Early '91 Resto

Ghostman

24v crazy
Joined
Aug 24, 2012
Messages
2,819
Might as well start a thread here too. Restoring this early 1991 RCLB for a friend of my dads. Pretty much open check book. I'll update with pics as I make progress.

Not looking for a lot of horsepower but maybe a little bump in power from stock for him. I'm going to fit a 3rd gen intercooler in it and do some pump tuning for power and probably a 3200 spring and BD pin.

Can is getting completely stripped and repainted aggie maroon and white. Interior will be completely rebuilt as good as possible. Then I'm building him a custom flat bed with some wood tones to make it look a little old school but functional.

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What rims and tires?


Undecided right now. It used to have 7.00R16s lol. I'll probably try to find some old school looking aluminum rims. Gotta keep 10 ply tires cause he pulls with it.


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I do believe your going to end up cutting that 3rd gen cooler down or notching the frame horns.
 
I do believe your going to end up cutting that 3rd gen cooler down or notching the frame horns.


Yes. I'll be cutting down the third gen cooler shorter to fit. I only paid $100 for it. It should be capable of cooling 200RWHP worth of air, if I can get that much out of it.


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BD pin and spring, pump tuning, exhaust, and an hx35 is how I would set up the best overall 1st gen for the best "driver" if you will. Make 250hp out of it.
 
Undecided right now. It used to have 7.00R16s lol. I'll probably try to find some old school looking aluminum rims. Gotta keep 10 ply tires cause he pulls with it.


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The ole tried and true American Racing outlaw 2's seem to fit the look of those first gen's pretty well. Just my .02
 
BD pin and spring, pump tuning, exhaust, and an hx35 is how I would set up the best overall 1st gen for the best "driver" if you will. Make 250hp out of it.


Thx. I'll be calling you when I get to that point in the build. Also going to get one of those low pressure piston pumps.


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The ole tried and true American Racing outlaw 2's seem to fit the look of those first gen's pretty well. Just my .02


I'll check those out.

One thing I'm struggling with right now. I'm stripping the frame down to take it in for sand blast and paint. All the brackets that are riveted on obviously they won't be able to blast or get paint between them and the frame. So should I grind the rivets off and knock all the brackets off or is it kosher to just leave them on and just tell the painters to do as good as try can around them?


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Good news! Went out and check my donor cab and its a '92 cummins and I have the core support with it! It's got one little ding in it but other than that it's pretty good shape and will give me better ground to build off of. Pretty sure I'm gonna switch to the IC radiator and chop this 3rd gen intercooler to fit. Can anyone measure outside width of their IC radiator please.


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I'll check those out.

One thing I'm struggling with right now. I'm stripping the frame down to take it in for sand blast and paint. All the brackets that are riveted on obviously they won't be able to blast or get paint between them and the frame. So should I grind the rivets off and knock all the brackets off or is it kosher to just leave them on and just tell the painters to do as good as try can around them?


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If you use something like rust bullet or POR 15. That crap flows into everything. If they can blast it those two products can flow into it. Might ask the blaster if they can take it easy around those areas that you know are hard to get paint into. I never have a translator with me so it usually ends up blasted spotless. Even if you can get a small paint brush in there it levels out very nice.

I wouldn't try spraying POR though. Rust Bullet sprays pretty decent and is my choice for those applications.
 
I think everything on here is still original lol. Man the bushings on these upper arms are awful punnie too. Hmm, man the gears are turning on how this thing could get better. I'm thinking coilovers too maybe. . .

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Little update here. Hard to work on this thing cause every weekend has been raining almost. Got the frame sand blasted primed and painted and starting to hang some front suspension back on it. Frame also had numerous cracks in a variety of places on the front half that got welded up also.

Most of the front suspension parts have been powder coated.

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Is it common for first gens to have cracked frames? Where was it cracked? Why not beef it up while you have it stripped down?

Sorry for all the questions. Going to be a clean truck for sure.
 
I think it is fairly common for the frames to crack on these. Cracked mostly all in the front. Near the very front crossmember, front cool buckets, engine crossmember area. I thought about beefing it up some, but it's just gonna be light duty, driven seldom and I figured it lasted that long so re-welded might last another 20-30 years? If I was gonna be putting power to it or pulling with it I would beef it up.


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