ATLTF.COM Chevy Race Truck

1987 Chevy S10 2.8 V6 automatic 2wd. Making a couple of modifications to turn it into a super off road machine. 1st on the list is to remove anything not need to save weight. Removing bed and then adding on a hack job roll bar. Locking the rear, new seats and harnesses, skid plates, relocate battery and gas tank, extra rally lights.... Later the bed sides will be cut off the bed and bolted back onto the truck after being shortened. Once everything is ready to go, it'll get a super ATLTF.COM paint job. Still a bit up in the air about color patterns and lettering placement at the moment.


Body has a little rust here and there, Just weld some quick patches over any bad spots before paint.


Plan is to save the original tail lights, leaving them in the bed sides once they are bolted back on.


How things ended after day 1 of hacking. Bed removed, hub caps removed, frame shortened to the spring shackles, interior cleaned up a bit. Thanks to Doug Fackler for stopping by to help out.

Sounds cool! Gonna do anything engine wise? Like some small mods or something.

Gonna keep it auto? Also, why not do a skin rather than paint?

Gona take it to Haspin?

Engine mods, probably nothing besides new plugs, wires, new exhaust system from y pipe back. Keeping auto transmission even though I would prefer a manual because that's how I keep the time frame and budget in check lol. Paint instead of skin because body prep is going to be horrible. Gonna be rust pitting, dents, welded patches. Gallon of rustoleum should cover most of the body for about $35ish. HASPIN??????!!!!! Not sure, driving it out there is an idea. I'll have to see about that. Going to be street legal when done of course.

You could pull a 3.4 out of a junkyard firebird or camaro. Same block and MUCH more power. Those 2.8s are WEAK. If you do swap in a 3.4, it can't be from a fwd car, the mounts are totally different. If it came out of a rwd car it'll drop right in. Whole thing should cost about 400 bucks if you look around

So far though everything has been free so throwing money at a constricted time frame build is kind of impractical when trying to do like 3 other projects lol.

If it blows up then maybe try something like that and swap it. Takes too much time for me to get that stuff done so usually I don't get too involved with it. I talk about doing it but usually never do lol.

Figured I would post a pic of the super cool bench seat which probably won't get used for this build. Planning on using it for another car. Anyway, time to make a "to do" list...

Done
-Remove bed
-Shorten frame

To Do
-Relocate gas tank and battery
-Hack job roll bar
-Spare tire holders
-Install bed sides
-Replace questionable brake lines
-Left rear axle seal
-Lock rear end
-Replace Right front lower control arm (rusted thin)
-Install CB radio
-Reverse/work lights facing rearward
-Shovel holder
-External tool/storage box
-Repair any bad cab mounts
-Fix hole in passenger side floor/cab mount
-Replace spark plugs/wires
-Fabricate exhaust system
-New seats
-Install 5 point harness's
-Front bumper mods and extra lights
-Clean up all wiring
-Remove anything not needed for weight reduction
-Body work....should be in quotes "Body work"
-Paint (get out those half empty gallons of rustoleum)

how ya gonna lock the diff? Lincoln locker (welded lol)? I like how you are doing this, any suspension mods coming? Front end work?

For the rear yeah, just going to weld the spider gears together. Plan is to just weld the gears while they are still in place. Just take the cover off and maybe cover the ring gear ect, with some rags to keep the weld splatter away. Do one side, then spin it around and do the other side. For the suspension, probably just make sure bump stops and shocks are in good shape. On stuff I have used off road in the past I never really broke anything. I think as long as you don't do much jumping it's not so bad. Now and then you hit the stops, just have to be somewhat careful and slow down a bit on really rough stuff. Always wanted to add a second set of shocks up front but usually not any room. I may weld some bracing on the control arms this time just for the heck of it. Rear end will be a lot lighter so a new set of stock shocks should do it. If needed there is room back there to add a second set. We'll see how things go.

First video up.

Hey I'm on camera! Maybe the next episode will have more stuff catching on fire, breaking, stuff falling over... I was thinking maybe I should get one of those hula girls to glue to the dash.

Nice project. What are your plans for the exhaust? Straight thru or a muffler?

I wanted to do pipes straight through the hood but nooooooooooo.

Probably go through some kind of muffler or glass pack. Open pipes get annoying after awhile, especially on a highway run. I think the pipe will exit through the bed side, we'll see. Through the hood is waaaay too illegal for the street!

Brought the bed in tonight to slice off the sides.


Cut this side off with the torch. Unfortunately the glue they use to seal up the spot welded seams and the paint smoke a lot doing it this way, so for the other side used the sawzall. The sides will need to be shortened of course, plus some other areas trimmed down.


Things get flimsy quick once you cut some pieces off


My dad hacking a bit with the saw. I torched around the corners of the wheel well so we didn't have to change to a thinner blade. Removed both sides.

Oh look. Thats what I need to put the floor in my Jeep. Already cut apart and everything...

Some of the sheet metal from the front part of the bed, which is flat, will probably get used to patch the rust holes in the sides. The bottom of the bed might get used as rear floors in my 67 mercedes diesel hack job restoration.

If you happen to get around to doing the Merc floors before I do the floors in my Jeep, Id like to see how it goes.

Actually I have the passenger front floor mostly done in the mercedes. I just used whatever scrap pieces I could find. Part of it is one of those older square style sears suburban fenders. I'll pm a couple pics when I get a chance.

Are you going to need long pieces where you would have to remove the the braces running across the bed?
Im curious if theres an easy way to separate the spot welds. Im going to need big pieces.

If you do end up dealing with the brace, feel free to post you process in my Jeep thread if you dont want to clog this one up.

And another vidya coming into the weekend.

Not 100% sure what you mean Thebeal, but the cross brace in the very back I may remove and replace with something else just to clean the look up a bit. I have some various junk laying around that should be wide enough to fit across the frame on this if needed. As for sheet metal spot welds, you can try drilling them off. They probably make some kind of special bit for it but I've done some with a normal drill bit. For the most part I just cut out the rusty spots then weld a piece back in, or over lap a bit.

These guys.



Ive heard some about drill bits for spot welds... If I recall, they dull pretty quick.
Im maybe just get stuck grinding them off... I dunno. lol

Ohhhhhhhhh the bed. Yeah it would be a nightmare to separate those sections. That's why I just cut them off. I'd just try a regular bit, maybe a couple sizes larger than the spot. Center punch them in the middle to make it easier. They're a pain though, leaves an edge sometimes. Once you do some, pry a bit to see where is still attached.