of caution...pay special attention to the rack & pinion unit when you are placing your engine. The engine in the Corvette sits way back behind the suspension, so much so that the harmonic balancer actually sits behind the R&P. The hydraulic lines to the R&P point up towards the engine so if you think that you can mount the engine with the pan directly over the R&P be sure you factor in the hydraulic lines as well. Good luck.

 

Thanks Charlie, I have definitely seen how those racks can be a problem with the lines sticking up and I'm a little concerned about it. I know Flat Out does sell a rack they rebuild where the lines come out at 3 o'clock instead of 12 o'clock. I am hopeful it can be done because the owner of Flat Out told me he had a customer that did one with a Coyote.

I'm going to find out soon!

 

Nice project! I'll be looking forward to seeing the Coyote install.

That looks like one nice 1958-59 Apache.

 

Nice Project. Keep us posted on your progress.
I don't know what your plans are to power up the coyote, but here are a couple links that may help.

PBH 6R80 CONTROL PACK ? Power By The Hour

PCM PATS DELETE TUNE 2015-2017 FORD MUSTANG COMPUTER ECU GT 5.0 COYOTE SWAP KIT

 

Great project Jeff. looking forward to following your progress.

 

Thanks all. Those are some helpful links there too so I'll bookmark those and keep that in mind!

 

I'll certainly be following your build thread!

 

Looks great. Keep the posts coming.

 

Welcome to FTE! You did a great job on the Chevy- want to see the progress as the sat fender get done. The Coyote will be a nice ride. You are lucky the bed looks tobe in very good shape for sitting in a back yard. Have fun

 

You may want to check out Newman Car Creations for some very slick upgrades to the C4 suspensions. I bought a tie rod setup for my IRS years ago from them and found it to be very well made and at a fair price. Here is a video where they present one of their products: